Buddha crossing a predestined person: Dharma and wisdom in life

Chapter 70 Cultivating a Heart of Charity with the Buddha’s Mind——Being Compassionate and Kind (4)
Looking at it now, I don't know if there is such a story, and it is difficult to verify.However, Zhuangzi put forward a key point of "Ying Di Wang", how to be a leader and how to be a good emperor. "Junren", from the point of view of later generations, is considered to be the leader of an emperor. In ancient China, a person who was old and moral was called a "jun".Judging from the shape of the characters, the word "Jun" was written in ancient times, and the word "Yin" was written on the head, and the ancient writing of "Yin" was "Yin".Our characters are evolved from patterns. We hold a cane in our hands. When people are old, they rely on a cane to walk. Our current hand stick is Westernized, half as long as the body, with a curved handle. .In ancient China, the cane held by the old man was long and high above the head.The lower mouth represents a person who is old, highly educated and moral, and holds a crutch in his hand, which is also equivalent to a command stick. Therefore, anyone who holds a crutch or a command stick is a king.In addition to the concept of being a leader, "junren" also has its own personality, which is enough to set an example for people in society.

Here we don't talk much about leadership skills, we mainly learn from what the master said, that is, a very important aspect of being a human being, that is-to extend oneself to others.

A businessman in the Guanzhong Plain of Shaanxi bought a parrot in Longshan in the south of Ningxia. It could speak human language, and he liked it very much.Once, the businessman was arrested and imprisoned by the local authorities for committing a crime. He was locked up for more than ten days before being released.After returning home, he was indignant and kept sighing.The parrot heard it and said: "Sir, after a few days in prison, I can't bear it anymore. I have been locked in a cage by you for many years, so what should I say?" Take it to Longshan, weeping and release it back to the forest.From then on, whenever a businessman's friend passed by Longshan, the parrot would ask the businessman in the forest how the businessman's farewell was, and ask them to send his greetings.

This is an allegorical story. Although the plot is simple, the meaning is very profound.

Human beings and even all creatures, in terms of physiology, each individual is alone.Birth, old age, sickness and death, others can only comfort and help, and the final skin pain has to be resisted by oneself. The so-called "like a fish drinking water, it knows its own temperature".

Therefore, throughout the ages, there are many people who thoroughly "think about it".

Zhao Kuangyin of the Northern Song Dynasty's "Beside the couch, how can others be allowed to sleep soundly";
Cao Aman of the Three Kingdoms "Ning teach me to bear the people of the world, don't teach the world to bear me";
King Louis XV's "After I die, let it flood the sky";
……

It is the extreme expression of this extreme individualism.

However, as the spirit of all things, human beings have not only physical sensations, but also spiritual perceptions, so they can relate from one to the other, empathize with others, and extend themselves to others.

This is what makes humans different from animals.Looking at the problem from this perspective, Zeng Guofan's saying "If you are not a sage, you are a beast" should be correct.

"Don't do to others what you don't want yourself to do to yourself", it is a fundamental principle of Chinese tradition in dealing with people and dealing with things.However, under the conditions of the current market economy, it has been questioned by people: the competition in the market economy is life and death, and there is only one champion in competitive sports.
Traditional concepts and principles do not match and conflict with the requirements of the market economy. Today we need to adapt to the requirements of the market economy and strengthen the concept of competition.However, the principle of empathy for others and the principle of competition are not incompatible; we need to promote both the concept of competition and the principle of empathy for others.

Competition is a basic principle of a market economy, but it is not the only principle of our social life.Our social life has a broad field; outside the economic field, in the family, neighborhood, community, and various public life fields, the basic principle of the relationship between people is not competition, but mutual respect, mutual love, mutual assistance, and mutual respect, mutual respect, and mutual respect. .

Everyone knows that to maintain normal social order, we must abide by social morality.The more civilization develops, the more important social morality becomes.In order for social morality to be observed, the most basic thing is to have the idea of ​​​​exposing oneself to others.The basic spirit of pushing yourself and others is to think of others in your heart when dealing with others, not just yourself; you should regard others as the same person as yourself, and others will have what you want, and others will not want what you don’t want have.Only in this way can we treat people equally, show respect, care and help to others, and consciously abide by public morality.

Without this spirit, there will be no social morality.Another example is that now everyone is talking about having love.So how to implement love?Where does love begin?This starting point is extending oneself to others.If you only have yourself in your heart, you can't push yourself and others, and think of others, how can you talk about loving others?
Therefore, in our social life, there cannot be only the principle of competition.In a larger field outside the economic field, what is needed is the principle and spirit of empathizing with others.

