A Tit for a Tat (70)
Tit: What kind of person is he?
Tat: The ‘bad faith’ type.
Tit: What do you mean?
Tat: He acknowledges you when he needs, to his advantage…
Tit: And doesn’t acknowledge you when there is no advantage?
Tat: Yes. He would be polite to me when he wants my help…
Tit: But treat you as non-existent in all other conditions?
Tat: Yes. Especially when you could do with his help, but when it doesn’t help him to help you.
Tit: Any example?
Tat: At work, he comes to me only for favours, but when he sees me walking by, he drives by…
Tit: As if you are not there and couldn’t do with a lift?
Tat: Yes. Not that there is any obligation to offer a ride, but I’m a person only when useful to him, and just a thing on the road when not.
Tit: Interesting how we alternate between being people and things at some people’s convenience.
Tat: Yes. But we too are sometimes guilty of that doing that!
Tit: Yes. Especially when we come across the truly needy, whom we think can never help us, even if we help them.
Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/12/the-way-it-was-meant-to-be
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/12/mental-block
How we are treated by our brothers and sisters is a result of the Karmic seeds we, ourselves, have planted in the past! If people treat us in a negative fashion, they are doing us “a favor” by Purifying our negative Karma! There is an old Tibetan prayer: “Lead me into all misfortune. Only by that Path, can I transform the negative into the positive.” We are to look upon people who treat us poorly with love and compassion. (See the similie of the “Two Handled Saw”) They are doing us a service by assisting us with the Purification of our negative Karma! Do you see the Truth of this? With Love and Compassion for ALL of US, dorje.
Sincerity is a hard quality to detect. Great friends can betray one in an instant while someone whom one do not trust deeply may help us when we are greatly in need of help.
Such is the complexity of interwoven karmic relationships through countless lifetimes.
Thanks for the reminder! Hi all, here is where the simile of the two-handled saw is mentioned:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.021x.than.html
The end of the Kakacupama Sutta goes this way:
The Buddha: “Monks, even if bandits were to carve you up savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, he among you who let his heart get angered even at that would not be doing my bidding. Even then you should train yourselves: ‘Our minds will be unaffected and we will say no evil words. We will remain sympathetic, with a mind of good will, and with no inner hate. We will keep pervading these people with an awareness imbued with good will and, beginning with them, we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with good will — abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.
“Monks, if you attend constantly to this admonition on the simile of the saw, do you see any aspects of speech, slight or gross, that you could not endure?”
“No, lord.”
“Then attend constantly to this admonition on the simile of the saw. That will be for your long-term welfare & happiness.”
That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the monks delighted in the Blessed One’s words.
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It’s true that both sincere help and malicious harm can come from unexpected people. Personally, I kinda gave up judging people (though it still habitually happens at times), because it’s hard to know how people really are. I’m so frequently wrong in character judgments that I now try to brush them aside if they are totally unneeded. I just try to be sincere on my part. If others are not, it’s just the way it goes… for now. Yup, ‘Such is the complexity of interwoven karmic relationships through countless lifetimes.’ Amituofo
I will like to choose “We will take equal time to intro our faiths!” But I have not even started trying yet as I don’t even have a child yet.
I like the above bloggers’ comments.