What sorts of problems are caused if one always uses a grateful or thankful method to assist others in doing things?

  When you do this, you will be happy to a certain level.  But, if you don’t have enough energy, you will be weakened because of this method.  The other people involved in the situation will not necessarily appreciate your actions. So, your energy exchanges with those people will be affected.  You won’t have true freedom because you are doing what you “ought” to do, and not what you want to do.  Prejudiced minds and social morality color other peoples’ perceptions of what you are doing.

    If, however, you are grateful or thankful to God, this action does not cause such a large problem.  God does not return the gratefulness, or reciprocate your actions.

   The concept of using a grateful or thankful method raises a big problem which practitioners of Tao encounter: We want to overcome our self (that is, our ego), but we also want people to remember our compassion and our mercy.  This expectation locks us up so we can’t open up our life and fortune.  It’s difficult to use compassion on a daily basis because in doing so, you easily move your mind.  Also, keep in mind that when you use compassion, you also have the opposite emotion (hate) as well as other heavy emotions.  We may feel that through our practice, we have a lot of wisdom and we are entitled to decide right and wrong, but this is an illusion.  We don’t have real wisdom yet.

Chi Kung Culture Society of TAIPEI