Armageddon, End of the world

End of the world is around the corner, many people say so.
Quite a number of people are scared to death; and they are scared of death.

I'm reminded of 2 ancient sayings of how we've looked at death:

轻如鸿毛，重如泰山。

[Qing ru hong mao, zhong ru Tai shan.]

Light-as-(swan goose)-feather, weighty-as-Tai-mountain.

十八年后又是一条好汉！

[Shi ba nian hou you shi yi tiao hao han.]
One-eight-years-later-again-is-a-piece-good-hero!

(18 years later I'm gonna be a solid person again!)

"Though death befalls all men alike, it may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather."
People all die for different reasons. Some reasons are noble; some are pathetic, some are non-existing...

Do the right things right. Not the right things? - Don't do. And admit our mistakes in the past and vow never to repeat them again. Keep doing good stuffs for the living beings to redeem our past mistakes... And to score even better!

Life and death; must be dealt with open minds; and that our lives will shine with great rainbows...

Grab this very moment. Live to the fullest now.

If we were to part this mortal world for now (hopefully because of doing the right things); we will be reincarnated into new born babies. And that 18 years later, we would be 18 years old and become strong adult, ready to serve the world again. (That is, if you believe in the idea of reborn-reincarnation.)

End of the world? Don't worry, everything will be just fine.

Ho ho ho~~

PS:
+) 《漢書》 司馬遷 報任少卿書：「人固有一死，或重于泰山，或輕于鴻毛。用之所趨異也。」 by the ancient Chinese writer SZUMA Chien / SIMA Qian.
+) "Though death befalls all men alike, it may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather." -- http://www.dictall.com/



+) 用之所趨異也。Yong zhi suo qu yi ye. -- It all depends upon the reasons he or she dies for.

Kill life to get long life?

****************

"杀生求生，去生远矣。"

sha sheng qiu sheng, qu sheng yuan yi.

"Kill lives get lives, near life far off."

****************

If we kill animals and eat them to nourish our own bodies, then we are actually further away from the righteous concept of  'life', and thus our health deteriorates and life gets shortened.

****************

In the preface of SUN Si Miao's book 《备急千金要方》 (Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold for Emergencies), he said:

"Many great ancient physicians used animals to treat acute and dangerous illnesses of emergency. Even though it's said that animals are inferior and human beings are superior; when it comes to appreciating lives, humans and animals are the same. Hurting others and benefiting oneself is commonly disgusted by all animals; let alone human beings. When we save ourselves by killing animals, we're really departing away from the definition of 'life'. This is the reason why I don't use animal products as herbs/medicine in my prescriptions."

In short,

eating animals to nourish our bodies will simply make our health worse and shorten our lives... 

PS:

-- 孙思邈, SUN Si Miao, SUN SiMiao, 581-682, Tang dynasty, China. Renowned physician and Taoist. A great medical physician and herbalist. Well regarded as “药王” (Yao Wang, The king of medicines). Main achievement: Author of 《备急千金要方》 and 《千金翼方》.

-- The book 备急千金要方, Bei ji qian jin yao fang, Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold for Emergencies.

-- The book 千金翼方, Qian jin yi fang, Supplement to the Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold.

-- By the way, he spent 10 years on 《千金要方》, from age 60-70 years old. And he spent another 30 years finishing 《千金翼方》, at the age of about 100 years old...

-- Original explanation: (simplifled characters): “自古名贤治病，多用生命以济危急，虽曰贱畜贵人，至于爱命,人畜一也。损彼益己，物情同患，况于人呼!夫杀生求生，去生更远。吾今此方所以不用生命为药者，良由此也。”(《备急千金要方》)

-- Original explanation: (original characters): "自古名賢治病，多用生命以濟危急，雖曰賤畜貴人，至於愛命，人畜一也。損彼益己，物情同患，況於人乎！夫殺生求生，去生更遠。吾今此方所以不用生命為藥者，良由此也。"(《备急千金要方》)

Harmony of home and nature

Harmony of home and nature

家住夕陽江上邨，一彎流水遶柴门。
種来松樹高於屋，借与春禽養子孫。

Home at evening sun river up village,
one curvy flowing water coils wooden door.
Plant comes pine trees taller than house,
lend with spring animals raise children grandchildren.

jia zhu xi yang jiang shang cun,
yi wan liu shui rao chai men.
zhong lai song shu gao yu wu,
jie yu chun qin yang zi sun.

* * * * *

My dream home is the one located at the upper part of river in the village. Preferably with beautiful sunset view too.


The river flows just nearby and it's convenient to get the fresh river water through the wooden door of the house.

Next, there are a few pine trees taller than the house; providing good foods for animals in the spring to raise and nourish their next generations. What a dream home this is!

(Click on the picture for detail viewing)

* * * * *

PS:

+) Comic: Comic drawn and poem written by the late Mr. 丰子恺 / 豐子愷 (FENG Zi Kai / FENG Zikai).
+) Mr. Feng's comics are simple and neat, not so much color tones yet the concepts are well represented. I hope those who like his comics will also read more of his writings; quite many are sympathetic and caring about the world and beings. People like him, who settles for nothingness and simple life, are scarse these days.
+) Translation: John Lew.

We're ALL chained.

We're ALL chained.

“I'm so tired...”

“...but I can't stop...”

“I can only go with the flow...”

-----------------------------------------------------------

People are caught in cycle, a vicious cycle that goes round and round without kind exits. We can only move on; because there are people in front of us (they drag us forward) and there are people behind us (they push us forward) that keep moving on. We're all the same; for we're all caught in line.

CHAINED. An invisible chain. CHORES. Many meaningless chores.

Like it or not, we can only move on.

Oh, is this the right thing to do? Or are they just bad habits? Unpleasant but necessary? I have a feeling something isn't very right. Why do I keep doing THIS? And THAT? And all so many of THESE? And THOSE?

This goes on until the day we go away from our pathetic lives... And probably even then, we're still caught the same.

You can slow down. You can be sick. You can complain and curse. You can even be dead.

But our bodies and souls will move on – in line. For our bodies, and minds, and souls are already long chained on together with the rest of the people around us.

How many sunrises and sunsets to be leveled?
How many new moons and full moons to be silhouetted?
How many more springs and autumns to be witnessed? - before we can be set free.

MOST forms of resistance are useless.

Most? Ya. Most. There are very few solutions.

Now the question: How do I break this bad cycle? How do I free myself?

My head spins... And good luck to all of us!

-----------------------------------------------------------

PS: It surely sounds like a very sad story, doesn't it? No, it's not! It's actually meant to be a positive comical reminder of what we're doing everyday – that some of us may have doubts about the directions of things going.