What Does "Not Arguing Over Right and Wrong Is Liberation" Mean?

What does the Buddhist saying "not arguing over right and wrong is liberation" mean? There is an old anecdote behind it, involving the famously eminent Tang-dynasty Buddhist masters Hanshan and Shide.

One day Hanshan asked Shide: "When the world reviles me, bullies me, insults me, mocks me, belittles me, despises me, hates me, or deceives me—how should I deal with it?" Shide replied: "Simply endure him, yield to him, let him be, avoid him, bear with him, respect him, and ignore him. Wait a few more years, and you will see for yourself."

This exchange between Hanshan and Shide became a classic couplet in Buddhism. The problem they raised is one we all encounter in this world: when others, through misunderstanding, abuse, slander, defame, or mock us, how should we respond?

The solution Shide offers here is precisely the Buddhist idea that "not arguing over right and wrong is liberation": keep your own inner peace, rise directly above the strife, and let time deal with it.

Master Hsing Yun of Taiwan said that when facing people who gossip about us or slander us, the single best response is one word: deaf. To be deaf means not hearing what others are saying or judging about us. The "deafness" here is of course not literal—not truly hearing nothing—but rather turning a deaf ear and letting people say whatever they like.

Mr. Bertrand Russell once said that one of the greatest reasons we live unhappily is our fear of public opinion. In the mortal world, each of us is in fact a lone individual, and few can ever fully detach themselves from the society we live in; our every move may be discussed by others. If we care too much about other people's opinions, we sink into endless vexation.

The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre famously declared: "Hell is other people." From this angle, the more approval a person receives, the more exhausted they become, because they are living for others—living in hell.

Beneath many people's shells there dwells not their own soul, but a false "self" performed to win others' approval, a self utterly at odds with their own will and temperament. Thus many people live their whole lives only for others.

If we can embrace a little of this Buddhist spirit of "not arguing over right and wrong is liberation," we will no longer alter ourselves out of fear of others' opinions. Only then do we live out our true self.