Why wide learning and extensive researching are difficult for us?

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

There are two main reasons. One is coming from own mind. The other is coming from the control and restrain from the outside, such as family, government or the religion.

 

According to my personal observation from the world, there is more than half of the population in the world, whose thought or mind is controlled and restrained by their family, government or religion. Under the circumstance, it is really difficult for them to do the wide learning and extensive researching. And they also have no self-perceiving that their mind is shortage and narrow.

 

In the year of 1988, when I am 17 years old, Taiwan goes into the free and democratic society, and thus opens the publishing industry and the freedom of comment. In other words, before that time, I have experienced that our thought and mind is controlled and restrained by the government.

 

Even though, we have the freedom to choose our belief in religion, however, the relative books, magazines, articles or videos are few. Therefore, in that time, we have misunderstood the Buddhism a lot and have shortage knowledge about Buddhism.

 

Secondly, some of what I have learned about the history from the school is different from the fact. A lot of fact is gradually disclosed in the society of democracy and freedom. Then, I went back to understand the historical background of Taiwan, where are many scars, most people choose to be tolerant and forgiving, however, unfortunately, there are still a few people who choose to be hatred.

 

After the year of 1988, we also have a lot of chance to know the world, due to the freedom of information flow. I have found that there are a lot of countries also have the similar scars as Taiwan. That is the scourge of war.

 

The Buddhism flourish in Taiwan is since 1988, because most people finally have chance to know it from the free medium. But, unfortunately, there is still many countries reject it in the world and try to conceal the people. In a word, that is why learning widely and researching extensively about Buddhism are difficult, let alone the other knowledge, such as the history.  

Those play with party politics, their retributions are in the three evil ways.

Author: Tao Qing Hsu 

In this world, we don't understand why some people's values and ideologies of right and wrong are different from ours. Their reactions, opinions and handling attitudes to some things are also different from ours. Due to the difference between values and ideologies of right and wrong, their positions, opinions, attitudes, and ways of dealing with things are also different from others, so they show a state of resistance and opposition to others. This is not only present in our daily lives, but also in domestic and international political events.

Some people cannot distinguish between good and evil, and lack the ability to think independently. They are often easily deceived by any words and opinions which seem plausible and powerful. Unfortunately, this actually appears in the current party politics, not only domestically but also internationally.

Of course, everyone wants to use some words to wrap up their inner desires and ambitions. However, it is too far-fetched and implausible to enforce legislation to force others to comply with their selfish desires, ideology, and attempts. Even the Buddha did not dare to do so. The Buddha clearly understands that for selfish purposes, it must be a cause of evil, and it will go towards the evil results, and the evil will necessarily happen to itself. The Buddha did not dare to say: if you don’t believe in Buddha, you don’t believe in Buddhism and you don’t convert to Buddhism, then you are a sinner, you are foul, you should go to hell, or you should die. The Buddha never said that.

All the Buddha’s words emphasize some important points, that is, any cause created by the individual, which is the action of this initial thought, plus various opportunities, it will present a result, and this result will eventually form a retribution, reward in itself. Therefore, whether this initial thought is selfless or selfish, pure or evil, and the opportunity for process development, will lead to the final result to affect whether the result is good or evil. All this has nothing to do with whether you believe in Buddhism or not. Because, that initial thought depends on you, not Buddha or Buddhism. This is what the Buddha wants to make all beings understand.

Some people’s ideas are strongly influenced by binary opposition, strongly influenced by certain ideologies, and strongly obsessed with self-right and others wrong, and resolutely take this as a yes, even if they are unscrupulous and cocooning, they must achieve this goal. These ideologies are very ridiculous to the Buddha. Why? The Buddha revealed it in the Heart Sutra: without eyes, ears, noses, tongues, body and conscious; without the realm of eyes and even without of the realm of conscious. Did you see? Without the realm of conscious. Since there is no realm of conscious, what are these people clinging to? In the eyes of the Buddha, the attachment to any ideology is ultimately empty. Because it will inevitably go through the process of "generate, dwell, change, eliminate; form, dwell, destroy, empty." And the process is only the difference in length of time. In other words, no matter what ideology we are attached to, we are self-limiting. Only in an empty state can one be infinite and flexible.

In the Buddha's teachings, he did not use our current nouns, such as dictatorship, autocracy, democracy, civil rights, human rights, etc. These nouns are all only found after the opening of modern human thought. In the eyes of the Buddha, these are just the changes of the name and the concept. The concept of the name is empty. When we understand this essence, we can further understand that some people may commit evil in the name of democracy. Or some people may seem to do evil in the form of authoritarian dictatorship. In fact, they achieve substantive good deeds. Therefore, the term “democracy” does not necessarily mean good, and the term “autocracy” does not necessarily mean evil. Seeing all this from the perspective of emptiness, the Buddha will not be kidnapped by the concept of duality and any concept of nouns.

When we understand the Buddha’s instructions and use it as a basis, we observe the political situation at home and abroad, and we will find that some people may seem to do good in the name of party politics and the ideology they admire. They seem to be thinking for the people, as if standing on the side of justice. In fact, they have their own selfish interests behind them. They played with party politics and deliberately provoked mass opposition to achieve their selfish interests. It is a pity that they do not understand, to play with party politics, to deceive the masses, to disrespect all living beings, and their results will be in the three evil ways. To understand this, we must be careful about what we do and observe carefully to avoid being deceived by such party politics, but also to avoid being led into evil destiny and results by such party politics.