New Taiwan Academy Website

Check out the new Taiwan Academy website! I contributed to the translation under the Taiwan/Sinology Studies tab.

Taiwan Academy — e-Learning Portal for Chinese Education

The newly established website Taiwan Academy is an online portal to learning the Chinese language (traditional characters), discovering the Chinese heritage such as historical stories, and travel information to Taiwan to experience the Chinese culture first-hand!

Poem: To Friends Far Away

To Friends Far Away

How are you?

We are fine.

Although busy at times with the baby,

We are adapting to it quickly.

Our work is fine –

It gives us freedom in time,

Ideal for this period of time.

When the child grows older,

We will take him back to see friends

Or to explore the expansive lands.

Taiwan is too small,

After all.

(Partly for child’s education,

And partly through inspiration,

I have grown a fetish

For poetry.)

Song: Wonderland

I wrote a song for my infant son. It’s called Wonderland.

Wonderland

(Dad)

I sing a song to you my little baby

You look so happy with the melody

(Baby)

You sing a song to me my loving Daddy

I am gonna be your healthy boy

(Chorus)

We fly fly fly fly to wonderland

We play play play play a fun fun game

We go go go to the far far end

We come come come back to sweet home yeah!

(Mom)

I sing a song to you my little baby

You reciprocate with a hug and smile

(Baby)

You sing a song to me my loving Mommy

I am gonna be your caring boy

Uncle Clay’s: A Taste of Pure Aloha

Recently I made an investment in what I believe an expanding and exciting business. The reason is that I share their vision (Pure Aloha) and my close friend, an avid social entrepreneur, is a business partner. He is also a Pure Aloha ambassador who co-wrote this beautiful piece of Pure Aloha Oath:

To allow others to learn a little bit more about why I invested, I shared some words that I thought potential supporters would be interested to know:

Building a for-profit business with a selfless intention is not easy, and is rare. But Uncle Clay’s Pure Aloha realizes that the juxtaposition of “for-profit” and “selflessness” is powerful, creates a win-win situation, brings happiness to people while making a living, and is the most crucial ingredient for the success of next-generation businesses. With the right people with the right mindset, great skills, and incredible passion, Uncle Clay’s Pure Aloha is going to share its revenues as well as happiness and inspiring stories along the way. Today, I am delighted to support the efforts (building the House of Pure Aloha) that will lay the foundation for a great business to come.

To know more about this business, check out uncle clay’s: a taste of pure aloha.

Hear Me (2009)

Our friend recommended this movie to us, and we just watched it on YouTube. Hear Me is a 2009 Taiwanese movie with a theme and setting perfect for the year when Taipei hosted the 2009 Deaflympics. The movie is beautiful, moving (we cried), and entertaining (we laughed). Set in Taipei, the movie honestly presents the local life and culture through the street shots, scooters, lunch boxes, etc., and also the reservedness, shyness, tactfulness, friendliness, kindness,… and other characteristics of the culture. The beautiful sign language is a significant part of the movie, so a lot of time we need to watch the subtitles ourselves too.

Watch on YouTube in eleven segments, starting with this one (the rest will show up automatically on YouTube):

Hear Me [Movie] – English Sub [1/11]

Hope you will like it as much as we do.

“Love and dreams are miraculous. They don’t need to be heard, said, or translated.”

Charter for Compassion

I wanted to share this inspiring collaboratively written piece on compassion. I believe it is a timely, invaluable, and powerful guiding light for spreading greater compassion throughout our world.

Share the Charter with your networks. Each additional name makes the compassionate voice a more potent force in the world. Let us make the silent majority a challenge to extremism and hatred.

http://charterforcompassion.org/

On the Vision of WLEF

On the Vision of WLEF (World Leadership Education Foundation)

By Chan Master Wu Jue Miao Tian / Translated to English by Ronald

The World Leadership Education Foundation, or WLEF, was founded four years ago. In the early years since inception, frankly speaking, the financial and human resources were very limited. In such difficult situations, WLEF still managed to offer the best programs and attract the best people. It’s fair to say that these early years have laid a solid foundation for WLEF’s future development and vision planning.

In reminiscence, during the past four years, we have recruited many brilliant college students and provided them with a variety of training resources and choices. At the time of WLEF’s inception, we can already foresee what the future world will be like just by observing the world at the time.

From TV news and newspapers, we have seen that the entire world is in turmoil, and the situation is getting worse. If you contrast Taiwan in the past decade with today, for instance, you will see that the society today is more unstable, and people more unhappy and uneasy. We also see that the political instability has disturbed people’s work and life. From a religious perspective, if we rely solely on the power of religion for world peace, we might be struggling in obtaining governing power as it is often in the hands of political leaders. If all political leaders have a long-term plan and vision, thinking for our planet Earth with well-rounded consideration and viewpoints, I think day by day the world will improve. But unfortunately we did not see it happen.

