Bodhisattva Guan Yin
This is corinne malaske with an allegory for you. As some may know, but others not. An allegory is an artform whose parts or components symbolize meanings. This can be done in a symbolic type of a story, painting, emblem or sculpture. A dove is a symbol or emblem for peace; while a cupid or heart symbolizes love. All of us can think of many more examples, but I offer this Allegory to ponder. I first read it a few years ago and several times since. Upon reading it again recently, I found my understandings had changed from before. What will you understand from this story?
An Allegory of Cultivation: A Stubborn Water Bottle
Once upon a time, there was a water bottle in paradise. Guan Yin used the waterbottle to contain the elixir and a willow twig. The water bottle had accompanied Guan Yin in paradise for thousands of years and always thought that it was very important to Guan Yin. However, one day Guan Yin suddenly picked up the water bottle and said, “Water bottle, you have become filthy and may no longer stay in this realm. You must now leave for a different realm appropriate to your level.” The water bottle said anxiously, “Guan Yin, I am not filthy! I am as clean and shiny as ever! I am not filthy or tarnished at all!” Guan Yin explained with a smile, “Yes, your appearance is as shiny and clean as ever, but your nature has deteriorated. You no longer meet the standard of this realm!” The water bottle started to beg, “Guan Yin, I have been staying beside you for such a long time. Could you make an exception for the old time’s sake?” Guan Yin smiled again and said, “Water bottle, think about what you have just said and try to compare you with yourself thousands of years [click to continue…]
A portrayal of family respect and harmony between two generations. (Photo source: sssuzun/Flickr)
Hello again, my name is Grace Mann, and it is my privilege to bring you another Ancient Tale of Wisdom – HARMONIOUS RELATIONSHIP STARTS WITH ONESELF.
There was a businessman named Ma Wenan who lived in Xinghua County, Jiangsu Province in ancient China. Mr. Ma was well educated and had good manners. His wife, Ms. Wu, was smart, pretty, and good at doing housework, but she was a little arrogant and critical of others.
Ms. Wu didn’t get along well with her mother-in-law. Every time Ma Wenan returned home from a business trip both his wife and mother would blame each other for all their troubles and refused to listen to each other. This made Mr. Ma very uneasy. He knew that his wife did not respect his mother, and he wanted to change that. One day he came up with a plan to help his wife gain insight into her conflict with his mother.
The next time when Ms. Wu started to complain about her mother-in-law, Ma Wenan said, “I know my mother is too talkative, and I have thought about moving out. However, our relatives and friends don’t know how difficult my mother is. If we move out so suddenly people will say that we have failed to fulfil our duty to our elders and that we are cruel and heartless. So you’ll have to tolerate her for a month or two. Before we move out, if you can take care of my mother wholeheartedly, everyone will know of your great filial piety and how unreasonable my mother is. Then, no one will be able to criticize us.”
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Dawn of Time (Narrated by Corinne Malaske)
Dawn of Time
A time will come, prophesized the soothsayers of old,
when man will battle with his brothers and sisters,
when the Gods are no longer pure and pristine,
when everything will need to be replaced.
A time will come, prophesized the soothsayers of old,
when breath-taking events will unfold,
in the human world, the heavens and all of creation,
in places beyond the reach of the most seeking eyes.
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Welcome, this is Corinne Malaske with an Ancient tale of Wisdom to share, that of ‘The Golden Buddha’. It has touched my heart and I hope it will touch yours.Since time began, Humans have always sought divine enlightenment. This story is about the purity of this desire to cultivate or raise ourselves up.
A butcher came upon two people cultivating the state of enlightenment or Buddha hood. They told the butcher they were going West to see the Buddha and asked him to come with them. The butcher said, “I’m just too filthy and not worthy enough. Please, take my sincere heart with you.” So saying, the butcher took out his own heart, entrusting it to these two people. They agreed to take his heart into the West to the Buddha.
They did indeed find the Buddha. The Buddha pointed to a giant pot full of boiling water and asked them to jump into the pot. They both felt a lot of hesitation and uncertainty. They decided to throw the butcher’s heart into [click to continue…]
The virtues and principals that bridged Bing Ji's Heavenly rewards of honour and good fortune. (Photo DanieVDM/Flickr)
My name is Grace Mann, and it is my privilege to bring you the story; Selflessly Fulfilling One’s Duty.
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Bing Ji, a man from the West Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.) was very forgiving and morally respectable. He did a lot of great things in a low-keyed manner and never showed off.
Emperor Xuan of Han (91- 49 B.C.) was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty from 74 B.C. to 49 B.C. His life story was a riches-to-rags-to-riches story. Emperor Xuan’s birth name was Liu Bingyi. He was born in 91 B.C. to Liu Jin, the son of then-Crown Prince Liu Ju, and his wife Consort Wang. Emperor Xuan was the great grandson of Emperor Wu (140 – 87 B.C.)
Late in Emperor Wu’s reign, conspirators accused Crown Prince Ju of using witchcraft against his father, Emperor Wu. Prince Ju was forced into a rebellion which was defeated. Prince Ju committed suicide, and his two uncles died with him. Empress Wei also committed suicide. Prince Ju’s concubine Consort Shi and Emperor Xuan’s parents also died in the incident in the capital. Emperor Xuan (then baby Bingyi) was but a few months old at the time. Bingyi was spared, although he was imprisoned and overseen by the Ministry of Vassal Affairs. He was put into the custody of the warden Bing Ji. Bing knew that Prince Ju was actually not guilty of using witchcraft and took pity on the child, and selected two kind female prisoners, Hu Zu and Guo Zhengqing, to serve as his wet nurses and caretakers. Bing visited them each day to see how the child was doing. Bing Ji reported to Emperor Wu several times, telling him that there was not enough evidence to support the witchcraft accusation, but each time he was reproached by Emperor Wu.
