The Truth derives from all the facts,

WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

The Truth derives from all the facts, all the principles that govern mankind and this world. No matter how civilized the society is, humankind is still being governed by those principles. If we find these principles and abide them, then naturally our life would be peaceful, happy and our soul would be joyful, peaceful and free.

That is our goal.

We live based on many principles that we think they are right. Over many years, we all have been searching for the right principles, the truth. However, how do we show our love for someone?

Normally, when we love or care for someone, we would always show our compassion for them, and pamper them. Most people behave like that, even monks. All Buddhists would feel the monks’ care and compassion for them, when they visit the temple. That love is unspoken.

However, in addition to the principle above, we also have another one, and that is “Spare the rod and Spoil the child”. It means that when we love someone, in addition to pampering them, we must also be strict in teaching and providing guidance to them. So, really, which one is right? Which one is wrong? As we can see, these two principles are completely contradictory to each effect; these principles were derived from many and many years of our ancestor’s living experiences. However, it really depends on the relationship and the situation to which you would apply one of these principles appropriately.

Educating our children is the typical example. We always want our children to grow up and become a good person, so even we love them so much, we still need to be strict with them. We must know though how strict we should be, so our children still feel our love and caring for them. It does not mean we use violence in educating our children. The principle basically advises us to be sensible when showing our love to others i.e. be strict when the others make mistakes. Our stringency sometimes is very necessary if it can help preventing others from making serious mistakes, or commit sins in their life.

The teacher-student relationship example is also similar to the above. A friend sometimes needs to be frank with his friend to help the friend avoid making mistakes. A teacher should be strict to help his students make more and more progress in their learnings. Being compassionate and being strict with our loved ones at the same time are very essential. We need to know when and how to apply these two principles appropriately. If you only apply one principle, the consequence would not be good. Again, it is The Truth in life, so we need to apply these principles in appropriate situations to achieve good results.

The next example relates to one of our ancestor’s sayings (or it now has become a principle in our live) "One good turn deserves another". I have to say this is the Perfect Truth. It is so right. However, sometimes, in life, we still come across someone, who is genuinely good, but still has a challenging life, even struggle to manage his life. Therefore, many people start to lose their beliefs in the religion and they object the law of Cause and Effect. They often wonder why there are people, who are fierce, but still are very wealthy and enjoy an easy life; and why good people often are so unlucky. Many people even believe that there is no such thing as Fairness in this life, and their only belief is "Survival of the fittest."

Written by:
Janna

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