Finding The Miracles In Life's Struggles
Translated article
Wisdom in Calmness(1)
04 months
A museum was broken into by thieves, and ten valuable pieces were lost. However, a precious diamond ring was not stolen. After many attempts by the police to find clues, the curator of the museum, who had been very calm at the time, proposed to let the television station interview him. The reporter asked him: “How many cultural relics were lost?” The curator answered: “A total of 11 artifacts were lost.” The reporter asked: “Are these artifacts precious?” The curator replied: “Yes, they are valuable, especially a priceless diamond ring that was taken!”
Shortly after this time, the police managed to find the thieves who had stolen from the museum. The reason why was very simple. Several thieves were caught by the police during a fight. They fought because each of them was suspicious of whoever secretly kept the eleventh artifact – the diamond ring.
The image is from https://www.gemobsessed.com/jewelry-trends/the-most-expensive-diamond-sets-record/.
The original Chinese text is from online and the name of author is unknown. The following is the Chinese version-
鎮靜中的智慧
轉載網路文章
有一個博物館被盜了，丟失了十件珍貴的文物，好在一枚珍貴的鑽戒沒有被盜。警方經過多次努力也找不到線索，這時一直很冷靜的博物館館長卻提議讓電視台採訪他。於是電視上播出記者採訪博物館館長的鏡頭。記者問：請問這次失盜共丟失了多少件文物？館長答：共丟失了十一件文物。記者問：這些文物都很珍貴嗎？館長答：是的，都很珍貴，特別是一枚鑽戒價值連城！
時隔不久，警方就查到了線索順利地破了案。線索來源很簡單，幾個盜賊在毆鬥時被警方抓獲，而他們毆鬥的原因竟然是互相猜疑究竟是誰私藏了第十一件文物那枚鑽戒。
Zeno’s Circle
04 months
Legend has it that a student once asked Zeno: “Teacher, your knowledge is many times more than ours. The question you answered is correct, but why are you so humble? ”
Zeno drew one small and one big circle on the blackboard and said: “Our knowledge is like a circle. Inside the circle are things you know about, and outside the circle are things you don’t know. The area of the big circle is my knowledge, the area of the small circle is your knowledge, so my knowledge is more than yours.
But outside these two circles are things you and I don’t know. The circumference of the big circle is larger than that of the small circle so that I may have more knowledge, but I also realize that there is still more I do not know. This is why I am humble. ”
Socrates said, “All I know is that I know nothing.”He implies that the more people know, the more they understand their ignorance. Even the largest circles still cannot compare with the blank space outside. The more knowledge they accumulate, the more aware they become. Space is infinite even though the circles are big. So the more knowledgeable people are, the more they know that they do not know enough.
Zeno of Elea is from http://www.massline.org/PhilosDog/Z/Zeno.htm.
In another word, a person with a large circle knows a lot but also knows there are still things they don’t know, so they have to be humble. A person with a small circle knows only a little, so they think the whole world is in their hands.
Note:
Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of Magna Graecia and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of dialectic. He is best known for his paradoxes, which Bertrand Russell has described as “immeasurably subtle and profound.”
Zeno of Elea – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_of_Elea
We Only Meet to Pay What We Owe
05 months
Without owing something to one another, there is no way to meet.
Sakyamuni’s words:
It takes a moment to reach out.
Holding hands take years.
No matter who you meet,
They are the one who is supposed to be in your life.
It is no accident.
Buddha said:
Life is also a journey with pleasure.
The body is the inn where the soul lives,
For boundless, infinite time,
This life is just a passing visit.
Deep and deep destiny,
To walk the same way again and again,
To go to the same place again and again,
See the same person again and again.
Always believe,
There is a meeting in this world,
Not on the road, but in the heart;
There is a feeling,
It is not about being together day and night,
But being a silent companion.
Buddha says:
Looking back 500 times,
Fate only grants us a passing glance.
It is fate to meet each other in this life.
Why bother to hate and to have ill feelings?
Together or separate is destiny.
It is the will of heaven,
We should cherish it.
The following online article goes well with the above teachings, so I included it here as well.
01. No matter who you meet, they are the one who should appear in your life.
This means that no one accidentally enters our lives. Everyone who is around us and interacts with us represents something. Maybe it teaches us something. Maybe it helps us improve a situation. Maybe it offers us a turning point.
