Follow the Crowd and You Will be Prone to Break the Rules

Xuefeng

Nov. 3, 2018

Everyone is like this, and so am I. This is a kind of vile psychology. If this psychology is put into practice, it will create unseen dangers for oneself, and one will be punished by it. Although in human society "the law does not blame the public", the mechanism of cause and effect, rewards and punishments, of the Tao, has always been "Divine punishments, though slow, are always sure." Therefore, we must guard our words and deeds against following the crowd.

On the morning of October 30, 2018, on my way driving back from Vancouver to the Canadian branch of The New Oasis for Life of Lifechanyuan, I was stopped by a police officer near a school in Coquitlam. The police asked me, "What is the speed limit here?" I replied: “30 kilometers." The police showed me the number on the speedometer, it read 46. The police told me: "You will receive a fine of 198 dollars." A just punishment! I am willing to be punished, because this punishment has corrected my consistent crowd mentality and behavior. I have traveled here more than a dozen times, and each time the speed of the vehicles in front of me and behind me is between 40 and 50. If I drive slowly, the vehicles behind me are following closely and it is tantamount to urging me to "drive faster", and seeing everyone driving faster than the specified speed, I am used to thinking it was normal for the speed to be between 40 and 50. Unexpectedly, in the eyes of the police, I made a mistake and must be punished.

Knowing that it is incorrect behavior, but seeing everyone else doing this, I did the same. This is the herd mentality.

Everything in the universe has been limited by norms, whether it is written or by convention, whether it is a heavenly rule or a moral ethic, things will always be restricted to a certain range, and there will always be certain standards for everything and every phenomenon to abide by. Lawlessness is definitely not allowed. We need to abide by the standards endowed by heaven and the laws of the world. However, because of the herd mentality, we give up the civilized requirements of observing the rules of heaven and the laws of the world. Even if we know that our behavior is wrong, we follow in the footsteps of the masses without restraint, just because everyone else is doing this. Thus, when we put our lives in the miserable, endless reincarnation of LIFE, it is hard to return to our hometown of heaven.

LIFE is divided into different levels. Different LIVES live under different laws. Insects, plants, animals, domestic animals, and people are different forms of LIVES, and their laws are also different. Humans should obey the laws of civilization. When we violate the laws of civilization and imitate the laws of behavior of the animal kingdom, we classify ourselves as animals. From this, it can be clearly deduced that the consequences of imitating animal behavior are that people must taste the bitterness of animals. The herd mentality and behavior are mostly the imitating of the laws of animals. A few dogs are chasing and biting a person. When other dogs see it, they will catch up to them and bite the person regardless of whether they are right or not. Similarly, if people do not ask the reasons for everything, and do not analyze whether it is right or wrong, and their psychology and behavior are influenced by the words and deeds of the masses, there is no doubt that their psychology and behavior are not fundamentally different from those of animals. From this we can see that the words and deeds of the herd mentality belong to the characteristics of lower-level LIFE. Once a person follows the crowd, his LIFE will continue to move towards the lower world.

I remember that in 2006, there was a looting incident in the Chitunguize area of Zimbabwe, where a local supermarket called OK was looted. Most of the people who participated in the looting were very honest and dutiful at ordinary times, but they were involved in the looting because they saw that other people were doing this. I had a local shop there, and I was nearby at that time and witnessed the looting process. I was shocked by the crowd behavior and felt how terrible people's herd behavior is.

In fact, herd behavior occurs frequently. The wave after wave of mass behavior in China are typical herd behaviors. Buying a car, buying a house, buying stocks, buying health care products, etc., all of which are the responses of the herd mentality. Judge-style, revolutionary-style posts are all acts of herd behaviors, and even the corruption of many officials is a reflection of the psychology of the herd mentality.

Disasters happen in a turbulent place. All intense events hide disasters, and intense events are caused by people's herd mentality. It can be said that most tragedies are the result of conformity.

It is easy for a person to follow the crowd when he has no direction and no goal to forge ahead with.

It is easy for a person to follow the crowd when he has not systematically received the teachings of gods, Buddha, Celestial Beings, and saints.

It is easy for a person to follow the crowd when he wants to achieve what he wants through speculation instead of through hard work.

It is easy for a person to follow the crowd when he is poor and sick and lacks faith.

It is easy for a person to follow the crowd when he does not have firm beliefs and always suffers setbacks.

Following the crowd is easy. On the surface, following the crowd is the safest. However, once you follow the crowd, the quality of your LIFE will decline; once you follow the crowd, you will plant hidden dangers in your own life, and especially the journey of your LIFE, maybe at your turning point, a police officer will show up and give you a fine.

"Divine punishments, though slow, are always sure. Big nets let nothing slip through." Everyone, one day, will bear the inevitable result of his words and deeds in the past. You cannot prevaricate it with the reason "everyone is like this, so am I". In front of the Tao, each person is separate. In the human world "The law does not punish numerous offenders", but in the Tao, the law will punish the crowd, and individual.

How to avoid herd behavior?

Let's use the teachings of Lao Tzu! “The vulgar are knowing, luminous; I alone am dull, confused. The vulgar are clever, self-assured; I alone, am depressed”.