Vows and Promises

By a practitioner in Heilongjiang Province

(Clearwisdom.net) I went to an electronics store to buy a laptop computer for a practitioner and told her I would send it to her house. But I soon realized that the laptop needed to have some software installed before it could be used. I took it back to my house and waited till the next day to send it to her. Although the other practitioner did not say anything, this incident made me see my xinxing problem: "I didn't keep my promise."

There is a story about holding true to one's promises: A couple operated an inn. A businessman stayed at their inn for many days. All of a sudden he had to leave right away. He left a huge sum of money he intended to spend on purchasing goods in the innkeeper's care. The businessman left and there was no further information from him. Later there was war and chaos. The innkeeper buried the money in the ground and escaped with his whole family. The innkeeper couple died from the effects of war. Before his death the innkeeper told his son about the money that the businessman had left in his safekeeping. He told his son to go back and wait for the businessman. The inn changed after the war, and things were not like they were in the days before the war. The innkeeper's son and his family waited at the inn and lived difficult lives. Many years passed, and the innkeeper's son also died. He passed the responsibility of waiting for the businessman to his own son. Finally, one day, the businessman's descendants sent someone to get the money. Three generations of the innkeeper's family had preserved their moral responsibility and held true to their promise. This is the true manifestation of the Chinese nation's "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith."

Master said:

"There were many people in ancient China who would rather die than go back on one promise, so why is this matter so hard for today's people to understand? It's because today's people have warped." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference")

The issue of trust also exists among our cultivators. We promise a practitioner to bring her something, but we forgot to bring it. We promise to meet at a certain place, but we arrive late. Each small incident seems to be minor, but this reflects a practitioner's mindset and also his or her cultivation level. People nowadays used the phrase "I swear" loosely. They make casual promises and are not responsible for things. People in ancient China would not take back their promises once they made them. We practitioners are in this society with a warped mentality. We must set high standards and hold ourselves to strict requirements. How can we not keep our promises like ordinary people?

What I illustrated above are rules a being should adhere to, within the level of cultivation. I had a dream: In a clean and pure and wonderful dimension, I saw that the dimension below is a frozen, icy world. There are already many beings who have risked their lives to descend to that dimension to rescue people. I sent a steadfast thought: "I also want to descend and help them rescue people!" My steadfast determination shook the heavens and earth. But suddenly I was afraid that I would be thirsty and hungry when I got down there, so I actually brought bread and water.

A long time ago we came here for the sake of offering people salvation. But this also already had impure elements of "selfishness" and "me" mixed in it. The Fa-rectification of the cosmos far exceeds all the laws of the old cosmos. We must correct the impure elements in our predestined vows to offer sentient beings salvation, give up all for them, and assimilate to the laws of the new cosmos. We must reject the arrangements of the old forces.

My understanding is limited. Fellow practitioners, please kindly point out my shortcomings.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/2/13/172320.html

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