Even ghosts are afraid

I am not an atheist, but I usually do not take spirituality and religion seriously. Even things that are considered “important” such as buying land, building a house, moving into a house, etc., I do them on the day of the week without paying attention to the date or time. If gods exist, they certainly do not hold grudges against good-natured people like me, so despite my harsh words, I still have a peaceful life, everything goes smoothly, and I have not encountered any terrible disasters or calamities.

Right next to my house is a family that quarrels all the time, all because of spiritual beliefs. The wife is rarely home because she is busy going to pagodas from North to South, but when she comes home, she quarrels loudly with her husband and children. Sometimes she demands that an additional door be built on the side of the house to comply with feng shui. Sometimes she demands that all the bricks in the yard be dug up to bury crushed quartz stones to bring in wealth. Every few weeks or so, she brings a feng shui master home to look around, measure, and then demands to knock this down and build that. Every time like that, the husband takes a stick and chases both the wife and the feng shui master out of the house, but after only a few days, the wife invites another feng shui master and slowly brings him home. No one knows where the wealth is or when she will win the lottery, all she knows is that the couple quarrels all day about whether or not to believe this or that master. The positive point is that thanks to the shining example of this house, the superstitious movement of middle-aged and elderly women in my neighborhood has significantly decreased. Every full moon and new moon day, the whole neighborhood no longer has to wear masks and gasp for breath like fish out of water because the women compete to burn votive papers on a grand scale like before.

Speaking of spiritual beliefs, recently there has been a lot of spirit possession at Ba Vang Pagoda. I think it's strange, how could there be a spirit of ancestors appearing, not only not asking about their descendants, but also threatening and blackmailing them like thugs blocking the road to beg students. But I don't understand why so many people still believe it? Don't they have any faith in the character of their ancestors? Later, if my descendants believe in those superstitious things, I will also appear but to scold them to open their eyes, not to take their money.

Or maybe, those superstitious people are not blind, but they blind themselves to believe in absurd and unreal things. Because, in the end, those are exactly the things they want to see and hear to justify their own mistakes and weaknesses. Doing illegal business, doing unrighteous things and then encountering disasters, they blame it on being haunted or followed by ghosts. Blaming it on karma from past lives without admitting the obvious karma they caused right before their eyes. They did not live a good life, so the ghost is themselves, why should they blame their ancestors and grandparents for their graves?

The dead are not scary, the living are. The most haunting horror movies sometimes do not show any ghosts or demons, because what ghost is scarier than human ambition and selfishness? So those of you who want to summon spirits, stay home, no need to go far. Sit in front of the mirror and open your eyes wide and look: It's a ghost!