Don't do good, you won't get evil. Why good is answered with evil - a wise parable Why you receive evil omens for good
“When doing good, do it constantly! But the batteries are running low...
If you are a naturally kind person, then you are probably familiar with Golden Rule: “Don’t do good, you won’t get evil.” Unfortunately, it almost always works, but why does this happen? If this question has ever crossed your mind, then I strongly advise you to read this parable, in it you will find the answer, and most importantly, you will understand how to live with the injustice of the world.
One day, a young stranger knocked on the old sage’s door and, bursting into tears, told the old man her story.
“I don’t know how I can continue to live…” she said with trepidation in her voice. - All my life I treated people the way I would like them to treat me, I was sincere with them and opened my soul to them... Whenever possible, I tried to do good to everyone, without expecting anything in return, I helped as much as I could. I really did all this for free, but in return I received evil and ridicule. I’m hurt to the point of pain and I’m simply tired... I beg you, tell me, what should I do?
The sage listened patiently and then gave the girl advice:
“Strip naked and walk completely naked through the streets of the city,” the elder said calmly.
Sorry, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet... You’re probably crazy or joking! If I did this, I wouldn’t know what to expect from passers-by... Look, someone else will dishonor or abuse me...
The sage suddenly stood up, opened the door and put a mirror on the table.
You are ashamed to go out into the street naked, but for some reason you are not at all ashamed to walk through the world with your naked soul, wide open like this door. You let everyone in there if you feel like it. Your soul is a mirror, which is why we all see ourselves reflected in other people. Their soul is full of evil and vices - this is exactly the ugly picture they see when they look into your pure soul. They lack the strength and courage to admit that you are better than them and change. Unfortunately, this is the lot of only the truly brave...
What should I do? How can I change this situation if, in fact, nothing depends on me? - asked the beauty.
Come on, come with me, I’ll show you something... Look, this is my garden. For many years now I have been watering these flowers of unprecedented beauty and taking care of them. To be honest, I have never seen the buds of these flowers bloom. All I had to see were beautiful blooming flowers that beckon with their beauty and fragrant aroma.
Child, learn from nature. Look at these wonderful flowers and do as they do - open your heart to people carefully so that no one even notices. Open your soul good people. Get away from those who tear off your petals, throw them under your feet and trample on them. These weeds have not yet grown up to you, so you cannot help them in any way. They will only see an ugly reflection of themselves in you.
We often hear from people disappointed in life: “If you don’t do good, you won’t receive evil.” Why is everything like this? What offended those who think this way? We will examine in this article whether this aphorism is true.
Good and evil: absolute and relative concepts
It is difficult to deny that “Good” and “Evil” are categories, on the one hand, absolute (if we think about God and the devil), and on the other hand, relative (if we take into account the specific actions of people).
When a person reads fairy tales, he can easily distinguish evil from good. Besides the obvious, bad guys usually look the part. IN real life everything is more complicated: friends betray, wives leave, parents abandon (sometimes they simply ignore). In other words, distinguishing evil from good is not so easy, especially at first, when everything is good.
Imagine a boy meets a girl, then they get married, perhaps have children, and he (or she) leaves. The partner, left alone, sadly says: “Don’t do good - you won’t get evil.” Thus, he perceives the entire past married life as some of your own merit and as the kingdom of perfect goodness. But we know that husbands and wives don’t just run away from anyone, right?
You can't be grateful forever
People have selective memory: a person remembers well his merits and good deeds, but easily forgets about the evil that he causes to others. For example, a wife leaves her husband. He says: “Eh, don’t do good - you won’t receive evil.” The husband remembers well that he worked a lot for the benefit of the family, bought an apartment, a fur coat for his wife, but completely forgot that he did not pay any attention to her during this period, was often late at work on “non-work issues” and much more. These are all tricks of his memory, she decided to hide all this so as not to traumatize the psyche and not lower self-esteem.
The wife, in turn, can remember how she was playing around in the kitchen, around the house, and he didn’t even pay attention to it. Therefore, she can also say the phrase “do not do good - you will not receive evil” before leaving for someone else or simply leaving her husband.
