Who Knows?

When actions have been done, who knows which actions are good or bad and right or wrong? This depends on those who see; wise or unwise, positive or negative and optimistic or pessimistic. The wise, positive, and optimistic see both the good and bad side and learn from both in every action. The unwise, negative and pessimistic see only the bad side and criticise every action. The interesting thing is how the wise, positive and optimistic see both sides and learn from both. About seeing and learning, for more understanding, I tell you the Zen story. Here is the story;

There was once a holy man who live in a state of happiness, but was regarded by everyone as insane. One day, having begged for food in the village, he sat by the roadside and began to eat when a dog came up and looked at him hungrily. The holy man then began to feed the dog; he himself would take a morsel, and then give a morsel to the dog as though he and the dog were old friends. Soon a crowd gathered around the two of them to watch this extraordinary sight.

One of the men in the crowd jeered at the holy man. He said to the others, "What can you expect from someone so crazy that he is not able to distinguish between a human being and a dog?"

The holy man replied, "Why do you laugh? Do you not see living being seated with living being? Living being is being fed and living being is doing the feeding. So why do you laugh, oh living being?"

The story shows us that if you do good actions, based on loving-kindness and compassion, generosity, responsibility, truthfulness and wisdom, you would not care for those who laugh at you. The wise knows who you are about. That is good enough to do right actions, isn’t it?