Category

Wisdom

月到天心

By Photography, Wisdom
望月

望月

二十多年前的乡下没有路灯,夜里穿过田野要回到家里,差不多是摸黑的,平常时日,都是借着微明的天光,摸索着回家。

偶尔有星星,就亮了很多,感觉到心里也有星星的光明。

如果是有月亮的时候,心里就整个沉淀下来,丝毫没有了黑夜的恐惧。在南台湾,尤其是夏夜,月亮的光格外有辉煌的光明,能使整条山路都清清楚楚地延展出来。

乡下的月光是很难形容的,它不像太阳的投影是从外面来,它的光明犹如从草树、从街路、从花叶,乃至从屋檐下、墙垣内部微微地渗出,有时会误以为万事万物的本身有着自在的光明。假如夜深有雾,到处都弥漫着清气,当萤火虫成群飞过,仿佛是月光所掉落出来的精灵。

每一种月光下的事物都有了光明,真是好!

更好的是,在月光底下,我们也觉得自己心里有着月亮、有着光明,那光明虽不如阳光温暖,却是清凉的,从头顶的发到脚尖的指甲都感受月的清凉。

走一段路,抬起头来,月亮总是跟着我们,照着我们。在童年的岁月里,我们心目中的月亮有一种亲切的生命,就如同有人提灯为我们引路一样。我们在路上,月在路上;我们在山顶,月在山顶;我们在江边,月在江中;我们回到家里,月正好在家屋门前。

直到如今,童年看月的景象,以及月光下的乡村都还历历如绘。但对于月之随人却带着一丝迷思,月亮永远跟随我们,到底是错觉还是真实的呢?可以说它既是错觉,也是真实。由于我们知道月亮只有一个,人人却都认为月亮跟随自己,这是错觉;但当月亮伴随我们时,我们感觉到月是唯一的,只为我照耀,这是真实。

长大以后才知道,真正的事实是,每一个人心中有一片月,它是独一无二、光明湛然的,当月亮照耀我们时,它反映着月光,感觉天上的月也是心中的月。在这个世界上 ,每个人心里都有月亮埋藏,只是自己不知罢了。只有极少数的人,在最黑暗的时刻,仍然放散月的光明,那是知觉到自己就是月亮的人。

. . . . . . 从前读过许多诵月的诗,有一些颇能说出“心中之月”的境界,例如王阳明的《蔽月山房》:

山近月远觉月小,便道此山大于月;
若人有眼大如天,当见山高月更阔。

确实,如果我们能把心眼放开到天一样大,月不就在其中吗?只是一般人心眼小,看起来山就大于月亮了。还有一首是宋朝理学家邵雍写的《清夜吟》:

月到天心处,风来水面时;
一般清意味,料得少人知。

月到天心、风来水面,都有着清凉明净的意味,只有微细的心情才能体会,一般人是不能知道的。

我们看月,如果只看到天上之月,没有见到心灵之月,则月亮只是极短暂的偶遇,哪里谈得上什么永恒之美呢?

所以回到自己,让自己光明吧!

[文:林清玄]

Waste not – by Eric Knight

By Wisdom
Autumn time (photo by Uzay)

Autumn time (photo by Uzay)

“Waste not the smallest thing created, for grains of sand make mountains, and atomies infinity.  Waste not the smallest time in imbecile infirmity, for well thou knowest that seconds form eternity.”
– Eric Knight

The little wave

By Wisdom
On waves - on oceans (photo by Yana Gayvoronskaya)

On waves - on oceans (photo by Yana Gayvoronskaya)

A little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He’s enjoying the wind and the fresh air – until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. “My God, this terrible”,the wave says. “Look what’s going to happen to me!”

Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him: “Why do you look so sad?” The first wave says: “You don’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t it terrible?”

The second wave says: “No, you don’t understand. You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.”

[source: “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom]

The generous vegetable seller

By Compassion, Wisdom
Chen's frugality has allowed her to donate over $3000,000 to many charitable causes. (Photo: Marc Gerritsen)

Chen's frugality has allowed her to donate over $3000,000 to many charitable causes. (Photo: Marc Gerritsen)

“This extraordinary woman thinks nothing of living a life devoid of luxuries in order to help those less fortunate than her”
By Esther Liang

After the morning hustle and bustle, the atmosphere at Tai-tung county’s Central Market quietens as every stall shuts for the day and their owners return to the comfort of their homes. A lone lamp shines on a vegetable stall. With head bowed, Chen Shu-Chu silently sorts out the vegetable leaves as she waits for the occasional afternoon customer. Decades of hard work have caused the fingers on the right hand to curl and joints to swell; her feet have deformed slightly. 

