Saving lives might just save yours

This is a very interesting story, I heard about ten years ago.

A woman in Vancouver, BC had Melanoma. It had spread to the bones, and she was given 3 months to live. I’m not sure why, but she went to Nepal to die. A Buddhist monk there taught her to save lives. She went back home to Vancouver, and started saving the lives of animals
She went to the docks and bought shrimp and saved them. She saved animals at the pound. She saved 100 lives a day. After some time her cancer went away.

After getting well, she got busy again, started eating meat again. A few years later developed cancer again. So she started saving lives again and the cancer disappeared again. That is all I know of the story, but it sure is interesting.

My guess is that for it to work, you can’t go out saving lives in the hope that your life will be spared. It has to be a true act of compassion. There is a similar story from a few hundred years ago in Tibet. A monk was doing a practice of taking on others’ suffering and offering his wellbeing back to them. He taught the practice to lepers and many were healed. The practice was not meant to heal their bodies, but their minds, and to give some meaning to their lives.

So go out and have a compassionate day. There might be some positive side effects, especially if you aren’t looking for them.