Facing my question, Uncle Ma did not answer directly, but asked me a question instead.
He said, "Have you ever heard of the saying that great kindness will inevitably lead to great disaster?"
I shook my head, indicating that I had not heard it.
But I was a little shocked. If you can be called a great philanthropist, you must be a great person. He loves doing good and helping others. How could this be such a big disaster?
Uncle Ma said that this sentence was said by Xunzi, a famous thinker in ancient times.
This may sound a bit sensational, but in real life, people who are too kind do encounter some problems.
First, good people care very much about morals and ethics, so they are easily kidnapped by morality. They will take on too many responsibilities, and even sacrifice their own rights and interests to meet the needs of others. This will inevitably cause them to endure tremendous pressure and burden.
Second, kind-hearted people can easily fail to protect themselves, because when they face malicious or unfair behavior, they cannot defend their rights and interests due to moral, ethical and legal constraints, and they will suffer harm and losses.
Third, kind people are easier to take advantage of. They think they are doing good things, but they become fools in the eyes of those with ulterior motives. As a result, they will be taken advantage of and eventually get hurt, and then they will feel frustrated and disappointed. .
To sum up, if a person who is too kind does not know how to protect himself or safeguard his own rights and interests, then he is doomed to be more vulnerable to harm.
Some people say that most people who accumulate virtue and do good have a bad life, while those who are bad live happily and richly.
Uncle Ma explained this:
Good people follow the rules and dare not do bad things. They must abide by moral ethics and legal restrictions in everything they do.
Evil people are lawless and specialize in doing bad things. They follow the principle of putting interests first in everything they do. Morality and law are useless to them.
There is a saying that goes well, as long as I am shameless, my integrity has nothing to do with me, and as long as I have no bottom line, my morality cannot criticize me!
So, one is restrained and the other is reckless. Who do you think can make a lot of money?
However, making a lot of money does not mean enjoying great happiness.
If you don't follow the rules and obey the moral laws, even if you are happy now, you will be punished accordingly one day.
Even if you do all the bad things, don’t believe in cause and effect, and are not afraid of retribution, God will definitely take away all your things at the right time, when you have exhausted all your blessings.
Even if you die, this burden will still fall on your descendants.
Therefore, kindness must be combined with wisdom to prevent the negative consequences that may be brought about by being too kind. Otherwise, it is easy to happen that "a person with great kindness will have great disaster".
This is not to say that kindness itself is bad, nor does it mean that we must be thoughtful when doing good, but it reminds us that while remaining kind, we must learn to protect ourselves and handle problems wisely.
Therefore, accumulating virtue and doing good without a bottom line, and accumulating virtue and doing good without wisdom, sometimes become a knife stabbing oneself.
We can add some wisdom to our kindness, and while helping others, we must also protect ourselves.
Excessive loyalty is called foolish loyalty, and excessive kindness is actually a kind of foolish kindness.
This kind of kindness is more often linked to weakness.
As the saying goes, a good person will be bullied by others, and a good horse will be ridden by others.
Of course, great kindness must lead to great disaster. This sentence also has another meaning: great kindness often arouses the jealousy and resentment of others because of their good deeds, because it touches the interests of many people.
So some people will use any means to attack those good people in order to achieve their own goals, thus causing immeasurable disaster to them.
The words of the ancients are indeed true to their word.
Uncle Ma's theory must be said to be an enlightenment, which made me suddenly enlightened.
He did not give me a direct answer about accumulating virtue and doing good deeds without any reward.
But it made me understand from another perspective that one of the reasons why there is no reward for doing good deeds is actually excessive kindness without a bottom line.
Then Uncle Ma told me that it was just like me who had always been soft-hearted before. People would jump in line if they wanted to, and get discounts if they wanted. However, I was often hurt because of this.
Why is this?
In fact, it is because of my kindness that I have been taken advantage of by those who do not abide by the rules. They will not think that you are kind at all, but will only think that you are easy to bully!
Uncle Ma said: "Think about it, if a person always wants to jump in line and ask you to give him a discount, does he not follow the rules? Is he always trying to break the rules?"
I nodded: "Yes, you are right. Those people who scolded me before were, without exception, either jumping in line or getting preferential treatment. But at the beginning they were begging hard and saying good things. Why did they stop talking after that?" Are you starting to be unreasonable?"
Uncle Ma smiled: "Silly boy, this kind of person is very self-centered and selfish in his subconscious. If he is a person who is willing to queue up honestly, he will not scold you unless you push him hard. . But a person who always wants to jump in line and take advantage of discounts, how high can you expect his moral standards to be?"
Hearing this, I got goosebumps all over my body. This was another enlightenment!
I have to say that although Uncle Ma's words are a bit one-sided, they do make sense.
The two of us chatted for a long time, and my heart opened up, but I was also a little discouraged.
I told Uncle Ma that I don’t want to read divination these days and should focus on writing novels. Maybe God has destined me to take another path, so he has set up so many twists and turns for me.
But in those days, I felt restless and couldn't write the novel, so I went to chat with Ma Yunfeng to relieve my boredom.
After meeting, Ma Yunfeng didn't care about my matter. He said that this matter was nothing. In the past, people often asked him to refund their money, and they just refunded money. Anyway, there was not much left...
I said I didn't care about money, I cared about this. She said I cheated her of money and deducted money from her, but I didn't do it at all.
Ma Yunfeng curled his lips and said that only a good old man like you would value reputation so much and wouldn't dare to do anything bad, so that's why you care so much.
But look at those scammers who are making a lot of money, who cares about this?
I didn't want to continue this topic with him because it made me unhappy when I mentioned it.
So I talked to him again about the fact that good people don't live long. After hearing this, Ma Yunfeng sighed and said that there are many, many such things.
Moreover, he has a cousin who has been troubled by this incident recently and is at home unable to think about it.
I asked Xiao Ma what was going on, and he told me that one of his uncles, who had been doing good deeds for many years, was recently diagnosed with cancer. The doctor said he could only live for a few months.
I happened to be here today, so he wanted to ask me to help his cousin.
