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Chapter Fourteen : Prospects 12
A person asked, “I believe that your teachings are not only appropriate for our times but are also the right dharma. However, since your order was founded only a short time ago, its roots are shallow. I wonder what will become of it in later generations?” The Founding Master said, “Since you say you already recognize this dharma to be the right dharma, you need not worry about whether it will expand in successive generations. Look! In this world, the act of stealing is considered an evil dharma, so countries try to eliminate it and societies reject it. However, its seed never disappears, but remains and keeps pestering us, because there are some groups who feel the need for even such a bad dharma. How much more would this be the case, then, for the right dharma of the human Way and justice that all people need? To give you one more example, when the people of this world manage their lives by making use of various goods and technologies, they are not using them for the sake of the inventors but in consideration of their own convenience. Hence, as long as something is convenient to someone, then no matter how much you tell him not to use it, he will naturally end up using it. In the same way, if any dharma brings benefit to the many people trusting in, and practicing it, then no matter how much you tell them not to believe in it, inevitably they will. And when there are many believers, wouldn’t this dharma also expand widely?”
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