Insights and Updates

A person values having self-knowledge. This self-knowledge is precisely knowing one's own clumsiness. Knowing that one is a flawed mortal, and knowing to guard one's clumsiness with humility, one will not so easily become muddle-headed, losing oneself and growing arrogant merely on hearing a few…

Today, walking beneath the Buddha pagoda at Cishou Temple, I suddenly, for no clear reason, felt as though I were seeing my own past life. If there is a past life, I must have been a monk who strictly kept the precepts and whose every…

Last night, reading the works of Master Hsing Yun, I came upon the master's quotation of Vimalakirti's words: "One silence, like spring thunder." It struck me deeply. Silence can sometimes emit a sound louder than spring thunder; action is always more important than words. Reflecting…

Last night the two brothers spoke on the phone. My elder brother said two things that touched me; I record them here: First, he said that I still have a touch of vanity—I like being respected. This is a flaw, and many of my troubles…

Nothing forced is true destiny; only following nature is real. How can storms never cease? The old monk at last enters deep samadhi. What truly remains of life, after the storms have passed, is only something plain and unadorned. As one goes on living, one…

Dear relatives and friends: Lately, Zhiyuan has suddenly felt a surging enthusiasm and an unbridled flow of literary inspiration, and can no longer contain himself. He therefore wishes to enter seclusion for a period of writing and medical study. Apart from receiving patients who seek…

Recently some readers have consulted me about studying medicine. Being myself only half-full, I dare not play the master. I write this piece to share a few humble thoughts on studying Chinese medicine, in reply to fellow TCM enthusiasts. I am young and shallow; this…

There is no marriage in this world without problems; if one insists on looking for problems, even the most perfect marriage yields countless ones. When people reach middle age, marriage problems are the most likely to surface. A friend of more than ten years once…

My son is in fifth grade this year. The combined burden of schoolwork at school and at after-school tutoring classes is so heavy that I feel tired just for him. Yet his mother seems to think it is not enough; every kind of tutoring outfit…

Everyone has their idols; my idol in literature is Mr. Wang Xiaobo. On April 8, 2016—the first weekend just after the Qingming Festival—I took a bus alone to the Foshan Cemetery in Yangfang Town, Changping District, to tend the grave of my idol, the gifted…