What we have seen is that in every corner of the world, numerous wars, big or small, are disrupting the peace of the world. In Taiwan, political parties are fighting each other and within themselves. Very little time is left to caring its people. If the trend continues, it is not exaggerating to say that Taiwan is on the path to destruction.

We do not want to see such a disaster happen. We do not want to see another world war. That’s why I have been thinking to make world peace our long-term goal. And we will work together to achieve this goal. Some say world peace is impossible. But if everyone has the common faith of world peace and guides his or her life with love, compassion, and altruism, I think world peace is just a matter of time. We have the capacity of making it happen; it just takes some faith, determination, and action.

Therefore, four years ago, I founded the WLEF. I realized the importance of preparing our younger generation with the vision of world peace, and the skills and knowledge to support it. We have since educated many outstanding political, religious, and business leaders. We are still making our best effort in this regard, and we continue to provide our younger generation with the best opportunities for practical education, learning, and growth.

We must also reciprocate to the society within our ability. We must care for all the people and all the sentient beings — animals, plants, and the environment. We must contribute our part to the world in worth, work, and words. We hope to have more people join us, so that love will prevail on Earth.

Being a leader, be it political, religious, or business leader, or leader in any particular discipline, you must have professional knowledge in this discipline to support your leadership.

Therefore, you must start to prepare yourself now. Equip yourself with professional knowledge, skills, and methodologies. Equip yourself with the leader’s character. A leader’s character defines a politician’s electoral and political success. This is evidenced in Taiwan’s many high-profile politicians, such as Lien Chan, James Soong, President Chen Shui-bian, Vice President Annette Lu, and Ma Ying-jeou.

Being a successful leader takes many years of preparation and education. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. A successful leader has charisma, says and acts like a leader, and can inspire others to follow the example he or she has set.

In addition to professional knowledge and skills, another defining trait of a leader is his or her determination and perseverance. A leader must not be listless in the face of challenges. Instead, a leader must be able to navigate life’s challenges with courage and will. Your willpower is tempered by those challenges, and you will become stronger in times of hardship. Your mind becomes clearer, which allows you to distinguish right from wrong, advantages from disadvantages, and true from false. You will also be able to see the evolvement of the world clearly, from many different perspectives, and understand the needs of human beings even though the needs are changing. This is what a leader should be.

Lastly, I would like to encourage you to self-equip with techniques and knowledge in your expertise, or the field in which you strive to become a leader. You must self-train your leader’s character day-by-day, and realize your leadership potential step-by-step.

Zen Leadership by WLEF

Source: Taiwan Panorama News Archives

Zen leadership

In the Judo room at National Tsing Hua University, a group of youths sit cross-legged, with their eyes closed and their backs erect. The very picture of peace and calm, they sit in this manner, carefully regulating their breathing, for about 40 minutes. Then they stand up with their knees slightly bent and their palms pressed together in a position known as “Children Pray to Kuanyin.” These aren’t kungfu-fighting monks training at Shaolin Temple on the mainland. Rather, they are participants at a “Zen Leadership” camp sponsored by the World Leadership Education Foundation (WLEF).

Founded just this year by a group of Tsing Hua University professors, WLEF sponsors youth leadership training in order to foster a peaceful outlook among the young.

They are actively trying to create an environment much like what is found at New Age spiritual retreats in the West. The participants, who live at the center and meditate as part of their daily routine there, are exposed to a program designed to imbue their hearts with religious ideals, their minds with visionary thinking, and their spirits with qualities of leadership. A tranquil environment much like a church or Zen monastery replaces the often raucous and heated debates that occur around seminar tables at more politically oriented leadership camps.

Holding that meditation will, along with natural science and behavioral science, emerge as one of the three most important educational disciplines, WLEF has designed a Zen leadership program that emphasizes state of mind. Students are encouraged to probe their inner selves during moments of solitude and thereby cultivate self-discipline, increase their wisdom and potential, and improve their physical endurance and ability to handle pressure. They learn both how to get involved in the world and how to morally transcend it. “Regular exposure to Zen cultivation causes a temporary cessation of the brain’s frenzied inner motion, which improves both physical and mental states,” declares Yu Ting, the foundation’s executive director.

Leaders are servants

What’s more, WLEF emphasizes that spiritual values such as benevolence and peace are important components of leadership. With a curriculum that includes topics such as “Strategic Alliances among International Rescue Organizations,” “Using Science and Technology for Peace,” “Promoting a World without National Boundaries,” and “Implementing a Spiritual Internet for the Global Village,” most of the students it attracts have peaceful characters. The foundation’s educational philosophy puts the focus on inner development, in large part aiming to get leaders to return to a state of “transcendent innate goodness.” In this respect, their concerns are much like those of organized religion. The training methods they have developed involve bringing out innate leadership abilities. It’s an approach that differs greatly from the “confrontation management” typically stressed when teaching political and entrepreneurial leadership skills.

