Happy New Year to All Readers: May the New Year Bring New Gains

Today is New Year's Day, 2020. Here I wish all my readers a happy New Year! I wish that in the coming year your minds may grow more mature, and that you may live more happily and more at peace.

A news item I saw the day before yesterday moved me. A 31-year-old man from Wuhan, Hubei, jumped to his death from a building in Chongqing and crushed two girls to death. The parents of one of the girls chose to forgive the man who had crushed their daughter to death; as they laid flowers for their own daughter and for the other teenage girl who had been crushed to death, they also laid a bouquet for the man who had killed their daughter.

This radiance of humanity moved me deeply. Forgiveness is the highest virtue of a person; being able to forgive the one who crushed one's own daughter shows that this girl's parents had a breadth of mind as vast as the sea. At last I have seen that among us Chinese there are also people who have reached such a spiritual realm.

May every one of us today forgive all the wrongs done by others. Whenever a major festival arrives, I remind myself to forgive all the harm others have caused me and to write off every bit of unhappiness in one stroke.

Some European scientists have confirmed that people who can forgive others are healthier, have lower blood pressure, and live longer than those who easily hold grudges.

Many people's misfortune comes from a lack of tolerance; they carry too much unhappiness and hatred in their hearts and let these torments gnaw at them year after year, until they fall ill from depression.

To me now, tolerance is an important sign of a mature mind. Although the three great religions of the world differ in their specific doctrines, they all in essence advocate love and tolerance. Countless philosophers have likewise taught us to treat others with a tolerant heart.

Today there are already more than seven billion people on Earth. The reason we humans can coexist peacefully is precisely the mutual tolerance and acceptance between us. Without mutual tolerance and acceptance, our world would no longer be a peaceful world but a world heavy with rancor.

Professor Zheng Yongnian of Singapore called 2019 a year of "anger"; the "anger" that erupted across the world in the year that just passed was deeply impressive.

Because of the impact of the economic crisis, demonstrations and rioting—looting, smashing, and burning—followed one after another around the globe. Yet anger did not solve problems; anger only kept producing casualties.

Many people have a very low threshold of anger. We regretfully see some people, driven by anger, raising knives against their own countrymen and committing slaughter. Angry patients have killed doctors; angry demonstrators have killed those who hold different political views. Some radicals, driven by rage, have carried out a series of terrorist attacks.

If a person, when encountering misfortune and at an especially hard moment of life, can still treat others with a tolerant heart—even treat his own enemies with a tolerant heart—then that person is truly noble and great.

I am willing to learn from these parents who forgave their enemy, and to release all the hatred and resentment in my heart. Even if at times I have to endure pain, I am unwilling to let interpersonal unhappiness lodge in my heart, so that while enduring pain I would also endure the further misfortune brought by hatred.

I also wish every one of you well, that in the new year you may reap more joy and happiness.

If you are presently encountering misfortune, I hope that the god of fate may look upon you and ease your suffering. I also hope that I myself may have the ability to help you; if I can relieve your illness and lighten your pain, that will be my greatest joy.

At the same time, I hope your minds may grow more mature and that you may treat others with greater tolerance. I believe a calm and peaceful inner heart will help you overcome the difficulties before you. I hope that your families, in hardship, may be united in love and devotion, and tide through the crisis together.

Whether you like, dislike, or feel indifferent toward me,

Stephen · Nicholas · Maimaiti · Zhou Ergou

Written on New Year's Day, 2020