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- Summary
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How can we stay in the present complex society to benefit people as much as possible, while still preserving our purity of heart? To elaborate on this point, Supreme Master Ching Hai tells a story about a prime minister in ancient China named Guan Zhong. For his people and country, Guan Zhong sacrificed his reputation. He worked with "good" people and was also able to get along with "bad" people. He had great insights about what was going on around him, yet never got entangled in the judgments of others. While coping well with his complicated and corrupt political circle, he remained uncontaminated. On a similar note, Master has told us, "We spiritual practitioners do not take our reputations very seriously. We don't care if people judge us as being good or bad; we simply act according to the situation. So just don't become carried away by worldly pleasures like sex, food, drink, games or ephemeral illusions. As long as we remain sober, everything is fine."
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Guaz-Zhong was a spiritual practitioner. If he weren't, he couldn't have preserved his integrity in the corrupt political circle of his time. How do we know of his integrity? We do because he was a good manager, a good administrator of the country. How could a drunkard have done that? From this we know whatever worldly pleasures he enjoyed with the king were just in pretense. He knew very well what he was doing. The whole court and the king were drunk and giddy. He was the only one in charge. You get to know that by reading history. Those beloved by the king were all corrupt officials. Guan-Zhong was well aware of this, but he wouldn't drive them away. At least they kept the king busy. With several people playing with him, the king would not get in Guan-Zhong's way. And Guan-Zhong would have more time to handle national affairs, and matters concerning world peace. He was a remarkable man. No one could sacrifice everything like he did, except enlightened practitioners or those with noble ideals. He even sacrificed his own reputation. Few people respected him at the time, thinking he was just like the king. Of course, no one would. This freed him from jealousy and brought him success in whatever he did...
Note: In the Epoch of Chun Chiu (685 B.C.), the famous politician Guan-Zhong, the prime minister of the state of Chi in China, assisted the king of prosperous that it was the first to dominate all the neighboring Chinese states at the time. |
