The power of inner strength

Lijiang has provided me with a huge library of life experiences.

I met many different people who amazed me with their personalities and experiences and even more amazed me with the fact that they were all living freely in the moment, and they made me jump out of my narrow selfish life experience. I no longer easily fall into the mire of my own emotions.

There is always another reasonable way to live, and this is my attempt to let go of my "ego".

As was one of the first friends I made in Lijiang.

He is of mixed Lisu and Dulong descent and came to Lijiang from his family about two years ago to work as a waiter at a bar for a living. During that time, he came into contact with African drums and became interested in making music, so he quit his job and started learning drums. He has the musical talent of an ethnic minority, and without much learning, he can accompany songs he has never heard before, and he can find the intonation of the songs completely.

He is the most original person I have ever met, and perhaps because of this simplicity and directness, many things happen to him that are counter-intuitive.

He set a record for tips at a bar in Lijiang, and in 2009 he was given a card for $300,000. Huang Renyu, 15th year of the Wanli era

The 300,000 tips were spent by him in six months.

He lent the money to his friends, 20,000 to this one and 30,000 to that one. He took his friend to a friend's bar to drink foreign wine again, buying it by the dozen. He took his friend to Chengdu, took a plane to go, and took a plane back, just to treat people to a movie. Later he ran out of money and tried to find a job at the bar of his friend who had paid the bill but was refused. Those who lent him money also pretended not to know him. But he didn't get angry or upset, so he put on his backpack and used his last remaining money to go to Beijing with great enthusiasm to apply for a job as a bar musician. He said that in Beijing he lived in a tin house in a tree because he had no money.

When I met him, he had returned from Beijing, penniless and happy.

A drum as a child is more out of the living newspaper drama. He is a native of Nujiang, grew up in his grandfather's house as a child, and went hunting in the mountains with his grandfather. Later, his father contracted a mine, he followed to the mountains to blow up the mine. Once, he and another worker in the hole to light the explosives, after the ignition of the two of them one after the other ran out, A drum wearing a helmet ran in front, but the helmet is too big, the hole is too small, but was stuck there, the people behind anxiously had to kick him, but a few times to kick him out, the two did not run much farther explosives exploded. His father made some money from the mountain, that period on the net eating, drinking, and gambling, and then the mine was broken to take back, and his family went back to poverty. So far, the family house has not been repaired.

A drum will sometimes talk about earning more money to help the family repair the house. He has little sense of financial management, but in fact, he sends money home every month, sometimes a couple of thousand, sometimes a couple of hundred, but every month. He often called his father a jerk but didn't hate him, he didn't hate anyone.

The drum is doing very well. From my perspective, he lives happily in the moment, laughs when he is happy, drinks when he is upset and fights when he is annoyed. When others dismissed Drum's lifestyle, they realized that we were not as happy and less troubled as he was.

I was once drowning in the shadow of losing my father in childhood, but there is a saying that when I was worried about not having shoes to wear, I suddenly found someone without feet. After living in Lijiang for a while, I found that there were so many kids around who grew up in single-parent families. I lost my father as a child, but then I had a new family, and my new father and sister treated me well, except for the psychological barriers I gave myself, my family did not let me suffer any further setbacks.

But these people around ah, divorced, bereavement of bereavement. There are two girls six or seven months pregnant, suddenly found by their boyfriend cheated, I have not seen the scars on their bellies, but I think about all feeling sad and desperate.

In the sunny Lijiang, the moment they are not also lazing in the sun, enjoying the tranquility of the moment?

Once the environment and mindset change, worries are not so established. Purple River Novel

Some people have exposed me to the emptiness of worry after achieving fame and fortune.

During the Spring Festival public holiday from 2010 to 2011, I sang at the May Day Commune, an afternoon show. One day, a middle-aged man wearing glasses and a yellow punching bag walked in. He didn't look like he was playing outdoors, but looked very civilized, like an intellectual. He ordered a cup of black tea and listened to me sing a few songs. He was very quiet, even a little restrained, I finished each song, he did not applaud, just silently look at me. Before leaving, he took out a hundred dollars to pay the bill for the beets, and ten dollars for the black tea, he said the rest would be given to me as a tip. The next day he came back, the same process, this time he gave five hundred dollars. On the third day, he came again and again gave five hundred dollars. I felt overwhelmed, so I invited him to dinner with Beets in the evening. That night, get to know this man a little. He grew up in the countryside, then went to university to study automation, and then went to the Chinese Academy of Sciences to do research, on the whole, new technology, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences out of the company with others, with technology into the stock, and then he did management, the company operated for seven years, his assets soared to two hundred million. He immigrated with his wife and daughter to the United States.

After this, he suddenly felt that the path of his life had no direction. He was tired of the day-to-day, unchanging life. He had always thought that life was about earning money and wielding power, but when it was done, he suddenly didn't know how to live it. Assets over 100 million, wife and daughter immigrants, elite life to here how to reach the end, what next?

He sold all his shares and started to wander around looking for himself and direction. The night of New Year's Eve, he drank a lot of wine, and then we both wandered the streets of the old city in the early morning, he cried and laughed, and I watched in silence.

After that, we had no contact, and I don't know if he found his way.

Another person I met when I went to Tengchong, started a supermarket, then his assets exceeded 100 million and he became famous, but suddenly he became depressed and almost committed suicide, so he turned to study psychology and was slowly cured. He lamented that anyone who has a psychological problem is because they have not been themselves.

