Patterns and Endings

Xuefeng

June 8, 2020

A pan is a pattern and a pancake is an ending; the size of the pan determines the size of the pancake. A puddle of water is a pattern and the fish in it are an ending; the depth and width of the water decides the size and quantity of the fish. Space is a pattern; if it is small, then it can only hold a grain of sand; if it is vast, then it can hold the sun, the moon, the earth, and all the stars and galaxies.

If a shepherd is jealous of another shepherd who has more sheep than he does, then he will never be more than a shepherd. If a beggar is jealous of another beggar who begs more successfully and gets more food than he does every day, then he will never be more than a beggar. If a monkey is jealous of another monkey whose butt is redder than his own, then he will never be more than a monkey.

We find that people who compare themselves to and are jealous of their peers have small patterns. They will always be what they are now because they cannot go beyond themselves. If a person is always comparing themselves with others, then they certainly cannot become a celestial, a Buddha, or a god, because their pattern is that of a human, not that of any of the other three; that is, their pot is the human pot, not the celestial or Buddha pot, so they cannot bake their bigger cakes.

A dog who is idle all day except to catch mice has the pattern of a cat and can become one; a wealthy landowner who looks down on the poor has the pattern of a rich man but cannot become a gentleman; a beautiful woman who satirizes people whose appearances are not as good as hers is physically beautiful but she has the pattern of a thorny vase and cannot become a lady.

It can be seen from this that those who look down upon and attack people who are less advantaged than they are, generally have very small patterns; therefore, those who look down upon and bully beggars and peasants in this world have small patterns and small futures. Those who challenge lions and those who challenge mice have different patterns and different endings. Those who challenge an emperor may become an emperor but those who challenge a beggar can only become a beggar.

There is an old saying that “peers are enemies”; in fact, those who regard peers as “enemies” do so because their patterns are small. The competition between peers is the cruelest in market competition. Sheep are not satisfied with goats’ farting, but they are all sheep and they are peers! Yesterday, as I browsed videos on the web, a famous internet figure whom I respected because he had produced several hundred high quality videos, had attacked another well-known videographer who had produced similar content. He said that the other guy was a liar and this collapsed my respect for him in an instant because he revealed that his pattern was smaller than I had expected. Those with such small patterns cannot let others live and work in peace and cannot let the world be clear and bright.

From this, I found a revelation; those who always praise and inspire others are people with big patterns but those who always suppress and attempt to destroy others are people with small ones. Those who have really big patterns acknowledge and praise their opponents and those who praise their enemies have limitless patterns.

We can thus infer these conclusions: those who have bad relationships with their colleagues have small patterns, as do those who belittle others, attack their peers, bully people who are weaker than they are, contend for profit among relatives and friends, like internal strife, and those who like to show off.

People with big patterns can endure humiliation on important tasks. A famous example is Han Xin who was humiliated by being forced to crawl between other men’s legs. To avoid wasting time and energy by bothering with those street thugs, he chose to endure crawling between their legs. Goujian, the king of the Yue kingdom, sleeping on the brushwood and tasting the gall, sent his wife to King Wu’s bed, and even tasted King Wu’s feces. Pu Songling, the author of “Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio”, who was repeatedly frustrated but never depressed, once composed a pair of couplets: “Where there is a will, there is a way, after burning one's Bridges, the 120 Qin Passes finally belonged to Chu” and “Heaven does not fail people who exert efforts, sleeping on the brushwood and tasting the gall, three thousand Yue soldiers conquered the Wu Kingdom”. We can see that his pattern was huge.

If you were walking along a road and someone hit you, what would you do? People with small patterns would immediately scold, “Are you blind?”, but those with large patterns would just smile and say: “I’m sorry, please forgive me for being in your way”. People with big patterns will have good endings; the bigger their pattern, the better their ending. With a small pattern, you can only march in place, or even retreat.

Do you want to be a Celestial Being? Then do not compare yourselves to others, do not make a fuss with others, and do not compete with others.