I remember someone once told me: when you keep a cat, you have to remember to discipline it. Don’t let it develop bad habits—if it does something bad, you have to hit it. Spoiling it and pampering it the way you do? If it ever gets lost or ends up with someone else, and that person can’t stand it, they’ll just beat it to death. By indulging it, you’re the one hurting it.
At the time I thought: if I can keep this cat for its whole life and indulge it for its whole life, why would I let someone else take it in? Why would I let people hate it and torture it to death?
It’s like how people live. Someone gets bitten by a snake once, and not only are they afraid of a rope for ten years, they also go around forcing everyone else to be as wary as they are. But these things are different for everyone to begin with. The world each person can explore is limited, and others may never run into the difficulties you’ve faced. Just tell people your own stories of experience—there’s no need to force them into becoming you.
Whenever you spot shortcomings in someone else, look at yourself first. Because when people feel the pain, they’ll change on their own; if you still haven’t changed, it’s just that it doesn’t hurt enough yet. The person you truly need to care about is yourself! Let your heart dwell inside yourself.
Inspire people—don’t give them advice. I’ve met truly wise people, and they don’t judge what you do, nor do they hand you a solution to your problem. They just tell you stories to inspire you. Because they understand that everyone’s life is created by themselves. Judgment carries subjective emotion and is bound to be unfair; advice comes with suggestion, and if people follow it blindly, their life is no longer fully their own—it turns into something like copying someone’s homework; inspiration awakens a person’s confidence and wisdom and helps them create a unique life. The richer your life experience, the more stories you have to inspire others with.
Every one of us is like a frog at the bottom of a well, each seeing our own patch of sky through the mouth of the well. There’s wind and rain, thunder and lightning, clouds and clear skies; there are sun, moon, and stars, waxing and waning. When we share that patch of sky through conversation, we can piece together the skies we each see, to inspire more individuals—without forcing others to learn to adapt to your patch of sky.