Releasing lives gets fortune

Releasing lives gets fortune

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http://www.lews.info/blog/Releasing-lives-gets-fortune-100-sparrows.html

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One hundred sparrows: Benefits of protecting lives

During the Qing dynasty in the city of Jing Kou, Jiang Su province, China, lived a ministry councilman, Fan.

One day, Mr Fan got back home excitedly.

Mr Fan: "Chun Mei, is madam's illness getting better today?"

Chun Mei: "Madam isn't eating anything at all."

Mr Fan: "Oh!... Never mind, tell madam I'll be seeing her soon."

Chun Mei: "Yes, master."

Shortly after, 5 cages of sparrows were sent in by a bird shop.

Mr Fan: "A-Cai, bring these sparrows to the backyard."

A-Cai: "Yes, master."

A-Cai was wondering: "Why is master buying so many sparrows?"

After which Mr Fan rushed to see his wife in her room.

"Sweetheart! Good news! Dr Wang told me a secret ingredient of treating Lung TB this morning," said Mr Fan excitedly.

"He taught me to make medication from brain marrows of 100 sparrows, and to be consumed in 21 days."

"Then your illness will all be healed."

"I've already bought 100 sparrows and they're at the backyard now."

After hearing what her husband said, Mrs Fan got up angrily.

She started talking but can't help coughing breathlessly:

"In order to save my life, that's to sacrifice the lives of 100 sparrows."

"Hmm!" Mr Fan exclaimed.

Mrs Fan: "I'd rather die of the illness than to do this."

"Chun Mei, help me to the backyard."

Chun Mei: "Yes, madam."

Mr Fan: "Sweetheart, what are you doing?!"

"I just don't want 100 sparrows die because of me," said Mrs Fan.

Chun Mei helped Mrs Fan to the backyard; Mr Fan followed closely.

Mr Fan: "Sweetheart, please don't be angry. Okay, I promise I won't kill them."

Mrs Fan: "No. I have to set them free myself or I'll be worrying about them."

Mrs Fan opened the cages and talked to the sparrows with full of compassion: "Go fly! Go fly! Don't let people catch you again."

One hundred sparrows flew out from cages, chirping loudly and cheerfully.

Mrs Fan saw them leaving; and her face smiling.

They all witnessed the magnificent vibrancy of life forms.

Mr Fan was a bit disappointed:

"Sweetheart, let's get in the house, or you'll get cold again.”

“Please take a good rest. I'm going to the doctor for other medication.”

Mrs Fan: “Hmm, thank you.”

But Mr Fan was worried there might not be better medication to treat her wife.

“Chun Mei! Take special care of madam!”

Chun Mei: “Yes, master.”

As time went by, surprisingly, Mrs Fan got better and was eventually completely healed.

Furthermore, she gave birth to a baby boy the following year.

Mr Fan: “Ha! Look at this baby, smart look with clear eyebrows and sparkling eyes, he must be somebody one day.”

Mrs Fan: “Darling, you see here. There is a birthmark on his arm. Does it look like a sparrow?”

Mr Fan: “Ya! It's so much like a sparrow!”

And Mr Fan said, thoughtfully: "Sweetheart! Do you remember what we did with some sparrows 2 years ago?"

Mrs Fan: "Of course I do."

Mr Fan: "Did this baby come as a result of your kindness to living beings?"

Mrs Fan: "Maybe!"

"I deeply believe in "Accumulate-kindness-one's-family, sure-have-extra-celebration". We must do more good deeds from now on."

The couple looked deeply at the baby in their hands. And they smiled happily.

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积善之家，
必有余庆。

ji shan zhi jia,
bi you yu qing.

Accumulate-kindness-one's-family,

sure-have-extra-celebrations.

A family that accumulates good deeds will always have extra good health, wealth and happiness.

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人人咸欲达期颐，
不必寻思觅巧医。
戒杀放生若作得，
愈汝顽疾添麟儿。

ren ren xian yu da qi yi,
bu bi xun si mi qiao yi.
jie sha fang sheng ruo zuo de,
yu ru wan ji tian lin er.

Men women all desire reaching expected health,
No need search worry look-for talented doctors.
Abstain killing freeing lives if doing so,
Cure your tough illness getting kirin baby.

Everybody wants to heal and cure their illnesses fast and have a healthy body. There is no need trying so hard to look for talented doctors. If you can stay away from killing living beings and promote freeing lives, you can then cure your illnesses and even be able to bear intelligent and beautiful children.

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The message is simple:

Be kind to animals and all living beings,
good fortunes will bestow on you.

Whenever possible, spare and release lives.
Good fortunes and more lives will come back to you.

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PS:

+) Contributors: Story adapted by 慧长(Hui Zhang); comics drawn by 牧谷(Mu Gu); Comic version presented in 护生漫画集 (Hu Sheng Man Hua Ji, Protect-Lives-Casual-Drawing-Collection or Protection for living beings). English translation by www.lews.info.

+) Story: adapted from 故事图说(Gu Shi Tu Shuo; Past stories illustration narration).

+) Quote: "Accumulate-kindness-one's-family, sure-have-extra-celebrations." is from "积善之家,必有余庆." in the book of 周易(Zhou Yi) or 易经(Yi Jing), more known as "I Ching" in the west; an ancient philosophical book in Dynasty Zhou, BC 1066 - BC 256.

+) Names of people/places/events involved: 范(Fan), 清朝(Qing Chao; Qing dynasty, 1644-1911), 京口(Jing Kou) city, 江苏(Jiang Su) province, 放生得福(Fan Shang De Fu; Releasing-lives-gets-fortune).

