This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
A fifteen-year-old lad understood this truth, and I envy the excitement and pride his father felt.
The son was fifteen; it was the summer holidays. The father had been invited to a conference and took his son along. All the way, the son looked anxious and uneasy. That evening, after the guests had gone, the father asked:
＂Son, what’s the matter? Are you feeling unwell?＂
＂No, Dad, I just feel a bit uneasy.＂
＂Uneasy?＂
＂Yes. Since we left this morning: on the plane, first class; off the plane, a big Mercedes; at the hotel, the presidential suite. I remember my teacher telling me: when one’s virtue does not match one’s position, disaster is sure to follow.＂
＂……＂ For a moment the father was speechless.
＂Dad, you toil and rush about for the sake of all beings; you have virtue, so the uncles and aunties treat you this way, and you can accept it with a clear conscience. But I’m different. I’m still a student and haven’t contributed anything to society yet. Enjoying treatment like this is called virtue not matching position. Won’t disaster follow later?＂
＂Son, I’m so happy!＂ the father said, moved, stroking his son’s head. ＂Now I can rest easy; you’ve grown up! With words like these, you will never meet great misfortune in your life!＂
The father was so happy that he shed tears:
＂Son, how about this: tonight you sleep on the floor, and tomorrow you apply to do volunteer work?＂
＂Great, Dad! Now I can sleep soundly.＂
As heaven moves vigorously, the gentleman ceaselessly strives to strengthen himself; as the earth’s disposition is receptive, the gentleman carries all things with abundant virtue.
What follows is a sermon for adults, a step further; no harm in reading it:
It comes down to four characters: 德不配位, “virtue not matching position.”
All our wealth and wisdom, everything we have, our ancestors represented with one character, 物 (wù, “things”). Only with abundant virtue can one carry all things (厚德载物).
厚 (hòu) means deep and abundant;
德 (dé) means working, living, conducting oneself and doing things according to the laws of nature;
载 (zài) means to carry;
物 (wù) is what we call blessings (福报).
The opposite saying is 德不配位, “virtue not matching position.”
位 (wèi, “position”) is our treatment, our blessings; virtue not matching position means our virtue is not worthy of our blessings.
To give an analogy: here is a table that can bear a weight of 10 jin. If you insist on putting 15, 20 or 50 jin on it, what happens to the table? It starts to tremble, it starts to deform, it shows the warning signs of collapse, and finally it falls down.
Money, power and fame are all one’s blessings, all things that weigh down on oneself. Can you bear them? What do you bear them with? With virtue that accords with the laws of all things.
Those of you here who are parents or grandparents should often tell your children to cherish their blessings; it will do them a great deal of good.
Blessings are what we enjoy. For example, eating well, dressing well; if I could wear clothes worth ten thousand but wear clothes worth one thousand, if I could eat meals worth a hundred thousand but don’t eat even twenty thousand: these are all called blessings.
The Chinese speak of 惜食, cherishing food: 惜 as in cherish, 食 as in food. Cherish food, cherish clothing; you must treasure them. People should value cherishing their blessings. You must accumulate your blessings.
Someone says: Teacher, I don’t believe what you say.
Then here are four characters for you: 以身试法, “test the law with your own body.”
There is an old saying: “A gentleman loves wealth, but obtains it by the proper way (道).” This way is all-important. Some businessmen use illegal means to grab things their fate cannot hold. Aren’t they just asking for trouble? Are there too few examples of people jailed and sentenced for it? Their virtue does not match their treatment and blessings.
I use a cheap mobile phone, wear cheap cloth shoes and ordinary clothes… Why do I do this? Because I don’t think I have such abundant virtue, so I use these very simple things and feel at peace.
If I had no virtue but wanted to enjoy too much, a Mercedes, a BMW, a luxury villa, every meal costing thousands or tens of thousands… that would be consuming my own blessings, diminishing my own fortune. Would you really dare to eat and use like that?
Nowadays people chase fame and gain madly, paying any price to become famous and using any means to make money.
Nowadays every day we look at this Mercedes and think it’s good, that big villa and think it’s good, see how high an official someone has become… and think: I must get my hands on this money. Everyone thinks this way, without any understanding of morality. What will the result be?
“When the moral relations are perverted, ruin comes at once; when virtue does not match position, disaster is sure to follow.”
Today’s students and children are the same. Regardless of who they are, they just want the best. You don’t earn a cent now, yet you want the best. Who taught you that?
Television teaches it, society teaches it, parents teach it, teachers teach it too; parents even encourage competing with others: “Tomorrow Mom will buy you something even better to outdo him.”
You see, completely wrong.
Children don’t know what happens when one enjoys too much good fortune. As our ancestors said, it diminishes your blessings. The old saying of the elders, “it diminishes your fortune and shortens your life” (折福折寿), makes sense. Don’t forget that lifespan and blessings are both energy; the human being is itself a body of energy.
We don’t know how to love our children; the kind of love we give children today goes completely against common sense. The more you love them this way, the more they fall ill, the more prone they are to misfortune, the more likely they are to die young.
Why do so many young people die so young? Why are there so many sudden illnesses in people in their thirties? Because their blessings and energy have been consumed rapidly.
So eating simply and living simply truly does good. Once you understand this truth, that is, once you know that abundant virtue carries all things, you will dare to enjoy what you have.
You see those entrepreneurs who are so rich and think, I want to take that money for myself. You never stop to think what kind of virtue and blessings they have that let them sit in that position, and sit in it securely.
Let me quote another line from the Zhou Yi (Book of Changes): “A family that accumulates goodness will surely have abundant blessings; a family that accumulates evil will surely have abundant calamity.”
You watch others get rich, you watch others become famous, you see others become professors… and you feel it is unfair. But have you ever thought about how great their virtue is? Have you?
Love giving, and your blessings will grow and grow;
love gratitude, and smooth sailing will grow and grow;
love helping others, and your benefactors will grow and grow;
love complaining, and your troubles will grow and grow;
love contentment, and your happiness will grow and grow;
love running away, and your failures will grow and grow;
love sharing, and your friends will grow and grow;
love getting angry, and your illnesses will grow and grow;
love taking advantage, and your poverty will grow and grow;
love giving wealth in charity, and your wealth and honor will grow and grow!
Cherish everything! Be grateful for everything!
