Buddhists ought not be curious or overly ambitious. The ordinary mind is the Way. "Humans emulate the earth; earth emulates heaven; heaven emulates the Tao; and the Tao emulates spontaneity." Anything we force through does not resonate with the Way. Regardless of what we do, it would be best to proceed as we ought to, instead of trying to force anything. Those who study Buddhism all their lives may be more avaricious than anyone -- I do not know what kind of Buddhism they study. Studying Buddhism means that we do what we should and not try to force anything at any time, any place, and in every interaction. Avoid greed and contention. Do not study Buddhism and yet at the same time, crave constantly. Do not be selfish or self-interested either. The most critical thing is: do not lie. If we can avoid lying, we will have sowed roots of honesty.

People should be very filial to their parents, if their parents are still around. Get along with our siblings instead of argue with them or fight them. Argue or fight, all the warmth and happiness of a family disappear. Look at the globe now, every country and every family has gone bad. Families split up and fall to pieces. They cannot live in harmony. "Fidelity among men and women makes for great harmony." Without contentment and fidelity, family members argue and fight everyday. In that case, we may have a family but we do not get to enjoy any of the warmth or joy of a family.

Warmth and happiness of this kind do not come from discontentment. Some people are disgruntled with their families and they ask, "Why was I born in this kind of a family?" There is resentment. This kind of blaming and complaining cause divorces. "Fathers do not act like fathers, children do not act like children, and spouses do not act like spouses." There is never a day of peace in the family; they fight all day long. Abandoning their hearts and virtues, they later get a divorce. Look at how many divorces occur around the world now, there are many more divorcees than married people. Divorce is not the problem so much as the damage it does to our countries. Explore the cause of decline around the world and we will find that it is friction between couples. This is also the cause of disasters around the world.

Why are there natural and manmade disasters around the world? It is because there are too many divorces. Children with divorced parents grew up in broken families. These orphans are everywhere and tend to become problem children because they have not been educated to contribute [to society.] Without a proper education, these children have so much freedom that they kill, commit arson, sell drugs and do anything they want. Consequently, a country does not operate like a country and the planet does not operate like a planet. The cause of all these problems come from the fact that couples do not know how to run their homes and are always screaming for divorces.

Different natural and manmade disasters such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, fires and wars happen because of divorce, though we may not realize it. Divorce is even the cause of plane crashes, train accidents and sunken ships, which have drowned and hurt who knows how many people. Divorces mess up yin and yang, which makes everything go less than smoothly or normally.

If you want to know why the world is on the decline, you must go back to the source of the problem and study it. All the disharmony originates with a couple who does not respect and assist one another. Nowadays everyone speaks of freedom. The more you talk about freedom, the less you act like human beings. Human beings become worse than animals, which is why this an era of decline. All of you must understand this point thoroughly! I hope you will not have studied Buddhism for several decades or for your entire life and still do not discover the root to the world's ills.

When things are unpleasant between married couples, such as fighting, they are not filial to their parents and loyal to their country. Their children become problem children. Things deteriorate in both directions because they're all related. Buddhists must really understand the cause of the world's deterioration. Externally, deterioration begins with couples; internally, deterioration begins with people's minds. When people's minds go bad, nothing around them is normal or law-abiding. Observe for yourself, any society with dysfunctional and conflict-ridden families will be unstable and wanting of talented people. Does anyone have any thoughts on what I said? I wonder if you agree that what I say make sense.