Buddha: A thousand times in a past life can only be exchanged for a passing shoulder in this life; a thousand times in a past life is exchanged for an encounter in this life.
This is a story about the connection between people and people, and everyone we meet in our lives may inadvertently change themselves, unconsciously at the time, and many times they are lost to know.
The novel is about an old man named Eddie, who is a playground maintenance worker, and a ride truck breaks down and speeds down from the sky, and he is smashed to death in order to save a little girl below. After his death, he met five people in heaven, and the story is somewhat fantastic, but the philosophy of life that is told from it is intriguing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" >01 No one exists in isolation</h1>
Eddie arrives at the Ruby Docks of his childhood and the first person he meets is Joseph the "Blue-Skinned Man" who is the man.
Joseph said to Eddie, "You killed me. Eddie said, "I don't know you at all." ”
Joseph's family was very poor, because when he was a child, he ate too much silver nitrate because of bedwetting, and his skin turned blue.
Abandoned by his family, he later came to the Ruby Show.
One day, it had just rained, Joseph was driving on the road, a little boy rushed into the street to pick up a baseball, he hurriedly braked, although he did not hit the child, but due to excessive nervousness, the car slipped and hit the truck parked in front of him, and he also died of a sudden heart attack.
This kid is Eddie.
Joseph said to Eddie, "There is no accidental action in the world, people are connected. You cannot completely separate one life from another, just as the wind and the breeze are always closely linked. ”
Joseph is dead, Eddie is alive. A person dies because of a person, and a person lives because of a person.
We don't live alone in this world, always inadvertently connecting with people.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" >02 There is no gratuitous sacrifice</h1>
The second person Eddie met was his captain during his enlistment in the army.
At one point he and the captain and several of his comrades were captured by the enemy, and they tried to escape.
One night they killed the guards and set fire to the POW camp, and Eddie saw a child in the fire, and he ran into the fire to try to save him, but was shot in the thigh and fell.
In a coma, he was dragged out of the fire and put into a transport vehicle. When he woke up at the medical team, one of his legs was crippled.
The captain told him that it was he who had fired the gun. He told Eddie that he had seen him go into the fire and that no one could stop him, and that he had injured his leg in order to save his life.
The captain drives a transporter with his teammates and Eddie to find the troops, and on the way the captain runs into the jungle to explore the way, only to be blown to pieces by a mine.
The captain said: "Although I lost my life, I also got something, which is to keep my promise and not to leave anyone behind. So, self-sacrifice is worth it, there is no need to feel sorry. ”
Eddie is angry because of his crippled leg, but he loses his life because he loses one leg, and the captain pays for the safety of his teammates because of his sacrifice.
There has never been an unprovoked sacrifice, "Saion lost his horse and knew that it was not a blessing", and self-sacrifice had its meaning.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" >03 Love is a place of reconciliation, forgiveness and letting go in order to be free</h1>
The third person Eddie met was an old woman who told him how his father had died.
When Eddie was a child, he was always punished by his father, who was very harsh on him.
When he returned from the battlefield, depressed all the time, his father asked him to find a job, and he and his father had a dispute, and he did not speak to his father until his death.
He remembered that his father had fallen into the sea from alcoholism and later died of pneumonia. He hated his father's death, because of his father's death, he gave up driving a taxi, in order to take care of his mother, went home to live, went to the docks to take over his father as a repairman. But it wasn't the job he wanted to do, he was tired of it, and he blamed his father for his unsatisfactory work.
The old woman showed him the true cause of his father's death.
Father's friend Mi Gene is unemployed, drinking for a while confused and disrespectful to Eddie's mother, was seen by his father, Miki rushed to the beach and fell into the sea, Eddie's father rescued him from the sea.
My father got pneumonia as a result. Before his father died, he was full of repentance and miss of Eddie.
The old woman said to Eddie, "Anger is poison that devours us from the heart." We think that hatred is a weapon that can be used against those who hurt us, but in fact, hatred is a double-edged sword, hurting others while also hurting ourselves. In order to move forward, you have to learn to forgive. ”
His father forgives Mitchie and saves him, and Eddie forgives his father at this time.
Love is a reconciliation, to forgive the hurt caused by parents, because every parent is not perfect, only forgiveness and let go, in order to obtain spiritual freedom.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" >04 Life will end, but love will not</h1>
The fourth person Eddie meets is his wife, Margaret.
When Eddie was 17, she met Margaret in a ballroom, and the two fell in love at first sight. After he joined the army, Margaret waited for him to return.
They had a wedding after he returned from the battlefield.
Margaret is infertile, they have no children, but they have always been affectionate, margarita makes coffee for Eddie's toast in the morning, Eddie drives his wife to work, and in the evening the two walk by the sea.
Margaret left him at the age of 47 because of a brain tumor. Because of Margaret's departure, his heart died and he never loved again.
In Heaven Margaret said to Eddie, "Lost love is still love, but in different forms." You can no longer see their smiles or chat with them, but when these feelings weaken, another feeling, memory, is sublimating. The memory becomes your partner, you nurture it, you dance with it. Eddie, life will have an end, but love won't. I'm right here, and you've never lost me. ”
Life will end, but love will not.
Because of love, our lives become different. Although the lover is gone, the love will remain in the memory, the love will never be lost, and the love will always accompany the person all the way down.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" >05 Life is ordinary, but all are valuable</h1>
The fifth person Eddie meets in heaven is a five- or six-year-old girl, Tara.
Tara said that she was the one who was in the barn at the time, and that a fire had burned her to ashes, and that it was Eddie who had set the fire.
Eddie burst into tears, infinitely condemned, and he helped Tara rub the scars on her body with stones until she recovered. Tara says she has long forgiven Eddie.
Eddie felt that he had achieved nothing and had done nothing in his life.
Tara told him that he had done a lot of good deeds, that the ride cart had fallen, that he had pushed the little girl away, and that Tara had taken him to heaven.
He saw Ruby Dock, the place where he worked, precisely because of Eddie's mundane work throughout his life, repairing equipment for decades, avoiding countless accidents, and allowing so many people to play freely in the playground.
Eddie saw the meaning that his work brought to people's lives, and he felt more peaceful than ever.
Life, though ordinary, is not humble. Our seemingly mediocre work also has its meaning.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" ends ></h1>
Eddie's death is also the beginning of life, allowing him to open the painful knot and find the meaning of life. All life is interconnected, understands the meaning of sacrifice, learns to forgive, recognizes love anew, and he finally achieves self-redemption.
Looking back on life, everyone has a knot in the heart that cannot be put down, the people and the past that cannot be forgotten, the love and hate that cannot be released, and the meaning of life that they think they cannot find, and only by forgiveness and letting go can we get the liberation of the soul.
Every ordinary life has meaning, although it is weak, but in the place where we can't see, we are also quietly changing the world.
One person is also influencing another person, grateful for every encounter, grateful for everyone in life, kind to every encounter, cherish every love.
Author: Xun Yuan, cultivate a simple heart in this complicated world, willing to warm you with words, if you like, please like, pay attention.