Ignorance of the Truth is the root of human suffering and this leads to anger, hatred and greed within the person. Most human beings are never satisfied with what they have and poor people have the impression that wealth would bring happiness to their lives. Physically unattractive people always feel dissatisfied with their looks and to them, beauty would make them happy. However, if we check with wealthy people and beautiful people whether they are happy all the time, we will find that they, too, have a lot of things to worry about. They may tell you money cannot buy happiness and when beauty is overcome by old age, their happiness cannot last.

Every individual has a different degree of expectations in their life. Why do people feel such dissatisfaction in their lives? Let us see a simple example here:

Once, a little girl was crying by the roadside and an elderly passerby felt sorry and asked her, Why are you crying? Rubbing off her tears the little girl said she had lost the one dollar that her mum gave it to her as pocket money to buy candies and cookies. The passerby wasted no time in offering her the one dollar to solve her problem. The little girl took the money and stopped crying immediately but the next moment she started to cry even louder than before. The man was puzzled and queried why she was still crying. The little girl said, If I had not lost the first dollar, I would have two dollars now.

Life is full of cravings and ignorance of the Truth generates sentiments of anger, hatred, dissatisfaction and suffering which in turn can lead to killing. If a human being let hatred grow in his heart, he will become an evil spirit. If an evil spirit let hatred grow in his heart, he will become a demon. Therefore, shunning hatred is the beginning of avoiding the demon. Ask ourselves whether we have any hatred in our hearts. If you have, then it is time you have to get rid of them because it leads to the devilish path. Learn to forgive and in return you will be forgiven.

A person cannot hide his true anger behind a facade of smiles and cheerfulness. Just be aware that our thoughts in our mind determine our behavior which in turn forms our habits. These habits mould our personalities and they yield our fate. If a person is always complaining and arguing with people, it shows that his heart is full of anger and darkness. Difficult personality will never have a good life because who wants to be with him?

We are normally happy when people agree with us and unhappy if they disagree. If someone says some rude words to us, we will immediately feel displeasure or even get angry. On the other hand, if someone says some appreciative words or praise us, we will feel delighted and happy. Our moods are constantly affected by someones comments or criticism. We simply cannot avoid being affected by peoples behavior because we are living in the world among people and surely people will say something unless we go into the jungle and hide away from the world. But this is not the solution. The only way is to set our heart to the realization of the Truth and become independent people who listen and act with a cultivated mind. There is no great happiness or great sadness.

The way to peace and calmness of the mind is to refrain from asking others to change their behavior, align ourselves with the Truth and get rid of our negative feelings towards others. The famous proverb says, Old habits die hard. Even a long married couple might find it hard to change their spouses behavior. It is much easier to demand ourselves than to demand others to change. Being a good role model for others is much simpler than asking others to set up good example. If we try to get rid of our negative feelings like anger and hatred, then happiness will come and unhappiness will disappear. Learn to forgive and our relationship with people will improve and our family life will become more harmonious. We will regain a happy life and experience true happiness.

Once we can get rid of our roots of suffering, namely greed, anger and hatred, we will no longer suffer because no one can upset us. This is because the roots come from within ourselves and not from outside. The key to a peaceful heart lies within our inner-selves and the practice of Tao is to get rid of these roots of human suffering. An evil mind is defined as a mind filled with ignorance, greed, anger and hatred. Such negative mind will lead us towards a demonic spirit.

This is the saying of my Heavenly Teacher JiGong:

To oneself, we must seek faults among our faultlessness. Not only can this improve our virtues, it can keep us from harm too. To others, we must seek faultlessness among their faults. Not only can we cherish our kindness, it can settle resentment too. Do check on oneself at all times. Instead of demanding others, demand oneself in every aspect. It does not matter if we make mistakes, but the important thing is we can correct them. In correcting mistakes, we can realize why and what we need to correct. Yet to realize something in depth, one must demand oneself. Hence, the saying:

To blame oneself with the same heart we blame others, and to forgive others with the same heart we forgive oneself. It is always easy to know others, but it is hard to know oneself. It is easy to forgive the wrongs of oneself, but it is hard to spare the faults of others. People can see things that are a hundred steps away, but it is hard to see the back of ones own body. The eyes can observe things as tiny as the autumn-hair, but it is hard to count ones eyelashes. Hence, those who always see the faults of oneself are on par with TAO.

Author: T.A Chew