Confused Freedom Is Useless.
[Dateline]
On November 30, 1993, Burlingame Mayor Bud Harrison and his wife paid their respects to the Venerable Master Hua at the headquarters of the Dharma Realm Buddhist
Association. Also present were Dr. John B. Tzu, Dr. Shu-ching Mao and his wife from Taiwan, and others.
Professor Mao remarked that when he heard the Venerable
Master give a lecture in Taiwan, he felt the Master’s preaching of
the Dharma was more powerful than a nuclear bomb. The Master
replied that nuclear weapons will not win the trust of the people.
Rather, we must influence people with eight virtues: filial respect,
brotherhood, loyalty, trustworthiness, propriety, righteousness,
incorruptibility, and a sense of shame. These eight virtues of
Chinese ethics are the panacea for saving the world, for reforming
the minds of the world’s people. Mayor Harrison sighed that there
are too few people in the world who believe in and practice those
eight virtues. The Master replied, “That’s because nobody
promotes them!”
The Mayor remarked that this is just like the Chinese and
Japanese people who were good citizens in their own countries,
but turned bad once they came to America. Master Hua said this is
because American education has gone bankrupt and scholarship
trails in the dust. Not only American education, but education all
over the world is bankrupt. The Master explained further that
since elementary students are openly taught about sex, they start
having sexual relationships at a young age. And by the time they
are in high school, they have gotten involved in drug dealing,
murder and arson. It’s frightening to realize that this is happening
in our schools. If children act that way, how can they grow up to
become good people? In college, male and female students share
the same dormitories and even take showers together. What has
the world come to?
By giving welfare to the unemployed, the country is
encouraging people to be lazy. No wonder the country is
paralyzed! This is not a problem that can be resolved by money
alone. The average citizen owns a gun. In the event of a major riot,
the situation would be out of control.
Under the constraints of the law, children turn into juvenile
delinquents. If their parents try to discipline them, the children
report them to the police, Consequently, parents do not dare to teach their children. I heard that a three-year-old girl once told
her mother, "If you boss me around, I’ll report you." She started
rebelling against her mother when she was only one.
There’s a law that says if a child kills his parents before he
reaches the age of thirteen, he has not violated the law. In all
these cases, the country has turned things upside down. That’s
what I call confused freedom, misunderstood freedom,
unreasonable freedom. They are just working on superficial
aspects, treating the symptoms but not the cause. That’s useless.
After listening to the Master’s words, Mayor Harrison
commented that the United States simply has a short history and is
too young. During their conversation, the Mayor listened with
attentive concentraton. Before parting, the Mayor and the Master
warmly shook hands.
In early June, the Mayor and his wife had accompanied
Professor Tzu to visit the Venerable Master Hua at the International
Translation Institute in Burlingame. The Master made clear that
the Mayor should follow the Six Principles of not contending, not
being greedy, not seeking advantage, not being selfish, not
pursuing personal gains, and not lying, and be model politician of
incorruptible integrity. The Mayor heartily agreed, and suggested
that every politician take the Master’s valuable course in politics.
Dr. Tzu had then asked the Master to give his blessing for the
Mayor’s re-election. The Master had said to the Mayor, "If you are
unselfish, you will definitely be re-elected." Later the Master gave
a positive guarantee, ‘’ou must be re-elected as Mayor.”
When the Mayor returned in November from his trip to China,
he was indeed re-elected. He made this second visit to thank the
Master for his blessing in June. |
