32. Learning to Say, "his Was My Fault"

  By a practitioner in China  

  One afternoon, while my four-year-old son was stepping on a chair to get a pear from the table, he fell down and overturned a half plate of rice I had put on the table. As he lay there on the floor, his body covered with rice, my first reaction was that I needed to calm down. My son was apparently fine, so I pulled him up, and then cleaned the carpet where he fell. I found that I was not angry and also aware that this incident was my fault, as I did not clean up the table immediately after finishing lunch.   

  Previously, when my children spilled or dropped anything, I instinctively thought that it was their fault and scolded them. Later I felt this behavior was not benevolent, and I needed to pay attention and improve in this area. I finally changed this bad habit and looked at myself when something went wrong. I sincerely admitted to my son that this was my fault and reminded him that he should be careful in the future. He nodded his head. At this moment, I felt a peaceful atmosphere spread in the air. Persistently cultivating myself and changing my wrong notions, I finally realized that I could treat other people with benevolence and forgiveness from my heart. his made me feel so good inside. I felt in my heart, how fortunate I am to know these eternal truths and to have the opportunity to cultivate myself under the boundless mercy of Master Li. I felt happy, fortunate, and at peace after improving myself.   

  One day after this incident, my son overturned half a bowl of soup. I said immediately, without any hesitation, "It's all right. Are you OK?" Then I cleaned up the soup with a paper towel. I gently said to my son, "You need to be careful next time." This warmed the heart of everyone in my family. Since this incident, my son has seldom spilled anything.  

  One day, my husband couldn't find the nail clippers. He was in a bad mood and accused me of misplacing them somewhere. He was so infuriated that before he left the house to go out and play with the kids, he told me, "Find the nail clippers before I return!" At that moment, the atmosphere was full of tension. Then my son said to my husband, "If when we come back, Mom still has not found the nail clippers, you just say it's all right!" My son learned forgiveness. So, in the end, the result was really, "It's all right!"   

  In my mind I thought, "My reward is not only in my own cultivation, but also the opportunity I've had to influence my son." Just as Master Li said, "he Buddha light illuminates everywhere, Propriety and justice rectify and harmonize everything."