+) Right and wrong? To seek help or not? It seems I'm going to be in trouble by translating and publishing the poem here in my blog; it will then mean I agree to what it says about not necessary to look for good doctors for medical complications. The fact is that I believe in doing the right things right. The right thing to do in this story is we must not kill the sparrows for their brain marrows as medication. All lives are precious; it's not like we can take others' lives to save ours (Even if we can, that's a bigger price to pay ahead). And the other right thing to do is to seek for medication which is herbal based or which we don't harm living animals. Therefore, at the time we're looking for medical help, we need to ask ourselves: "Am I doing the right things right?" If the initial approach has been wrong and inhumane, how can we expect the outcome be right and beneficial to humanity?

Yin, Yang, Qi and their roots

The other day I was sorting my emails out and noticed this inquiry from a reader of the blog and my reply to the individual. I think it can be an interesting reading.

Message: I read with interest your website info and would like to know:

Question: The principles of yin, yang, qi - do they have their roots in Chinese (Taoist or Buddhist) beliefs?

I will be grateful if you can answer my query. Thank you.

For that I wrote the following as a brief introduction of how yin, yang and qi came around:

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Thank you so much for your interest in TCM. I've always enjoyed sharing TCM knowledge. To answer your question:

The terms 阴(yin, facing the moon), 阳(yang, facing the sun) and 气(qi, air energy movement above grains) have many implied meanings. Different fields take those terms for different definitions. At first, yang and yin meant only if a place faces the sun or not, respectively. The place that faces the sun is yang and the one not is yin. It was the fundamental understanding of nature. It's within the theory of duality of ancient Chinese philosophy. Subsequently, people have come to realize, through living, practice and observation of daily natural phenomenon, that the concept of yin and yang exists in all things. A simple example that applies to TCM can be: A fresh flush face is yang whereas a pale exhaustive face is yin.

The theory of yin and yang in TCM includes how these two components oppose each other, how they depend on each other to reach a balance, how they wax and wane and how one transforms to the other. TCM physicians use theory as such to understand the nature of diseases.

An ancient philosophical book, 周易 (Zhou Yi; Zhou: Dynasty Zhou, BC 1066 - BC 256; Yi: A word forming from the upper日(Ri, the sun, yang energy) and the lower 月(Yue, the moon, yin fluid), meaning ‘change’), considers the transformation of yin (night time, for example) and yang (day time, for example) into each other as the 'basic law in the universe'. This book dates back to the time mentioned as in Dynasty Zhou in the north-eastern part of China (Now nearby Shandong province). Buddha came to enlightenment in northern India at a time later than that. Therefore, yin and yang cannot come from Buddhism.

"Zhou Yi" is a book on the law of the universe, which is also called "Dao" (Direct Mandarin PinYin pronunciation) or "Tao" (Cantonese pronunciation, more known to the western and English world). Indeed, the idea of yin and yang can be found in the book. As a matter of fact, many TCM scholars these days consider Zhou Yi as the ultimate root of where TCM developed from, before which the book 皇帝内经 (Huang Di Nei Jing; Yellow-Emperor-Inside-Sutra; The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine, the most ancient TCM publication ever preserved) appeared back in 2,400 years ago...

So I'd agree to the saying the concept of yin and yang originally came from Taoism (Dao, what Zhou Yi is based on). But then again there are nowadays so many denominations of Taoism, some of which may have lost the original constituents of Dao.

As for the concept of qi in TCM, the first book that described this term is "The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine". The term qi, widely translated as energy, is also the unseen energy flows inside human body meridians, where acupuncture is based on.

Therefore the concept of qi neither originated from Buddhism nor Taoism.

Also mind I if correct your question, Buddhism isn't a Chinese belief, it's an understanding and practise that explains, as many believe, the finest and complete understanding of the universe. It was the teaching of Buddha, once prince Siddharta Gautama of a small country in northern India. Taoism, derived from the book Zhou Yi, author unknown. Confucius, in his later years, came across this book and pondered upon it and wrote ten chapters to explain this mysterious book of universe and proclaimed “If only I had known this book 10 years earlier, I would then have more time to understand the universe.” or something similar to that.

I hope this helps in understanding a little about the origin of yin, yang and qi. Different people, depending of their reading levels, may have different understandings. Please feel free to let me know if my views contradict with someone else's or if I have made a mistake.

Thank you so much for your interest in TCM. I deeply believe constituents of TCM such as: Qigong (The practise of Qi and energy with exercise or meditation), proper living lifestyle in tune with nature, proper diet in line with humanity, emotional peace and herbal remedy can help to achieve a peaceful world.

Thank you,

John Lew

Photoes:
1) The relationship of Yin Yang fish and eight 卦 (Gua, trigrams, as it's called in the western worlds). The eight Gua consists of different combinations of yin and yang as it changes from one to another.
2) 周易, Zhou Yi, more known as "I Ching" in the west.
3) The characters of 日(Ri, sun) and 月(Yue, moon), and how they were formed from symbolic looks of the actual bodies.
4) 皇帝内经, Huang Di Nei Jing, "The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine". This book is the bible of TCM. There are a few different translations in English name.
5) The character 气(Simplified version) and 氣(Original and complicated version). Three waves of air energy on top of and generated by 米(Mi, grain-based rice). It basically means the energy of the body is derived from diet of grain-based rices or cereals.
6) First sermon of Gautama Buddha at the Deer Park.