The case described here could involve any couple: parents and children, friends.
Parents and children
Imagine authoritarian parents. They decide what the child should drink, eat, what to wear, where to go to school, who to be friends with, and then suddenly, when it’s time student life, their blessed child, breaking off the leash, arranges the end of the world for the parents. Parents can only say in bewilderment: “Don’t do good to people - you won’t get evil,” and cry bitterly. And the most interesting thing is that their tears will be completely sincere.
They didn’t understand that throughout their entire life they simply crippled the soul of their child, all the time telling him how to live, who to be friends with and what to wear, and now, when the child has gained courage and strength from the “symmetrical response,” his reaction seems to be the closest ancestors with cosmic injustice and the same amazing phenomenon as +40 in winter in Murmansk. But it turns out that everything happens for a reason.
Aleshkina's love: an extraordinary interpretation of the song
Everyone (or many) knows the song: “They say it’s ugly to take girls away from your friends...”. And all the suffering of the singer is because he does not want to lose either his friend or his beloved. He is afraid that Alyoshka will say: “If you don’t want to receive evil, don’t do good.”
The hero’s fears are justified, but here a choice must be made: either love or friendship. This is a very difficult and nasty, disgusting dilemma, but life is sometimes a very disgusting thing.
Seryozhka (let the singer be called that) and Alyoshka may have gone through fire, water, and copper pipes. One more than once pulled the other out of various troubles, but then Love (or just Lyuba) came, and that’s it - you need to make a fateful choice. A friend, if he is real, will understand and forgive. He just needs time.
Linguistic turn
We looked at various situations when the proverb “do no good - you will not receive evil” is used. Now the time has come to specifically indicate its meaning. As is easy to understand from the examples, this proverb is present in the dictionary of those people who consider themselves righteous and benefactors. They believe that they saturate the world exclusively with good, and either evil or nothing is returned to them.
In a sense, such people represent the type of modern Job who kneels with his hands and eyes turned to heaven and asks: “Why me, Lord? But why?" But in the course of our not too extensive research, we realized that it was just posture and poor memory. There are no righteous people. There are no completely kind people, there are people with bad memories and hard hearts when it comes to other people's suffering and problems.
M. M. Zhvanetsky and folk wisdom
Michal Mikhalych has a wonderful phrase: “The slave says: “They are to blame for the fact that I...”. A free person says: “It’s my fault that I...”.” Do you feel the difference? When we want to calm our conscience and convince ourselves and others of our own sinlessness, the saying “do not do good - you will not receive evil” comes to mind. If we suddenly become conscious and overly advanced Homo sapiens, then we use another aphorism, more suitable in this situation, for spiritual support. Perhaps something from the heritage of existential philosophical thought, if you are not satisfied with the work of Michal Mikhalych.
Why can’t you think as the proverb prescribes?
When we throw off responsibility for what is happening to us, then, on the one hand, we put on the costume of a victim, and on the other hand, we admit that we are just puppets in the hands of fate. Perhaps the last statement is true, but a person should not think so. This way of thinking irreparably harms the building of a harmonious life, which, even on earth, contrary to the opinion of bilious critics, is quite possible.
A person can arrange everything in the best manner only if he is ready to answer for every action he takes, regardless of whether it is true or false. This is the only way to come to the light. But you shouldn’t be afraid of pain, because only through suffering is the truth revealed. If the truths are important, they are like injections, very painful. Medicines are also nasty and nasty, but they help a person live and breathe, and life is a great gift. At least that's what some people think. If a person is not too sure that life is so wonderful, then medications allow him to at least watch some more films and read some more books, and, of course, work for the good of society.
You might think we've gone a little off topic, but we haven't. All this is included in the orbit of the topic “If you don’t do good, you won’t get evil: the meaning of the saying.” Folk aphorisms are like this: they awaken many associations, thoughts and feelings that must certainly be touched upon. All this must be discussed in a necessary way so that there is no understatement.
