once upon a time, the buddha, in one of his former lives, was in hell.
Before he became a Buddha he had suffered a lot in many lives.
He made a lot of mistakes, like all of us.
He made himself suffer, and he made people around him suffer
Sometimes he made very big mistakes, and that is why in one of his previous lives he was in hell.
The buddha was in hell because he had done something wrong, extremely wrong,
that caused a lot of suffering to himself and to others
that is why he found himself in hell.
in that life of his, he hit the bottom of suffering,
because that hell was the worst of all hells.
with him there was another man, and together they had to work very hard,
under the direction of a soldier who was in charge of hell
it was dark, it was cold, and at the same time it was very hot.
the guard did not seem to have a heart.
it did not seem that he knew anything about suffering.
he did not know anything about the feelings of other people,
so he just beat up the two men in hell.
he was in charge of the two men, and his task was to make them suffer as much as possible.
the guard also suffered a lot.
It looked like he didn't have any compassion within him.
It looked like he didn't have any love in his heart.
It looked like he did not have a heart.
he behaved like a robber.
when looking at him, when listening to him, it did not seem that one could contact a human being, because he was so brutal.
He was not sensitive to people's suffering and pain.
that is why he was beating the 2 men in hell and making them suffer
the buddha was one among these two men in 1 of his previous lives.
the guard had an instrument with three iron points, and every time he wanted the two men to go ahead,
He used this to push them on the back,
and of course blood came out of their backs.
He did not allow them to relax; he was always pushing and pushing and pushing.
He himself also looked like he was being pushed by something behind him.
Have you ever felt that kind of pushing behind your back? Even if there was no one behind you
you have felt that you were being pushed and pushed to do things you don't like to do,
and to say the things you don't like to say,
you come to a point where, you don't recognize yourself anymore
and in doing that you create a lot of suffering for yourself and the people around you.
So the guard, he tried to push because he himself was being pushed.
He caused a lot of damage to the two men. The two men were very cold, very hungry,
and he was always pushing and beating them and causing them a lot of problems.
One afternoon, the man who was the buddha during a former life saw the guard
treating his companion so brutally that something in him rose up.
He wanted to protest. he knew that if he intervened, if he said anything,
if he tried to prevent the guard beating the other person,
that he himself would be beaten.
But that something was pushing up in him, so that he wanted to intervene, and he wanted to say:
"Don't beat him so much. why don't you allow him to relax?
why do you have to stab him and beat him and push him all the time?
Deep within the buddha was a pressure coming up, and he wanted to intervene,
Even knowing perfectly well that if he did, he would be beaten by the guard.
That impulse was very strong in him,
And he could not stand it anymore.
He turned around, and he faced the guard without any heart, and said:
"why don't you leave him alone for a moment?
Why do you keep beating and pushing him like that?
Don't you have a heart?"
That was what he said, this man who was to be the buddha.
When the guard saw him protesting like that, and heard him, he was very angry,
And he used his fork and he planted it right within the chest of Buddha.
As a result, The Buddha died directly,
And he was reborn the exact same minute into the body of a human being.
He escaped hell, and he became a human being living on earth,
Just because compassion was born in him, strong enough for him
To have the courage to intervene to help his fellow man in hell.
The other fellow saw the buddha die.
He was angry, and for the first time he was touched by compassion:
The other person must have had some love, some compassion to have the courage to intervene for his sake.
That gave rise to some compassion in him also.
That is why he looked at the guard, and he said:
"My friend was right, you don't have a heart. you can only create suffering. for yourself and for other people.
I don't think that you simply are a cheerful person. You've got killed him."
And after he said that, the guard was also very angry with him,
And he used his fork, and planted the fork in the stomach of the second man,
Who also died right away, and was reborn as a human being on earth.
Both of them escaped hell, and had an opportunity to start anew on earth as full human beings.
But what happened to the guard the one who had no heart?
He felt very lonely, because in that hell there were only three people
and now the other two were dead.
He began to see that these two were not very kind, or very nice,
but to have people living with us is a wonderful thing.
Now the other people were dead,
And he was alone, utterly alone in Hell.
He could not bear that kind of loneliness, and hell became very difficult for him.
The guard in that hell made a vow, that if he had to take care of other people in hell,
He would learn how to deal with them in a nicer way,
And a transformation took place in his heart.
So in fact, he did have a heart.
To believe that he had no heart is wrong-everyone has a heart.
We need something or someone to touch our heart,
To transform it into a human heart.
So this time the feeling of loneliness, the desire to be with other humans, was born in the guard.....
You see in life you cannot live on your own
man is not your enemy
you cannot hate man, you cannot kill man
You cannot reduce man to nothingness
because if you kill man, with whom will you live
don't live on your own... share your life, your feelings
with other humans, and be good and be kind
this is all there is to a beautiful life....