Useful

To be generous and useful to each other is a teaching of the Buddha. It is the most important thing in the world that we are required to do. By doing this, our society will live together in happiness, peace and harmony. But in reality, people are normally selfish and always think of themselves, this is me, this is mine, this is my son, these are my relatives, those are my friends and so on. Because of this, it is difficult to be generous to others and do something useful for others. Worse than that, we envy those who are happier than we are. If we can understand selfishness, we can, more or less, control it - in the sense that we don’t let it harm ourselves and others. To further our right understanding, there is a Chinese story which gives a good example of this. Here is the story:

Long time ago, the King Jin asked a question of his old wise adviser, named Cheaha-Wang-iang, “Nan-Iang Province is without a governor now. Who do you think is a good man for this position? Whoever you name, I will send there.” He replied, “Se-Hu, sir. He is a good man.” The King asked with surprise, “Is he not your enemy? I have heard that your family and his has been in conflict for a long time. Why don’t you recommend your son?” He said, “You asked me for a good man who had good governing skill. You did not ask me about whom I like or dislike. Se-Hu is a good man for all that, so I recommend him. I did not recommend my son, because he is good in other ways. He would be good as a judge.” The King admired this reply. “Well! You are a very good and honest adviser. Ok, I will send Se-Hu to govern Nan-Iang Province. And with regard to your son, I will also send him there to be a judge!”

Later on Nan-Iang Province became prosperous and rich. Its people were very happy because they had a good governor and judge. All the people thanked the King who had sent them such a good governor and judge; both of whom were very generous to them and useful to the whole Province.

This is what we should do in our own life; something generous, useful, skilful, respectful, and which elicits gratitude in ourselves or in others. In the story, the adviser never thought about just one person, he thought of the skills that would be needed and usefulness of that person for the local people and the nation.

Bear in mind that whatever is done must be useful or skilful to ourselves or others. If not, we should change our ways in order to benefit ourselves and others. Let’s start now, otherwise it will be too late.