Hope Is a Ticket to the Heaven

This picture is an icon of Project Hope (Xiwang Gongcheng), China's charity movement to help rural kids to stay at school. She is the Chinese version of the Afghan Girl of the National Geographic...

Fear is an express ticket
To a personal hell.
It will keep your mind busy
With what you don’t want.

But overwhelmed by fear
Your mind often mistakes it
With what you do want.

So when you have a fear
Just throw it away.
And replace it with hope.

Don’t know what you hope?
No sweat.
When you hope you have hope
You already have one.

Keep a hope in your mind always
Because it is a ticket to the Heaven.

You Can't Fish Deer in the Sea!

Don't try catching mackerel here!

Chance favours the prepared mind. - Louis Pasteur
Opportunity + Preparedness = Good Luck - Deepak Chopra

Even when you see others eating fish
Empty-handed on your way home from hunting
Don't envy them.
They aren't eating what you've wanted.
They are just eating what they've wanted.

While you went to the forest seeking deer,
They went to the beach seeking small fish.
You've sought after what is big but hard to get.
They've sought after what are small but sure to get.

They've decided to settle with
What can fill their stomach tonight.
You've decided to pursue
What would make you a heroine someday
But would leave you hungry this evening.

If you envy them, settle with filling your stomach tonight.
Just don't let you go on burning in the fire of envy.
It'd only deepen the personal hell that you’re already in.

They've got what they've valued.
You are still on the way of getting what you value.
If you envy them eating fish,
Pause your hunting for a while and learn from them
How to fill your stomach tonight.

You may find happiness in full stomach
Even though it doesn't give you glory.
Or such happiness may never satisfy you.
I don't know what you'd feel.

But you can start hunting again after fish supper.
I guess you'd hunt better
With your stomach and mind satisfied a bit.

I just want to tell you
You'll only get what you really want.
You'll only get what you really value.

So know clearly what you really value...

A Chihuahua's Faith

A Chihuahua loves to bark.
So does a Pomeranian.
Small dogs bark a lot.
It's not the sign of their strength
But is merely the display of their fear.

They need defense
Because they want to scare off their own fears
That comes from their smallness.

I talk a lot about God.
It's definitely not the sign of my strength.
But it's merely a display of my insecurity.
Anyone doesn't have to talk about strong God
When he is fully secure.

I only have a Chihuahua's faith.

Let Go of What Isn't Really Yours

Japan saw a miraculous economic growth
after surrendering to the Allied Nations in 1945.
History works in paradox. So does a life.

When you are pushing hard and going nowhere,
You’ve already pushing hard enough.
You can’t push any further,
I guess, because you are pushing in a wrong place.

Maybe the land here is not as fertile as you think.
Maybe the land here is someone else’s turf.
But anyway, it is futile to go on pushing in a place
That is not really yours.

So surrender now.

Stop pushing and let go of what is not really yours.
Clinging onto what you don’t deserve makes much pain
That only keeps you stuck where you are.

So surrender now.
You’ll see your right way unfold itself in front of your eyes
Only if you can let go what is not really yours,
Only if you can surrender.

Surrendering looks like defeat to others.
But it doesn’t matter.
Surrendering what is not really yours
Is the road that leads you to a true victory!

Wait for the Tailwind

You've sailed so fast and so long.
Actually you've done so much
Without knowing it.
Even though you feel things don't go well,
Actually everything's okay with you.

When you can sail without pain,
Actually you sail before the wind of time.
So don't be disappointed
Even though you can get no tailwind now.
It will certainly blow again soon.

Now you can mend the sail.
You can grease the helm now.
Now you can learn how to sail better.
So that you can sail faster
When the wind blows again for you.

A season is set for everything,
A time for every experience under heaven...*

*Ecclesiastes 3:1 (The New JPS Translation)