The Tinted Glasses of Prejudice

One afternoon at a small temple, golden sunlight spread across the brick courtyard while a bell chimed softly in the wind. A middle-aged man sat beneath a bodhi tree, fanning himself with a paper fan, his gaze drifting into the distance. He had just been through something that had softened his heart. Before him, a young man with a troubled face sat down beside him and spoke in a low, sorrowful voice:

"Teacher, there is something I would like to ask you."

The man nodded, looking at the young man with kind eyes. The young man took a deep breath and continued:

"I heard people speaking badly of you, saying you are greedy and deceive Buddhist followers. I know it isn't true, but… why don't you say anything? Why don't you defend yourself?"

The man smiled, recalling the motto he had long held in his heart: "When wronged, there is no need to explain, for explaining is cowardice, while seeking revenge only prolongs resentment." He had kept this principle for many years, remaining silent in the face of every slander. He replied:

"I believe that a practitioner should not cling to matters of winning and losing. Silence is golden, my child."

The young man lowered his head, silent for a moment, then looked up with steady eyes:

"Teacher, I question that teaching. It was because of your silence that my family lost their faith in the Buddha's teachings (Dharma). They heard people speak ill of you, and since you said nothing, they believed it was true. If you had spoken up boldly at that moment, my family's faith would have remained firm. Teacher, I think silence is not always right."

The man froze. The young man's words were like a bucket of cold water splashed upon his mind. He suddenly remembered the Kalama Sutta, in which the Buddha taught: "Do not believe something merely because it is widely circulated, nor out of reverence for a teacher." He had once considered the saying "when wronged, do not explain" to be an unchanging truth, but now he realized that in certain circumstances, silence can cause harm. Looking at the young man with tearful eyes, he said:

"You are right. I was bound by my own prejudice. I always thought silence was noble, yet I unknowingly wounded the trust of others."

From that day on, the man began training himself to see life with a more objective eye. He learned to listen, to weigh many perspectives, and not to rush to conclusions. He realized that each of us wears our own pair of tinted glasses, and unless we remove them, we will forever see the world through the lens of our own subjectivity.

Many years later, that man often told this story to his disciples, reminding them: always be humble, dare to doubt your own judgments, and open your heart with compassion so that personal likes and dislikes do not cloud your vision. For only by freeing ourselves from prejudice can we draw closer to what is right, and closer to the truth.

## The Meaning of the Story

This story teaches us that subjective judgments arising from prejudice, resentment, or personal favoritism lead us into misunderstanding and create karma. To see objectively, we must practice humility, dare to question ourselves, and nurture compassion in order to rise above every bias. Only then can we see things as they truly are.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang.