Chapter Thirteen: On the Order 29

The order’s farming department, with the support of county officials, was raising chickens, when one day the water heater in the chicken coop exploded because of negligence and many chicks were killed. The member in charge was extremely shocked and immediately reported the incident to the county officials. The supervisor in charge at the county office heard the story and said, “In the future, if you wish to succeed in raising chickens, you must be prepared for greater failures than this. To raise large numbers of chickens, there will be just as many chances for unexpected calamities and accidents that would bring losses, as there will be methods of saving them. If you do not experience such failure while the scale of the operation is small, then you may not be able to avoid greater failures when it is larger. Therefore, today’s minor loss will become a living experience for stopping greater losses in the future. So do not be disappointed but try harder.” The member in charge returned and reported the incident to the Founding Master, who said, “The supervisor’s words are a dharma instruction. An old saying goes, ‘No experience, no wisdom,’ so this small failure will become a great guide for future success. And how can this pertain only to raising chickens? In proceeding with our order’s practice and enterprises, we must evaluate the causes for success and failure by not taking either success or failure casually. By observing closely the experiences of other religious groups, we must keep track of how they come to be accepted or rejected by the world, and examine how they create a good history for themselves and end up transmitting a good reputation for a thousand years or how they leave a bad reputation and end up creating an unpleasant history for a long time. If, doing this, we always proceed only on the right road by enlightening ourselves again and again and rectifying ourselves again and again, then no matter what individual, family, society, or nation it might be, we will benefit everyone we encounter and our order will become an exemplary religious group warmly received by all. If, without such reflection, we proceed with little concern, then ultimately all kinds of mistakes will arise and we will not be accepted in the world. How can we not but be careful about this?”