From now on, whenever you have distracting thoughts such as greed, licentiousness, killing, delusion, etc., first use your force to screen them out and clean them up, and only think about the good side of a thought. If you have the power to do good deeds, you must not expect returns, do not ask for fame, no matter how difficult it is or how difficult it is, be honest, frank, and do it patiently. For good deeds that you cannot do with your own ability, you must be diligent and conscientious to make this kindness complete. First, there must be patience; second, there must be the determination to persist forever. Don't let it go, don't deceive yourself. If you go for a long time, it will naturally have unexpected results.
Han Huaiming, a person lived in Shangdang in Shanxi province, a native of Nanqi and Nanliang in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, is famous for his filial piety.
Han Huaiming lives as a guest in Jingzhou. When he was ten years old, his mother suffered from tuberculosis and was in critical condition. He saluted and prayed under the stars at night. It was cold at the time, and suddenly there was an aroma, and a voice said: "My child, your mother will recover soon, so you don't have to work so hard."
Before dawn, the mother recovered immediately and has never relapsed since then. The village felt surprised.
Han Huaiming lost his father at the age of fifteen. He was so sad that he almost lost his nature. After the funeral, he and the villager Guo Yu (or Guo Ma) studied with Nanyang Liu Qiu.
One day Liu Qiu didn't teach school and cried alone. Han Huaiming asked the reason secretly. Liu Qiu's family replied, "It was his maternal grandfather's death anniversary." At that time, Liu Qiu's mother had also passed away. Han Huaiming immediately quit school the same day after hearing this and went home to serve his mother.
After Liu Qiu knew about it, he sighed, "Han will not regret in the future when his mother pass away."
Han Huaiming was poor at home, but tried his best to feed her mother with delicious food, please her mother, and was by her side day and night. His mother died at the age of ninety-one, and Han Huaiming kept crying without drinking water slurry for ten days. A pair of white doves built a nest at his house, docile like poultry, and did not leave until he finished his mourning.
After that, Han Huaiming was a vegetarian for life, not changing plain clothes and quilts.
In the early years of Tianjian, the governor Xiao Xu commended Han Huaiming for his filial deeds and awarded him many official positions, but Han Huaiming was reluctant to take office and later died at his own home. -"Liang History . Volume 47" (Recovered in a moment )
Don’t hurt each other or complain to each other. I didn’t do a good job myself. I hope I can do it well. I also hope that all sentient beings in every world will not hurt each other, not hate each other, not complain to each other. Amitabha.
Mr. Yu Jingyi meets The Kitchen God:
Yu Jingyi Gong Met Kitchen God (English version)
During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Mr. Yu from Jiangxi was named Yu Du and Liang Chen， also known as Yu Jingyi, who was knowledgeable and talented. He was admitted as a scholar at the age of eighteen and must be among the best in every county examination.
By the time he was in his middle age, his family was poor, and he taught for a living. He and more than a dozen classmates from the county school formed the Wenchang Club and followed the lessons of Emperor Wenchang: cherish the written paper, release one's life, abstain from adultery, abstain from killing, and abstain from slandering others.
However, he went to the exam seven times before and after, and he wanted to be admitted to Juren, but he failed. He and his wife had five sons, four of whom died of illness. Only the third child was left, who was very smart and handsome. The boy had two moles on the sole of his left foot. Both the couple loved the boy very much, but the boy was lost when he was eight years old playing in the neighborhood. Mr. Yu and his wife also had four daughters, and only one of them survived. His wife cried and went blind because of her children who died young and her lost son. Mr. Yu was depressed all the year round, and went from bad to worse.
Mr. Yu reflected on himself, thinking that he was not at fault, but he was punished by God. Since the age of 40, on New Year's Eve every year, he used yellow paper to write scribbles to pray to the kitchen God, begging him to report to the Jade Emperor his "no major fault, but he was punished by heaven." After doing this for several years, there was no response.
When he was forty-seven years old, on New Year's Eve, Mr. Yu sat with his blind wife and a daughter at night, and the house was left in the cold, desolate and distressed. Suddenly hearing a knock on the door, Mr. Yu opened the door with a candle in his hand, seeing a man in black clothes with a scarf. The man's beard and hair are half-white, he sat down and introduced himself: "My surname is Zhang, and I am returning from a long distance. I heard you sigh with sadness, and I would like to express my condolences." Mr. Yu was surprised, so Mr. Yu treats this person very respectfully. So Mr. Yu told this person about his situation: He has been reading and learning all his life, accumulating good deeds. However, he has been applying for the test for Juren for 30 years and has not been accepted yet. The children died and lost, the wife cried and went blind, and the family couldn't even support the food and clothing. And Mr. Yu read to Mr. Zhang each of the scribbles that burned to pray to the kitchen God .
