Once Jesus was speaking in
public, and suddenly many
so-called reputed, intellectual
and learned people came with
some highly esteemed people in
the church, like priests, for
example. They dragged behind
them a woman who had committed
adultery. At that time, any
woman who committed adultery had
to be stoned to death. There
were about three ways of
executing sinners at that time:
one was to stone them, another
was to throw them into the
lion's cage, and the other was
to crucify them. Jesus was
crucified, but this woman was
supposed to be stoned to death.
Those honorable men challenged
Jesus by asking, "According to
Moses' laws, this woman should
be stoned to death. What do you
think?" Jesus said nothing, just
wrote on the sand with His
finger, "A group of liars."
Those people kept pushing Him,
so He finally said, "Any of you
who has not sinned and who
considers himself the purest and
holiest may cast the first
stone." Upon hearing this,
everyone slipped away silently
and quickly. (Master and the
audience laugh.) At last, Jesus
was left alone with the woman
who had sinned. He asked her,
"Where are your accusers? Has no
man condemned you?"
She replied, "No man."
And Jesus said to her, "Neither
do I want to condemn you. You
may go home now." (Master
sighs.) This story reminds us of
something. There is no one in
this world who has not sinned.
Besides, whether one has sinned
or not depends on the situation,
background and your level of
enlightenment. The so-called
morality and ethics of this
world are different from what
real saints perceive. Those who
have attained the highest level
of enlightenment see no such
things. They do not even imagine
or think about these words. I
don't know how I can describe
this level to you.
When you first begin spiritual
practice, you see the difference
between good and bad. But the
distinction gradually fades away
as you practice more. This is
very strange and hard to explain
to other people, but you just
know it. And you won't think so
much about what is good or bad,
except when you teach your
disciples because they are at
those levels that you have to
explain to them in those terms.
Otherwise, you don't really want
to talk about such things, and
nothing really matters to you,
because you have a different
point of view.
You look from the top down and
become very tolerant, like
seeing a movie. You won't be
scolding the bad guy angrily,
because you know he is only
playing his role. And you won't
be praising the good guy
profusely, because you know he
is playing his role, too.
What we call good or bad in a
person is the habit or the
behavior, not the soul in that
person. Our souls can realize a
lot of things, but I can't name
them all; and they are hard to
describe, although I know them
very well. Regarding the
so-called very serious crimes in
our society, I have a different
point of view, but I can't tell
you every detail. Many people
would not understand, and I
could not put it very clearly
either.
That's why I told you to
meditate every day, and then you
will realize it on your own. I
just gave you an overview to
direct your spiritual
realization. As you go further,
you will gradually understand
why I said we would not
discriminate between good and
bad when we have had more
results from spiritual practice.
When we are free from this
discrimination, 
we will forgive
our enemies easily, and then we
will not be very angry about
those who hurt us. We will
forget about the whole thing
very quickly and will not feel
so bad. Even if we do feel bad,
it will be for those people
instead of for ourselves.
