Most people's spiritual beliefs come from the outside, such as religion, family, children, money, idols, etc. 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 they have runs low, they become anxious and lose patience with everything. Some people need a role model to guide them, so they regard their idols as more important than life itself, even choosing to defend them to the end when their idols face 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 what each person "believes" in is different, there are commonalities: all external "beliefs" ultimately serve 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 everywhere there are petty people, each with a double face, presenting one way on the surface and another behind the scenes.
Even the fairness and justice that the lower class believes in now seem deeply 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 his house gets.
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 in the sky, but whether that pie even exists.
Many bosses complain every day that today's employees are hard to manage and often quit without notice, but they never consider that a person earns only a few thousand a month, has to be on call 24 hours a day, and endure their manipulation. If it were you, would you do it?
So young people have seen through it now; since the gap between reality and ideals is so vast, they might as well be a little willful, do as they please, as long as they don't starve, and live happily.
In this world, wealth, status, and material possessions can be inherited, but there is one thing that cannot be inherited: knowledge. A person is ultimately the product of their own understanding and actions.
Realizing this, you will find that all beliefs derived from the outside are actually unreliable.
You believe in money, but now the economy is so poor, housing prices have plummeted, 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 adage: "Husband and wife are like birds in the same forest; when disaster strikes, each flies away." This has been verified countless times in the real world.
Of course, saying this is not to pessimistically portray reality or to discourage anyone. It is important to understand 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 whole life.
Understanding that you are the most reliable thing in this world, abandoning all beautiful fantasies about the outside, and striving to improve yourself, using your time to make money, you will naturally live more solidly. You always want to pursue a ready-made answer, but have you ever thought that the answer to life is not something to be thought out, but something to be summarized while doing?
The reason for your confusion may simply be that you have stayed in one place for too long. If you can simplify everything in life, not pursue emotions, not seek so-called "correctness," have less desire for control, just act without overthinking, your attention may gradually shift from the outside 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 collapsing mentally, it has nothing to do with you. You just need to do good deeds and not ask about the future. Don't imagine difficulties; just do it, and the truth of life will reveal itself. You will eventually transform into a newer version of yourself in this process of trial and error.