【126-A-3】
Why do we feel we only like to associate with honest people? Because associating with deceitful people is too dangerous, annoying and disgusting. When you hear deceitful people say something, it’s really disgusting. It puts you off your food. Actually you already know, “When you say this it isn’t sincere, what are you being pretentious about? What are you arguing about? What are you trying to show off? Do you imagine I don’t know what’s in your heart?” So deceitful people can upset you with just a few words, and it’s as though you are boiling over. It’s awful, horrible, as if you’re seeing right through them. And because it’s so awful, disgusting and boring to associate with deceitful people, people don’t enjoy it and don’t associate with them. But as soon as you associate with honest people you find it happy and bright. They say what they think. So you feel light-hearted, happy, excited. You can share openly something in common with them, and this creates a resonance. And you will feel peaceful and pleasurable. This is one side of it: the very real emotional enjoyment and happiness. Furthermore, it is not dangerous no matter how you deal with honest people: they won’t deceive you or cheat you. They certainly won’t harm you. You could happily go out and leave them in your home to look after things. Imagine, you could put your gold ring and gold necklace in a drawer and tell them, “Look after these for me, will you? I am putting them here.” “Fine, don’t worry!” When you come back and check the drawer, the ring and the necklace are gone. “What’s happened?” “They weren’t safe there, I hid them away in a safe place.” You check and there they are. “Fine, you’re more careful than I am!” You see how it is to associate with honest people? You feel secure. If you associate with evil people, if something goes wrong, they will scowl. “This guy is so ferocious, with such a horrifying expression. It’s best not to have anything to do with him. If you just say some small thing wrong and offend him, you don’t know whether he might take out a knife behind your back, and you don’t know what will happen to you. You just can’t associate with such an evil person, it’s like bumping into a poisonous snake!” Isn’t there this kind of feeling? To be with an evil person, first of all you won’t feel secure; secondly, you can’t fathom them out; thirdly, you never know when they will become devilish. It’s just too dangerous to deal with this kind of person. So after having experienced being an
honest person for three to five years, or five to six years, you will have the likeness of an honest person, the likeness of mankind. People will like to see you as an honest person. Then won’t you enjoy this? You will. How will you enjoy it? “Now I know what the likeness of a real man is, and what kind of person I should be.” Surely to have insight into this is to understand a mystery of life, right?
