Choose Habits Carefully

Some years ago, I was told about a woman who had been very ill and periodically needed to be hospitalized and the friends who visited her. It seemed that when they all went shopping together, this woman would habitually say that she had forgotten her money and would ask to borrow some from the others. Then she would forget to repay what she had borrowed. The friends were understandably concerned about this.

When she would have to go to the hospital, the friends would visit her and talk to her about trying to be a kinder, more forgiving and honest person, but she would explain that she did not have the energy right then and would do so when she returned home. When they then visited her at home and spoke to her again, she would say that she was healthier now and would get around to such things later.

One day, when the woman was again in the hospital, one of the friends visited her. As she was lying there, the woman began to tell her visitor about a time when she had loaned another person some money and jewelry. As she was angrily complaining that this person had failed to return the jewelry, the woman suddenly died.

The friend, who had been with her, told us that the woman’s face was contorted with anger when she died. And within thirty minutes, her face turned dark gray.

When this woman died, she was not thinking of the kindness of the friend who had come to visit her or of the hospital staff who were trying to help her. She was not thinking of any of that. She was thinking of her missing jewelry and she was very angry. She had not expected to die at that moment. She was simply reacting from habit.

Since our thoughts, which so often arise from habit, create our futures and lead us to our next rebirth, it logically follows that our dying thoughts lead us to our next lifetime. 

Aware of the potential seriousness of the form our habits take, we need to be careful of what habits we develop.