Happy New Year to Readers and Loved Ones; Praying for All Beings to Be Free from Suffering

The great bell first strikes, the sacred verses resound on high, reaching up to the heavens and down to the underworld. Above, may all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas bless the world with their light; below, may all beings in the dharma realm together enter the One Vehicle. Within the three realms and four forms of birth, may each be freed from the cycle of rebirth; among the nine netherworlds and ten categories, may all escape the sea of suffering. May timely winds and rains spare years of famine; may southern and eastern fields all behold the days of Yao and Shun. May arms be forever laid down and cavalry cease to march; may the fallen and slain on the battlefield all be reborn in the Pure Land. May flying birds and running beasts never fall into nets and snares; may wandering prodigals and lone merchants soon return to their home villages. May the boundless world endure as long as heaven and earth; may donors near and far be blessed with extended fortune and longevity. May the three gates be pure and the Dharma forever flourish; may earth gods and dragon spirits protect the sangha and uphold the Dharma. May parents, teachers, kin of six degrees, and all the departed of generations past together cross to the other shore.

— Adapted from the Buddhist "Evening Bell Verse"

Today is the first day of the Year of the Horse. I am in my rural hometown, spending the Spring Festival with my family. As the new year rang in past midnight, firecrackers popped one after another throughout the village. My third uncle, in his final throes, took an abnormal turn; my younger cousin called me over, and within moments basically all the family members at home had gathered around my third uncle's sickbed.

There were originally two doctors in our clan, but after the other doctor cousin passed away, I alone remain who knows medicine. Based on my many years of clinical experience, I judged that my third uncle had not reached his final moment. His basic vital signs were still stable, his breathing even, with no sign of peripheral vascular stagnation. It was only that the New Year firecrackers had excited him, causing his breathing to quicken, so I told the family to try not to stimulate him further and let him settle.

After being agitated for half an hour, my third uncle gradually calmed down. Although his consciousness was clouded and he was utterly weak, he gradually became much more peaceful. Even so, he had already entered the state of a lamp about to burn out; within a day or two at most, his breathing would cease.

My third uncle is 76 this year; even if he passes away, it is not a premature death. Rural people have a more open-minded attitude toward death than city people, especially in a large village like ours. We have grown up seeing all kinds of death, and through the many bedside companionships and funerals we have attended, we have received death education many times. So both the dying person and the family can face death with equanimity.

The clan can play a great supporting role at such times: the main adults and the clear-headed, still-healthy elders take the lead in preparing the deceased's affairs according to traditional customs and comforting the family. Unfortunately, with economic development, this clan-centered social structure is gradually disintegrating; people living in cities no longer have the convenience of a large family uniting to cope with death, and the families of the dying often suffer various extreme situations from excessive grief. As someone in medicine, I have witnessed many such moments, and I feel deeply sorry for modern people.

On the first day of the New Year I should properly be writing some more joyful greetings. But for one thing, what is happening in my home genuinely has no such atmosphere; for another, the various negative viewpoints circulating online this Spring Festival also make me want to say something different as a New Year message. So I shall take this opportunity to talk about birth, aging, sickness and death, and the rise and fall of society, which we all have to face.

In life, there is not only a positive and happy side but also a negative and sad side, though more often we dwell in the ordinariness between the two. Birth, aging, sickness and death, and the ups and downs of life, are natural and social laws that no one can resist; we need to meet all of this with an ordinary mind.

These past years, because of the pandemic, economic crisis, trade war and war, the whole world has been shrouded in a gloom. New technological revolutions such as artificial intelligence have made many friends who worry they cannot adapt to the new era anxious; the economy is no longer as prosperous as in previous years, which objectively has affected the mood of the whole society. Many people have come to me to pour out their grievances, and pessimistic voices are plentiful online.

After this New Year, I will be 47, no longer 46. I have rich life experience; men my age have basically all been through multiple partings and deaths and several rounds of ups and downs, with the clearest minds and the most open-hearted attitudes.

The economic and social crises I have lived through are more than just the current round; to be honest, the present situation is still far better than before. Now even though the economy is not as buoyant as before, the living conditions of the vast majority of people around me far surpass those of twenty or thirty years ago. The most financially disadvantaged students I encounter at school would have been considered to have quite good family conditions twenty-odd years ago. The truly disadvantaged students in our day would actually go hungry, whereas today's disadvantaged students eat meat every day.

Before the Spring Festival I changed my mind at the last moment and decided to go back to my hometown; when buying tickets, high-speed rail tickets were impossible to get, while the slow green-skinned express trains still had seats available. This is completely different from the self-media narrative that green-skinned trains are booming while no one rides high-speed rail. The current difficulties really are nothing to us, the generation born in the 1970s.

The hardships we endured were far harder than this. We have also lived through several periods of social transformation; each time, many people had to replan their lives, but most people eventually made the turn.

When I was looking through family genealogies in my hometown, I noticed that the openings of many clan genealogies are quite interesting and basically similar in content: "Our ancestors cut through brambles and thorns, braved wind and rain, and opened up wasteland and territory." Our human ancestors walked out of the African savanna and, generation after generation, opened up new frontiers; every generation has its own task of cutting through brambles and thorns, and life acquires meaning and value precisely because of its various challenges.

So I hope friends will not be discouraged by the current difficulties, nor overly dwell on and be infected by those negative voices. Life is not always a smooth road, nor is it always bumpy; the road of life is made up of stretches of smooth road and stretches of bumps together. Social development follows the same law: prosperity and recession, danger and opportunity alternate.

As long as we do not give up striving, we can cross the bumps and reach smooth road. Do not get carried away when successful, nor decadent when disappointed; rather than sighing pessimistically, it is better to keep your head down and work hard.

Whether or not our circumstances improve in the new year, I hope friends remain patient, cherish everything they have, and live each day well. And within your own capacity, do your utmost to do something to change the world. Be a positive, optimistic, hardworking and resilient person, unafraid of the future, taking the lead and pressing bravely forward.

Although I am not a religious believer, on this day I too would like to pray devoutly that every being on this planet may be treated well. I pray that wars may cease, that the sick may recover, that the elderly may be cared for, that the deceased may rest in peace, that those lost in suffering may find partners, friends and mentors who understand and comfort them, and emerge from the confused period of their lives. May this world have one more share of peace and happiness, and one less share of strife and pain.