Those who admire, respect,
and learn from better people and have mercy, responsibility toward worse people have their blessing increased forever. And when their blessing is huge, the gap between them and people below them gets increasing. This is an inevitable consequence and also a challenge to humans' morality.
THE HIGHER YOUR STATUS, THE LOWER YOU LOOK DOWN
Whenever you're going to buy something, clothes for example, who should you think of? - Those who are poorer than you, and thus you shouldn't choose expensive clothes. And who should you think of when you make good karma or do a good deed such as repairing a damaged stretch of road, building a bridge, or setting animals free? - Those who do better jobs than you like the Saint, who make karma millions of times better than yours. Knowing there is no limit to making good karma, you will never feel contented and stick to what you've done.
Those who admire, respect, and learn from better people and have mercy, responsibility toward worse people have their blessing increased forever. And when their blessing is huge, the gap between them and people below them gets increasing. This is an inevitable consequence and also a challenge to humans' morality.
This is also the way of the Law of Karma. As an example, a poor person, understanding Buddhism, tries to cultivate the Dharma and make good karma. His blessing increases day by day, and one day when his blessing is big enough, the gap between him and the people below him starts to grow, and he starts to live with the people of the same high class as him and no longer cares about poor people. His compassion gradually faded and disappeared as a result. This is a bad consequence for blessed ones but also the reason why people go up and then down. With fame and high position, he starts to stay away from sentient beings, his compassion disappears, and his blessing starts to decrease.
Therefore, from now on, when we have a few blessings, we keep reminding ourselves never to forget our poor neighbors or friends, however rich and powerful we will be. When we have so many blessings we can't be easy to be met by poor people because we have bodyguards. It is an objective condition. So when you reach a higher level, please think of countless worse people and maintain your love and support for them.
In spiritual practice, in behavior, and in leadership, it's true that the higher level you reach, the worse people you have to care about.
For example, the leaders of a country have to care about the poorest people in society, and he is a great leader. If he only cares about the wealthy class, thinking that only these people can create great momentum for the economy, then he will fail and his political system will gradually collapse.
A good leader is the most powerful and always thinks about the bottom of society. Thanks to this thought, he earns great merit that helps him find unique policies to help the country develop gradually. The poorer people you keep thinking about, the higher your wisdom will become.
The world has so many political parties. Some protect only the interests of the rich, some the middle class, and very few care about the bottom of society because they find that if they care about the lowest class, this class's support is not enough to help them compete against other politicians. To be strong, they have to rely on money from the wealthy. They do not realize the paradox that the more they focused on the high class, the more their political system is likely to collapse. In contrast, politicians who care for the bottom classes of society gradually become prominent leaders, and their political career is very sustainable.
As in the economy, if one does business and aims at wealthy consumers, his business is likely to fail. In the field of real estate business, for example, many real estate companies in our country continuously built luxury apartments for the rich. Poor people couldn't afford to buy them, and rich people didn't need to buy more houses. The houses couldn't be sold, and the investment money was borrowed from banks, the whole real estate system was paralyzed because they were targeting the rich, which was the wrong goal. If anyone sets up a real estate business system that aims at the poor, even the very poor - who cannot afford to buy a house - and create conditions for them to have a house, then this business system will be sustainable. Although not as profitable as building homes for the rich, it will grow very steadily.
This principle can be applied to the practice of meditation. What should you focus on when you practice meditating? Many focus on their heads, thinking that it will develop their minds, unexpectedly, the more they focus on their minds, the worse their inner strength and wisdom. If you read old Buddhist scriptures, you will discover that Buddha taught very carefully that when we meditate, we have to feel the whole body and every muscle and our minds should dwell in the body and focus on the lower part. By doing it, we can sit still in meditation, and our brain develops. Focus the mind on the lower part of the body, and we will become mindful. If we focus the mind on the head, we will lose our wisdom gradually. This teaching of Buddha is very consistent with the yin-yang principle of Eastern philosophy and with human morality.
Written by:
Janna
Related Articles:
Wealth, Karma, Blessings and the Path to Good Luck
Civilized People – Meditation and a Peaceful Mind
Privacy, Individual Freedom and Responsibility | Moral Life Lessons
Leading: Power, Morality, and Responsibility
Compassion – The Noble Virtue of Empathy and Kindness
Instruction on Meditation: Essential Methods and Practice Guide
The Deep Layers of Our Minds – Meditation and Morality
Question 15: The Path of Meditation in Buddhism | Meditation Q&A