March 18, 2023

Patriotism creates barriers and binary oppositions and thus limits the thinking and creation of human beings.


 Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 


I remember that when I was a little girl, we were instilled the ideology of patriotism at the elementary school, and at any time we were preparing for fighting with the enemy since we are in the martial law. Even the thought of Buddhism, it would be regarded as the violation of the ideology of patriotism. Why?

 

As I have mentioned, there is no enemy in the nature of Emptiness. In the body of Emptiness, there is no object, things, binary opposition, even any ideology. To have the ideology of patriotism is meant to be loyal to the country, and which is regarded as the right thought. However, in fact, the ideology of patriotism is to increase the hatred to the enemy. What so called "the enemy" which is always means that the person who disagrees with our ideology. So, the ideology of patriotism is hidden the binary opposition.

 

Such as ideology of binary opposition would make people narrow their mind and limit their thought and creation. In the history, I have found that a lot of people were instigated by the ideology of patriotism or the other, and were thus killed in the war. A lot of soldiers were illiteracy, and they might have force and courage, but were lack of brain. They were easy to be fooled by any ideology. If we go into the path of Buddha, the war is impossible to be existed, and people could not die innocently.

 

Secondly, the ideology of patriotism is to draw a line in our heart, to differentiate any persons and any things, which would increase the conflict and argument from person to person, and would increase the fighting from country to country. So, if human beings own the intelligence and wisdom enough, the ideology of patriotism or nationalism should be removed. All people in the world are equal to each other. It is better to destroy the intangible line of one country and the other country.

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