Chen leads her life with a daily routine – waking up at three in the morning, she makes her way to the vegetable wholesaler and sets up her stall, which she tends till seven or eight in the evening. Being the first to arrive and last to leave, the other stall owners have fondly given her the title of ‘market manager’. 

In the dark and damp market, Chen, nearing her sixties, holds the stall her father left her dearly. Yuan-Jin Vegetables is her everything. With her vegetables selling at “a bundle for 30 dollars, three bundles for 50”, Chen earns only marginal profits. Yet, her frugality has allowed her to donate about NT$10 million ($321,550) towards various charitable causes, including helping schools, orphanages and poor children. 

The selfless generosity of a woman with such humble income has placed her under the international spotlight. In March, Forbes magazine named her one of 48 outstanding philanthropists from the Asia-Pacific region. A month later, TIME magazine selected the year’s top 100 influential people and Chen emerged under the ‘Heroes of Philanthrophy’ category. Fellow Taiwanese and Oscar-winning director Lee Ang wrote her entry personally. “Money is only worthy if given to those in need,” he quoted Chen. He also wrote, “Amazing, but of all she has given away, her greatest gift is leading by example.” 

Despite the honour of receiving the TIME award in New York, gaining global recognition, and a personal meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou, all Chen really cares about is her vegetable stall. If not for President Ma and the foreign minister personally convincing her to go, she would not have agreed to visit New York as she felt “this is not a competition and I did not win anything”. Amid the frenzy of applying for a passport and preparing for the visit, Chen’s main concern was that her regular customers would not get their vegetables. 

Chen has become a celebrity in Taitung county. Local authorities decorated her stall with congratulatory posters and banners hailing her as the ‘Pride of Taitung’ and the ‘Model of Philanthropy’. There are fans who turn up at the stall with a vegetable basket and a camera, hoping for a picture with Chen. Despite all the attention, Chen remains humble. “I have done nothing extraordinary and everyone who wants to can do it. There are many other charitable people; we just don’t know about them.” Chen, who is unmarried, adds, “I do not place great importance on money. When I donate to help others, I feel at peace and happy, and I can sleep well at night.” She also feels for the poor having experienced hardship in her younger days. 

All she needs is food and a place to sleep. Everything else is a luxury.

All she needs is food and a place to sleep. Everything else is a luxury.

Born in 1950, Chen lost her mother after completing her primary school education. Her mother was admitted to hospital due to difficulties in labour and the family had to pay an insurance of NT$5000 ($160) before medical attention could be granted. Chen saw her father asking their neighbours for money but it was too late to save her mother. The eldest daughter in the family, Chen had to grow up overnight. She gave up her studies and dedicated her life to helping at the vegetable stall. 

When she was 18, her younger brother fell sick and the illness dragged on for over a year, gradually depleting the family’s savings. Doctors suggested the family send her brother to Taiwan National University Hospital, but how could they afford the fees? Huang Shun-zhong, a teacher at Ren-ai Primary School, started a donation drive. Unfortunately, her brother could not be saved. 

After experiencing the kindness bestowed upon her family, Chen made up her mind to help the poor once she was able. When her father passed away 17 years ago, Chen, a devoted Buddhist, generously donated NT$1 million ($32,140) to Fo Guang Shan Monastery. In 2000, she donated NT$1 million to her alma mater, Ren-ai Primary School, to set up an “Emergency Relief Fund” to help poor children obtain financial help. 

Assisting in the setting up and maintenance of the fund is Li Guorong, who teaches Chen’s nephew. In 2001, Li had a plan to build a library for the school and estimated the cost to be between NT$4 million and NT$5 million. When he approached Chen, in the hope that she might contribute NT$50,000, Li was shocked when Chen said she would fund the entire project. While the school was sceptical, Chen was determined. In May 2005, the two-storey library was completed and named “Chen Shu-Chu Library” in honour of the ‘Vegetable Market heroine’ alumnus. She had donated NT$4.5 million. 

Chen’s ability to donate such large sums of money has led many to ask, How can a mere vegetable seller earn so much? 

“Spend only what you need, and you’ll be able to save up a lot of money!” says Chen. Since 1996, she has been donating NT$36,000 ($1150) to help three children in the Kids-alive International organisation. To achieve this, Chen explains that she empties her loose change into three little cardboard boxes at home every night. “This is a simple act that can be done by anyone, isn’t it?” says Chen. 

