Bombard the Traditional Family

Xuefeng

March 4, 2011

Who are our family members? This is an essential question in life that we must understand.

Is the purpose of life simply to exist? Is it to live like insects, wild animals, or livestock—merely surviving because we must? If someone spends their life burdened with heavy loads and pressures, just barely getting by, what value or meaning does such a life hold?

The purpose of life is to achieve joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment—nothing else. Life is not about redemption, completing some mission, fulfilling responsibilities or obligations, propagating offspring, serving family, religion, political parties, nations, or the world, nor about sacrificing for justice, ideals, or truth. It is about enjoying the pleasures of life and the essence of existence.

If a person lives without joy, happiness, freedom, or fulfillment, what’s the point of living? What value does such a life have for the individual? To die under such circumstances would be truly tragic.

Life should revolve around achieving joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment. Any other reasons are an insult to and destruction of life and existence.

Therefore, we need to redefine what “family members” truly mean.

What are family members? Answer: Family members are those who bring us joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment.

Anyone who brings us these qualities is our family. Conversely, anyone who brings us trouble, pain, sadness, anxiety, or fear is not our family.

Are grandparents—grandfathers, grandmothers, maternal grandfathers, and maternal grandmothers—our family? This is hard to say. If they bring us joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment, they are our family. If not, they are merely our parents’ parents and not truly our family.

Are parents our family? It depends on whether our parents bring us joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment. If they fail to bring these and instead bring us trouble, pain, responsibilities, obligations, pressure, suppression, and destruction, then our parents are merely our creditors and not true family.

Does simply giving birth to and raising me make someone my family? No!

The fact that my parents gave birth to and raised me was their own choice, not mine. They decided to bring me into this difficult, crisis-filled world without my consent. Since they brought me here, it is their duty to raise me. They should not claim that everything they did was for me because the reality is that it was for themselves. If it were truly for me, they would not have brought me into this world of suffering and danger in the first place. If they had to bring me here, they should have created an environment where I could experience joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment. Otherwise, why bring me into this world at all?

Are children our family? The same logic applies. If children bring us joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment, then they are family. Otherwise, they are merely the result of past-life karmic debts—either as creditors or debtors. My only purpose is to collect or repay debts through them.

Are siblings our family? It’s hard to say. It depends on whether siblings bring us joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment. If they do, they are family; if not, they are merely childhood playmates or companions on the journey of life.

Are spouses family? There’s a saying, “Spouses are enemies.” Whether they are family depends on whether they bring joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment to one another. If they don’t, what qualifies them as family?

What about distant relatives like aunts, uncles, and cousins? Again, this depends on whether they bring joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment.

Every adult should carefully consider and honestly ask themselves: from whom have I received joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment in my life?

I would say that the joy, happiness, freedom, and fulfillment in life have largely been brought to us by nature, which is the Greatest Creator, and partly through our own labor, creation, and selfless contributions. Some of it has come from people who are not traditionally considered family. Meanwhile, the so-called traditional family members have more often brought us trouble, pain, responsibilities, obligations, debt, repression, shackles, anxiety, fear, disappointment, and despair.

What Jesus said is true: “A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Think about it—who were the ones who first held us back on the path to the kingdom of freedom? Wasn’t it those traditional family members who always say, “I’m doing this for your own good”?

Goodbye, “family”!