Loyalty Is An Old-Fashioned Word -- The Nature Of The Sacred Ring of Lotus Loyalty

Loyalty is an old-fashioned word.

It is a word so unbelievable, to the extent of unimaginable, that we avoid mentioning it, so we keep it away from our memory, pretending it is a word applicable only to our pet dogs and some old religious classics.

Yesterday, however, Lotus On Water ｜ 云龙子旺财馆 gave away an emblem that rewards loyalty. We call it "The Sacred Ring of Lotus Loyalty 圣荷金环". It is a 10g ring made of pure gold (24 carat), hung by a 20g necklace also made of pure gold.
 

We give it to staff who have worked full time with us for more than three years, regardless of any rank and whatsoever tasks the bearer of the rings perform. Every three years, we add another ring onto the necklace. On the tenth year, we will change the 10g gold necklace to a 100g gold necklace.

The person who wears the ring over his neck is called "The Bearer of the Sacred Ring 圣环金刚" (literary translated to mean the heavenly king that bear the sacred ring).

In years to come, there will be more bearers of rings. There will be bearers of a single ring, bearers of double rings...triple rings, quadruples rings and so on...

The bigger the number of rings, the longer the bearer has spent his years with us. They become the elders of our institution. They deserve our respect and gratitude, no matter what kind of jobs and duties they do and bear. Managing, training, tea serving, cleaning, selling...there is no hierarchy when it comes to the sacred ground of loyalty.

One of the two new recipients of the Sacred Ring yesterday is Mr Ying Loong Kan who is definitely familiar to many of us.

Kan joined us as an intern right after his national service when our gallery started in 2006. After half a year, he got a scholarship from the Ministry of Education to study in the very reputable Peking University in Beijing.

Four years later, he graduated as a top student in the Chinese faculty, competing with the other Chinese locals. He applied for master programme and he was given a place to do his masters at Columbia University in United States of America.

However, it was also around that time Lotus on Water faced her greatest challenge. We owed a debt of close to a million dollars and was going to be sued bankrupt.

How did it happened? It started when we served a client call Ms J, who is a boss of a public listed company.

When Ms J came to us, the share price of her company has dropped to 33 cents due to the financial crisis. After doing feng shui for her, the price went up to more than $2.30 in a couple of years.

Ms J proclaimed that she is very grateful to our help and thus constantly come to our gallery to make friends with our ex-staff, with our clients, and even media friends. I have never been a person who purposefully conceal secrets from others, and thus have never stopped her from doing so.

Slowly, Ms J revealed her true colour. First, she tried to persuade me to sell some fake agarwood. She told me that since I have gained so much trust from people, I could sell "anything" and people would still buy. I told her it has always worked the other way and it will always work the other way. I have never just sell "anything" and that's why the people trust me so much.

Then, she promised some of the ex-staff that if she was able to force me to sell Lotus on Water to her, she would give them shares. They would then be part of this new company that is a cash cow.

So powerful are the "promises" of Ms J. She has tickled the greed of many of our ex-staff, contractors, media friends and even some of my clients. And they all started a chained warfare against me altogether at around the same time. The warfare included purposefully not doing any sales, persuaded some capable staff to leave the company, writing poisonous news and articles against me, even suing me in court after a foul play...that time, we owed people a debt of a million dollars. And a few lawsuits waiting to settle in court. And constant harassment from the media. I needed at least another hand to tackle the enemies that came from different directions.

I never believed that I will ever fall just because the world is against me. I have became successful following the conviction and inspiration from heaven. And heaven alone shall decide my success or failure. And if heaven wills, even the multitude can be wiped out.

That was the time, following the inspiration I felt in my heart. I went to look for Kan while he was celebrating his graduation in China. I told him, there are thousands of master graduates in Columbia University or even Harvard University every year. But there is only one Lotus on Water in the world.

If he was to wait for another year, there would be no more Lotus on Water, not even to mention the post of an executive director. So Kan gave up pursuing his master degree and joined us that year, 2011 (his loyalty year commenced from 2011 onward). 
 

We almost restarted Lotus on Water again, with just a handful of us. The only assets we had was our faith and faithfulness. The rest was debt.

2012, we cleared the debts, and regained our reputation through our victory in court. Kan was given shares of the company and became a shareholder.

Kan was not promised shares when he was deciding if he should join us. For I cannot promise anything with heavy debt on our shoulders. But then, he received them. The strange thing is, the one who has promised shares has never delivered the promise till now.

But if wisdom is not blurred by greed and temptation of sweet words, one should have guessed. For one who has no faithfulness in repaying kindness to those one received grace, how could one fulfill promises of grace to those one who have received none?

Woe are those who have conspired with the evil ones for none of them live better than before.

And greater woe is she who have tempted them with sweet words. The shares of her company has recently fallen by close to 70 percent. 

There are few things in this world that money cannot buy. One of these few things is loyalty.  

When you have money to buy a house, you may sell it for a much higher price. You can pay someone money for a certain job based on the merit he gains. But someone else can pay a higher price for him to go against you. 

Loyalty, or the lack of loyalty, shows when it is washed against the wave of time.

 

The Sacred Ring of Lotus Loyalty is made of pure gold. Gold is almost the only metal that can withstand the test of time.

It rusts not in the breath of air, burns not through the heat of fire, dissolve never under the weight of water.

Gold remains, through the test of time.

Lotus on Water uses pure gold to pay our tribute to loyalty, which like gold, which has stood the test of time.

This is the nature of our Sacred Rings of Lotus Loyalty.

-- Master Yun Long Zi, 2 September 2016
(originally posted here: https://www.facebook.com/masteryunlongzi/posts/1114861661937146)