NIPPING OUR BAD HABITS IN THE BUD
Master Jun Hong Lu: Once, there was a boy and in his very first attempted theft, he got away with a needle. Thinking that it was just an insignificant loot, his mother brushed it aside and failed to reprimand the boy. This motivated him to continue with his ‘quest’, perpetuating him to commit more thefts into his adulthood. Eventually, he was sentenced to death for robbing a bank.
At the execution ground, right in front of his mother, he broke down in tears and said, “If only you had sternly punished me on my very first theft attempt, this day would not have befallen me.” This applies to Buddhist practitioners like us, we must take each Buddhist precept to heart and strictly adhere to it. As your Master, I will sternly reprimand you as and when you violate the precepts so that you are awakened to the fact that these are not small matters but have a great bearing on your spiritual practice.
As the saying goes, “One tiny ant nest may spell disaster to a dike that spans thousands of miles.” This idiom essentially means overlooking a seemingly inconsequential shortcoming could have far-reaching consequences, as it evolves and develops into a huge karmic obstacle.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s World Buddhist Fellowship Meeting, Sydney, Australia, 26 January 2019
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