When you observe others do wrong, immediately reflect upon yourself (5)

『见人恶　即内省　有则改　无加警』

见到别人做恶，自己要即时反省。

如果我犯了同样的过失，要马上把它改正。

如果没有，我要更加以警惕自己不要去犯。

Incident 5

I had a chat with my friend Anna quite some time ago and I realize…

 

- I realized that nowadays people are empty ‘inside’ 内心空虚. They derive happiness and satisfaction solely from external sources like food, entertainment, greed. But the problem is people fail to be truly happy emotionally/ psychologically/ internally发自内心的快乐the kind of Happiness that comes from within and not from external factors. 像佛经里讲的: 人们的乐是从财色名食睡来的。外有名闻利雅，欲望，财色名食睡的诱惑，内有自私自利、怨憎恚的烦恼。外有诱惑，内有烦恼。人怎么会真正快乐呢。I felt very fortunate as I have Saints and Buddha’s teachings so much so that I had let go of a lot of worries and problems 我少烦恼。我内心也不感到空虚。

- Although others indulge in a material life while I don’t, I feel more fulfilled and satisfied (than others). I do not have the kind of problems they have. Besides I have methods to solve problems should I have one. They have too much wants and needs, like what economists say “unlimited wants”, but I don’t have much as I learn saints’ teaching and realise greed is one of the worse thing I can have. 那是要不得的东西（欲）。

To be happy, I have to free myself from internal sources like (1) greed 贪心 ( for money/wealth, lust, fame/prestige, food, sleep 财色名食睡), (2) anger 嗔恚, (3) ignorance愚痴  (4) arrogance傲慢 and (5) doubt 怀疑 —doubting the truth of Saints and Sages' teachings and wisdom. The Buddha says these are the roots of misery and sufferings! 

1. Greed:     
                                                              

 Wealth, lust, fame, food and sleep is bad when it is excessive as it will do more harm than good. Too long a list of consequences to mention... Not listing all-- lust kills more than 40 million fetuses (=babies) worldwide every year. In two years, the death number is much more than the number of people died in WWII ( on abortion by World Health Organization WHO http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/unsafe_abortion/induced_abortion_2012.pdf ) In Singapore, there are more than 10,000 fetuses(=babies) killed every year (for 10 years) from 2003 to 2012! cruelty! (By Ministry of Health: Singapore http://www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/pressRoom/Parliamentary_QA/2013/abortion-statistics.html) Please stop, please! They shouldn't die! Please let them live!













So, reduce greed for wealth, lust, fame, food and sleep as much as possible. Greed = want to get more, more, more. 
Be contented:) Be contented in material needs but still strive in other aspects of life like moral, skills, abilities, etc. I must not have unlimited wants... then I will be happy. 

2.Anger:

(1) Forget myself. Stand in the shoes of others. Feel for others. Then I will be able to understand them better and know why they do certain things or behaviour in a certain way. (2) Anger comes from arrogance and being too full of myself and  think that what I do is always right (3) misunderstanding and mis-communication causes unnecessary anger (4) have a big heart, forgive, forget…etc all the important values in life will help me build a personality that is free from anger.

3. Arrogance:                                                                                                                                                                                                Being full of myself and do not listen to others’ advice and opinion. Nobody likes arrogant people. Elders may be unwilling to teach me as I do not have the sincerity to accept their criticism, advice or teachings.没办法虚心受教, 接受长辈的教导

4. Ignorance:                     Stage 1- Knowing and having the abilities to differentiate the right from the wrong, the good from the bad is very vital. Why is knowing the rights and wrongs important? Reason: (1) I may be doing wrong with the mentality that I am doing something good. Eg, I may help my friend in such a way which makes her overly reliant on me. I may think that I am being a good friend but in fact I am helping my friend to be lazy which is undesirable. (2) I want to be a better person so I wanna do good (3) wrong actions will lead to bad/ undesirable/ terrible/ devastating/ irreversible consequences that I do not desire.                                                                                                                                                                                                             To be able to have the right mindset, it is important to learn 《弟子规》and Saints’ teachings as they have the wisdom different from laymen and the unwise masses.                                  Stage 2 – know the rights and wrongs and free my heart from both sides.                     Have a peaceful, clear and uncorrupted mind!

5. Doubt Saints’ teachings:                       没办法站在巨人的肩膀上—不可以看得更远。If I doubts Saints’ teachings, then I have to go through a lot of hardship and learn the hard way. A man actually told my teacher：“我这几十年累计的社会经验就只是弟子规的几句话而已啊！” ( the wisdom that I derive from my (accumulated)experiences throughout my life is only a few teachings in DiZiGui 弟子规.)  Have confident in Saints’ teachings because it is the accumulated wisdom and teachings from hundreds and thousands of years and has been through many disaster of being destroy thoroughly. It is swear, tears and hardship that these teachings are being passed down generations after generations. Have Confident!    

        感恩佛菩萨，感恩古圣先贤的教导！
I have all these flaws and I will change for the better. 
Please forgive me if I misunderstand or misinterpret these teachings. I am on the journey of learning. 

Reflect: 

Do not greed 

Do not get angry

Do not be arrogant 

Do not be ignorant 

Do not doubt Saints and Sages' teachings

Be truly happy

见人恶　即内省　有则改　无加警
When I observe others do wrong, immediately reflect upon myself.
If I have made the same mistake, correct it.
If I do not have such flaws/errors, I will be extra cautious not to make the same mistakes.