Liao-Fan: What is honest goodness and crooked goodness? People nowadays often look upon a conservative and nice person as a good and kind person. However, the ancient sages and saints have shown that they prefer those who are courageous and hold high goals for themselves.
Narrator: This is because those with courage and high goals are easier to teach and guide, and will someday reach accomplishment in life, while those who are overly careful and conservative will never amount to anything.
Liao-Fan: As for those who appear to be conservative and careful in their everyday actions, they may be liked by all, but because of their weak personality, they easily go along with everything, unable to think for themselves. Sages often speak of them as thieves of virtue. From this we can see that the viewpoint of common folk greatly differs from that of the saints and sages. [Narrator]: What common people may view as goodness, the saint in fact proclaims to be evil. What appears to be evil to the common people, the saint perceives as true kindness.
Liao-Fan: This applies to other matters as well. Heaven, earth, gods and spirits all look upon good and evil from the same viewpoint as the sages. The kind man finds himself rewarded for his kind deeds, and the wicked man suffers for his evil-doings. Whatever the sages perceive as right, they too see the same way. They do not view things from the same perspective as do commoners. Therefore, those who wish to accumulate merit must not be deceived and affected by the sights and sounds of the world, and should practice with a true and humble heart, not for the purpose of pleasing others and acquiring respect. One must protect one's heart from deviant and impure thoughts. inarratorl: Honest goodness comes from the thought to help all others, and crooked goodness arises from the thought of greed in wishing only to please people. In harboring love for others, this is being honest, and in harboring thoughts of hatred and jealousy, this is being crooked. Honest goodness is when one is respectful, and crookedness is when one acts without sincerity.
Liao-Fan: These should all be carefully differentiated.
Liao-Fan: What is hidden goodness and visible goodness?
Narrator: When one does something good and people know about it, it is called visible goodness. When one does something good and no one knows about it, it is called hidden virtue.
Liao-Fan: Those with hidden virtues will naturally be known by the heavens and will be rewarded. Those who practice visible goodness are known by people, and they enjoy fame. Fame itself is a fortune, but fame is not favored by heaven and earth, for heaven and earth do not like those who seek fame. We can see that those who have great fame but lack the virtues supporting it will eventually encounter some kind of unthinkable adversity.
A person who truly has not done any wrong but river, continues to be falsely accused by others will have descendants who will suddenly to become prosperous and successful. From this, we can see how important it is to know the minute differences between hidden and visible goodness. We cannot afford to mistake them!
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