I recently watched The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki, which is the fifth-grossing Japanese film of all time and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. But aside from the beautiful animation and rich story, the film gave me a lot of food for thought and life lessons, which is what I want to share in this article.   Image Source Warning: There will be spoilers, but I will not explain the plot of the story (Wikipedia already did that). It's certainly helpful to watch the movie before reading this article, but it's not necessary as I will explain any required conte ..read more

Once, a father and his son went to another village to purchase a donkey. They were walking back with their new donkey when a passerby commented, "What foolish people. They have a donkey, yet they are still walking!"   The son then invited his father to ride the donkey. A short while later, some passersby commented, "What an unkind father, riding the donkey by himself while making his son walk!" Image Source   The father then got off the donkey and told his son to ride it. They continued walking, when another passerby said, "What a rude child, riding the donkey by himself while maki ..read more

Have ever encountered an awkward conflict and not know what to do? That happened to me this past week, and I saw my mentor handle it really smoothly. Image Source: Wix AI Every week, I attend an online Chinese philosophy discussion class with a small group of people. Usually, one person shares a problem they are facing and what they've done to try to solve it, and then the MC guides everyone to discuss the problem together. At the end, our teacher and mentor gives feedback to all our discussed ideas.   This past week was supposed to be my turn to share. That day, I was really tired bec ..read more

Image Source: Wix AI Two monks were washing their feet in a river when they saw a scorpion struggling in the water. Knowing that scorpions cannot swim, the elder monk knelt down to scoop it out of the water and set it on the shore. As he slowly and calmly picked up the scorpion, it stung his hand. Out of pain and reflex, the monk dropped the scorpion. He then tried again a couple more times, but faster. However, he still got stung and dropped the scorpion. He then told the younger monk to bring him a tree branch from the shore. Using that branch, he managed to scoop the scorpion out of the ..read more

—Chinese Idiom   Think about all the things that upset, annoy, or worry you. Chances are, a significant amount are related to other people. Ancient philosophers teach that suffering comes from desire, and one of the most stubborn desires we have is demanding others to be a certain way.   In other words, most of us have conditional love towards people: "If you behave the way I want you to behave, then I will treat you well; otherwise, I will be unhappy towards you." Of course, people often don't behave the way we want them to, which creates suffering for both sides. The key ..read more

Image Source At my home in Toronto, I usually use a spoon or fork to eat, and I don't often use chopsticks. But now that I'm in China for school, I use chopsticks every meal. The thing is, my technique is not proper. Actually, I didn't even know there's a "proper" technique. I just kind of figured out a way to use chopsticks on my own.   One time during a meal, a teacher saw me using chopsticks incorrectly, and he tried to teach me. At first, I wasn't really interested because I felt like I can eat food fine using my own technique. But since this teacher seemed to care a lot about this ..read more

(Image Source) I have a pair of pants that had a small rip on the left knee, but I just ignored it because…well, I never sewed anything before, and the hole wasn't big enough to make the pants unwearable. But this week, when I was putting on that pair of pants, I was rushed, and my foot ended up stretching that hole (lesson 1: don't be rushed; rushing leads to mistakes), such that I couldn't wear those pants anymore (lesson 2: fix problems while their still small and early).   Since I'm away from home, I can't just ask my mom to fix it for me (lesson 3: appreciate parents while you're wi ..read more

Have you ever had a good impression of someone at the beginning, but after spending more and more time with them, you start having a bad impression of them? This is extremely normal since we all try to show our best selves when we first meet others, but we once we get used to the other person, we let loose and reveal our real selves, with blemishes and all. The problem is that when we hold on to these negative impressions, we lose our peace of mind. The other person didn't really do anything to make us annoyed, nor did they have any intention to. We just saw something that ..read more

Image Source Do you have a hero that you admire? If so, what do you admire about that hero?   Growing up, I watched a lot of superhero movies. As a kid, I thought these heroes were really awesome because of their superpowers, and I would often daydream about who would win if different heroes were to face off against each other.   As I got older, I started to appreciate the story and character development of these heroes. I noticed that all these heroes had to face self-doubt, suffering, and defeat. Whereas most people would give up, they faced the darkness within and outside their h ..read more

Image Source Recently I was talking to a friend about planning and personality types. I explained that my personality type prefers to plan everything, while her type prefers to go with the flow rather than plan.   She said, "Well, I plan if I have to."   I replied, "Yeah, but you don't naturally want to or enjoy planning, right?"   She said, "That's true."   I said, "The point of personality tests is to understand our objective strengths and weaknesses. Then we work on our weaknesses to the point that they are not hindering us. And we also hone our strengths to achiev ..read more