Putting our hopes on the establishment of religious
education in TaiwanTaiwan seems to lack moral development as
well as cultural development. Taiwanese opera(歌仔戲) can best represent Taiwan's
culture developed over a century ago, although it is not welcomed by young people today.
Younger generation's education is based on the National government's point of view, so
when Taiwanese opera is recognized as a lower classed art, even though it is mixed with
Taiwanese slang and moral conceptions, it is still not being studied by professionals.
Hence those who want to promote Taiwanese opera ends up depending on the government's
financial support. As a matter of fact, only Taiwanese opera can continue the great
Chinese nation's civilization, whereas the puppet shows nowadays contain a lot of violence
and frequently make use of scientific technology; puppet shows today are everything but
traditional. Over thirty, forty years ago, Taiwanese opera, puppet shows as
well as shadow shows were the major media providing the populace with moral education and
cultural learning. Their contents were usually about loyalty, piety, justice and so on,
but not today's. In the past, wherever there is a temple, there will be many healthy,
righteous activities and stories told about many deities; people naturally think about
gods, deities as well a doing moral, righteous deeds. So we can see that, in
the past temples were used as locations passing down a community's culture and customs;
even the poles in the temples are usually inscribed with the history of Chinese
civilization. Unfortunately people do not appreciate the educational values of the above
nowadays; instead, people are more interested in watching stripping shows! This is no
doubt a big disappointment on those who want to pass down Taiwanese traditions.
Doing business without introducing our culture to foreign business
organizations will be a "short-term" business partnership. Very
soon we will be substituted by nations with vast lands and high population. To enhance our
scientific technology, we need the support of our cultural civilization; scientific
technology without the support of human civilization is empty and contentless. It will be
rejected by international markets and the image of our country will be damaged.
New religions today share the same aim of attracting more followers and
gaining more properties, but they do not share the aim of making the followers share the
responsibility of continuing a righteous religious spirit, nor giving rise their sense of
belonging and concerns for Taiwan's future. Most of those orthodox religions
emphasize individual spiritual cultivation, but neglect the need to influence the society
for the better. There are religious people taking part in various societal movements; if
we look at it from religious cultivation's point of view, this action violates the basic
driving force of religious self-repenting. So the most important thing Taiwan
needs now is an education that can awaken Taiwanese people's spiritual life steadily, and
spread out the messages of saving Taiwan and loving Taiwan through religious cultivation. There
are many religions today putting a lot of energy in satisfying their followers' needs, but
not educating them spiritually. They also play around with people's imagination, satisfy
followers' thirsty spirits by using imagination as the latter's spiritual guidance! There
are also religions make use of "Neutralization": through the worshipping of
stones, burning golden-colored paper or drinking water with burnt amulet's ashes, they
hope to stabilize the unrest minds of their followers. This method is barely acceptable
when it is applied to the elderly, but absolutely unacceptable to young people, because
this is nothing but a self-hypnotizing practice. It would lead to nothing but a waste to
our country's human resource, and it will also lessen our society's "new blood".
Therefore, the essential mission of religious cultivators today is to use religious means
to give rise to Taiwanese people's sense of responsibility and belonging to this land we
grow up on, and to go through the hard times we are facing now together.
