..续本文上一页hat you”re going to say isn”t good or true, keep still. Even if it”s good and true but serves no purpose, it”ll still cause harm.

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　　A stupid person can sit in a gold mine but won”t have the sense to make anything of it. An intelligent person can take dirt and grass and turn them into silver and gold.

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　　Even if a stupid person gets a huge inheritance from his parents or grandparents, he won”t be able to prevent himself from creating a lot of bad kamma with it. An intelligent person, though, even if he has only an ax to his name, can use it to set himself up for life.

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　　Most of us know so much that there are no bounds to our knowledge. When our knowledge has no bounds, it”s like a forest fire that burns everything in sight. In other words, we”re so smart that we outsmart ourselves. We know what”s right and wrong but can”t keep ourselves from doing what”s wrong. This kind of knowledge serves no purpose and can only cause us harm. That”s why it”s like a forest fire that goes out of control and destroys everyone”s orchards and fields. People like this end up a total loss. They know everything in the world except for themselves. Knowledge with no bounds can cause two sorts of harm: We ourselves are harmed by it, and other people get harmed as well.

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　　People who are thick with ignorance see turmoil as something fun, just like a fish that sees waves in the ocean as a fun place to play.

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　　Greed means getting fixated and attached to things: our own things or those of others. If we get attached, it”s like getting sucked into an electric current until we die. The nature of everything in the world is that it spins around with each moment, just like an electric generator. If we touch the wires without any insulation, the current will suck us in until we”re fried to a crisp. We see the current as something pretty and bright, and so we want to fondle it — and it”ll electrocute us. If we latch onto things, our desires will get us stuck right there.

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　　Don”t let defilements inside make contact with defilements outside. If we have defilements at the same time that other people do, the result will be trouble. For instance, if we”re angry when they”re angry, or we”re greedy when they”re greedy, or we”re deluded when they”re deluded, it spells ruination for everyone.

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　　People aren”t equal, but you have to make your heart equal for everyone.

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　　If you see other people”s bad side, turn your eyes around until you can see their good side as well.

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　　A person who makes a mistake is better than a person who doesn”t act at all, for mistakes can be corrected. But if you don”t act, how will you know how to correct yourself

　　 — for you don”t know whether you”re mistaken or not. The fact that you don”t act is a mistake in and of itself.

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　　The more you study the affairs of the world, the more they branch out. The more you study the affairs of the Dhamma, the more they narrow down and converge.

《The Skill of Release - The Affairs of the World》全文阅读结束。