The Search For Truth
by Master Lee Feng San Shifu
Translated by Sophia Lui
Edited by Ric Meyers
Mencius once asked his students, “Both truth and life are very important. If you can only choose one, will you choose truth or life?”
This same question has been posed to my students. Some chose life while others chose truth. Someone even said, “If there is no life, truth does not matter at all. So of course, I choose life.” At first, this seemed to make sense, and some even chose both life and truth. However, if we cannot have both, what shall we do?
Mencius said that when one cannot have both, one should choose righteousness over life. That is to say, we would rather give up our lives for the sake of truth.
Imagine if people all over the world sought to save their lives at the expense of truth, then this world would become chaotic and all lives would perish as a result. If, however, each can be vigilant and work diligently to preserve truth at every step of the way, then everyone in this world will find life.
Whether the field of endeavor is mathematics, science or chemistry — and each have had spectacular advances —any achievement is no substitute for the search for truth. If we seek truth, we are able to put matters of life and death aside so that our minds are free. We then know what needs to be done, and we can make the right decision immediately.
There is a saying: “Decisiveness is the cornerstone of success, and hesitation is the prime cause for failure.” If we develop the ability to be decisive by letting truth guide us, we cannot go wrong. In this way, if we can turn big problems into small ones, and small problems into no problems at all, then we are on our way to success!
“Seek the truth; be decisive; turn big problems into small ones and small problems into no problems at all.” — Lee Feng San Shifu
