The book The cat who went to heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth talks about how a cat went to heaven. This is surprising because cats did not spare their life for Buddha, cats cannot enter heaven. These cats are rare because there are not many three-colored cats. The cat also prays to Buddha. Then Buddha lets the cat into heaven because she thinks the cats have learned their lesson and will not disobey Buddha again. This essay taught me redemption, compassion/ mercy, and forgiveness.
Redemption is when you are doing something terrible, you don’t do it anymore. This is a good habit and many people should learn that do not to do anything bad or when they do something bad they fix it. In the story, the cat was disrespectful, rebelled against Buddha, and did not listen to Buddha. The cat did not receive the blessing from Buddha. Later on, the cat changes, pray to the Buddha, and tries to go to heaven. Because of the change of behavior, the cat got included in the painting. Because the painter realized that the cat learned the lesson the first time and did not do it again, the painter included the cat in the painting. From this paragraph, I knew when you are doing something terrible do not do it anymore.
Compassion/ mercy is giving people second chances. In the story, the painter at the beginning was not welcome the cat, and later he allowed the cat to come to the house and still hates it, but lived with it. Then he figured out that it was no ordinary cat because it prayed to Buddha for mercy. In the end, the cat got into the painting of the animals that spared Buddha. Because the cat started being nice to people and praying to Buddha for the spare Buddha, the cat got a second chance. Many people give people second chances because they think that they had learned their lesson. From this paragraph, I learned to give people second chances.
Forgiveness is to help people even though they hurt or did something bad to you. In this story, Buddha did not let the cat go into heaven and put the cat in hell. Buddha wanted to have everyone that spared Buddha’s life in heaven. For example, one-time Buddha was born as an ox with a poor miller. The ox asked the owner to say that they have an animal that can pull 100 carts and bet a lot. The first time they failed, but the second time they pulled it and the ox died. When a student at my school did something bad to another student who would tell a teacher. The person who hurt the other person would apologize then the person who got hurt would forgive them. Later on, the person who hit the other would not hit anybody else. In the paragraph I learned we should forgive people.
This essay taught me redemption, compassion/ mercy, and forgiveness. The cat in the story was very good. She obeyed what her master said and tried to help them as much as possible so they could survive more. Because the cat understands why they don’t go to heaven, they want to help others to regain their trust. They can go back to heaven with Buddha letting her go through it. The cat worked hard to regain the trust of Buddha and got into heaven where the other animals that spared buddha’s life were there.
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