Importance of Actions in Relationships : หน้า 7/62

Actions in the present lifetime are very important. Couples who are true friends and encourage good things for each other tend to be happier and stay together longer. As for those couples who have not performed many merits together, their love for each other will dissipate over time, and they will end up separating from each other through divorce or death. The length of time a couple might live together is determined by the merits they have accrued together in previous lifetimes, by whether they have been lovers in their past existences, and also by how supportive they are of each other in their present lifetime. Like a lotus that relies on the combination of water and earth to grow, success of the love between two people depends heavily on the above. mentioned factors. Imer Qualities Although relationships from a previous lifetime may be a catalyst for current love, we still need to be prudent and apply wise principles when selecting the right life partner. Love alone is not sufficient to determine whether a person will be one's best life partner. In choosing a life partner, we should look for someone who shares the same views, and who has a mutual respect. Since this person will likely be the parent of our children, he or she has to be a good role model for them. We should not base our decision mainly on physical appearance, wealth and personal abilities. Physical attraction is short lived. We should determine whether our life partner has similar virtues to ourselves, that is similar faith, morality and views. Do they have a strong faith in The Triple Gem (triple refuge consisting of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha) as we do? Do they observe The Five Precepts (codes of moral conduct)? Do they possess The Right View (right understanding of the Truth)? Do they believe in the Law of Kamma (law of cause and effect), etc? If these virtuous qualities are shared, there is a better chance of building a long lasting marriage. At the beginning of a relationship, we often contrive to make ourselves attractive. Sometimes we do uncharacteristic things in order to make the other person fall in love with us. Unfortunately, this strategy will not lead to a happy union. We have to take the time to learn about the other person's true PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com