No 1362 of Living Life Series 1
Whoever is right even if he is right should never say that others who differ are wrong. He should realise that he is blessed to know more but there will be others too who know better than him. No need to be arrogant and insist others must follow him.
After all, all of us are just in the downstream of the river of life. As said by Bo Tien 武天, there will be no clear and pure water unless we are at the upper source of the river.
We will have to be humble and learn from others. There will be some good points we can pick up from those whom we think are wrong.
We often jump to conclusions when we put things together to suit what we fancy. We must know that what others do and believe must be seen in context of the life and society they are in.
Just selecting statements made in various contexts of life and times and putting them together may end up justifying what is not intended to as right and convey a warped view that bothers on outrageousness.
Thus instead of believing that there is goodness and value in all cultures and saints, we can end up portraying that only one culture and saint is right. This only creates problems.
Thus if this happens, religion or culture instead of bringing men together and making them one in diversity, making them complete and whole in cosmopolitan or composite reality, men end up dividing humanity in the name of culture or religion.
Men want uniformity or singularity. Men of course want others to be like them. This is the weakness of man. Men creates problems in the process.
Bo Tien 武天 says that the problems of men are many and plentiful. That is why men need God and saints. That is why there are religions, and that is why one size or style can never fit all.
But alas, we have passionate people blinded by their love and passion. They forget that they have weaknesses. Even if they are aware they have weaknesses because they are men, they just pay lip service to this. They create more problems when they try to solve the problems of humanity.
So it is better to be humble and realise we can never know enough, we can never be all right and not wrong. We can even learn from those whom we think are wrong and off the mark.
We need to eat humble pie. We need to be pure. We are here in life to learn and learn - not just in this life but in the next and many more lives to come.
We will continue to do so until we do not have to learn anymore. Be happy therefore with life. Life gives us the fertile ground to learn. This is the pure approach to life.
We have to learn to be more and more right - to be more pure. We are never pure enough. We have to learn all the time.
If there seems to be nothing more to learn, we will be pure ones - God, saints or buddhas or what have we in religion. Even after we are saints, we have to learn how to better help those in the mire of life, birth and death.
There is no end to learning and this is the eternal goal of life. This is how we can be like God and saints. Thus some say we are children of God and saints.
But while this is a beautiful thought, do not be carried away by that and think we are God and saints. We need to be humble, be pure (搜索 Suddhatta 的结果 = 'purity' in Pali) and this is how we can learn more. We have to be eternal learners.
Just selecting statements made in various contexts of life and times and putting them together may end up justifying what is not intended to as right and convey a warped view that bothers on outrageousness.
Thus instead of believing that there is goodness and value in all cultures and saints, we can end up portraying that only one culture and saint is right. This only creates problems.
Thus if this happens, religion or culture instead of bringing men together and making them one in diversity, making them complete and whole in cosmopolitan or composite reality, men end up dividing humanity in the name of culture or religion.
Men want uniformity or singularity. Men of course want others to be like them. This is the weakness of man. Men creates problems in the process.
Bo Tien 武天 says that the problems of men are many and plentiful. That is why men need God and saints. That is why there are religions, and that is why one size or style can never fit all.
But alas, we have passionate people blinded by their love and passion. They forget that they have weaknesses. Even if they are aware they have weaknesses because they are men, they just pay lip service to this. They create more problems when they try to solve the problems of humanity.
So it is better to be humble and realise we can never know enough, we can never be all right and not wrong. We can even learn from those whom we think are wrong and off the mark.
We need to eat humble pie. We need to be pure. We are here in life to learn and learn - not just in this life but in the next and many more lives to come.
We will continue to do so until we do not have to learn anymore. Be happy therefore with life. Life gives us the fertile ground to learn. This is the pure approach to life.
We have to learn to be more and more right - to be more pure. We are never pure enough. We have to learn all the time.
If there seems to be nothing more to learn, we will be pure ones - God, saints or buddhas or what have we in religion. Even after we are saints, we have to learn how to better help those in the mire of life, birth and death.
There is no end to learning and this is the eternal goal of life. This is how we can be like God and saints. Thus some say we are children of God and saints.
But while this is a beautiful thought, do not be carried away by that and think we are God and saints. We need to be humble, be pure (搜索 Suddhatta 的结果 = 'purity' in Pali) and this is how we can learn more. We have to be eternal learners.
