society – you’d see the world as one big garbage dump and your-
self as pure solid gold. Such feelings of alienation are due to emo-
tional turmoil caused by your hypercritical attitude – which gives
you no peace. The wise have always condemned unjustified crit-
icism of others, saying it brings terrible moral consequences. So
why do you enjoy doing it with such a vengeance – and such
indifference to the painful consequences? I’m not the one who
suffers from your criticism – it is your own emotional health that’s
adversely affected. Such ill effects are quite obvious, so how can
you be unaware that your whole attitude is wrong? I’m fully cogni-
zant of everything you are thinking, and at the same time, I have
always forgiven you. You concentrate on doing terrible things that
consume your mind and ravage your heart as though you can’t get
enough of doing evil. Were your condition a disease, it would be
an untreatable one.
“I have been trying to change your mental attitude, just as I’ve
long been trying to help many other living beings. Human beings,
ghosts, devas, brahmas, yakkhas, and even great nãgas far more
powerful than yourself, have all accepted the truth of the Lord
Buddha’s teaching on kamma. None, except you, have angrily criti-
cized the value of Dhamma, which is revered throughout the world
systems. And you’re so peculiar that you won’t accept the truth of
anything at all. The only pleasure you take is in making deroga-
tory remarks and angrily censuring people who have done noth-
ing wrong. You devote yourself to these as though they were pro-
pitious actions. But the wise have never thought that such actions
foster peace and security. When you finally slough off the skin of
this ill-fated existence, you won’t encounter a pleasant, pain-free
existence, unaffected by the evil consequences of your actions.
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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