Teachings of the Mentor
Author: Fafu
Translator : Lotus
No Flattery and Deception
We can often find some phenomena among strangers in the streets, friends and colleagues who have flattery and like to beat around the bush when talking.
The teaching of the Buddha is that what we speak should be consistent and same with our minds and should be honest and straight. As to speaking honest and straightly, someone may say:” if what I say is so honest and straight, it can hurt others easily.” However, you can express it euphemistically, but you should be honest and straight and can’t distort it a little because these flatteries are unreal and illusory signs. Supposing that you spoke unreal and illusory words every day, how could you have been called a bodhisattva? What’s the difference between you and those who cheat the sentient beings? The buddhas treasure the character of honesty and abandon the character of cheat. The flattery and deception includes the inner forms and meanings of cheat, fraud and deception, so the bodhisattvas are not permitted to have them.
We should remember the bad consequence of flattery and deception. Even if we go to compliment a person, we should try our best not to go overboard. Excessive compliment belongs to cheat and flattery, and finally we cannot attain the good results.
In fact, it is a fundamental obstruction for people who wants to conduct himself in the society, who wants to do great things, undertake business and run enterprises if he always would not like to speak honest and straightly and stick to beating around the bush when talking.
Praise the Mentor
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you can resolve our confusion and cause us to accept your teachings joyfully with your skillful means of joke and furious scold.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have been endowed with great kindness, great compassion, great wisdom and boundless love and given us the wisdom of how to renounce the ultimate suffering and how to attain the ultimate bliss.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have bestowed on us the opportunities of cultivating blessings and planting the good roots of merit, otherwise, how can we, who are poor, lowly and full of afflictions, be capable of obtaining a little benefit?
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have been endowed with the great persistent and courageous spirit of research, fond of research and often do it.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have manifested that we should be afraid of praise from others, “when we hear some praise from others, the sense of shame should immediately arise in us and we are scared to tremble” so that the arrogant mind will never have a chance to arise.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have taught the sentient beings precisely according to what is appropriate to them and caused them to attain the matched enlightenment at present.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you know everyone’s subordinates well enough to assign him job commensurate with his abilities and have operated the association for us so that all of us have made great progress under the leadership of the Chairperson.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you are always full of joy with pure smile and are humble, mild and soft in your body, speech and mind.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have complied with us at ease, satisfied us again and again and expected us to attain the true enlightenment and be able to come back early from afflictions.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because you have always attracted us to indulge into the joy of the Dharma with unrestricted eloquence and subtle methods.
I praise you endlessly, our mentor, because it’s hard to encounter you in hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas and we believe firmly that the sentient beings who follow you can be certain to have affinities with the buddhas, bodhisattvas and the Triple Treasure and to leave the sea of sufferings.
