ONE IN THREE WILL BE MY TEACHER
Dharma Talk by Living Buddha Lian Sheng on 17/5/93
(page 180-181 Achievement of Rainbow Light Body volume six)
Translated by Yuan Zheng Tang
Buddhists are taught to treat all sentient beings equally. Although I have learned Buddhism for a long time now, there is still some inequality in me.
How can we treat others equally ? This is a question that has always on my mind. Confucius once said : "San Ren Xing Zhe Bi You Wo Shi." Most people will interpret it as : "One in three will be my teacher ." To me, the explanation is incorrect, the sentence means : "I can emulate at least one aspect of behavior from each and every one of the three persons that I meet." If we are able to follow Confucius's teaching and treat everyone as our teacher, we will be able to treat everyone equally.
Someone has said it quite well. "Those who are better than us can be our teachers , we should emulate their good behavior." "Those who are equal to us in terms of virtue, knowledge and spiritual cultivation, we should treat them as our peers, and we can encourage one another in our spiritual endeavors." The most difficult part is to treat those who are not as good as us equally. If we ask someone some easy questions, and he can't give us a satisfactory answer all the time, we tend to look down on him. Hence inequality will arise. How can we learn from this person ? We can use him as a benchmark for our self-examination, and warn ourselves not to follow his foot-steps.
In short, everybody can be our teacher, whether he is better than us , equal to us or worse than us. This was what Confucius had in mind when he mentioned the three persons that he met. Since everyone will have strength and weakness in his behavior, we can surely learn something from him. If we treat everyone as our teacher, eventually equality will be an integral part of us. Although it is easier said than done, if we firmly believe in "equality to all" , we can never be too far from it.
Om Mani Padme Hum
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Lyciss that reminds me much of you,
Also of Jessie and Celest.
I think everyone can be our teachers, Buddhist, and non.
Who can give some examples?
Dharma Talk by Living Buddha Lian Sheng on 17/5/93
(page 180-181 Achievement of Rainbow Light Body volume six)
Translated by Yuan Zheng Tang
Buddhists are taught to treat all sentient beings equally. Although I have learned Buddhism for a long time now, there is still some inequality in me.
How can we treat others equally ? This is a question that has always on my mind. Confucius once said : "San Ren Xing Zhe Bi You Wo Shi." Most people will interpret it as : "One in three will be my teacher ." To me, the explanation is incorrect, the sentence means : "I can emulate at least one aspect of behavior from each and every one of the three persons that I meet." If we are able to follow Confucius's teaching and treat everyone as our teacher, we will be able to treat everyone equally.
Someone has said it quite well. "Those who are better than us can be our teachers , we should emulate their good behavior." "Those who are equal to us in terms of virtue, knowledge and spiritual cultivation, we should treat them as our peers, and we can encourage one another in our spiritual endeavors." The most difficult part is to treat those who are not as good as us equally. If we ask someone some easy questions, and he can't give us a satisfactory answer all the time, we tend to look down on him. Hence inequality will arise. How can we learn from this person ? We can use him as a benchmark for our self-examination, and warn ourselves not to follow his foot-steps.
In short, everybody can be our teacher, whether he is better than us , equal to us or worse than us. This was what Confucius had in mind when he mentioned the three persons that he met. Since everyone will have strength and weakness in his behavior, we can surely learn something from him. If we treat everyone as our teacher, eventually equality will be an integral part of us. Although it is easier said than done, if we firmly believe in "equality to all" , we can never be too far from it.
Om Mani Padme Hum
--------------------------------------------------------
Lyciss that reminds me much of you,
Also of Jessie and Celest.
I think everyone can be our teachers, Buddhist, and non.
Who can give some examples?
Last edited 05/28/02 at 22:58:29 by Buddhafly