Temptation is everywhere and everywhere: the temptation of fame and wealth, the temptation of money, the temptation of sex, the temptation of delicious food, and so on. In the face of temptation, it is abnormal to have no curiosity and heartbeat. The key lies in how you control yourself in the face of temptation.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Gong Yixiu, the minister of the State of Lu, was a man who was addicted to fish. After he was promoted to prime minister, many people from all over the state of Lu rushed to send fish to Gong Yixiu. However, Gong Yixiu turned his back and ordered the stewards not to accept it.
His younger brother saw that so many live fish selected from all over the world were returned. It was a pity, so he asked him: "My favorite fish is fish, but now I don't accept any of them." Why?"
Gong Yixiu said to his brother seriously: "It is precisely because I love fish that I don't accept the fish from these people."
"What do you think? Do the helpers like me and care for me? No. What they like is the power in the hands of the prime minister, hoping that this power can favor them, suppress others, and do things for them. There must be some injustice. If you do too much injustice, how can you hide it from others over time? Your position as prime minister will be removed by then. No matter how much I want to eat fish, they will not give it to me. Here I am. I don’t have the salary to buy fish anymore. If I don’t accept their fish now, I can only eat fish in the long run if I do things fairly.” , without any evil thoughts. However, the nobility and value of human beings lie in being good at using one's own reason to resist temptations when faced with external temptations.
There was a smuggler who, because of the intense police pursuit, had an idea and hid in a dilapidated church with all the smuggled goods. He asked the priest to allow him to hide the smuggled goods in the church attic. Of course, the devout priest immediately rejected the smuggler's request and told the man to leave immediately, otherwise he would call the police.
"I will give you a sum of money to repay your good deeds. What do you think of 200,000?" the smuggler begged.
The pastor said firmly: "No!"
"What about 500,000?" The smuggler reluctantly increased the amount.
The pastor still refused.
“How about 1 million?” the smuggler asked without giving up.
The pastor suddenly became furious and pushed the man out of the door: "Get out of here quickly. The price you offered is already close to the amount in my heart."
The story of the pastor’s refusal to bribe has profound enlightenment for us. Although the pastor is "closest to God", he is not a saint after all. He also has the idea of ??"greed" in his heart, but he puts a higher price on his morality than ordinary people! This pastor is respectable. When he saw that the price offered by the smugglers was approaching his own moral price, he decisively put an end to his greed and said "no" in the face of huge temptation. In the end, he kept his bottom line as a human being.
People must not be overwhelmed by temptation, otherwise, people will lose themselves. Once a person loses himself, he can no longer be called a "person". From this point of view, in the face of temptation, we should both take something and give up something, invest something and be self-sufficient, be enthusiastic and restrained, so that we can be surrounded by temptation. , clear mind, balanced mentality, and standardized behavior.
Temptation is inevitable. People who are "scheming" in doing things can use their inner qualities to resist temptation when faced with it, so they can successfully achieve their goals.