Philosophical Musings - Part XII
The Roots of Wisdom
In life, one has to face various kinds of people. When facing unsavory characters, how can one avoid harm to oneself? One should tread carefully and be discerning in his dealings with such people. Hong Yingming cautions us, thus:
Avoiding Harm
Though you are aware of the deceit of others
Remain unperturbed and feign ignorance
Though you receive the contempt of others
Remain calm and let it pass
Between the two of these
There is infinity of meaning
Between the two of these
There is infinity of use
In life, one has to face various kinds of people. When facing unsavory characters, how can one avoid harm to oneself? One should tread carefully and be discerning in his dealings with such people. Hong Yingming cautions us, thus:
Avoiding Harm
Though you are aware of the deceit of others
Remain unperturbed and feign ignorance
Though you receive the contempt of others
Remain calm and let it pass
Between the two of these
There is infinity of meaning
Between the two of these
There is infinity of use
10 comments:
yeah, buat bodoh always the best... :)
btw, nice pic (the blue one)... issit a pic of cigarette smoke?
Dear Andrew,
Sometimes, it's not so easy to be *cool*, especially when you come across some people, who know how to push all the right buttons and make you lose your temper. It's time like these that it's important to remain detached.
I don't think it's a pic of cigarette smoke. Probably, a computer generated image. Got it from the Net.
Rgds
"Though you receive the contempt of others. Remain calm and let it pass."
You are right, this is only possible thru disattachment of the ego. There are many references to the same in the Dhammapada.
But letting go of pride is very hard to do. China for example spent USD100 billion on its military last year. Maybe their motto is be calm but be prepared with a very big stick?
Dear Damien,
Ego is always a problem for human beings. It's hard to accept that the universe doesn't revolve around us.
As to China's military spending, what can I say? Despite all the talk about us being civilized, I don't think humanity has progressed very far from the Neanderthal age.
There are so many things that have me puzzled. For instance, the cigarette industry and drug smuggling. Why are they still around? Any rational civilization would have gotten rid of them long ago, after considering the immense harm they bring.
Ah, sigh! That's humanity for you.
Rgds
IMHO as long as minds are deluded, cigarettes drugs and alcohol will never go away. In this instance I would place demand more responsible than supply. The demand comes from misguided people who come from broken homes, social imbalances, etc. The root cause can go all the way to parental and societal conditioning. If you removed those factors and everyone's minds are healthy, I believe you can push cigarettes and drugs in people's faces and they'd have no interest to even touch it. Then again, I could be wrong. :)
Dear Damien,
There's one element that we're omitting. That's the vested interest of powerful entities that are making very healthy profits from the misery of their consumers.
Even fairly intelligent and balanced individuals may get addicted to cigarettes and/or drugs due to their insidious marketing campaigns.
Rgds
Yeah, marketing will do its usual thing - exaggerate the cool factor of the product to recruit new buyers. Govts will impose health warning stickers but not ban it outright since they need the tax revenue. Kids will say if you don't smoke like we do you're not our friend. Parents shrug it off, saying they got bigger things to worry about. Its a love-hate relationship. Everyone has a finger in the pie.
Dear Damien,
The unsettling part of all of this is humanity seems to be retrogressing. Instead of becoming more civilized, we appear to be headed in the opposite direction.
Sigh!
Rgds
well sometime it is not easy to be cool
Dear MySpace,
True enough. However, it may be harder to face the consequences of losing one's cool later on.
Rgds
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