Mr. Zhang said: "I have known about your family affairs for a long time. You have too serious intentions, you are dedicated to pursuing a reputation for nothingness, and your writing is full of resentment, resentment, and blasphemous complaints to God, I am afraid you will be punished More than that!"
Mr. Yu was shocked and said: "I heard that no matter how small a good deed is, it must be recorded by God, even if this matter is not known to others. I vowed to do good deeds and respectfully and cautiously follow Wenchang Emperor's regulations for many years. Is this all a mere name?"
Mr. Zhang said: "The actual situation is not what you said! Just take one of the statutes you follow as an example---cherishing the printed paper. Your students, friends, etc. often use book pages, articles, and old books to paste windows, wrap things, and even wipe the table, with an excuse not to stain it, and then burn it. You see it with your own eyes every day, and you never warn it a little bit; you just pick it up when you see the paper on the road and go back and burn it, what good is it!
Your community releases lives every month, you just follow everyone busy and follow the crowd. If no one initiates it, you will just let it go. In fact, the thought of compassion does not arise in your heart.
And in your home, shrimps and crabs are also cooked and eaten. You said that you quit killing. Are they not life?
Another example is not to slander others. You are clever with your language, which is often admired by those who hear it. When you speak out, you also know in your heart that slandering people is harmful to kindness, but when you talk about people or things with your relatives and friends, you always ridicule and sarcasm and cannot control yourself. Your tongue is like a sharp knife, frivolous, mean, and slanderous. The underworld has recorded your evil deeds in the book, I really don't know how many, and you still claim to be simple and honest. Ask yourself, who are you going to deceive? Deceive God?
"Let’s talk about quitting adultery. Although you have no real evidence of adultery, but when you see a beautiful woman, you always look at it for a long time, and your heart is shaken and can’t stop. It’s just because there is no wicked relationship to get together! You should ask yourself: if she Knock on your door at night, can you close the door without opening it? And you actually said that you have never committed adultery in your life and can face the ghosts and gods of the world. This is really absurd!
These are the statutes that you vowed to strictly abide by, none of which is truly achieved, let alone the rest!
All the scribbles you burned in successive years have been up to the heavens. The Jade Emperor ordered the angels who wandered during the day to observe your good and evil for several years, but there is no good deed to remember. It’s just that in your private life, you see greed, lust, jealousy, narrow-minded resentment, high self-esteem, thoughts of the past, hope for others to repay, and thoughts of revenge. These thoughts are in your heart. There is no end to it. All kinds of evil intentions are firmly entangled in your heart. The gods have recorded many records. Heaven's punishment will become heavier and heavier. You can't escape the disaster in time. Why should you ask for blessings from heaven? "
Mr. Yu was surprised and panic. He knelt on the ground and burst into tears. He said, "Since you know what is going on, you must be a noble god. Please save me and show me a way out."
Mr. Zhang said: "You have read a lot of books, understand the truth, and know that you admire good deeds. When you hear a good word, you are excited and encouraged; when you see a good deed, you are inspired. But after a while you forgot, this is because your roots of faith are not deep, so the virtue cannot last. Therefore, the kind words and deeds in life are just perfunctory by following the trend. Where is one thing really done? You are just full of sin. Thoughts, ups and downs. In this way, you still ask the heavens to give excellent blessings, it is like planting thorns everywhere, but wishing to reap good crops, isn't it a big mistake!
From now on, whenever you have distracting thoughts such as greed, licentiousness, killing, delusion, etc., first use your force to screen them out and clean them up, and only think about the good side of a thought. If you have the power to do good deeds, you must not expect returns, do not ask for fame, no matter how difficult it is or how difficult it is, be honest, frank, and do it patiently. For good deeds that you cannot do with your own ability, you must be diligent and conscientious to make this kindness complete. First, there must be patience; second, there must be the determination to persist forever. Don't let it go, don't deceive yourself. If you go for a long time, it will naturally have unexpected results.
"Your family serves me very religiously, so I have come to tell you these words. You have to follow and implement them as quickly as possible before you can return to God's will." After these words, Mr. Zhang walked into the inner room. Mr. Yu got up and followed, Mr. Zhang suddenly disappeared when he reached the stove. Only then did Mr. Yu understand that Mr. Zhang was the Kitchen God, so Mr. Yu burned the incense and kowtow.
