Life Insights ⁽³⁰⁵⁾

A note: this is an essay I wrote in 2012, a little over a month before my mother's death. Today, for certain reasons, I happened to reread it; after reading I fell into long thought. I have decided to repost the original essay as it…

Chinese Buddhists often use 'the world' (shi jian) and 'leaving the world' (chu shi jian) to describe the worldly realm and the realm beyond it. 'The world' actually means society and family; so-called 'leaving the world' or leaving the mortal dust means keeping a certain…

From childhood until about the age of thirty, I did not lead an ordinary life; only then did I urgently wish for an ordinary one. But as everyone knows, in our era China's people are restless, and the social environment that would allow an ordinary…

The line that has inspired me most in Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the one Liu Bei calmly says when, as Cao Cao behaves arrogantly and overbearing, Guan Yu wants to cut him down with one slash and is stopped by Liu Bei; Guan…

In 1998 I failed the college entrance exam. My first choice was not filled, but because my score was high, I was freely reassigned to an engineering university. Though it was a key university above the first-tier cutoff, my major was mechanical engineering and automation.

Today, together with my son, I accompanied my wife to Tsinghua University to register her student ID card. It was the weekend, and Tsinghua was thronged with visitors. Professor Shi Yigong, a scholar I admire, quietly continues his academic research and teaching life on this…

The person who compared inner displeasure to a lump of shit was my fellow disciple, Master Xianshu at Beijing Longquan Monastery. Master Xianshu said that many people know full well that discomfort is a lump of shit, yet still have the nerve to swallow it.

Nowadays the market is flooded with so-called positive-energy quotations. In my view, so-called positive energy is not necessarily a good thing. Most positive-energy quotations teach people how to deal with life successfully, how to do well in their careers, manage their families, and get along…

It has been a long time since I did my morning and evening practice. There was a period when, like a proper Buddhist, I would recite sutras morning and evening and repent my transgressions, but the habit did not last. Confucius said, "Reviewing the old…

Waking early, I read a lecture by Professor Shi Yigong titled "The Least Important Quality Is Your IQ," and it stirred me deeply. In his lecture, Professor Shi mentioned that in his youth he was lost and adrift; not until his thirties, having reached middle…