Most people's spiritual beliefs come from the outside world, such as religion, family, children, money, idols, and so on. Anything that can provide a sense of security can be considered a belief in my view.
Some people cannot bear loneliness, so they go to great lengths to keep their children close to ensure security in their old age.
Some people absolutely cannot lose money; whenever the money in their hands runs low, they become anxious and impatient with everything.
Some people need a role model to lead them, so they regard their idols as more important than life itself, even choosing to defend them to the end, regardless of any scandals.
In this world, everyone lives differently; there is no such thing as good or bad. As long as it is a personal choice and one can have a coherent logic for living, life can be very fulfilling.
Although everyone believes in different things, there are commonalities: all external "beliefs" ultimately aim to soothe the inner emptiness.
In fact, the greatest sense of disconnection that people from the East feel is the gap between the education they receive and the real world.
In school, you are taught benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust, but once you enter society,
you find that there are petty people everywhere, each with a double face, presenting one way on the surface and another behind your back.
Even the fairness and justice that the lower class believes in now seem highly ironic.
Workers work 996 every day, fantasizing that all roads lead to Rome, but little do they know that some people not only were born in Rome but also try to block all roads leading to it.
It is said that heaven rewards hard work, but the reality is that the harder you work, the faster your boss changes cars and the better their housing becomes.
It's no wonder that everyone now says they want to give up and lie flat; after all, effort and reward are not proportional. This is no longer a matter of whether to paint a pie but whether that pie even exists.
Many bosses complain daily that today's employees are hard to manage, quitting at the drop of a hat, but they never consider that a person earning just a few thousand a month has to be on call 24 hours a day, endure your manipulation, and if it were them, would they do it?
So young people have seen through it; since the gap between reality and ideals is so vast, they might as well be a bit willful, doing whatever they want, as long as they won't starve, they will do what makes them happy.
In this world, wealth, status, and material possessions can be inherited, but there is one thing that cannot be: knowledge.
A person is ultimately the product of their own understanding and actions.
Once you realize this, you will find that all beliefs from the outside world are actually unreliable.
You believe in money, but now the economy is so poor, housing prices are plummeting, and the stock market is unpredictable; you cannot cover all variables. After all, even Li Ka-shing and Warren Buffett have their failures.
You believe in family, but now people's hearts are inscrutable, and human feelings are thin; moreover, everyone is an independent individual. The more you try to control a relationship, the easier it is to lose it.
You believe in marriage, but our ancestors left behind a fourteen-character admonition: "Husband and wife are like birds in the same forest; when disaster strikes, each flies away," which has been verified countless times in the real world.
Of course, saying all this is not to pessimistically view reality or to discourage anyone. It is important to know that the primary condition for creating happiness is to understand the world.
Only by seeing the dark B-side of this world can you cherish the bright A-side. Only by understanding thoroughly can you live deeply, rather than being kept in the dark your entire life.
Understanding that you are the most reliable thing in this world, abandoning all beautiful fantasies about the outside, and striving to improve yourself, spending your time making money, you can naturally live more steadily. You always want to pursue a ready-made answer, but have you considered that the answers to life are not thought out but summarized through action?
The reason for your confusion may simply be that you have been stagnant for too long. If you can simplify everything in life, not pursue emotions, not chase after so-called "correctness," and have less desire for control, just act without overthinking, your attention may gradually shift from the outside world to yourself.
This is what I mentioned at the beginning: "believe in yourself." No matter how the world develops, even if the people around you are mentally collapsing, it is none of your business. You just need to do good deeds and not ask about the future. Do not imagine difficulties; just act,
and the truth of life will reveal itself. You will eventually transform into a newer version of yourself through this process of trial and error.