To be considerate of yourself and others is to compare your heart with your heart, think about what would happen to you if someone else treated you like this?If you don’t want others to harm you by improper means, you must agree that your competitors have the same desire and pursuit as you, consciously put your competitors on an equal footing with yourself, and respect your opponent’s right to compete on an equal footing.With such a spirit, you will not do the above-mentioned things that harm others and benefit yourself.

Therefore, empathizing with others can not only go hand in hand with competition, but also an indispensable condition to ensure the normal conduct of competition.Some people attribute the reason for the above phenomenon to too fierce competition, saying that if there are seats on the bus, there will be no phenomenon of crowding and grabbing seats, and fierce competition makes this phenomenon inevitable.

This statement seems reasonable, but in fact it is specious.Intense competition is just an external condition, not the real reason.Fierce competition is an objective fact and unavoidable; it is precisely because of fierce competition that the principle of empathizing with others is required to restrict it.

Only when the law of competition and the principle of empathizing with others complement each other and cooperate with each other can the market economy develop healthily.The real reason for the emergence of the above-mentioned unhealthy phenomena is precisely that some people have made the principle of competition absolute, denied the moral constraints on competition, and denied the principle of extending oneself to others.Therefore, fierce competition cannot be used to explain abnormal phenomena, and fierce competition cannot be used to negate self-discipline.On the contrary, it is precisely because of fierce competition that it is even more important to promote self-discipline.

Those who are upwind get the wind, those who are downwind get the wind
People without knowledge and cultivation have the same thinking, thinking that they deserve to live, everyone else deserves to die, and others are the ones who are wrong.Two people quarrel, or couples, or friends, damn it is him!I still think that I am unlucky to meet someone like the other party, alas!I am also dead, just like Xiang Yu.

What does a self-centered person do?It is just like what the master said, I feel that I deserve to live, everyone else deserves to die, and everyone else is wrong.Of course, this is only one of the manifestations, and it is also a more serious one.But there really are such people in the world, otherwise the master would not be able to say such things out of thin air.A self-centered person commits self-righteous mistakes.

There is such a case:
A customer suddenly developed symptoms of poisoning while drinking beer.Shopkeepers, wineries, distributors, and government officials are all anxious.As a result, various units participated in an emergency meeting on the characterization of the incident.Everyone has different views on the characterization of the incident. In summary, there are four main aspects: some suspect that customers deliberately extort money; Poisoning specific objects that endanger public safety.How to eliminate suspicion and unify understanding?Everyone agrees on identification.As a result, the Industry and Commerce Bureau, Quality Supervision Bureau, Food and Drug Administration Bureau, Health Bureau, Epidemic Prevention Station, Public Security Bureau and other relevant units held a meeting to discuss how to submit for inspection.

Comrades from the Industry and Commerce Bureau said: "We don't have inspection methods for food, and there is nothing we can do about it."

Comrades from the Food and Drug Administration said: "We have not dealt with this (food) issue before. We only conduct inspections on drugs, and we can do nothing about beer."

Comrades from the Health Bureau said: "We only care about the hospital, we don't care about beer."

The comrades at the epidemic prevention station said: "We can only detect whether there are infectious diseases, and we cannot identify other aspects."

Comrades from the Public Security Bureau said: "If there are poisonous chemicals in it, it constitutes a criminal case, and it falls under the jurisdiction of the Public Security Bureau. Whether there are poisonous chemicals in it must be sent to the Criminal Police Headquarters of the City Bureau for inspection, and see if you have any opinions."

At this time, a woman around 25 years old stood up: "You can send it to the Municipal Quality Inspection and Appraisal Center, where everything can be verified, including the quality of products and the inspection of toxic chemicals."

When everyone heard it, they all felt that what she said made sense.

When she was about to take the half bottle of beer away, Daxian said: "Excuse me, are you a staff member of the Municipal Quality Inspection and Appraisal Center?"

"No." The woman replied.

"May I ask if you have done or sent similar inspections before?" Daxian asked again.

"No." The woman looked at Daxian with some puzzlement.

"Excuse me, are you sure the Municipal Quality Inspection and Appraisal Center can do poison testing?" Daxian asked again.

"Should be able to. It's a provincial department, not a small place like ours. There are many experts there." The woman seemed to be quite good at it.

"Excuse me, does the Municipal Quality Inspection and Appraisal Center have the qualifications for judicial appraisal?" Daxian continued to ask.

"It should be." The woman answered vaguely.

"Excuse me, do you know what a judicial appraisal qualification is?" Daxian chased after him.

"I don't know." The woman was even more puzzled.