There is also a pharmaceutical company owner, with assets of tens of millions of dollars, who said he was also a guitar enthusiast when he was young, adolescence also formed a band, but the poor can not live, they will think of ways to make money, until later in the herbal business became rich. He also admired us, but also for us sorry, think we so high education should not be nestled here working, "play can, but not a long-term plan."

I later heard these words from a social boss, a director, and a professor respectively. They were all very envious of our state of life at that time, but they also felt that we were not doing our job after all, not a long-term solution. In their eyes, there is always a "proper job" and "long term".

I have seen and heard all kinds of people's stories. The more I saw and heard, the more I understood impermanence. At that time, I confirmed one thing through their stories: success is not the same as happiness, and true happiness does not come from the outside, but the inside.

I started to try some things to shape my heart: I learned to make tea, read some books, communicated with some monks, and occasionally meditated to watch my mind. And during this period, the more important thing was that Beet started to guide me to resolve our conflicts through communication. In short, I tried to practice myself in life.

Making a good cup of tea requires relaxation, removal of distractions, and mental focus, which is the same as the gist of spiritual practice. While a full cup of tea requires at least forty minutes of leisure, it often takes two hours to finish a cup of tea without a single thought. Being at ease is also a goal of the practice, and making tea every day became an important part of my inner building.

At the same time, I became interested in the question: what is Buddha? The Tibetan Code Novel

I asked my master directly what a Buddha was, and he said, "A Buddha is a pure mind in the present moment."

I asked the Master again which are the main points of Buddha's teachings were.

Master said three things: "There is no constant and no self, all dharmas are born from cause and effect, and a vacuum gives rise to a wonderful existence."

I found myself becoming more and more convinced that with more wisdom, there will be fewer worries.

To gain wisdom, you have to quiet that mind first, don't you?

I made some attempts in this state, such as meditation and contemplation, and I found that these were useful in subduing the self-mind. At the same time, I slowly developed a habit of giving the choice to others, and these attempts slowly brought my life and Beet's back to the mainstream.

During this time our relationship began to change, as did my perception of our relationship and my perception of Beet. This was a critical time for me to understand the meaning of the word "wisdom". She had skin allergies due to her pregnancy, and I realized in the process of taking care of her that if you do something for someone else with a little bit of selfishness, you won't be happy doing it.

I repeatedly told Beet that I was happy to take care of her, but whether I was really happy to take care of her, she could feel it.

Doing good with selfishness is not only ineffective for the person you are helping, but it is also harmful to the doer, who always feels aggrieved by the act.

When I learned to put myself in Beet's shoes, I slowly realized how much she loved me.

I recalled every moment I spent with her and finally realized that she had been doing one thing for seven years: making me happy. When I don't want to meet with her parents, she will not let me go to her house; I don't want to get married, she will carry the pressure of her family and say no; I don't want children, she said that we agreed not to have children for life; when I want to wander the four directions, she dragged me away; when I want to go to Dali, she immediately went to Dali to find a yard. What she has been doing is trying out what kind of life would make me happy ...... She usually observes for a long time and tries for a long time before she knows, and then she tries to make it happen.

To heal her skin, we went to Tengchong last October and stayed in a valley for over ten days. We lived in a small wooden hut, with our eyes open and closed, only trees, birds, and animals, just her and me.

She was with me for more than seven years, and in that valley, when everything was peaceful and calm, I finally saw her love for me.

Beet is a wise woman, about happiness, she understood much earlier than I - very simple, is the whole body and soul want me to be happy. The bodhisattva is the same: to wish all beings out of suffering with all your heart and soul, to give with all your heart and soul without residing in your heart, is the way of the bodhisattva.

We always like to sing the song "I want to sing me to you", and every time we both sing it to each other face to face. You know what, it's not romantic, but an unbelievably happy enjoyment.

Believe it or not, when concentrating on singing the praises of each other, the heart is quiet, and worries no longer exist.

What do you want in a lifetime?

Who has not been troubled, our life seems to be always trapped by big and small worries. There are thousands and thousands of ways to get away from troubles, but the most direct way seems to be the word "non-attachment", and the most thorough way is the word "wisdom".

Life is so short, what do you want in life - only wisdom and happiness ear.

Wang Bo and Beet now left Lijiang and rented an old courtyard that was about to collapse next to the Erhai Gate in the old city of Dali. They took matters into their own hands and turned it into a guest house, named the Soundless Society, and pushed open the window to the peaceful fields.

It's a very remote place to go, I don't know how long it will last, if you go to Dali, please stay in their courtyard. If you have the chance, listen to the chorus of "Want to sing me to you" by the two of them.

Wang Bo and Beet's baby is on the way, and I can't help but smile as I try to imagine them standing in front of me with their baby in their arms, asking for their New Year's money.

Northwest Yunnan is an ocean, a dark tide of fish and dragons, Wang Bo and Beet are two fish that occasionally swim by my side. They and I walked together for a short period of water, and each into a different ocean current. What they have experienced, I have also experienced. What they are about to experience, is also what I will go through. What I see in them is the outlet of the self, the strength of the self, the courage to grow, and a strange touch of wisdom.

This is a side of the eight wind-blown rivers and lakes, and it is my honor to be associated with them in the days of going with the flow.

I have a premonition that in the unknown years to come, we will each finish drawing a curve and parallel again in the same vacuum and wonderful waters.