Wisdom from Chinese Literary and Buddhist Classics
365 Days for Travelers
1/13: HALF AND HALF
Venerable Master Hsing Yun (1927 - , Fo Guang Shan)English translation: Zhi Yue and Lih-Jing Ting
Half is day, and half is nighttime;
Half is good, and half is not kind.
Half are men, and half are women;
Half are real, and then half are lies.
Buddha’s world is one half,
and the other is of Mara;
Half for you, half for me,
Within this world, no one can conquer the other half.
Strive for the better half,
The worse half will naturally decrease.
Accept the beautiful half,
Tolerate the lesser half,
For an all-encompassing life.
── from Renjian Yinyuan
(Sounds of the Human World)
NOTE: What is considered fortunate or misfortunate are actually both
sides of the same coin. Similarly, good is one side, bad is the other side;
wholesomeness is one side, unwholesomeness is the other side. It is
impossible to expect a perfect world; it is natural for the world and life to
have its imperfections.
What's New?
JANUARY
Humble Table, Wise Fare
INSPIRATION
A person should be like a rubber ball:
the harder you hit it,
the higher it bounces.
A heart should be like a ball of dough:
the more you knead it,
the greater its resilience.
Dharma Instruments
Venerable Master Hsing Yun grants voices to the objects of daily monastic life to tell their stories in this collection of first-person narratives.
Sutra of the Month
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva (Chi:Guanyin) has been a source of inspiration and devotion for Mahayana Buddhists and non-Buddhists in Asia for centuries.
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