"Judicial appraisal qualification is a necessary condition for judicial appraisal. Only the appraisal conclusions issued by institutions and personnel with judicial appraisal qualifications can be used as evidence for judicial activities... This qualification is publicized and can be found on the Internet. If I am not Experts are qualified." Daxian briefly explained the meaning of judicial appraisal qualifications, and then said: "Since you haven't figured out so many questions, please call your city's quality inspection and appraisal center. Make sure."

"It's really not necessary. Just think about it. The Municipal Quality Inspection and Appraisal Center must have this qualification." The woman didn't want to call.

"You have to know that if you take away the inspection materials and then fail to make a conclusion, you cannot explain this matter to the common people." Daxian said in a tough tone.

"Go out and make a phone call to find out!" The main government leader who presided over the meeting spoke, but he seemed dissatisfied with Daxian's words, and felt that Daxian was deliberately looking for trouble.

In less than 5 minutes, the woman came in with her head down: "I asked, and they said they can only test whether it is beer, and they can't do other identifications. The premise of their test of beer is that the beer has not been opened."

In fact, there are too many self-righteous people like this in life. Without investigation and understanding, they follow others' opinions and take it for granted. The result is often more than failure.

There is such a fable that reflects the dangers of self-righteous people:
Once upon a time, there was a self-righteous cat who always boasted that he was 13 mice when he stretched out his claws. He obviously couldn't fish, but he boasted that he was a good fisherman. He fished with his tail but was bitten bloody. , jumped from the tree thinking it was flying, but fell on all fours.

As a human being, you must not be like this cat - self-righteous, and you must not think that you are the Invincible East just because of a fluke victory.Many people claim to be geniuses, but how many real geniuses are there?These people who think they are geniuses are too self-righteous. After all, there are people beyond others, and there is a sky beyond the sky, but they are the only ones who respect themselves, thinking that he is the only one who is the most powerful in the world.

Confidence, if you are not careful, you will become conceited and crush yourself to death.

A word becomes a Buddha, a word becomes a devil

"Words are like storms", a person should pay special attention when speaking, sometimes a sentence can be double-edged, harming oneself and others. "One word can rejuvenate the country, and one word can ruin the country." You think you can play with your mind and use your mouth, but all your bad luck is caused by playing with your mouth.

The most difficult thing to control in a person is the mouth, because the mouth is born with two functions: one is to eat and drink, and the other is to speak.The worst thing about the mouth is not eating and drinking, but talking; the most difficult thing to control is not eating and drinking, but talking.Although there is the word "strewn to death", except for those who got drunk and finally died, it is rare to hear of anyone who broke his stomach and lost his life because of eating and drinking (drinking poison is another matter). sort of thing).

In order to prevent people from talking nonsense, someone in ancient times created a method of punishing the mouth?Slapping the mouth until the mouth was swollen so high that he couldn't speak.I don’t remember seeing such a scene in any movie. The boss ordered two subordinates to slap each other’s mouths. After a while, the two of them stopped talking. I thought it was funny at first, but after thinking about it carefully, this method is the most appropriate. However, it's all the fault of the mouth, why not hit the mouth?
However, no matter what, there are people who tell the truth and lies, good things and bad things, and it is still difficult to control your mouth.But no matter how difficult it is to control the mouth, we need to work hard to manage it, otherwise, you will follow what the master said-all bad luck is caused by playing with your mouth.

Although a three-inch tongue does not lead to fatal disasters, it often makes mistakes.

There are multiple gatekeepers on the mouth to avoid misfortune from the mouth, which is beneficial and harmless.

Mrs. Bou Raynor said in "Home": "Some words are even sharper than sharp knives, and some words make people feel sad for a lifetime." Yes, a hurtful word sometimes really brings us big impact.

Some people say that it is best to prepare three sieves before speaking, one of which is good words.Words often hurt people invisible. Everyone hopes to be with the green mountains and green waters, and the beauty is frankness and enthusiasm!It's best to be cautious with nonsense that only adds to the trouble of others.Because if you want the understanding and respect of others, then you have to respect and understand others first.

Some small misunderstandings or small frictions between people are quite normal in an increasingly diverse society.Broad-minded people tend to forget, but not everyone has such a big heart.In interpersonal communication, it is often seen that some quarrels are originally due to a trivial matter, but because one party speaks quickly and speaks emotionally, it hurts people's self-esteem, and the other party is unwilling to save fuel. After being humiliated, he also flew into a rage and retorted, so that the two sides came and went, and the war of words was in full swing, and even big fights, small things became big things, and disasters were caused.

(End of this chapter)