“Life is actually really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” By Confucius

Confucius

The above quotation by Confucius has a history of more than 2000 years.  If we were to just observe around the world, we can see the world today is very chaotic, disordered, muddled, confused, messy, unruly and etc.

Why is it that the wise of the ancient has spoken of the above quotation so many years ago and yet until today we are still not awakened?

Basically our needs are indeed few for us to survive. Food, shelter and clothing are what we actually need for survival. We actually have more than ample. Besides the basic needs we still have more than ample to provide some for our desires.

The problem here is despite having abundance we still do not know what enough is. We also do not know how to share with others. We want more and more and more and the question here is, why?

It is simply because human being does not understand human being. And it is becoming more and more chaotic and confused.

What has made the world become so chaotic and confused?  

It is due to our human ignorance that greed and hatred was inherited. 

Greed here means wanting more and more and not knowing what is enough. With greed, desire is born. Desire here means craving, yearning or longing for more.

What are we craving for?

All the nice things for as long as our mind and the senses can perceive. We try to satisfy our mind and senses with the best of things and there are no limitations to these desires. 

Hatred here means harbored anger, intense dislike or ill-will. Hatred has a very negative impact and is dangerous to the mind. People who harbor hatred in their mind can be very dangerous.  If their possessions or belongings are threatened they can kill to protect. Or if there is anything they do not like or have been offended, they can also kill.

If you were to look at the News Paper or media today you can read all kinds of misery around the world caused by human ignorance i.e. greed and hatred. Ignorant human being will do anything to satisfy their desire and will also do anything to protect their possessions or belongings from being taken away.

We have been influenced or brain washed by the media, TV advertisement and all sorts of advertisement promoting a product to arouse or stimulate our desire.  The advertisement will try to influence and make you want to own them. Even after having them, they will improve their product features to make you wanting to change for the better one. This will go on and on and it will not stop.

Because of greed and hatred, law abiding and people of upright character and behavior have fear. Fear of being harm. Fear is human agony.

Look at animals, how do they behave?

Basically there are two types of animals, the herbivorous and the carnivorous.  The herbivorous animals are those feed on plant whereas the carnivorous animals feed on meat.

The herbivorous animals are very peace loving animals and many are kept as pet by us. The carnivorous animals will prey on other animals for food to satisfy their hunger. Once these carnivorous animals have satisfied their hunger for that day they will not kill to accrue or save some extra food for their next meal.

They never fear having not enough food. All they need to do when they are hungry is to go and hunt for food.  It is the ecological system that will provide sufficient food for them.

From the TV discovery channel, we can see the animal behavior.  There is no greed and hatred in animals. There are fierce animals.  These fierce animals have no hatred, i.e. they do not harbor anger.

We can see the herbivorous and the carnivorous animals together. The herbivorous types of animals have to watch out for the carnivorous types of animals as they will prey on them anytime when they are hungry.  The herbivorous types of animals do not hate or have any harbored anger over the carnivorous animals.

There is no greed and hatred among animals and that is why there are no wars among the animals.  Even when animals fight, they did not plan for it.  They have no intention of it. It is their instinct. You will never see or hear that this group or types of animals terrorize another group or types of animals because of possessions or belongings. They only prey on them for food.

If we can have a dialogue with animals to find out whether they are living happily or do they suffer or do they have misery, anxiety, depression, mental stress & etc. like human being, how interesting can it be?

What do you think their reply will be to us if we can have a dialogue with animals?

Although we are not able to have a dialogue with animals, we can see from their facial expression that they are actually living serenely. Even when these carnivorous animals are hunting for their food, they are very calm and they do not glare at their target. They will only glare at their foe when they are about to fight or fighting. It just indicates that animals during normal time other than fighting, they are serene and calm.

Animals are lucky that human being have difficulties having a dialogue with them otherwise most of the fierce carnivorous animals will be make use by human being for their corrupt practices like the film, Doberman film in 1997, the leader of a dangerous gang of bank robbers is targeted by a corrupt police official at their underground party. They trained these Doberman dogs to rob the bank. This is abusing of human intelligence.