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A party of visitors had been seeing the sights at Hsi Ling. They had just passed down the Holy Way between the huge stone animals when Bamboo, a little boy of twelve, son of a keeper, rushed out from his father’s house to see the mandarins go by. Such a parade of great men he had never seen before, even on the feast days. There were ten sedan chairs, with bearers dressed in flaming colours, ten long-handled, red umbrellas, each carried far in front of its proud owner, and a long line of horsemen. [click to continue…]
Zhou Chu Got Rid of the Three Terrors
Welcome to another Tales of Wisdom, today our story is about a young man who discovered that where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Zhou Chu lived during the Jin Dynasty (1115 – 1234), in a place now called Yixing, in Jiangsu province. Lacking proper parental guidance during his childhood, Zhou developed into a rough and unrestrained menace, with a temperament that was rude, fierce, and unscrupulous. He became the village terror, and villagers were extremely fearful of him, avoiding him like the plague.
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Today we have a story about the Chinese Military General Qi Jiguang (戚繼光) of the Ming Dynasty, who was taught by his father from a young age not to indulge in opulence or develop vanity.
Qi Jiguang (November 12, 1528 – January 5, 1588) was a national hero during the Ming Dynasty. He was best remembered for his courage and leadership in the fight against Japanese pirates along the east coast of China as well as his reinforcement work on the Great Wall of China. According to historical accounts, Qi Jiguang’s father, Qi Jingtong (戚景通), was an honest and upright man. He cultivated in his son a yearning for knowledge as well as a firm set of morals. When his father died, Qi Jiguang took over the commandership of the Dengzhou Garrison at the age of seventeen. The rest, as they say, is history.
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There were many good mothers in ancient China who paid special attention to their children’s education. The following are inspirational stories of two mothers who taught their children to be pure and honest.
Tian Ji’s Mother Refuses to Accept a Bribe of Gold
During the Warring States Period (453–221 B.C.), Tian Ji was the prime minister of the Qi State. He was known for his hard work and diligence.
One day one of Tian’s subordinates presented Tian with a gift of 100 taels of gold so that he could be favored by Tian. [the Chinese tael refers to a unit of measure in the ancient Chinese system of weights and currency. One tael of silver weighed about 40 grams]. Tian refused the gift repeatedly, but he eventually accepted it to be diplomatic. He returned home and forwarded the gift to his mother. But his mother was outraged and scolded him, “This gold is worth more than your salary for the past three years as a prime minister! Have you robbed the gold from the people or have you accepted a bribe?”
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There is a shrine dedicated to Yue Fei on the bank of West Lake in Hangzhou City. [General Yue Fei is a much-celebrated hero of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 – 1279 A.D.) He is known for his courage and patriotism, and credited with defending China against northern invaders. He died a tragic death at the hands of a court official named Qin Hui.] In front of the Shrine there are four cast iron kneeling statues. Two statues are Qin Hui and his wife, Madam Wang, responsible for betraying the country and murdering Yue Fei. [click to continue…]
Hu-lin was a little slave girl. She had been sold by her father when she was scarcely more than a baby, and had lived for five years with a number of other children in a wretched houseboat. Her cruel master treated her very badly. He made her go out upon the street, with the other girls he had bought, to beg for a living.
This kind of life was especially hard for Hu-lin. She longed to play in the fields, above which the huge kites were sailing in the air like giant birds. She liked to see the crows and magpies flying hither and thither. It was great fun to watch them build their stick nests in the tall poplars. But if her master ever caught her idling her time away in this manner he beat her most cruelly and gave her nothing to eat for a whole day. In fact he was so wicked and cruel that all the children called him Black Heart. [click to continue…]
Hello, welcome to another Ancient Tales of Wisdom, today we will tell you about the story of the Divine Farmer who Tasted Hundreds of Herbs.
Shennong, or Divine Farmer, is said to have taught the Chinese farming methods and herbal medicine.
As Chinese mythology has it, after God Pangu created heaven and earth and Goddess Nuuwa created human beings, more gods were sent down to assist human life and help build civilization. One such god is a legendary King Shennong, or the Divine Farmer, who taught the Chinese how to farm and to use medicinal herbs. He is said to have invented many agricultural tools such as the plough, axe, hoe, etc., and taught the ancient Chinese how to convert barren wastes into farming fields. He also tasted hundreds of plants and distinguished 365 different kinds of medicinal herbs.
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Chinese people often say, “Heaven has eyes.”, and believe this to be an absolute truth. Today, we will bring you a story from the Zhou Dynasty which demonstrates Ancient China’s reverence for the Gods.
According to the Book of Shang, one year after the Zhou Dynasty was conquered by the Shang Dynasty, Emperor Wuwang became very ill.
Wuwang ‘s loyal advisor, Zhougong set up an altar and prayed to the three former emperors of the Zhou Dynasty, pledging his own life as collateral. He said “Your grandson is very ill. I am willing to die if Wuwang lives and serve the gods and ghosts in his place”. Zhougong continued to say “Wuwang has been appointed by the Heaven to rule in the world, and as such, the lives of people are stable and they revere the Gods. Please let Wuwang continue his duties and consider my request before deciding who’s life to take.”
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