If due to our work we have to be with the fools who like to lead us to do bad things, ex. drinking alcohol, what shall we do?

Question:
Dear venerable, if due to our work we have to be with the fools who like to lead us to do bad things, ex. drinking alcohol, what shall we do?

  

Answer
by Venerable Dhattajeevo Bhikku 

First of all, we have to understand that we cannot avoid meeting foolish people in societies, but we have to realize that there are 2 kinds of foolish people.

 
1. Permanently foolish—It means the people who normally have bad thoughts, bad speech and bad actions, ex. normally corrupt, normally take drugs.

But there is another kind of the fools, i.e. temporally foolish people. They are foolish because they are off their guard like when they lost their temper. But when they feel better, they will have good thoughts, good speech and good action again. Actually, even we are in this kind. There is a monkish word “Kalayanapala” for these kind of people means the bearable fools. This kind of people can be improved. This is the second group in societies. We might be in this group.

 
What can we do then since there are both in the same work place? This is kind of difficult to deal with. However, we have to find a solution to save ourselves. The main thing is we have to save ourselves from sin, the hell and being one of the permanent fools since we have enough foolishness in our heart that needs to be improved.

 
From the beginning, we have to look at the temporally fools. As I told you, people have a good chance to do good and bad deeds alternatively, and their faults are not that bad. We can see many people like this in offices and societies, and we cannot just leave them alone. What shall we do then? Since we have to be together and work together, we have to think of their good things and use them for our works.

 
While working, we can use the skill that they have, but after work we don’t have to be with them because they might ask us to drink alcohol. We should take their good things for the work, and avoid being with their bad things. It’s the basic action we can do in case that they are not too bad.

 
But for the permanent fools in the same office, especially, if they are our own bosses, we cannot avoid meeting them. Well…it’s our misfortune. In our past lives, we might have been permanent fools just like them, but luckily we could improve ourselves, but they still cannot.

 
What shall we do then since we cannot just run away from these people? From our ancestor’s teaching, we have to act like the people holding over a fire in winter. How? In winter, we will get cold if we are away from a fire, but if we get too close to it, it will burn us; therefore, when we have to be with foolish bosses, we have to take rules and disciplines, both worldly and religious ones, as our defensives.

 
And then, if we have to work together, we have to accept it. But after work, we have to do our best to be away from them. Also we have to accept that it’s such our misfortune because we will not be progressive in our work because of these people, but at least, we are lucky not to go to the hell. Look at this point and think that we are paying back our deeds from our past lives.

 
But if we keep improving ourselves, one day our knowledge and ethics will grow. On that day, we can find a solution to improve these people. It’s good if it works; but if it doesn’t, but we have enough power, we can just fire them. If not, the whole place will be in trouble and be foolish just like them. That’s all we can do. At least, we have to be cautious to be away of the hell since we have to be with the permanent fools, and then we can count ourselves as lucky people full of merit.

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