This group of ours goes everywhere to propagate the Buddhadharma and education. Buddhist education is education that shall salvage people's inherent nature, save people's lives and souls. Anyone of sound body and mind who has some level of knowledge must know this: lapses in our education system are more egregious than AIDS, cancer, or atomic explosions. Poor quality of education is quietly exterminating our next generations, as they are taught to abandon their innate nature as human beings. They do not recall that they have souls and they do not care much about their lives. This group of us here is now making noise and causing a stir everywhere we go because we are trying to wake up everyone! We want to see that our educational system reforms and reorganizes so that we may pull our next generation away from the brink of death, so that every country and every race on this planet may avoid extinction.

What I am saying is not intended to shock or scare the world. But take a look at children in different countries. Students as early as their elementary school years are learning to kill, to commit arson, to play women, to play men, and to defy the rules. Do you call that education? Some cases involving elementary school kids left the world in horror. What is the future for such a world? What hope is there for such a world? Roots tied to our future generations are being cut. Once the roots are cut, the world will not need atom bombs or poisonous gases to self-destruct. The human race will die altogether. Deprived of a good education, students lose their sense of direction toward the path of light and walk down the path of darkness instead!

Many high school students smoke dope. Drug dealers are everywhere, teaching students who do not know any better to take drugs. This is the kind of menace that does damage to all of humanity. It is a global issue and yet each country pursues cures to the symptoms rather than addresses the root of the problem. They boost national defense to prevent invasions, but they do not realize that the most comprehensive and basic form of national defense is education. Weapons do not mean anything. If we do not pay attention and do not avoid indulgences in food, drink, pleasures and the five desires, we face a perilous future.

I often say this in America: the world's education is bankrupt. The reason that it is bankrupt is because of the impact of television. Television makes our kids awful. With at least one set in every household, this monster teaches kids to be bad and suck away their energy. Students do not have much time for studying because they have been soaking in this poison, which has more profoundly affected them than anything else. Television is why education is bankrupt around the world. Some places, of course, have not yet been affected, but this kind of germ spreads easily and will soon reach every corner of the world. If we do not think of a way to prevent this, this will be a problem with consequences more serious than any other.

What are our means of prevention? It is easy, very simple, and requires no money. Unlike spending by the United States, which requires a large budget for everything--this does not. All that is needed here is the application of "filiality, brotherhood, loyalty, trustworthiness, propriety, justness, incorruptibility, and a sense of shame" according to Chinese culture. These eight virtues are excellent. If every family will promote these eight virtues and every individual will pay attention to these eight virtues, then we can reverse education's downward trend.

The eight virtues are the magic pill that can save people's inherent nature. They are the magic pill for saving people's souls, saving people's lives, and saving the world's education. They can make the dead come alive again. If we do not educate with the eight virtues but teach children to be avaricious for fame and fortune, teach them to earn the highest pay after graduating, teach them ways to acquire the greatest fame and fortune and power, then we are driving our kids down the wrong path without realizing it. Children ought to be taught the foundation of education, which is to refrain from contention, greed, seeking, selfishness, self-benefit, dishonesty, drinking, drugs, and premarital sex. If we teach that, education has a chance to go from being dead to alive and our next generation will not necessarily become extinct. If we cannot do that, we pose an unimaginable threat for the world, that is, eventual extinction.

During the Zhou Dynasty in China, people's desires oozed and flowed. Fathers were not acting like father, children were not acting like children, the emperor was not acting like the emperor, and ministers were not acting like ministers. Essentially, people were not acting like people and animals were not acting like animals. No one trusted each other but everyone deceived one another. It was in such times that Confucius was born. He traveled throughout many countries encouraging "humaneness, justness, morality and virtue" and promoting "filiality, brotherhood, loyalty, trustworthiness, propriety, justness, incorruptibility, and a sense of shame." Confucian values such as these kept China intact for several thousand years and prevented it from being carved up by foreign countries. Chinese culture deserves the credit for China's survival to present day.

Around the world now, people's desires ooze and flow. International leaders only know about soliciting funding for national and military defense. They are either obsessed with money or sex, fame or food. They spend all of their efforts on the five desires of money, sex, fame, food, and sleep. They fight over power and try to seize gain. The ancients say, "propriety, justness, incorruptibility, and a sense or shame are the four virtues of a nation. When the four virtues are unable to develop, the country will die."

A country that does not practice propriety, justness, incorruptibility, and a sense of shame will definitely become extinct. Take a look at teenagers nowadays, which one of them knows about propriety, justness, incorruptibility, or a sense of shame? Which one practices propriety, justness, incorruptibility, or a sense of shame? They have not even heard of these, not to mention apply them. This situation is similar to the latter period of Eastern Zhou. Men did not act like men and women did not behave like women. Things were a mess. Everyone indulged in his or her desires and thought that eating, drinking, and being merry were life's pleasures. They did not know that "enduring suffering is to end suffering; enjoying blessings is to reduce blessings."

When Confucius was traveling to different countries, he promoted humaneness, justness, morality, and virtue, propriety, justness, incorruptibility and a sense of shame as being a magic pill that will prevent China from becoming extinct for several thousand years. At the conclusion of the Qing Dynasty and the start of the Republic, some seemingly sophisticated rogues and dealers interested power and gain tried to censure Confucius and his theories until they were nearly reduced to nothing. As a result, the Chinese fled in exile and bore all kinds of hardship, suffered injury and death. Now I must travel to the United Nations advocating for the use of "humaneness, justness, morality, and virtue" as well as the eight virtues of "filiality, brotherhood, loyalty, trustworthiness, propriety, justness, incorruptibility, and a sense of shame." I plan to use this prescription of magic pills to save the entire world, the human race, and all young people's souls, lives and inherent nature.

What I have told you is the key to our world's survival today. You must pay attention to this and do not think I am scaring you.