And finally. It is better to replace the saying “don’t do good - you won’t get evil” with something like: “if they treated me badly, then it was I and only I who made a mistake.” It is important to say here that such behavior has nothing to do with the Christian idea of two bruised cheeks. If you were treated meanly, then you must draw certain conclusions about the person who treated you badly, and correct your own shortcomings and shortcomings so that this never happens again forever and ever. Amen.
This happens to almost everyone, when you approach a person with an open heart, and in response he turns his back. People don’t want to see our good deeds, and if you want to sincerely help someone, they will even spit on your soul. At such moments we ask ourselves the question: “What am I to blame for? What did I do wrong? Why is this happening? You will find the answer in this instructive parable.
This happens to almost everyone, when you approach a person with an open heart, and in response he turns his back. People don’t want to see our good deeds, and if you want to sincerely help someone, they will even spit on your soul. At such moments we ask ourselves the question: “What am I to blame for? What did I do wrong? Why is this happening? You will find the answer in this instructive parable.
©Igor Morski
One day, a young stranger knocked on the old sage’s door and, bursting into tears, told the old man her story.
“I don’t know how I can continue to live…” she said with trepidation in her voice. - All my life I treated people the way I would like them to treat me, I was sincere with them and opened my soul to them... Whenever possible, I tried to do good to everyone, without expecting anything in return, I helped as much as I could. I really did it all for free, but in return she received evil and ridicule. I’m hurt to the point of pain and I’m simply tired... I beg you, tell me, what should I do?
The sage listened patiently and then gave the girl advice:
“Strip naked and walk completely naked through the streets of the city,” the elder said calmly.
Sorry, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet... You’re probably crazy or joking! If I did this, I wouldn’t know what to expect from passers-by... Look, someone else will dishonor or abuse me...
The sage suddenly stood up, opened the door and put a mirror on the table.
You're ashamed to go out naked, but for some reason... you are not at all ashamed to walk through the world with a naked soul, open like this door, wide open. You let everyone in there if you feel like it. Your soul is a mirror, which is why we all see ourselves reflected in other people.. Their soul is full of evil and vices - this is exactly the ugly picture they see when they look into your pure soul. They lack the strength and courage to admit that you are better than them and change. Unfortunately, this is the lot of only the truly brave...
What should I do? How can I change this situation if, in fact, nothing depends on me? - asked the beauty.
Come on, come with me, I’ll show you something... Look, this is my garden. For many years now I have been watering these flowers of unprecedented beauty and taking care of them. To be honest, I have never seen the buds of these flowers bloom. All I had to see were beautiful blooming flowers that beckon with their beauty and fragrant aroma.
Child, learn from nature. Look at these wonderful flowers and do as they do - open your heart to people carefully so that no one even notices. Open your soul to good people. Get away from those who tear off your petals, throw them under your feet and trample on them. These weeds are still They haven’t grown up to you, so you can’t help them in any way. They will only see an ugly reflection of themselves in you.. published
If this question has ever crossed your mind, then I strongly advise you to read this parable, in it you will find the answer, and most importantly, you will understand how to live with the injustice of the world.
One day, a young stranger knocked on the old sage’s door and, bursting into tears, told the old man her story.
“I don’t know how I can continue to live…” she said with trepidation in her voice. - All my life I treated people the way I would like them to treat me, I was sincere with them and opened my soul to them... Whenever possible, I tried to do good to everyone, without expecting anything in return, I helped as much as I could.
I really did all this for free, but in return I received evil and ridicule. I’m hurt to the point of pain and I’m simply tired... I beg you, tell me, what should I do?
The sage listened patiently and then gave the girl advice: “Strip naked and walk completely naked through the streets of the city,” the old man said calmly.
Sorry, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet... You’re probably crazy or joking! If I did this, I wouldn’t know what to expect from passers-by... Look, someone else will dishonor or abuse me...
The sage suddenly stood up, opened the door and put a mirror on the table. “You are ashamed to go out into the street naked, but for some reason you are not at all ashamed to walk through the world with your naked soul, wide open like this door.” You let everyone in there if you feel like it. Your soul is a mirror, which is why we all see ourselves reflected in other people.
