Believing in Taoism, the first thing that teaches people is to "persuade goodness", that is, to take the three virtues of "speaking kindly, seeing goodness, and doing good" mentioned in the "Taishang Sense" as the foundation of doing things for people, and to be a kind person in life.
All the methods of practice taught by Taoism are not separated from the four words "being kind to people". Because in the Taoist teaching system, "goodness" is not only to enable us to cultivate a good attitude and good interpersonal relationships, but also to the amount of blessings that we can receive in the future and for our descendants. This point is often called "cause and effect" in the world, that is, the so-called idea of good and evil retribution for good and evil for good and evil for good and evil retribution. Based on the uniqueness of Chinese agricultural civilization, Taoism extended this idea in blood relations, thus giving birth to the concept of "bearing burden", and using the image of "the predecessor planted the tree, the descendant took the coolness" as the image explanation, pointing out that all the good causes we do today are planting trees for future generations; All the blessings we enjoy today benefit from the merits that our parents and grandparents have accumulated through hard work. Conversely, if our ancestors are evil, then we will also be implicated in the consequences of evil; If we do not do good deeds in this life, it will inevitably bring great adverse effects to our children and grandchildren.
In the concept of burden, people are no longer individual individuals, and each person's thoughts are inextricably linked with relatives in blood relations and relatives and friends in social relations. Under the premise of fully borrowing the binding force of social morality and the natural attributes of love inherent in human beings, persuading others to be kind has become one of the main contents strongly advocated in traditional Chinese culture. As a religion that guides people to pursue truth, goodness and beauty, Taoism admonishes people through faith and indoctrination that good can be blessed and rewarded, that being good is the basic prerequisite for ascending the truth, that being good is a necessary way to live in the world, and that being good is the inevitable way for personal cultivation.
Under this premise, the heavenly saints were really afraid of the foolishness of the world, so they handed down many exhortation texts to educate; Knowing that it is easy for sentient beings to do what is easy and difficult to do, they make "meritorious qualities" that can clearly record today's good words and evil deeds, and teach people to reflect in time in the dead of night on what they have done today, whether it is good or evil, and when they must check out each item on the "meritorious qualities", so that they can understand whether they have accumulated blessings or evil consequences for themselves. This is not only a matter that requires believers and practitioners to maintain a clear mind, but if someone has made their hearts and wants to remember more work and write less, then there will be a god who has secretly recorded this matter, and when it comes to the examination of the heavenly court or the earthly prefecture, not only must the person's original merits be completely reviewed, but also the fact that he cannot record truthfully is also counted, and the final reward and punishment are made together.
In these examinations of the strict law of good and evil, if people can listen to the teachings of Tianzun and devote themselves to goodness, they will be blessed for a long time.
The above actually leads to a very important practice content in Taoism, that is, "yin", or "yin virtue", which refers to whether you can still do good things and do good deeds when outsiders can't see it. (Note: The word "yin" here cannot be written as "yin".) Yin, which means "only meritorious things that you know and do not let others know"; Yin owl has the meaning of "vicious and insidious". One word difference, a thousand miles of fallacy. ）
Taoism takes the theory of yin and yang as the basis of legislative preaching. The ancestor understood that everyone in the world loves face, so he also paid attention to education. Those who will do evil in the open and disturb others will not only be intolerated by the moral order of society, but also the laws of the human world will severely punish the matter. If someone will sell his reputation in the name of "goodness", he is clearly a "great benevolent person", but his private part is seeking his own selfish interests. Such a person cannot be called "good."
The real test of whether a person has faith and practice is whether he can still be free from nausea, evil thoughts, and evil deeds when he is alone, that is, in the dark and shadowy places that no one knows. If he can, then all his good words and good deeds at this time are called "yin", and the scripture reads, "Spread the yin and go up to the firmament", which means that if you can still silently do good deeds when you are alone, in a place that others do not know, and do not deliberately ask for this matter to be known by others, then you will definitely be able to sense the heavens and bring down blessings.
Some people may take this opportunity to ask, is talking about "yin" and "yin virtue" to emphasize that doing good things in private secretly does not need to be known to others? To answer this question, we must first clarify the interpretation of the two levels of "yin" and "yin" spoken of by Taoism:
First, when others do not know and where they cannot see, they can still generate the idea of being kind to others from their hearts, and out of compassion, they can spread the world's feelings. Do not want the good deeds you have done to be praised, but only for one of your good thoughts to save one more living being. This goodness is for true goodness.
Second, the "yin" of yin, under the premise that the former is not known to others, actually emphasizes more on not violating one's own heart. To this end, if we add a layer of religious orientation, it is to emphasize not to deceive the gods who are secretly watching, so as to truly achieve the main purpose of the practice of unity of knowledge and action, and the unity of body and mind.
Being able to do the above two points is actually the practice of all words being good words and all deeds being good deeds. At this time, whether it is words and deeds done in the light or in the dark, it is the cause of good people and self-benevolence, and naturally there will be no question of whether good deeds should be known. Because, how to do it, is our own practice; How others see it is the practice of others. Practice is in oneself, cause and effect are in heaven. Whether it is yin or clear is just a difference in education, but there should be no difference in practice. Moreover, if you repair yourself, you will naturally not be ignorant and not afraid of the cause and effect of the world.
(The author of this article: Gao Jing, Daoyin Culture original article, please indicate the author and source for reprinting)