02. No matter what happens, this is the only thing that will happen.
What we have experienced is impossible to recreate, and it can never happen in other ways, even the least important details. It is not worth it to say, “If I did something different, it would have turned out different.” No matter what happens, this is the only thing that will happen, and it must happen this way so that we can learn from the experience and move on. In life, every situation we experience is perfect, even if we do not understand why.
03. No matter when things start, it’s the right time.
Everything starts at the right time, not early or late. When we are ready to experience the new moments of life, it is there, ready to begin.
04. It is over, and it is over.
It’s so simple. When something ends in life, it helps us grow. To enjoy what has happened thoroughly, it is best to let go and keep moving forward.
Feng Shui- Accumulating Merits
07 months
A rich man bought a piece of land, and he repaired the villa within, which had a more than one-hundred-year-old lychee tree in the backyard. He loved this place because of the lychee tree, and because his wife likes lychee.
The image is from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/349310514831858413/?lp=true.
During the renovation, a friend advised him to check with a feng shui master so as not to commit evil. Initially, he did not believe in feng shui. However, he had a change of heart and agreed to his friend’s suggestion. He made a special trip to Hong Kong to invite a master. The Master’s surname was De, who had engaged in this line of work for more than 30 years, and he had an excellent reputation.
He picked up the master at the train station; he took him to his house after lunch. The rich man kept giving way for any cars that wanted to pass him along the way.
The master laughed: “Your driving is quite sturdy.” The Hong Kong master observed everything.
The rich man laughed: ” Those who want to overtake us must have an urgent matter to take care of, and we should not delay them.”
As they reached the town, the rich man began to slow down because the streets were narrower.
A child laughed and rushed out of the alley; the rich man stepped on the brake to avoid hitting the child. Instead of stepping on the gas immediately after, he looked at the alley and seemed to be waiting for something. A moment later, another child rushed out and chased the first child.
The master was puzzled and asked: “How do you know there were more children?”
The rich man shrugged, “the children are chasing each other, no one would laugh so happy alone.”
The master gave a thumbs-up and laughed: “You have a kind heart.”
Arriving at the rich man’s villa, he got out of the car and held the key to open the door, when suddenly seven or eight birds flew up from the backyard. Seeing this, he stopped at the door and apologetically said to the master, “Please wait a moment.”
The image is By Toby Hudson – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8267094
“What’s the matter?” The master was again puzzled.
“There must be children in the backcourt to pick our lychee, if we go in now, the children will be panic and fall, and that won’t be good. Let them pick for a while; we can look around outside first.” The rich man answered with a smile.
The master was silent for a moment and said: “You can send me back to the train station, I do not need to check the feng shui for this house.”
This time the rich man was puzzled: “Why do you say so?”
“Yes, sir, wherever you are, is a good feng shui place.”
This is a true story, in fact, of how people’s behavior is geomantic. No matter how hard the self-serving and selfish person works, perhaps it is only futile.
“You are the root of all.”
Confucius Walks With Destiny
07 months
Confucius said: “Life and death are the matter of destiny, riches, and honor which lie in heaven.”
Once, Confucius was surrounded by soldiers in the city of Wei, but Confucius was still singing and relaxing in the room. Zi Lu (one of Confucius’s best students) asked Confucius, “Why does the teacher still have time to sing?”
Confucius said: “Let me tell you! I have wanted to get rid of poverty for a long time, but I still can’t avoid it, this is destiny. I sought understanding for a long time, but I do not get it because it was not the right time. There were no frustrated men in the time of Emperor Yao, Emperor Shun and Emperor Yu. (The legendary rulers of the Xia Dynasty during the 5th century B.C., regarded as Great Sage Kings based on their virtues and skills as leaders.) It was not because they were smart. In the time of Jie-Zhou (the last rulers of the Xia and Shang Dynasties, respectively, and used as references to tyranny), there were no proud persons, but not because people lacked wisdom. It was because of their situation. Knowing that poverty is fate and attainment needs time, facing catastrophe without fear is the courage of saints! I am walking along destiny, what can anyone do to me?”
On the fifth day of being trapped, a general came to apologize and said, “We mistakenly thought that you were a general who had harassed the city for the past few days. Therefore, we let the Master suffer. We ask for your forgiveness.” Then, Confucius and his followers were set free.
