PureInsight | April 8, 2017
[PureInsight.org] When I went to the bank, I saw an exquisite “Nuo Che Phone Card” on the table. The security guard said, “This is free for the taking. You should take one.” I thought to myself I just happened to need one, so I took one. Later I thought to myself since they are free to take, could I take another one? I asked the security guard, who replied, “Take one. They are free to take.” I thought to myself, since they are free to take, I should take more, so I took five. Then I thought about giving them to family and friends, and five definitely would not be enough, so I asked the security guard again. The security guard smiled and said, “Take them. They are free to take.” I thus took ten more. I was happy inside and was thinking I could go home and give them to many people. One Nuo Che card was nothing. If you did not take it, then someone else would.
When I came home and offered them to friends, some said, “I already have one. No thanks.” Some only took one, so I said, “Take another one? They are free.” My friend would say, “One is enough. There is no need to have more.” Only then was I struck. When I took more and more of these cards, on the surface they were for others, but deep inside it was greed. I asked myself, “Would a god do this? Would they have this greed? Taking other people’s items to defend people, what kind of attachment was this?” Even though it was not mine and I could take as many as I wanted, taking this many was selfish. When I offered them to ordinary people, they only took one and refused more. However, I took tens of them. I was greedier than ordinary people. How bad and dirty this attachment was!
I thought of something a practitioner told me when coming back from Canada: there was a supermarket for the poor, and everything was free to take. I was very surprised, “There are such places where you can get free things?” The fellow practitioner said, “Local inhabitants who go to the supermarket only take a little bit. They only take however much they can eat. Chinese people are not the same. They stuff big and small bags like starving cows that just saw green grass. It is very greedy.” Now that I think about it, had I gone to the supermarket for the poor, I might have been like a starving cow too. When one is free to make decisions with no one is watching, that is when one’s xinxing and realm are most visible.
Several times when I go to buffets with ordinary people friends, they would say, “Do not lose money. You need to eat enough food for two meals.” Thus everyone eats and drinks a lot before finally staggering out of the restaurant. Even though I did not eat that much, I still had greed and did not want to lose money. What an uncompromising, shameful greed. Would gods think this way? Would they eat like this?
Sometimes when friends and I eat at a restaurant, once we sat down even before all the dishes have been served, I become impatient. I subconsciously pick up my chopsticks and say, “Stop waiting. Let’s eat…” I actually am being impatient and greedy inside. I am not politely and humbly putting others first, but rather it is an attachment that I am higher than others. This selfishness manifests very naturally and is deeply hidden. Especially when I see the dishes I like, I always wanted to eat a few extra bites. I did not consider that if I ate more, others at the table would have to eat less. Once I attended a dinner where an abalone was served. I thought to myself that this was good stuff that I rarely ate, so I ate two. I then heard someone say that each dish had ten, so everyone would get one. Since the table had ten people, that meant someone would definitely not get one. When I think of these little things, I become embarrassed. How can I do these things as a practitioner?
These little things are actually not little at all. The difficulty is noticing these “little things”, noticing but letting them slip past, or noticing and thinking that it is not a big deal, that is not some enormous tribulation. However, using the Fa as the standard, one immediately realizes that these are not little things.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/156911