We ignorant human being will terrorize, bully, fight, steal, snatch, cheat, bluff, con and etc. you name it they can do it to other human being to gain possessions of others belongings.

Off late we can see or hear from news, in one part of the world the government is trying very hard to save their people life from disasters and another part of the world the government is killing their people alive for trying to take away their possessions.

All the above are due to our greed and hatred.


There are no books teaching us to con, cheat or harboring hatred but somehow we just know.  This is human intelligence.

There are books to teach us to live a proper way but somehow we choose not to learn. This is human ignorance.

We ignorant human being has abuse our intelligence and wrongfully make use of the mind. There are no limitations to our greed. Being ignorant and naïve of our greed, we just want more and more. With the slightest threat we will try to defend at all cost.

The hatred mind is a mind harboring anger and is dangerous because we do not know when they can pound on us. They may just pound on us when we are the least prepared.

Just imagine if we can just do what we can or do to our best instead of doing what is expected of us, how ideal this world can be.

Why is it that we have to do what is expected of us? 

It is all because of greed, wanting to perform better and better so that we can be better off. The sacrifice or the price that we pay for is just not worth the while. The stress, anxiety, strain, hassle, pressure and a not balance family life is a very expensive price and not to mention some may be suffering from depression, despair, misery, and etc.

And why is it that it is not acceptable for us to just do what we can?

It is because people are smart they will take advantage of the situation and will not be discipline enough to just do what they can. People need incentive to motivate them to perform. One of the reasons we are making life complicated is trying to perform better than others.

You have to pay the price. You will find that everything in life exacts a price, and you will have to decide whether the price is worth the prize, quoted by Sam Nunn.

If we ignorant human being can get rid or reduce our greed and hatred, how peaceful the world can be?

This will eradicate, reduce or lessen all our stress, anxiety, strain, hassle, pressure and we can have a balance family life. This will be ideal and will be very difficult to achieve but not impossible. Then we can just live in simplicity.

Just Simplicity

Is there a way to overcome our greed and hatred?

Yes there are ways to overcome them.

To overcome greed, we have to share, give or do more donations. If we are not use to it we have to learn. We will have to share, give or donate on a regular basis and over a period of time it becomes part of us.

When we give, we give from the heart and without a thought i.e. to say we expect nothing in return.  The amount does not matter.  The lesser you have even better because it is not the amount but the percentage of what you have.

For example, if you have only 10 dollars and you donate 1 dollar, you are donating 10% of what you have.  Now you have a million dollar, you donate 50,000 dollars, you are only donating 5% of what you have.  From the heart the one donating 10% of what he has is more generous. 

As I have mentioned above, when we give, give without a thought and expect nothing in return. We are cultivating a habit of giving and this will slowly overcome our greed. We can feel the peace and happiness at heart.

Another point to note is besides giving and donating is sharing. Sharing what we have is also very important because what we are today are because of all our surroundings. It is all the people surrounding us that mould us to be what we are today. Without them we cannot be what we are today.

Just imagine if we are brought up from the jungle, how smart can we be?

Therefore it is all the people that have mould us to be what we are today and it is appropriate for us to share some of what we have to the society.  By sharing some of what we have to the society will not make us poorer.  It can only make the society become richer. It is like using your lighted candle to light up other candles.  The place can only become brighter.

And to overcome our hatred, we have to shower them with love, sympathized with them. Like Jesus Christ says forgive them for they know not what they are doing.

Hatred will never overcome hatred. Only love can overcome hatred, quoted by the Buddha.

Do you think there will be war if there are no greed and hatred among human being?



During war time, even a breast feeding
mother has to be arm to fight the war to
protect the country.



Without greed and hatred among human being then we can live in simplicity and how ideal and wonderful the world can be.  Life is really simple.



Tzun Dai Chi Pu Sat Pendant





(Posted on 18^th April 2011, Chinese calendar 16^th Day, 3^rd Lunar Month, to mark Tzun Dai Chi Pu Sa Day)