Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I have been telling you guys and gals this many times, but I think I still need to repeat it many times more, because I know I am going against a headwind.

You can do whatever you are doing for yourself – making money, finding a good job, doing business – but instead of thinking about yourself only, think that you are trying to better yourself in order to better your country at the same time.

That’s all you need to do. Think about your country in everything you are doing for yourself.

Why is that?

Because, if you are thinking about you only, you are self-centered and selfish. That is chấp ngã (grasping onto the self) in Buddhism and it makes you ignorant and stupid. You are doing a great disservice to yourself when you focus solely on yourself.

When you better yourself in order to serve others, you are selfless (or non-self, not grapsing onto the self, using Buddhist terminology), you become Enlightened.

Whatever you do in life, you will fail if you are ignorant and stupid, and you will succeed if you are Enlightened.

That is a self-evident truth. What can I say more?

The blind world today teaches everyone to focus on him/herself. That is dumb – you need to focus on yourself in order to better your world. Without a selfless goal standing behind your seemingly selfish goal, you will be ignorant and fail.

Be wise and succeed in life.

With compassion,

Hoành

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