Therefore, on New Year's Day, Mr. Yu prayed to heaven and earth, vowing to change his past mistakes and cut off evil and do good. He gave himself another name called "Jing Yi Taoist", which means that he must keep his vows firmly in mind: eradicate evil intentions.
In the days when he just started to cut off evil and do good, sometimes he still had distracting thoughts. He was either in doubt and couldn't make progress, or he was lazy and unable to beat himself up.
Time passed quickly, but he himself remained the same. Therefore, Mr. Yu enshrines Guanshiyin Bodhisattva at home. Before the statue of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, Mr. Yu kowtows and swears: "I hope my kind wishes will always be pure, and I hope I can work hard to do good deeds. If there is the slightest relaxation in this matter, I will fall into hell forever." Every morning, he prayed "Great Mercy and Great Compassion Guanshiyin Bodhisattva" a hundred times to pray for the Bodhisattva's blessing.
From then on, every word and deed, every thought and moment, are like ghosts and gods by the side, not daring to deceive. Anything that can help people and benefit the public, regardless of the size of the matter, the busyness of the body, whether people know or not, whether they have enough strength or not, they will do it joyfully, seeking perfection, until it is done. He uses various methods to accumulate virtue according to random conditions, people, time, and local conditions, and he uses ethics, morality, diligence, humility, patience, and karma to persuade and teach everyone. Doing this all day, I still feel not enough. On the last day of each month, count the words and deeds of the month, and then write a scribble and report in front of the kitchen God’s tablet.
When the practice is proficient, all good will follow when you act, and there will be no distracting thoughts when you are calm. Three years passed.
When Mr. Yu was fifty years old, in the second year of Wanli, people from all over the country came to the capital to apply for the Jinshi examination. At that time, Mr. Zhang Jiangling was the chief assistant (equivalent to the prime minister) and presided over the cabinet affairs. After the test, Mr. Zhang Jiangling went to visit the Jiangxi fellows who came to Beijing to take the test, and wanted to choose a teacher with good character and academic performance for his son. Everyone unanimously recommended Mr. Yu. So Mr. Zhang Jiangling hired him to be a tutor in Beijing, and Mr. Yu brought his family with him.
Mr. Zhang Jiangling respected Mr. Yu's moral cultivation, and he used existing cases to approve him to enter the Imperial College. In the fourth year of Wanli, Mr. Yu participated in the rural examination in Beijing, where he was selected in the examination, and then he was admitted to the Jinshi in the following year.
One day, Mr. Yu went to visit an eunuch whose surname was Yang. Mr. Yang had long heard of Mr. Yu's morals and learning, so he asked all his five sons to come out and see him. They were selected and bought by Mr. Yang from all over the country to accompany Yang in his later years as heirs. One of them was sixteen years old, and Mr. Yu felt that his appearance was very familiar, so he asked where he was from. He replied: "I am from Jiangxi. When I was a child, I accidentally entered the ship carrying food and was carried away from my hometown. Now I still seem to remember my original surname and the scene of the neighborhood." So the child said carefully what he remembered. After hearing this, Mr. Yu was very surprised, so he told the child to take off the shoes and socks on his left foot, and he saw the double moles on the soles of his feet. Mr. Yu called out loudly: "You are my son!"
Mr. Yang was also very surprised and immediately sent the child to follow Mr. Yu back to his residence. Mr. Yu rushed to his wife, and the wife touched her son, crying bitterly, and bursting into tears. The son also kept crying, holding his mother's face in both hands, licking her blind eyes with his tongue, and the mother's eyes suddenly saw light again.
Mr. Yu had mixed sorrows and joys, and he did not want to be an official, so he bid farewell to Mr. Zhang Jiangling and returned home. Mr. Zhang Jiangling admired this sincere friendship very much and gave him generous gifts to practice it. When Mr. Yu returned to his hometown, he became more and more dedicated to doing good. Mr. Yu's son married a daughter-in-law, and the couple even gave birth to seven sons, which are very healthy. They are all able to inherit their ancestors and are eager to study.
Mr. Yu personally recorded the experience, that is, he once met the Kitchen God and corrected his fault. He wants to use this record to educate his children and grandchildren. Mr. Yu lived a long and healthy life, lived to be eighty-eight years old, and died without disease. People say: This is the result of doing good deeds and turning the will of God!
Recorded by Luo Zhen, a late student in the same neighborhood.