|
Lao Tzu - "The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places
that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way." "When people see some things as beautiful, other things become
ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad." Laozi, Tao Te Ching
Confucius - The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships,
justice and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era
only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. He espoused the well-known principle "Do not do to
others what you do not want done to yourself", an early version of the Golden Rule.
Buddhism - Four Noble Truths The truth of suffering (dukkha) The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya) The truth of the
end of suffering (nirhodha) The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga)....the fourth of the Buddha's Noble
Truthsconsists of a set of eight interconnected factors or conditions, that when developed together, lead to the cessation
of dukkha.[39] These eight factors are: Right View (or Right Understanding), Right Intention (or Right Thought), Right Speech,
Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. The eight factors of the path are
not to be understood as stages, in which each stage is completed before moving on to the next. Rather, they are understood
as eight significant dimensions of one's behaviourmental, spoken, and bodilythat operate in dependence on one another.....
Features to Consider: Initial listing
Art - 'Scenes Along the River During the Qingming Festival
Music -
Literature - Poem: The Woodcarver -Chuang Tzu
Drama -
Dance - Remember
the Dancer Liu Yan who prepared for the 2008 Olympics, but got injured....
Festivals: Dragon
Boat - commemorates the death of a popular Chinese national hero, Qu Yuan
Qingming Festival - The Qingming festival falls on the first day of the fifth solar term, named Qingming. Its name denotes
a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime (踏青 Tàqīng, "treading
on the greenery") and tend to the graves of departed ones.
Other - ?
Liu Yan, regarded as China's top classical dancer, was to give the performance of a lifetime: She was to dance a solo at the
opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
More on Liu Yan
|
 |
|
|
THE WOODCARVER
In a Taoist tale titled, The Woodcarver, Chuang Tzu, a Chinese master who lived twenty-five hundred
years ago, spoke timeless wisdom to those interested in finding more emotional or intrapersonal intelligence at work.
Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand
Of precious wood. When it was finished,
All who saw it were astounded.
They said it must be
The work of spirits.
The Prince of Lu said to the master carver:
"What is your secret?"
Khing replied: "I am only a workman:
I have no secret. There is only this:
When I began to think about
the work you commanded
I guarded my spirit, did not expend it
On trifles,
that were not to the point.
I fasted in order to set
My heart at rest.
After three days fasting,
I had
forgotten gain and success.
After five days
I had forgotten praise or criticism.
After seven days
I had
forgotten my body
With all its limbs.
"By this time all thought of your Highness
And of the court
had faded away.
All that might distract me from the work
Had vanished.
I was collected in the single thought
Of the bell stand.
"Then I went to the forest
To see the trees in their own natural state.
When
the right tree appeared before my eyes,
The bell stand also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.
All I had to
do was to put forth my hand
and begin.
"If I had not met this particular tree
There would have been
No bell stand at all.
"What happened?
My own collected thought
Encountered the hidden potential
in the wood;
From this live encounter came the work
Which you ascribe to the spirits."
- Chuang
Tzu
from The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton
|
|
|
|
|
