PureInsight | July 9, 2001
Recently, in the course of clarifying the truth, when we have included the principle of heaven, 'good is rewarded with good, evil is met with evil' on our flyers and in our newspapers so as to tell people about it, some everyday people have felt uncomfortable with it and have even suggested that we remove it. As a particle that has been rectified by the Fa, how should we handle this?
It has always been a principle of heaven that there is due retribution for good and evil; it is just that warped human beings do not believe in it. When someone who does not believe it feels uncomfortable, it must be that this principle has stung the warped part of him. Regardless of whether he can accept it at the time, it will leave him with a deep impression and it is good for the future of his being. Going beyond this particular instance, I enlightened to the fact that we should correct certain warped notions.
In the course of doing everything involved in clarifying the truth and eliminating the evil, we should use Dafa to assess everything. Dafa should always be our highest standard and we should not go along with ordinary human feelings. At work, in public, and even at home, sometimes we keep accommodating everyday people in order to be a 'good person.' But Master has said:
We have said that no matter how much human moral values have changed, this characteristic of the universe, Zhen-Shan-Ren, will forever remain unchanged. If someone says that you are good, you may not really be good. If someone says that you are bad, you may not really be bad. This is because the criteria that evaluate good and bad are distorted. Only one who complies with this characteristic of the universe is a good person. It is the sole criterion which determines a good or bad person, and it is recognized by the universe. Although great changes have taken place in human society, human moral values have declined tremendously. Human morality is deteriorating daily, and profits have become the sole motivation. Yet changes in the universe do not occur according to changes in humankind. As a practitioner, one cannot conduct oneself based on the standard of everyday people. It is not permitted if you go do things simply because everyday people consider them right. When everyday people say that it is good, it may not be good. When everyday people say that it is bad, it may not be bad, either. In this time when the moral values are distorted, if you tell someone that he is doing something bad, he will not believe it! As a practitioner, one must assess things with the characteristic of the universe. Only then can one distinguish what is genuinely good and what is truly bad.
(Zhuan Falun, Lecture 4, 'Upgrading Xinxing')
So what is true kindness (Shan)?
Zhuan Falun, [Lecture 4,] talks about how there was an elderly woman who practices Dafa who was hit by a car when she was crossing the street. The elderly woman said: ''There's nothing wrong. You can leave.' She brushed off the dirt on her clothes and left with her husband.' 'Those bystanders even found it strange that the elderly woman did not exploit him and ask him for money. Nowadays, human moral values have been distorted.' On the surface, these bystanders seem like they are helping the older woman by objecting to the injustice done to her. In reality, this is a warped type of 'kindness.' People often think that many of their notions, which are warped in a hidden way, are correct. As Dafa disciples, how can we accommodate warped notions?! We should use true Great Kindness to actively eliminate them and rectify them.
One incident made a deep impression on me. One day when I was driving, I bumped the car in front of me by mistake at a red light. The other driver looked very upset and demanded my phone number as he closely checked the back of his car. There were a few very deep dents in the rear of his car. His car was high off the ground, so they could not have possibly been made by my car. In the past, I would have definitely agreed to compensate him for all his losses, even though it was not my fault. I would have thought that I was paying back karma. But then I thought it over more梬ould it really be good for him if I were to do that? I saw my selfish mind calculating what would be better for me. Then I had a very strong righteous thought in my mind: 'If it's my karma, I am willing to bear everything that I have ever owed, but I won't allow him to extort money from me, because this is not good for him.' To my surprise, he then walked up to me and said: 'Those dents were made by another car and have nothing to do with you. I don't think there's a problem.' He introduced himself, shook my hand, and said goodbye. Maybe his good side realized that I truly wanted what was good for him.
I realized on a deep level that our every word, our every action, should be responsible to sentient beings, responsible to society, and responsible to all righteous elements. We cannot let our mistakes cause those people's beings to generate karma, because human society in the future should not have warped thinking like this. True kindness is completely without selfishness and it is considerate of others; it takes into consideration the eternity of those people's beings and even the eternity of all sentient beings and the cosmos. Under the impact of this kindness' (Shan) power, any obstruction and unkindness will be melted, anything warped will be corrected, and what is not understood will gradually be understood. So, when we are clarifying the truth, clarifying the facts, we should at the same time evoke the good and kind thoughts of the world's people and display the mighty Fa-principles behind all this!
