Vegetable Root Pavilion: Hypocritical Kindness and the Pursuit of Empty Fame, Far More Cruel Than Evil Itself
If the goodness of life is merely a hypocritical performance for gaining fame and reputation, then it is better to abandon doing good.
The value and significance of kindness is to solve others' suffering, and the root of kindness should be from the perspective of others to solve their pain, and if it is for one's own peace of mind, it is also for letting go of one's own evil thoughts.
There is also a most despicable kindness, which is to use kindness as a performance to gain fame and reputation.
In life, 'integrity' is what matters most. 'Integrity' on the surface is honesty and trustworthiness, and 'integrity' on a deeper level is the purity of one's inner heart.
All of life's disguises may deceive the world, but they can never deceive one's own inner self.
When you use hypocrisy to show yourself as a hypocrite to the world, believing that you can gain fame and benefit through it, 'hypocrisy' will drain your inner self and cause you pain.
Because the inherent meaning of kindness is to bring peace to one's inner heart, but when you put on a deceitful appearance to do kindness, the result is only to add pain to one's own heart.
Because without inner cultivation, obstacles cannot be removed, and the pain in one's heart remains, external hypocrisy not only cannot alleviate inner obstacles, but also increases inner entanglement.
If you lose the original meaning of kindness, why bother doing it?
During the Three Kingdoms period, in Tongxiang, Wu, there was a woman named Zhao Mu who married her daughter. Before the daughter left, Zhao Mu warned her daughter with these words: 'Be cautious when doing good deeds and accumulating virtue.'
The daughter asked her, 'Can you not do bad things if you cannot do good things?'
Zhao Mu replied, 'If you cannot do good things, how can you do bad things?'
Many people were particularly puzzled when they first heard this, not knowing why Zhao Mu discouraged her daughter from accumulating virtue and doing good deeds. In fact, Zhao Mu meant to make her daughter maintain a modest and unassuming attitude in the face of life.
Because in the world, many people use the guise of doing good deeds to gain fame and status, not for ulterior motives, but to fill the emptiness in their hearts and compensate for evil thoughts.
As stated in the *Tao Te Ching*:
Do not admire talented people and official positions, so that the people do not contend for fame and power; do not value rare and precious goods as valuable, so that the people do not do stealing; do not see tempting desires, so that the people's hearts do not become chaotic.
What we say today is to not let one's inner heart generate thoughts of seeking fame and status through false kindness, not to use deceitful thoughts to perform hypocritical lives, then one's own needs will naturally not need to put on false pretense.
A heart free from evil thoughts and false desires needs no deceitful thoughts to perform a hypocritical life.
There is a saying in *The Analects*: Doing evil makes you fear being seen, evil still has a way; doing good rushes to let people know, goodness is the root of evil.
Those who do bad things are afraid of being discovered, and even though they are doing evil, they still have a sense of goodness. Those who do good things and are eager to publicize them, they are only performing false kindness.
True kindness should be sincere in helping others overcome suffering and bring warmth and sunshine to society, rather than from one's own perspective, seeking personal gain and fame.
Even worse, some people use the banner of 'goodness' to do 'evil' things, pretending to do good deeds but actually causing harm to those involved. They may have done good deeds without considering the feelings of others, exposing the wounds of the victim, and humiliating them in public. This kind of 'doing good' is like killing, and it is even more cruel than doing evil.
True kindness is to sincerely educate others to overcome suffering and solve problems for others, not to perform hypocritically, instead of letting go of one's own falsehood and return a pure heart to oneself.
Written by: National Culture Bookstore
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