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Teachings
 Master
Tells Stories
Compensating
for Our Mistakes |
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News
137, Master Tells A Story Once, when Mahatma Gandhi was on a fast in India, a Hindu came to him and said, “I will surely go to hell and no one can save me. But I still want to offer you some food because you are fasting for us. I don’t want you to starve to death and make myself responsible for yet another crime when I go to hell.” The man then offered Gandhi a piece of bread and asked him to eat it, saying, “Please eat it. I won’t be ready to go to hell until you’ve eaten this.” Gandhi asked the man why he thought he was going to hell. The man replied that he was a Hindu, and that his child had been killed by Muslims during a fight between the Muslims and Hindus. So, in revenge, he cruelly killed a Muslim child, but felt very guilty afterwards. Gandhi then said, “I know one way to save yourself from going to hell. Find a Muslim child who has lost his parents, or any child without parents, take him home, bring him up and educate him so that he grows up as a Muslim. Then you won’t go to hell.” I don’t think Gandhi’s suggestion would have immediately erased that man’s karma, nor do we know if such a method could really have saved the man from hell. However, this idea is very good. At least his feeling of guilt might have been alleviated while he was alive. What’s more, while raising the child, he may have experienced the happy bond between father and son. It would have given him comfort and a sense of personal worth to see a child grow up and learn, and adopting an orphan would have given him more self-confidence and contentment; thus, it was a remedy to assuage his guilty feelings. Had the man continually complained about his guilty feelings, it would not have helped in any way. Who would it have helped? It would have helped the man even less! No matter how severely we reproach ourselves each day, we cannot erase the guilty feelings in our hearts when we know we have done something bad unless we experience a happier feeling to dilute the previous guilt, and weaken it as if it does not exist. When we achieve something or feel happy, our attainments can dissolve and melt away our guilty feelings. For instance, when the sunlight is very strong, even if there is a large patch of snow on the ground, it will melt. I once had such an experience in Japan. Sometimes it snowed for three to four days there. It was very cold and the snow was very thick. But when the sun came out, the snow disappeared in a few hours! Originally, the whole area had been covered with white snow due to several days of steady snowfall, but when the sun came out, all the snow gradually melted and disappeared. Thus, we should dissolve guilt like melting snow. Otherwise, if we indulge ourselves in feelings of guilt, it is not only meaningless, but also makes us depressed and stressed. In addition, it brings stress to the people around us. When we sink into darkness, we cannot communicate with others; we become indifferent to whatever they say. Even when they say something funny, we manage a smile at most and then bury ourselves again in our negative feelings, being unable to make ourselves happy; because that joy has nothing to do with our guilty feelings. So, only by doing something to compensate for our wrongdoings can we truly feel happy. There is thus a cause for every effect. It’s important for us to be repentant and humble, but it’s more important to love ourselves. How can a person love anyone else if he can’t love himself? Loving ourselves doesn’t mean selfishness; it doesn’t mean snatching everything for ourselves, or only thinking of ourselves in all circumstances without considering the feelings or convenience of others, or doing nothing to make others happy, or only caring about our own happiness and blaming others when we are unhappy. That’s not loving ourselves, but displaying despotism, autocracy and selfishness! That’s different. Loving ourselves includes understanding that our spiritual level is not high so when we meditate we can’t concentrate well. Maybe, in our past lives, being without the guidance of an enlightened Master, we were rather ignorant, and incurred more karma than others did. So, in this life we can’t practice well or we progress slowly, and that’s why we should love ourselves more. When we see anyone like that, we pity him, so should we not pity ourselves? Thus, we should try to do as well as we can and improve ourselves as much as possible instead of only saying, “I am remorseful; don’t you see? I’ve repented. Isn’t that good enough?” No, that’s not right. True repentance is teaching ourselves, helping ourselves, encouraging ourselves, and reminding ourselves to do better in the future. We should write down all that we know that’s good for ourselves and for others, and do it as well as we can. Meanwhile, we should change our bad habits one by one until there are none left. So, we need to take care of both aspects rather than focusing our minds on our guilt every day and staying in darkness without applying some positive remedy. That’s of no use and of no good to us. We should think of ways to apply remedies, and when we do good deeds, we will feel comforted and encouraged and gradually forget our sins. In this way, our bad habits will naturally change and we’ll forgive ourselves. Otherwise, we won’t be able to forgive ourselves. It’s not that others don’t forgive us, but that we’re pressured to death by our own guilty feelings. Hell is created in this way. The wrongdoers cannot find a remedy so they can’t forgive themselves; it’s not that God or anyone else will punish us. We are the masters of all beings; no one can punish us except ourselves. We allow ourselves to sink to such a degree just to teach ourselves. We hear that evildoers go to
hell in order to be taught a lesson and make up for their wrongdoings.
But there’s a better way, a more positive way. For example,
if we have stolen money from others in the past, now we should not
only stop stealing, but we should also give; we should perform charity
and help the needy. We shouldn’t just be passive and negative.
Instead, we should be active and positive! If we simply stop doing
the negative action, it’s still very passive. We should do good
things to make up for our past mistakes. That’s active and positive,
and it can erase our sins.
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Ahimsa Bible
Stories |
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