{"id":4013,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4013"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:52","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:52","slug":"50-evil-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/03-questions-and-answers-volume-03\/50-evil-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-50_Evil.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\n\u00a0<\/font><\/span>Evil<\/i>
\n<\/font>
\n <\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Hasten
\ntowards the good, leave behind all evil thoughts, for to do good without
\nenthusiasm is to have a mind which delights in evil. <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If one
\ndoes an evil action, he should not persist in it, he should not delight in it.
\nFor full of suffering is the accumulation of evil. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If
\none does a good action, he should persist in it and take delight in it. Full of
\nhappiness is the accumulation of good. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

As
\nlong as his evil action has not yet ripened, an evil-doer may experience
\ncontentment. But when it ripens, the wrong-doer knows unhappiness. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

As
\nlong as his good action has not yet ripened, one who does good may experience
\nunhappiness. But when it ripens, the good man knows happiness. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Do
\nnot treat evil lightly, saying, \u201cThat will not touch me.\u201d A jar is filled drop
\nby drop; even so the fool fills himself little by little with wickedness. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Do
\nnot treat good lightly, saying, \u201cThat will not touch me.\u201d A jar is filled drop
\nby drop; even so the sage fills himself little by little with goodness. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The
\nmerchant who is carrying many precious goods and who has but few companions,
\navoids dangerous roads; and a man who loves his life is wary of poison. Even so
\nshould one act regarding evil.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 229<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

A
\nhand that has no wound can carry poison with impunity; act likewise, for evil
\ncannot touch the righteous man. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If
\nyou offend one who is pure, innocent and defenceless, the insult will fall back
\non you, as if you threw dust against the wind. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Some
\nare reborn here on earth, evil-doers go to the worlds of Niraya,<\/span><\/i>\u00b9<\/span> the just go to the
\nheavenly worlds, but those who have freed themselves from all desire attain
\nNirvana. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Neither
\nin the skies, nor in the depths of the ocean, nor in the rocky caves, nowhere
\nupon earth does there exist a place where a man can find refuge from his evil
\nactions. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Neither
\nin the skies, nor in the depths of the ocean, nor in the rocky caves, nowhere upon
\nearth does there exist a place where a man can hide from death. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

People have the habit of dealing lightly with thoughts that come.
\nAnd the atmosphere is full of thoughts of all kinds which do not in fact belong
\nto anybody in particular, which move perpetually from one person to another,
\nvery freely, much too freely, because there are very few people who can keep
\ntheir thoughts under control. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you take up the Buddhist discipline
\nto learn how to control your thoughts, you make very interesting discoveries.
\nYou try to observe your thoughts. Instead of letting them pass freely,
\nsometimes even letting them enter your head and establish themselves in a quite
\ninopportune way, you look at them, observe them and you realise with
\nstupefaction that in the space<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font><\/span> <\/font> <\/span>Hell; the state of suffering.<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 230<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

of a few seconds there passes through the head a series of
\nabsolutely improbable thoughts that are altogether harmful. <\/span><\/p>\n

You believe you are so good, so kind, so
\nwell disposed and always full of good feelings. You wish no harm to anybody,
\nyou wish only good \u2013 all that you tell yourself complacently. But if you look
\nat yourself sincerely as you are thinking, you notice that you have in your
\nhead a collection of thoughts which are sometimes frightful and of which you
\nwere not at all aware. <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, your reactions when something
\nhas not pleased you: how eager you are to send your friends, relatives,
\nacquaintances, everyone, to the devil! How you wish them all kinds of
\nunpleasant things, without even being aware of it! And how you say, \u201cAh, that
\nwill teach him to be like that!\u201d And when you criticise, you say, \u201cHe must be
\nmade aware of his faults.\u201d And when someone has not acted according to your
\nideas, you say, \u201cHe will be punished for it!\u201d and so on. <\/span><\/p>\n

You do not know it because you do not look
\nat yourself in the act of thinking. Sometimes you know it, when it becomes a
\nlittle too strong. But when the thing simply passes through, you hardly notice
\nit \u2013 it comes, it enters, it leaves. Then you find out that if you truly want
\nto be pure and wholly on the side of the Truth, then that requires a vigilance,
\na sincerity, a self-observation, a self-control which are not common. You begin
\nto realise that it is difficult to be truly sincere. <\/span><\/p>\n

You flatter yourself that you have nothing
\nbut good feelings and good intentions and that whatever you do, you do for the
\nsake of what is good \u2013 yes, so long as you are conscious and have control, but
\nthe moment you are not very attentive, all kinds of things happen within you of
\nwhich you are not at all conscious and which are not very pretty. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to clean your house
\nthoroughly, you must be vigilant for a long time, for a very long time and
\nespecially not believe that you have reached the goal, like that, at one
\nstroke, because one day you happened to decide that you would be on the right
\nside. That is of course a very essential and important <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 231<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

point, but it must be followed by a good many other days when you have
\nto keep a strict guard on yourself so as not to belie your resolution. <\/span>
\n
\n
\n <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0<\/span><\/i>4
\n April 1958<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 232<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Evil     Hasten towards the good, leave behind all evil thoughts, for to do good without enthusiasm is to have a mind which delights…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","wpcat-115-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}