[PureInsight.org] In the early days of China’s Ming dynasty, a person with the official surname of Zhang, from the Gaoyou Wei barracks, took a boat to run an official errand.
While in the lake, a storm flipped the boat over. After Zhang escaped, he continued forward along the banks. Veiled by the fog in the distance, there was a person on the back of a small flipped boat bobbing in the waves calling for help. Zhang felt sorry for him, so he asked to borrow a small fishing boat from the fisherman nearby to go save him. However, the fisherman declined.
Only when Zhang offered the fisherman platinum stars did the fisherman save the man. After rescuing the person, Zhang realized that he had just saved his own son, who had been waiting for his father in the water for half a day. His son was on the verge of death, and would drown at any moment.
By saving someone from a calamity, Zhang had luckily saved his own son. Helping others is helping oneself is a true axiom.
People often think that in today’s society, one is empowered by one’s social status. One who has a good education and skills and can take care of one’s own problems independently, thinks poorly of those without skills, and who ask others for help. They think, “Why would I need to help others?” Actually, helping others is planting the seeds of compassion and spreading the chain of compassion. In the end, the one who helped others will reap the reward.
(Origin <Shuang Huai Sui Chao>)
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/137480
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