In a world of compassion,if we be callous enough to ignore all the sentience of living things, all the sentimental reasons of existences, it were as reckless a task to endeavour to annihilate perception while sense existed as to blunt the purest affection in the heart to let it fail to respond to the sincerest sighs and whisper. The insensitivity in the heart withers its vital energy, yet it still yearns for the delight of existence and the pride of life; we still desire something which can pep us up. While the heart is stricken intolerably lonely, we would have recourses to some measures ministerial to its pleasures,to its self-complacency, to the mirage of ever-increasing prosperity, trying hard to recover the ecstasy in living, yet without noticing there is something so vain and pretentious in such the arts of dissimulation and falsehood.
Some people would like to follow the bent of their inclinations. The Sun rises and sets, the day passes, and any party,any thing to fill up the day has been enough. It seems to us that in a consumer city, there is a wide variety of entertainment to make us grow enthusiastic as long as we could afford to spend money. Although the great world goes on, the party could not continue forever and eventually it has to come to an end. When the party is over, the concealed stillness in the ballroom would make us feel even more lonesome in the aftermath of the ecstatic happiness.
To seek pleasure and make merry, to get what we want to our hearts’ content are the principles of Human Nature. Besides, the deepest principle of Human Nature is the craving to be appreciated; in such frame of mind, we perhaps have let loose a demon in our hearts unawares, and that all our actions will now be for the sake of such rewards. We would have it gratified in the pursuit of wealth and status as to glory in having the outstanding social ranks to make a parade of our powers. Therefore the participations in a variety of gatherings,cocktail receptions,dinners,etc.,become the main agenda of life. People are seeking interpersonal relationships in these venues for social intercourse to attain to the individual self-interested goals. In these occasions, it is not very difficult for a person of ordinary capacity to make an affectation of cordiality and friendliness which is not felt, and to make promises which are never intended to be performed. As our passions are not sincere and our intentions are not honorable, all these doings could not nourish our hearts.
Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty(206BC----8AD) had already summed up the mode of activities of mankind, ‘All the hustles are coming for fames; all the bustles are going for gains.’ A famous story can be read as the intrepretation of the remark of Sima Qian. On one occasion, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty made a tour to Jiangnan in disguise. One day, he went to the Jinshan Temple which was high up in the mountain.He saw many boats going to and fro on the Yangtze River in constant streams, and asked an old monk how long he had been living here. Of course the old monk did not know that the asker was the current emperor and replied: ’I have lived here for decades.’ Qianlong asked: ‘For such long time, Can you figure out the number of boats coming and going in so many years?’ The old monk replied: ‘Only two boats altogether.’ Qianlong was surprised and asked again: ‘What does this mean? Why only two boats in decades?’ replied:’ There are only two boats in human life: one is loaded with fame; one is loaded with gain.’ We are actually all busy people, and the pursuits of profit and power engage our full attention till we die. When Time has enrolled us in the list of the departed, surely never shall the sun has shed the warmth of tenderness into our apathetic hearts, never shall we have breathed the blessed air fragrant with forest leaves and bright autumnal berries.
The volume of the heart is seemingly a limited small one, but it has an enormous embrace. What is wholeheartedness? Is it something materials—which must be taken from one to be given to another? Is it capable of no extension, no communication? We are so used to carry on the cold drear length of the anticipated prospect of life of repression, as to be insensible to the excellent power of it and never could we perceive how wonderful when it overflows with all the compassionate feelings of the world, warmth as a humanist and concern for humankind and beyond.
I have often thought it a peculiarly unlucky circumstance in duling with real duties, that though in every other situation in life putting the last ounce of pluck and strength into the pursuit of gain and power is not only the efficient, but actually by far the easiest way of proceeding, we are never under great difficulty in doing everything for its own sake, for its own merit than when the passion is the imaginative pleasure; of doing for the love of fame, for the selfish excitement of the fleeting tribute to self-interest. Therefore to my gratification, the execution of my exhibition being held at Fo Guang Yuan Gallery, all the efforts of the sincere volunteers have contributed to make the exhibition a successful one. They have left undone nothing which ought to be done to fulfil a duty.
Even the cassocked Master of the abbess there mounted the ladder to adjust the placement of the paintings being hung, to fix the lighting apparatuses so as to enhance the effect of display. And at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Man Lan Master who officiated the ceremony, is very nice to give me a souvenir! I am deeply touched by what all they have done with the pure, simple, unsophisticated virtues of a heart which is capable of abstracting itself to observe all the duties a task ought to be fulfilled.
Replace the heart of selfishness, possessiveness with that of benevolence and kindness, and let it be the way to see others and the world; one would know that humans are large temperamentally, large enough to desire the happiness of others, to love virtue for virtue’s own loveliness, to embrace all the betterment of the world. And in the affectionate feelings, there is ever the blessed will on this side of eternity to transmit us the bright, bounding gratefulness.
