We can't replace anyone to live their lives.

Author: Tao Qing Hsu 

There is a father who is very responsible for his small family. He is worried about his wife and children every day, for fear of not making enough money to provide them with a good material life. Therefore, he is very happy as long as he has work, because it means that he has income and can provide a good material life for his wife and children. He works diligently every day, just to make more money, to make the family rich, to let his son have a house and a car, so that this family can take a wife into the door, so that the son and wife can add grandchildren and joy to the family. The father also wanted to save and gather more money so that his daughter would have a large dowry and get married beautifully. Of course, he still needs to save enough retirement funds so that he and his wife will not worry in their later years, and will not cause a burden to their children.

All this makes him live in a dream of being a good husband and father, which can make him have a face among relatives and friends, saying that he is a good man who loves his family. However, as long as he has no work to do and no income, he feels anxious and very uneasy. Because of this, his heart is furious, and he always cares about everything with the native family. Not only as a father, but in a single-parent family, the mother makes money to support her family, just to save money and build a house for his son so that he can marry his wife. To this end, this mother will not hesitate to sacrifice her daughter, and will not hesitate to squeeze her daughter's labor and financial resources.

These parents worry about their children's hardships for their children's bright future. Not only do these obsessive parents work hard to make money and pay for their children’s tuition, but they also do not want their children to spend time to work, just to help them lay the foundation for their future career. In addition, the house also helps children buy well, so that they have more conditions to get married and start a family. These infatuated parents also hope that it is best to help them have children and raise them.

The wives and children living in such a worry-free environment have weak ability to make money and support their families. They have always depended on the powerful fathers and husbands. Even if these wives and children are already adults, they have a job, but they do not earn much. They are eager for comfort and want a richer material life. Therefore, they asked the father and husband every day to make the man live in anxiety, just to earn more money and provide better materials for family members to enjoy.

I saw what these obsessive parents did, and saw the father who was anxious about money every day. In order to alleviate his inner anxiety, I told him: "You cannot be responsible for the lives of your wife and children. Your wife and children must be responsible for their own lives. You must always remember this."

From our daily experience, we are often curious about what our relatives and friends are doing. Some people are very opinionated about the living conditions of relatives and friends, because the current living conditions of relatives and friends are completely inconsistent with their ideal state of mind.

For example, if someone does not have a boyfriend or girlfriend, they ask him: "Why don't you make a boyfriend?" If someone is single and unmarried, they ask him: "Why don't you get married?" If someone doesn't work outside, they just ask him: "Why not go to find a job and do it quickly?" If people don't have children, they ask him: "Why don't you have children?" If they think the public office is stable, they ask him: "Why not go to have an Examination for public office?" And so on. People who raise such questions may express a concern. However, for those who hear, they will feel that these people are very ignorant. Why? Because these people who question others often just look at the appearance of things from their own perspective, rather than from the other side's perspective to understand in depth. Some people are very personal, and they hate such questions from others, so they just say, "What am I going to do, what am I not doing, what is your business?" Yes! Does it matter to us whether others get married or have children?

A woman graduated from a well-known university, and in her forties, she chose a job as an operator. Relatives and friends felt incredible, and wondered why she made such a decision. Because of her academic and experience, she has worked in the society for such a long period of time, in her forties, and should have a good career, at least also have a fairly high supervisor position, and take a high salary. Therefore, relatives and friends asked her, "Why not go to find a better job?" She said that in the past, her job content made her too brainy, too nerve-wracking, and the work pressure was very heavy. The operator's work, almost without thinking, can let her brain rest. She feels that she is very happy to do this job.

After listening to this story, I realized the truth: "We can't replace anyone to live their lives. "Everyone knows his own situation best. We are outsiders. How can we know their situation and the troubles they face? What kind of life they want to live in is only known to them. What we can do is to respect their lifestyle and any choices. After all, we cannot take charge of their lives, nor can we replace them to live their lives for them. For example, assuming that they have cancer or depression, can we replace them to bear it for them? This is absolutely impossible, as everyone understands.

And this also led me to the following thinking: I often squeeze cold sweat for a dictatorship? Why? A dictatorship is like these obsessive parents, these nosy relatives and friends. They control everything the people have. They like to interrogate and interfere with people's freedom. In my opinion, this is replacing them to live their lives for these people, and replace them to be responsible for their lives. To put it bluntly, these dictatorships are too great, because they carry all the karma of the people on their own. This is so great!

If you think about it, when you control the people's freedom of thought and expression, it is as if you are binding a person's hands and feet. From another point of view, you are also living his life for him and taking on the responsibility of his life for this person, because this person's hands and feet are tied by you. When this person's hands and feet are tied, how can he have excellent ability to work well to make money and support his family? Once they cannot support themselves and their families, they become a burden for the government and the country. Either you raise him or let him go extinct. In any case, the personal karma and responsibility of this people will be carried on the dictatorship.

Therefore, we will see countries with authoritarian regimes, those groups of authoritative parents and officials who control the people in the regime, they are very active in working hard to make money, and they are rich and powerful, they also accumulate a lot of money, and also provide wives and children the excellent material life. Of course, they also build houses for the people and distribute them to the people, so that the people can get married and have a room to live in. The children born by the people are raised by the state. Unfortunately, in countries with authoritarian regimes, people’s ability to make money and support their families is generally low, and most of them live in poverty. They must rely on the government to support them. The poor people are more prone to complain and dissatisfaction with the government, thus rebelling against the government. The authoritarian government must use more severe means and spend more financial resources and resources to suppress the rebellion of the people.

Therefore, when we replace anyone to live their lives, and also replace them to take any responsibility of their lives, it is a foolish thing to do. It is doing a thankless job. It is let any doing things be double, but the credit is halved. We have done our own hard work, others are not necessarily grateful, and even complain. You see, this is really a waste of our own life.

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.