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Friday, 01 January 2010 00:16 |
 Those who seek the way of Enlightenment must always bear in mind the necessity of constantly keeping their body, speech and mind pure. To keep the body pure one must not kill any living creature, one must not steal or commit adultery. To keep speech pure one must not lie, or abuse, or deceive, or indulge in idle talk. To keep the mind pure one must remove all greed, anger and false judgement.
If the mind becomes impure, for sure, one's deeds will be impure; if the deeds are impure, there will be suffering. So it is of the greatest importance that the mind and the body be kept pure.
- Once there was a rich widow who had a reputation for kindness, modesty and courtesy. She had a housemaid who was wise and diligent.
One day the maid thought: "My mistress has a very good reputation; I wonder whether she is good by nature, or is good because of her surroundings. I will try her and find out."
The following morning the maid did not appear before the mistress until nearly noon. The mistress was vexed and scolded her impatiently. The maid replied:
"If I am lazy for only a day or two, you ought not to become impatient." Then the mistress became angry.
The next day the maid got up late again. This made the mistress very angry and she struck the maid with a stick. This incident became widely known and the rich widow lost her good reputation.
- Many people are like this woman. While their surroundings are satisfactory they are kind, modest and quiet, but it is questionable if they will be likewise when the conditions change and become unsatisfactory.
It is only when a person maintains a pure and peaceful mind and continues to act with goodness when unpleasant words enter his ears, when other show ill-will toward him or when he lacks sufficient food, clothes and shelter, that we may call him good.
Therefore, those who do good deeds and maintain a peaceful mind only when their surroundings are satisfactory are not really good people. Only those who have received the Buddha's teachings and are training their minds and bodies by those teachings can be called truly good, modest and peaceful people.
This teaching will be a great challenge for me as a start my new year.
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Last Updated on Friday, 01 January 2010 00:24 |
