We feel sorry for those who are in misery,

CRITERIA FOR GOOD AND EVIL

Good and evil is thus not clear. Something we think is good but evil, and something we believe is bad but good. However, we can rely on the core teachings of the Buddha to differentiate between good and evil.
Four Boundless Minds (Kindness, Compassion, Happiness, Forgiveness) is superb. Every day we should on our knees bow to the Buddha, “May Buddhas bless me have compassion for all beings, in this world and the spiritual world. Please help me have the love for people, and animals, trees, grass in forests, and fish in water, and beings in hell.” Regularly doing this, we are going in the right direction to the Buddha’s lighthouse and won’t get lost.

Or we feel sorry for those who are in misery, feel happy for those who find happiness, forgive those who make mistakes. These are good deeds.

The law of Karma is a great lighthouse. We should rely on it to consider every one of our actions. Every time we do something, we should know our retribution, so, we are not afraid of being sent to dangerous places after our death.

For example, when we help a person in great need, we know the result for us is that in the future when needing help, we will be helped. So, helping people is a good thing.

Or, in a village, there is a broken bridge which causes people difficulties to go across. We then invite our friends to fix it. We reason that we help others to travel comfortably, then our legs will be healthy, our traveling will be easy, and ability to choose any transportation we wish. That is the reasoning based on the law of Karma. Thus, building or fixing bridge is good.

Or, when we meet our old friend, we will feel very excited and invite him a cigarette. Is it good or bad? It is similar to giving poison to our friend. Because when he smokes a cigarette, his lungs will be damaged by the smoke. Consequently, our retribution is our lungs will get damaged, too. So, inviting someone to smoke is evil. However, our people think that this is a culture when people meet. It's a grave mistake. Or, the concept that you have to drink at a party, if not, it's not joyful. When we invite someone a glass of wine, we are inviting him a glass of poison because drinking makes people addicted, drunk, lose temper/control, have cirrhosis, blindness and even die if they drink alcohol containing much methanol.
Therefore, we should rely on the law of Karma to identify what we should do, because it is a great lighthouse that guides us what is good and what is evil.

Another great deed is the goal of liberation. All of us are forced to be attached to the endless cycle of birth and death. We are born into this life, do both good and bad deeds, and we die afterward. In our next life, we will be reincarnated. We continue with the cycle of doing good and bad deeds and death. It is an endless cycle. Because we cannot recognize this cycle, we do not fear that. We just only think that we were born tens of years ago and will die dozens of years later, so we are not afraid of reincarnation. But but when we are not, we will do bad deeds which cause us to fall into lower positions, hence, will be miserable. So it's best if we try to practice the Dharma to be freed from our Karma. At that time, we can live, or can be reborn, or die whenever we like. It's great happiness.

Written by:
Janna

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