Their soul is full of evil and vices - this is exactly the ugly picture they see when they look into your pure soul. They lack the strength and courage to admit that you are better than them and change. Unfortunately, this is the lot of only the truly brave...
What should I do? How can I change this situation if, in fact, nothing depends on me? - asked the beauty.
Come on, come with me, I’ll show you something... Look, this is my garden. For many years now I have been watering these flowers of unprecedented beauty and taking care of them. To be honest, I have never seen the buds of these flowers bloom. All I had to see were beautiful blooming flowers that beckon with their beauty and fragrant aroma.
Child, learn from nature. Look at these wonderful flowers and do as they do - open your heart to people carefully so that no one even notices. Open your soul to good people.
Get away from those who tear off your petals, throw them under your feet and trample on them. These weeds have not yet grown up to you, so you cannot help them in any way. They will only see an ugly reflection of themselves in you.
I’ll make a reservation right away - Gossip’s non-format, but still... “Today I met a friend of mine who, when asked: “How are you?”, began to complain about her life. She complained that she always helps people, relatives, but they do all sorts of dirty tricks She's really very a kind person. But today she said a phrase that I hear from many people: “If you don’t do good, you won’t receive evil!” But what about the law of reflection? What goes around comes around? After all, they say that evil comes back to you like a boomerang. The same goes for goodness - you do goodness, you help people, and goodness comes back to you in a larger amount. But what happens? Some say that you need to do less good, while others try to do good deeds every day. Who's right?!" “The road to HELL is paved with good deeds!”- Which in turn is explained by the fact that some people really just wanted to do something good, but it turned out completely wrong... It largely depends on the person himself - whether he does good with selfishness and reluctantly, or simply loves to help (in the good sense of the word)..." "It so happens that I work in women's team. And I only person who has a personal car. If they ask me for a favor, to give me a ride, or to take me with me along the way, I never refuse. One day, an employee asked me to come to the station at five in the morning, because she was meeting her boyfriend, and he was carrying a lot of things, because a taxi was too expensive. And you see, it’s free with me, “as a friend.” I refused and ended up on the “bad person” list. Now one of the employees asks to pick her up every morning from the bus stop on her way to work. She's always late and it bothers me. Go out in advance and adjust to her time, wait for her, and then rush to work faster so as not to be late together. I tactfully refused to transport her to her place of work in such a way. .... That's it...... I am public enemy number one. So I can’t understand, either the skis don’t work...or.....people are stupidly arrogant?????” People just want to do something at your expense:- do some work (oh, I have a lot to do, I won’t have time, oh my computer crashed, but I need to do a report, etc.). - borrow money, and a fairly large amount - give you a ride somewhere, buy something, put money on your phone - live with you (nowhere to live). Yes, don’t be surprised, this also happens - to borrow some thing, and quite personal one at that (clothing, accessories, mobile phone, etc.) "Do you want to have an enemy? Lend the man money!", this is also a folk experience. Have you come across such cases? A person sincerely wants to help another, responds to a request with his soul, does good, but as a result receives evil: he loses money and gains an enemy. And there are many such situations. It happens that you simply don’t want to offend a person and lend money or something else, and then: no person, no money. How to deal with this? Here are some tips: 1. Cultivate in yourself a healthy egoism, the habit of putting your interests first (especially in comparison with the interests of people who like to ride on others). 2. The ability to clearly say NO (and sometimes send the person if he doesn’t understand). 3. Self-love, the ability to value yourself (and understanding that you are the only one) and not allow yourself to be offended. 4. Explain clearly and clearly that you will not do someone else’s work (you also have a lot to do). 5. Ignore criticism addressed to you, stop communicating with such a person. 6. Always put your business first. 7. Try not to be led by others. 8. Try to avoid subtle “manipulators” and people who take up your precious time. 9. Never allow people to “take advantage” of your kindness. 10. Stand your ground, don’t give in. 11. Don't let people get on your neck. Well, and most importantly: you have one life, don’t waste time on “unnecessary” things, don’t waste your precious time and nerves...
