(Clearwisdom.net) Not long ago I participated in a game called "Rescue from Isolated Islands." The participants were split into three groups and assigned to three different "islands" that were over fifty yards apart. The group I was with was the only rescue group. The other two groups were people that needed to be rescued. My group was required to rescue people in those two groups within twenty minutes, otherwise, they would die. When the game started, the organizer gave everyone in my group a card listing the five assignments that we had to accomplish. There was also a warning, that if anyone in the group leaves the island, he will be taken away by an imaginary"torrent" to the other two islands.
Besides rescuing people on the two islands, the assignments also involved solving four difficult algebra problems. I could not figure out how solving math problems and rescuing people were connected. But, we were still required to solve math problems. My group decided to do the math problems first and we all started working on them. Time passed by quickly, and I became impatient. I said to the group, "Put down the math problems, let's rescue those people--time is running out!" One group member replied, "But we must also do the math problems!" so I had to force myself to work on the math problems again. After a little while, I felt that the situation was really wrong. My instinct told me that rescuing the people was our top priority, rather than finishing the math. I decided to rescue those people and I began to ready myself. When I was just about to jump into the "torrent," my group members alerted me, "Wait a second, we are almost done with the math problems!" Then a series of thoughts appeared in my mind. "None of the others have taken any action yet. Why should I be the first one to do it? Am I trying to show off? What if I break the rules of the game? I will lose face and everyone will laugh at me! It's better to wait and work with the group, not make any decisions alone, and not show off." Eventually my group solved the four algebra problems, but the time was up, and we did not rescue anyone from the other islands.
The organizer commented, "In fact, of all of the assignments on the list that I gave to you, you only needed to finish one, which was to rescue the people on the other two islands. In actuality, you didn't need to do those four algebra problems at all. This game was to teach each of you how to differentiate which are the most important assignments and which assignments aren't necessary, and to focus on the most important one. Let's think about it. Rescuing and saving a person's life is urgent and important! How could we have the time to do algebra problems? Have we been responsible? Where is our morality and sense of justice? You watched those people die and did nothing about it. Solving the math problems used up all of your time. Even if you did every math problem correctly, you did not accomplish the goal of rescuing the people. The main point of the game is saving people. It is totally fine for you to save the people first and do the math problems after. And it is absolutely all right if you did not do any math problems at all, because you would have already accomplished the goal of saving people. How could we be interfered with and tied up by other so called 'assignments?' The algebra problems were purposely added to interfere with your judgment, waste your time, slow you down, and eventually make you be unable to save the people. Unfortunately, you all focused on the math problems. A person's time and energy are very limited. In our daily lives, it is impossible for a person to handle everything, big and small, in a perfect way, or think over everything in detail. In such circumstances, you must always keep a clear head, be able to tell what is important and what is not, choose those valuable and important things to do first, and never lose your direction. Even if only one of you were to have jumped into the 'torrent' by yourself, all of the people would have been saved within a minute. But none of you displayed a courageous heart and noble personality, and you all wasted your precious time on solving those ridiculous math problems!"
Hearing the organizer's words, I felt extremely regretful and ashamed. The game hit me so hard that it was like facing a true circumstance. I had to keep reminding myself that it was just a game to ease my guilty feelings. But it was so much akin to our truth clarification efforts that we are doing every day that it was very difficult for me to take it lightly. I wished that time could be rewound, even just for one minute. In that one minute, all of the dead people would be brought back to life. But my fear of losing face caused the death of many people in the game. I sat very still, in agony and deep regret.
Fellow practitioners, if you are busy "solving algebra problems" or can't decide which is most important, "solving algebra problems" or clarifying the truth to save sentient beings, please learn from my lesson. Saving sentient beings is extremely urgent! Time does not wait for us, nor can it be rewound.
June 16, 2009