All wise teachers: I wish you a happy New Year! Happy New Year! We have two New Years. One is American and the other is the Chinese lunar "Happy New Year". It is always a happy occasion on New Year's, especially in the olden days. I recall how children are on New Year's: wanting yummy food, new clothes, and shopping, which make it difficult to know what life is really all about.

People no longer the same as in good old days,
merits and virtues perish.
Sadness pours forth as education goes bankrupt.
A society safe and at peace averts national disasters
By advocating philosophies of goodness,
as Confucius and Mencius expounded.
Practice humanity, justness, propriety, wisdom, and faith;
Precepts eradicate acts of killing, stealing, lusting, lying, and drinking.
If people around the world follow these directions,
Why worry that their country will not be in peace?

Today, I want to talk about people no longer the same as in good old days, merits and virtues perish. People chase after fashion, forgetting merit, virtue, humanity, and justness passed on from ancient time. Consequently the Way perishes. Once it perishes, we reach a dead end. Since people think differently than they used to in ancient times, they only chase after fashionable trends. Since virtue is impossible to develop, the path of cultivation quits, bringing us to a dead end. Think about it, everybody, when are we at the end of the road?

Sadness pours forth as education goes bankrupt. With education bankrupt and intellectuals increasingly decadent, average people do not notice the most fundamental of problems. People in ancient times study and understand the principles. Knowing the fundamentals to being a person, we should not just concentrate on details and forget the main purpose. Those receiving contemporary education pursue fame and money while people of ancient times pursued the understanding of principles. Nowadays people pursue fame and money. Students' top goal is to earn lots of money. This first goal is wrong to begin with; the more money they earn, the less others earn, harming others for the sake of self-benefit. The second priority is competitiveness. To compete, they forget humanity, justness, merit and virtue, only seeking benefit and not harm. Thus, sadness pours forth as education goes bankrupt.
A failing educational system is very sad. This sadness is not the sadness average people experience. This type of sadness is perpetual because it could lead to the fall of a nation and the extinction of a species. We will stand at a dead end because there is no more life-force in education.

A society safe and at peace averts national disasters. We have to think of a way to attain peace and safety for the society, to ensure the absence of wars, and to eliminate the country's disasters.

By advocating philosophies of goodness,as Confucius and Mencius expounded. We should advocate for Confucius and Meng-Tze's philosophies: respect the quality of kind heartedness and respect people who are loyal and patriotic.

Practice humanity, justness, propriety, wisdom, and faith. We should accord with humanity, justness, propriety, wisdom, and faith. Everyone should advocate and apply filiality, brotherly love, patriotism, faith, propriety, justness, incorruption, shamefulness. If everyone advocates for the five constant virtues of humanity, justness, propriety, wisdom, and faith, never contradicting them, then the world will be good.

Precepts eradicate acts of killing, stealing, lusting, lying, and drinking. We must follow the Five Precepts, stop killing and liberate lives, stop stealing, and do whatever good deeds we are supposed to do. Lust means sexual misconduct; lies means untruthful words, and drinking refers to all intoxicants. Refuse to drink the intoxicant of infatuation.

If people around the world follow these directions. . . Regardless of who they are, follow these directions and implement them.

Why worry that their country will not be in peace? Why worry the country won't be strong or cannot be governed properly? "Knives and guns are in the storage, horses are out on the pastures", this is the best way. So if we want the world to be good, then everyone should advocate for education. Once we have a good education, then the mankind will know the foundation of being a human, this is very important. So I am telling you this concept today, do not think this is the conversation of old folks, is an out-of-date concept, it is not like that at all! Actually, this is the best, regardless of time. When I gave a talk for United Nations in Paris, mentioned that the world will not be saved by nuclear bombs, helium bombs or death ray, which will only end the world. To save the world, apply only Chinese virtues and culture -- filiaty, brotherly love, patriotism, faith, propriety, justness, incorruptibility, a sense of shame -- these eight virtues are one of the magic pills that will save people's souls, a most effective prescription to save people's lives, and also the fundamental rationale to save the world. It is too bad that we all ignored it and not knowing how to use it. If you want to save the world's moral degeneracy, the problem of education bankruptcy and eliminate disasters, use only the logic of the eight virtues: filiality, brotherly love, patriotism, faith, propriety, justness, incorruptibility, and a sense of shame.