Aspects
One aspect of offering gratitude and repaying is to offer respect to parents, ancestors, and teachers to whom we are all indebted. Another is to avoid unnecessary indebtedness and dependence so that we can act freely. It also involves giving credit where credit is due.
Quote from Dojeon
- It is difficult to serve heaven and earth if you do not respect your parents. Heaven and earth are the parents of humanity, and parents are the heaven and earth of their children. If descendants treat their ancestors badly, ancestors treat the descendants in the same way.
- Dojeon 2:41:3-5
- If you are given a bowl of rice, do not forget it. If you are given only half a bowl of rice, do not forget it. There is a saying, ‘Never fail to repay the benevolence of being given a meal.’ But I say, ‘never fail to repay the benevolence of even half a meal.
- Dojeon 2:40:3-4
- In the Early Heaven, being dependent on others has led people to ruin. You should not even lean on the walls of your own room. Do not wish for the benevolence of others. If you receive many favors, you will be indebted and kept from acting freely. The beast called failure is one-legged. Two of them must lean on each other to walk. When you depend on someone, you are bound to fail.
- Dojeon 8:16:5-7
- Enlightenment is the ultimate way of repaying heaven and earth.
- Dojeon 6:82:5
- You have to discover your own mind and do your own work.
- Dojeon 11:96:8
Read more about this topic: Boeun (Jeungsando)
Famous quotes containing the word aspects:
“... of all the aspects of social misery nothing is so heartbreaking as unemployment ...”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“The happiest two-job marriages I saw during my research were ones in which men and women shared the housework and parenting. What couples called good communication often meant that they were good at saying thanks to one another for small aspects of taking care of the family. Making it to the school play, helping a child read, cooking dinner in good spirit, remembering the grocery list,... these were silver and gold of the marital exchange.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)