Freedom

If someone tells you: “You are on your own now.” How would you feel? Do you feel happy to be totally free with no attachment and no obligation to anybody? Do you feel angry to be left alone, set free, and nobody care about you? Or do you feel scared to have no one to rely on but yourself? Living alone, self reliant, is the true meaning of freedom. Freedom to succeed without freedom to fail is not freedom at all. Are you ready for that? True freedom is totally free.

The spiritual path is for the alone. This was the path taken by the Buddha and many ascetics. The question is: do you have the freedom of thought to accept the idea? You are not free if your mind is chained by invisible fetters. The first fetter is the fixed definition of freedom in your mind. If you already have a preconception of what constitutes freedom and what isn’t freedom, your mind is already fixed and chained. You don’t have the ability to listen to ideas which run counter to what you believe; those ideas can disturb your emotions and you will instantly brush them off as rubbish. If you can’t keep your equanimity, you are not free because your emotions can be controlled by others instead of yourself.

True freedom is totally free. It’s your mind which you need to liberate first. Without freedom of the mind, you can never be free.

Does personal freedom in China exist?

If you believe personal freedom is the single most important thing in the Universe, without which the society will collapse and no progress is possible, then you must also believe that China is a country with a lot of personal freedom. In the last 40 years, more than 800 million Chinese have been lifted from poverty (according to World Bank report); China is announcing zero poverty this year. More than 93% of the people are satisfied with CCP government, according to a recent report from Harvard University study. China is already the largest economy in the world in PPP term. China is the only country which doesn’t kowtow to the US in independent decision making. The EU and UK dare not defy the US; they have no freedom to make decisions independently for their countries. For fear of being punished by their master (which dictates to them what they are allowed or disallowed to do); they have to forego or delay the 5G development in their countries. Germany has to stop the Northstream 2 project which is nearing completion. With all these bullies, yet they can only shiver and obey. And the US is crying like a baby complaining about being economically bullied by China. This is so unbecoming of the world only hegemonic power.

The country with the least personal freedom is easy to identify. Poverty must be the first criterion; homeless people without food and shelters have no economic nor political powers, therefore no personal freedom. They are forever systematically oppressed; cemented at the lowest level of the society. Are the human rights of the poor and the black respected in the US?

Freedom to say bad words to political leaders is so petty. When the leaders are respected by more than 93% of the people due to their virtue and wisdom, saying bad words to the leaders is a great insult to the people. Whether you are a Christian or a Buddhist, the precepts to keep are the same: no killing, no stealing, no adultery, no intoxication, and no badmouthing. Being virtuous is for the happiness of oneself. A virtuous person will have no fear, anger, or grief therefore no suffering. He will then be able to stay equanimous under any circumstances; which will then develop wisdom in himself. Can anyone trust a person without virtue, equanimity and wisdom to make decisions for the country? (仁者不忧 知者不惑 勇者不惧)

Imagine for a while that you are a person who thinks marijuana is a necessity (like personal freedom). But then, you find that many people are happy without marijuana. Do you continue to insist that marijuana is a necessity? You may continue to take your marijuana if you like. However, you must not force others to share the same belief and insist everybody must take marijuana.

All the rumors about lack of personal freedom in China are false propaganda. If one is truly virtuous and wants to start an NGO to help people, without hidden agenda, there is no hindrances to do it; a truly virtuous person should have no fear to do the right thing. There are official complaint channels for people to criticize the CCP government and corrective actions are always taken swiftly, if the criticism is not unfounded. Even if one chooses to criticize CCP openly or through social media, he will not be arrested if he is respectful. VPN is required for Chinese to access international news because most people cannot handle the truths that there are so much negative propaganda outside the firewalls. Chinese people don’t like the disrespectful and false allegations about China; fires will be fanned so much that the CCP government will soon be forced by the people to start a war with the US. Oppression of minority is also untrue. Affirmative actions are in place to help the minority races. Places of worship are allowed; of course, illegal things are prohibited in order to uphold rule-of-law.