| A Cycle of Love | ||
| Text and photo by Liu King-pong | ||
A mouse named Charlie lived on an Australian farm, which provided a bountiful harvest of barley, wheat, vegetables and fruit. Charlie could select from the best of these foods at the slightest twinge of hunger. He assumed that he could live happily in this “heaven on earth” forever, but his optimistic vision was overshadowed by a macabre omen. One morning as Charlie was about to dig into a hearty breakfast, he saw the farmer walk by with a bunch of mousetraps in his hands. Panicked at the sight, Charlie decided to ask for advice from his friends: the rooster, the pig, and the bull. “Cock-a-doodle-doo,” the rooster responded nonchalantly. “Those traps might be risky to you, but they don’t bother me!” The pig sympathetically replied, “Oink, I can’t help you there, but I will definitely pray for you.” The bull stated calmly, “Moo, I’m very sorry to hear about your problem, but it has nothing to do with me. Mousetraps can’t hurt my hooves. You’d better figure out a way to help yourself.” None of Charlie’s friends cared about his gloomy fate, nor did they offer any help to deal with the impending menace. Frustrated and scared, believing his days were numbered, Charlie scurried back into his nest and wept.
One evening, the farmer’s wife heard a mousetrap in the barn go SNAP! She hurried out to the barn to see what it had caught. Because it was pitch-black, she did not realize that the trap had caught an inland taipan—a normally shy and placid snake, but whose venom is by far the deadliest in the world. Filled with fear and pain, the trapped creature bit her on the wrist. Her husband rushed her to the hospital for treatment. Being a good husband, the farmer slaughtered the rooster to make chicken soup for his wife, but her condition was still far from satisfactory. The farmer then butchered the pig and prepared meals to thank the neighbors who came one by one to take care of his wife. A few days later, his wife died of complications from the snake bite. Friends and relatives came to attend the funeral, and the hospitable farmer slaughtered the bull in order to treat the guests. In this parable, the victim of the mousetrap was not the mouse after all. Instead, the victims were the seemingly unrelated animals. It reminds me of the adage that a butterfly beating its wings might stir up a hurricane on the other side of the globe. Seemingly unrelated conditions may cause unexpected results when all of them, triggered by a single trivial episode, suddenly become entangled with each other. Undoubtedly, people are like this too. Since we are all citizens of the global village, our destinies are often closely intertwined. That is why we should not only care about our own interests, nor should we act as bystanders when people around us encounter difficulties. It is far better for us to treat all people kindly and be more concerned for others in times of need. This is the notion of the “cycle of love” that Master Cheng Yen teaches. She believes that if we unselfishly give our love to others, friends and strangers alike, the positive exchange of love will eventually make a full circle and come back to each of us. The bottom line is that everybody will benefit from it. My first visit to the United States in 1986 took me to Los Angeles, Atlanta, Reno, and Seattle. As I explored the historic city of Atlanta one afternoon, I was approached by a gentleman on a downtown street. He asked if I was from Japan. I told him I was from Taipei. “Which area, Tianmu?” he inquired. This man turned out to be a missionary, once based in Taipei. He kindly showed me around the city, and he even drove me to a farmers market located in a suburb so I could buy some fresh fruit. I was deeply grateful for his amiability and liberality, and the strange city of Atlanta suddenly became homey to me. When I asked him why he treated an unfamiliar Taiwanese person so well, he told me that he had been treated kindly by people when he lived in Taiwan. Obviously, the man was trying to repay the wonderful hospitality he had received by helping me, a Taiwanese visitor on his first trip to the United States. A good impression of the American people’s warmth and friendliness has been etched in my mind ever since. It just goes to show how rewarding a “cycle of love” can be when it is graciously practiced by all of us. |
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