My Self-Reflection After Overhearing My Colleagues’ Discussion

(Minghui.org) I was working in my office one morning when I heard some of my colleagues chatting outside. An older teacher said, “Why should we tell our students to be honest and trustworthy? Those officials were caught pocketing tens of millions and hundreds of millions of yuan. Why don’t they be honest and trustworthy? It’s not right. After my grandson is born, I won’t teach him to be honest and trustworthy; I’ll teach him to be pragmatic. I don’t want to see him become a laughing stock. Being honest and trustworthy makes one look a fool.”

I couldn’t believe what I had heard! And those words were from an old teacher who was well known as a person of high morals!

A couple of other colleagues echoed, “Those officials just pay lip service to being honest. We should teach our children to be more sophisticated so they won’t be taken advantage of. We should teach our kids so that they won't be laughing stocks.” Another colleague tried to argue the other way but eventually gave up.

I didn’t know why they thought this way. Their words seemed to be directed at me, though I wasn’t part of the discussion. I was saddened that they couldn’t tell right from wrong. It was no wonder society was so bad.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this for the whole afternoon. Normally these colleagues had good morals and ideals, so why were they like this on that day? I went to a fellow practitioner’s home to study the Fa. I was still pondering this on my way home, when an idea suddenly came into my mind: “Shouldn’t I cultivate myself when I see what others do? Didn’t they speak like this because I have some areas where I am not fully truthful?”

I took a look at myself and recalled an incident that had happened a couple of days earlier. I had gone shopping for toothpaste and some other daily items in the morning and was heading to my mom’s place to study the Fa with her afterward. My older brother called me and asked me where I was. Without thinking, I said, “I’m at home.” My brother always worried about me and my mom’s safety, so he didn’t want us to get together. I didn’t want to tell him that I was heading to our mom’s place, because I was scared he would tell me off. But after the words came out, I realized that I hadn’t been truthful, and I felt dishonest. I didn’t give it too much thought at the time, nor did I try to eliminate my dishonesty and fear of being told off. No wonder my colleagues chatted like that outside of my office.

Through this incident, I finally found these bad thoughts of mine. I will definitely eliminate these bad thoughts that were hard to detect. I used to think I was very truthful, but it looks like I have to cultivate myself seriously in this respect. I don’t want these bad attachments. I will definitely get rid of them.

Thank you, Master, for your compassionate enlightenment!