My grandma told me many puzzling Taoist stories when I was young; some of them took me a lifetime to understand. Here’s one of them.
A man from a small village took his handicrafts to sell in a distant town, passing a deep forest. A few days later, he returned home with a sack of treasures on his shoulder. Surprised, The family asked how he got so rich selling his crafts. He said that a tiger he saved gave those treasures to him.
He said he passed by a cave in the forest on his way back and heard s...
My grandma told me many puzzling Taoist stories when I was young; some of them took me a lifetime to understand. Here’s one of them.
A man from a small village took his handicrafts to sell in a distant town, passing a deep forest. A few days later, he returned home with a sack of treasures on his shoulder. Surprised, The family asked how he got so rich selling his crafts. He said that a tiger he saved gave those treasures to him.
He said he passed by a cave in the forest on his way back and heard someone groaning. He went inside the cave to check and saw a dying tiger with a big infected wound on his arm. He knew the tiger wouldn’t live without intervention.
Out of pity, he took out his first aid kit, treated the wound with the medicine he traveled with, and bandaged it carefully. The tiger was shaking with fever and pain, so he put his blanket on the tiger and slept in that cave, accompanying the tiger for the night.
The next day, the tiger recovered and thanked him by giving him a sack of treasures to take home. “That’s how I got these treasures,” he concluded.
His brother asked him about the location of the cave, and the next day, he went into the forest and looked for the cave. To his surprise, he heard a tiger groaning inside a cave. He was afraid to go in, unsure whether the tiger would harm him. But, remembering the treasures he could get, he went in cautiously.
Just as his brother said, he saw a wounded tiger. But the wound smelled so disgusting that he almost threw up. However, considering the reward, he reluctantly treated the tiger and stayed in the smelly cave for the night.
The next day, the tiger woke up, grabbed him, and ate him. (End of the story.)
As a child, I vaguely understood the meaning of this allegory. Both brothers saved the tiger’s life, but why did the tiger reward one brother and punish the other? The ancient people may not have known God, but they had discovered nature rewards sincere love.
The first brother’s love was transformational, but the second was transactional. One is unpretentious, but the other is pretentious. One serves without a motive, but the other has a motive. Most importantly, one’s love is unconscious, but the other is conscious. Only the unconscious love is the ultimate love. Confucious said,
“When one does evil deeds and fears recognition,
there’s a good seed in their evil heart.
When one does good deeds and desires recognition,
there’s an evil root in their good heart.” ~Confucius
Pharisees loved to do good deeds in front of people to show off their piety. Jesus repeatedly warned us against showing off our good deeds. Jesus doesn’t even want our left hand to know the charity done with our right hand. He said,
“But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mt 6:3–4).
Can you do that? It means you make a charitable contribution without a motive. The information from your right hand doesn’t even reach your brain to pass down to the left hand. That means you don’t dwell on your good deed, not even for a split second. It’s a sign of genuine love. Love doesn’t count the good deeds because it’s reflexive.
That’s how Jesus loves us. When he was hanging on the cross, he didn’t say see what I have done for you. Instead, he asked God to forgive us. Jesus’ love is pure, unconscious, and reflexive. That’s the ultimate love. There are four levels of love:
- Unconscious hatred
- Conscious hatred
- Conscious love
- Unconscious love
Some people have hatred without knowing. That’s the worst state of love. Some people reach the next level and become conscious of their evil. That’s better than unconscious hatred. Then, they consciously try to love. That’s good, but still not good enough. Then, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you become able to love unconsciously. When love becomes a reflex, you have the ultimate love.
Most importantly, Jesus said the single criterion of the final judgment is unconscious love. The only qualification for you to go to heaven is reflexive love—the kind of love that you do without doing.
Today, we will look at the scene of the final judgment as Jesus depicts it. You will find out it’s both simple and profound. In other words, Jesus reveals the question of our final exam. Will you pass the exam? Let’s find out!
