Life Insights ⁽³⁰⁵⁾

Why was Tao Yuanming so open-minded? One of his poems gives the answer: “Drifting freely in the great transformation of nature, I feel neither joy nor fear. What should end must end; there is no need for further anxious thought.” Many people fear death, but…

Among ancient Chinese men of letters, my favorite is Su Dongpo. He was genuine, broad-minded, adaptable, and flexible; no matter what befell him, he remained as open and at ease as ever. Confucius said that at forty one is free from perplexities, and Su Dongpo's…

After five and a half years of use, my laptop suddenly gave out last night. I called customer service, who told me to take it to a repair shop on Xizhimen Road today for inspection. I thought it over: a laptop's lifespan is only this…

A person should have a basic capacity for empathy and not be too indifferent to the sufferings of others. When others are in great pain, taking pleasure in their misfortune or treating a funeral as a celebration is deeply unpopular. Our Chinese ancestors had a…

Lately I have been reading a little Song-dynasty ci poetry every day, which seems rather out of step with the times. Everyone else is preoccupied with the pandemic, while I am absorbed in Song ci—somewhat numb, it would seem, unaware of the world's sufferings. In…

One moment we are in the world; the next moment we are beyond it. Or, while in the world we behave as though beyond it, and while beyond it we behave as though still in the world. One can always move in and out with…

Whether for a society, a family, or an individual, it is said that three stages are inevitably traversed: the passionate ferment of exploration, the plainness of holding on, and—after prosperity—the reflection and settling that return to life's depths. In this final stage, we inevitably take…

Confucius said that at seventy he could "follow whatever the heart desired without transgressing what was right." I believe only six or seven parts of this saying. At seventy, it is actually hard to follow whatever one desires—the body does not permit it, and often…

In daily practice I find many people trapped in mistaken beliefs all their lives without knowing it, truly blocked by one leaf so they cannot see the mountain. This occurs not only in patients with cognitive impairment but in normal people, and even in myself.

That something as appalling and sorrowful as war has become a running "meme" for so many people to joke about—that is the disaster I have witnessed on my WeChat Moments over the last two days, and it saddens me even more than the war itself.