Whatever comes to mind. Sometimes a story I read, sometimes something that came to me while holding my mala beads.
Psychology took decades to describe flow. Zhuangzi finished it twenty-three centuries ago with one ox and one blade — a knife used for nineteen years, still fresh from the whetstone, because it looked for gaps instead of hacking bone.
Cold Dew is the first of China's 24 solar terms with the word "cold" in it. The old rule for this season is one word: gather in. Pack the summer clothes, sleep earlier, shift the table from "cooling" to "moistening" — and let the unfinished things become next year's fertilizer.
An American girl wore a mamian qun to prom. The comments asked what brand it was. She said: It's not a brand. It's 400 years old. This skirt has only been back on Chinese streets for twenty years. Where did it go? How did it come home?
A colleague asked me why the Chinese zodiac has no cat. Vietnam has one — his girlfriend is born in the Year of the Cat. The folk tale blames a betrayed rat. The real reason: when the list closed two thousand years ago, house cats hadn't arrived in China yet.
The cicadas went quiet, and the calendar said Chushu, the solar term where heat ''comes to rest.'' An old tai chi master by the river once told me: heaven and earth stop first; whether you follow is your own business. A soup that takes an hour to cook might be how an ordinary person catches up with the season.
A while back I had dinner with a friend. She looked at me, started to say something, then stopped. Then she said it anyway: "You're not a bad catch, you know. How come nothing's ever happening?" I sm...
A troop of monkeys sees the moon reflected in a well and frantically tries to fish it out. Only later do they realize — the moon was in the sky all along. How much of what we chase is merely a reflection?
Cultural confidence is not blind pride but deep understanding and identification with one's own culture. Eastern aesthetics offers unique wisdom for modern life.
Master Sheng Yen dedicated his life to building a Pure Land on Earth. He taught us: the Pure Land is not far away—it is in our hearts, in our daily lives.
Ji Xianlin devoted his life to researching Eastern culture, with countless publications. He taught us: True scholarship requires sitting on a cold bench; be sincere in life; the meaning of life lies in contribution.