Today, I am reading one of the Buddha’s teaching books. It was about the discussion or Q&As between the Buddha and a king in the past lives of them before the Buddha became the Buddha.
There are many interesting discussions between the two and one of those questions is about ‘good and evil,’ which I would like to share about it with you as below.
King: Which one can be always improving between ‘good’ and ‘evil’?
The Buddha: Only the ‘good’ can be improving.
King: Why?
The Buddha: Because – the bad thing only gives you regret, bad feeling, bad result and sorrowful consequences after you did it. Therefore, people try to forget about their bad events, feelings, happenings and results in their lives. Nobody wants to be thinking, feeling and doing about it over and over again.
On the contrary, when you do the good things, you felt happiness even before you did it. While you are doing the good things, you are feeling terrific. After you do it, you are very glad again. You get sweet fruits because of your investment, which is the good seed. Hence, you get happier and happier. You are also enjoying to be thinking about it, doing about it over and over again.
That’s why, only ‘good’ can be always improving. More importantly, the best product, which the ‘good’ produces, is – giving ‘peace’ in mind and heart of the good doer.
Since you have ‘peace,’ you get the stable mind. After you have the stable mind, you can straightforwardly focus on anything you want or you need. Moreover, since you have peace, stable mind and focusing power, you also get more opportunities to wisely distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘evil.’
There are many interesting discussions between the two and one of those questions is about ‘good and evil,’ which I would like to share about it with you as below.
King: Which one can be always improving between ‘good’ and ‘evil’?
The Buddha: Only the ‘good’ can be improving.
King: Why?
The Buddha: Because – the bad thing only gives you regret, bad feeling, bad result and sorrowful consequences after you did it. Therefore, people try to forget about their bad events, feelings, happenings and results in their lives. Nobody wants to be thinking, feeling and doing about it over and over again.
On the contrary, when you do the good things, you felt happiness even before you did it. While you are doing the good things, you are feeling terrific. After you do it, you are very glad again. You get sweet fruits because of your investment, which is the good seed. Hence, you get happier and happier. You are also enjoying to be thinking about it, doing about it over and over again.
That’s why, only ‘good’ can be always improving. More importantly, the best product, which the ‘good’ produces, is – giving ‘peace’ in mind and heart of the good doer.
Since you have ‘peace,’ you get the stable mind. After you have the stable mind, you can straightforwardly focus on anything you want or you need. Moreover, since you have peace, stable mind and focusing power, you also get more opportunities to wisely distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘evil.’
Then, it makes you ‘real human being!’
Picture: http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/log2005/060405/Erythronium%20oregonum.jpg
Picture: http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/log2005/060405/Erythronium%20oregonum.jpg
2 comments:
An interesting idea that doing good helps you distinguish between good and evil better. At first, it seems to avoid the question -- well, what is 'good' in the first place -- but there does seem to be some wisdom in our intuition of what 'good' is (like, we know it when we do it) and that practicing 'the good' helps to make it more a part of our outlook and therefore helps us determine when something is 'not good'. It's a very practice oriented approach to ethics. Thank you for sharing the wisdom of the Buddha.
Thank you Maree. Actually, I should write part two of this article, which will express about which is good and which is evil through the Buddha's answers.
I think I will write it a while later, when I have enough time.
Have a good day!
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