Chen leads a very simple life without any luxuries. Neither does she have any desire for material gains nor any form of enjoyment. Work, she says, is her enjoyment. “I love my work. If I didn’t, would I be able to work 16 hours a day?” All she needs is food and a place to sleep. Everything else is a luxury. 

Has business improved after winning the award? “Business is as usual,” Chen says. “I still need to sell my vegetables, not much has changed.” Advertisers have approached her to film commercials, financial managers have offered to manage her finances and other well-wishers have offered to donate money. Chen rejects these advances politely. “It is easy to return borrowed money, but difficult to return a favour,” she says. 

“My philosophy in life is simple: If doing something makes you worried, then it must be a wrong thing. If it makes you happy, then you must have done the right thing. What others say is not important,” says Chen. She is content with what she has and feels that as long as she “lives a life she wishes for and does the things she wants, that is good enough”.

[article: Esther Liang, published in Reader’s Digest]

So why is toilet paper white anyway?

By Wisdom
Toilet paper (photography by Jordi Gallego)

Toilet paper (photography by Jordi Gallego)

I recently wrote an email to Kimberly Clark (famous for their paper products including Kleenex, Scott, Viva and Cottonelle) and asked why they bleach their toilet paper white. Their customer support explained that bleaching is not only for aesthetic purposes – it also removes the lignin or glue from the wood. The removal of lignin helps improve the strength, feel and shelf life of their tissue and paper.

Unfortunately, most paper mills and companies like Kimberly Clark use chlorine to bleach their toilet paper. The chlorine bleaching process creates many incredibly toxic by-products including dioxins which end up in our water systems and soils.

Humans are most often exposed to these chemicals by eating contaminated food (e.g. fish), drinking contaminated water, or by working at companies that produce dioxins (e.g. paper mills). It is believe that populations exposed to high levels of dioxins have increased risks of birth defects, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. You can learn more about studies on dioxins at the Nation Institute of Health.

I also wrote an email to Seventh Generation and asked why they whiten their toilet paper and why they, in contrast to Kimberly Clark, bleach without chlorine. Here’s Seventh Generation’s response from the Director of Contract Manufacturing:

“Our tissue products are whitened using processes that are chlorine free. Hydrogen peroxide and/or sodium hydrosulfate are typically used to whiten. Because our tissue products are made from 100% recycled feedstock, this lignin (glue) is not an issue for us. It has already been removed. The whitening process helps provide a tissue with consistent look and feel.

Although I tend to agree directionally with the statement about the lignin and its potential undesired impacts on tissue characteristics, I don’t necessarily agree that chlorine containing substances are the best overall methods for bleaching wood pulp when considering the potential adverse impact on the environment in which we live. Furthermore, I am not necessarily agreeing so readily that bleaching is absolutely necessary in order to make a tissue product that can meet consumer’s expectations. As a matter of fact, we offer an unbleached version of paper towels and napkins which tend to be well accepted by the Seventh generation customer. So, I am suggesting that even if bleaching result in somewhat better tissue characteristics, the value added may not be worth it if all aspects of the situation are being considered.”

As Seventh Generation mentions, there are alternatives to the chlorine bleaching processes. Here are your more eco-friendly options when it comes to toilet paper:

  • Unbleached: Completely natural – no bleach added. May not be a winner on softness or comfort.
  • Processed Chlorine Free (PCF): Recycled paper bleached with oxygen, ozone, or hydrogen peroxide. Examples brands of PCF toilet paper: Seventh Generation, Green Forest, Planet, 365 Whole Foods, Earth First. See the NRDC’s toilet paper comparison chart.
  • Totally Chlorine Free (TCF): Non-recycled paper bleached with oxygen, ozone, or hydrogen.

That was the good, now here’s the bad (and the ugly):

  • Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF): Paper bleached with chlorine dioxide. This process releases fewer dioxins than bleaching with chlorine gas, but it is still is harmful to the environment. Examples brands of ECF toilet paper: Charmin, Quilted Northern, Cottonelle, Angle Soft, Kleenex, Safeway Select
  • Chlorine Gas: Dioxins galore!

So the next time you’re purchasing toilet paper, try out paper that is chlorine free. It’s better for the environment and still white and soft.

[source: http://thegreentoilet.blogspot.com/2008/02/so-why-is-toilet-paper-white-anyway.html]