Students who take leadership training with a religious orientation are invariably service oriented, and they don’t think about leadership strictly in terms of political power. “After you develop religious concerns, you become even more inclined to help your fellow man, so you will naturally want to become a leader!” says one smiling student. “Leaders are public servants!” adds another.

Lin Ta, a WLEF student who has just passed her exams to become a judge, took time out from her busy lawyer’s schedule to pursue leadership training because she believes that her life’s purpose is to help bring about world peace. Therefore, among all the various leadership classes, including many put on by political parties and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), she selected one with a religious orientation.

Facing life and death

“Start with the little battles faced by people every day!” says another WLEF student. “War is the greatest obstacle to peace for contemporary man, so we believe that a defining characteristic of a leader is that he or she lessens conflict between people and thus reduces the potential for war.” Students earnestly consider how to resolve petty interpersonal conflicts, before expanding the scope of their discussion to how to contribute to the resolution of major world crises.

2009 Global Youth Leadership Summit Sponsored by WLEF

This is a chance to educate yourself on global issues. This is also a chance to get inspired on solutions for those issues. In the event, you will share the vision of a better world with many other young talents. After the event, you will feel confident and yearning to continue pursuing your dreams of a better world where people live without wars and poverty. The path will not be easy, but it will be easier if you tread in company.

The flyer (click to enlarge):

Silk Wedding Anniversary

May 26th is me and my wife’s wedding day. This year is our fourth anniversary, or so-called “silk wedding”.

We were pretty low-key on our anniversary, as usual. We know that gifts are nice and heart-warming, but time spent together values more. If we were to celebrate, our typical choice is usually go to a nice restaurant and have an enjoyable meal together. This year, since it’s on a Tuesday, we did not dine out on the day. Instead, I bought a box of chocolate (which we both love) for my wife, which comes in simple but nice wrapping. It’s still something to “eat” (we confess we love to eat), but it’s more symbolic than dining out maybe…

I arrived home finding an e-card pickup notice sitting in my email. My wife sent me an e-card. I loved it. It’s very cute.

Our way of celebrating the anniversary is as simple as that. After all, we live a simple life. Our material desire is scanty, but we are content and happy. We know that it’s always those non-material things that have bound us together and taken us past the fourth year mark, and beyond…

If each anniversary counts as a chapter of the book of my life, then today, a new chapter begins. And I know I am writing this new chapter everyday with a “good old friend”.

The Art of Translation and TCM

Ever since meditation and Chan has entered into my life to open my mind and heart, I have always wanted to make contributions to the people and the world as much as possible. I am hardly achieving anything yet, but I am constantly learning and growing with that goal in mind. Lately I have committed myself to two areas where my heart led me and convinced me that they could be my best assets to make such contributions: translation and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). I have always had great interest in both, but not until quite recently (months ago) did I begin my “real” relationship with the second…

Translation

I love the art of translation and language. Translation is like finding crayons (words) to draw the brushstrokes of someone else’s oil painting. You can’t possibly reproduce the exact same thing, as the tool set (language, culture, etc.) available to you is different, but you want it as close as possible, yet equally artistic in its own way. People unable to appreciate the oil painting can at least appreciate your replica, and get a great sense of what the original work is.

With a little skills and passion, I have produced some translation work that will be read by many people (such as this book). I do see much room to improve my skills, though. To further sharpen my skills, I have researched ways to educate myself constantly and keep myself on the track of learning and growing. One useful way I found is to find people more able and knowledgeable than you and learn from them. There are many good writers and translators out there. Lately I have grown particular interest in studying one’s work, who was a Nobel Prize Nominee in Literature, a Chinese, and perhaps one of the most well-known Chinese authors ever known to the Western audience. He has an equally amazing command of both Chinese and English languages. Sometimes he writes in English (actually all his fictions were written in English), and let others translate it back to Chinese. His name is Lin Yutang (1895-1976).

His translation of ancient Chinese classics such as poems is considered a classic. To translate an poem to something in a new language that can also be called a poem, you need outstanding language skills. This may be too much for me to shoot for, and perhaps I will never tap into this area, but the many skills used in translating poems are certainly transferable to other forms of writing, too.

TCM

My heart has long time told me that TCM will allow me to make positive impact to the people and the world just like how translation can. However, not until recently did I know any realistic way of learning it except enrolling in a TCM school, which is not quite feasible for me at this point. Months ago, a great resource emerged, and I quickly immersed myself in it whenever I had time, mostly during weekends.

Just like any type of medicine, TCM is not easy and quick to learn. It takes years and years of hard work and practice to master it. I may not target a goal as high as getting licensed and actually practicing it, but I want to at least be able to provide a solid piece of health advice for anyone around me who needs it. That goal entails an effort to gain thorough understanding of 5,000 years of accumulated wisdom and art, and I am just at the beginning of it…

How do I learn it? I bought a DVD set on acupuncture by a renowned TCM doctor. This is the first of five DVD sets, each on a different but certainly related topic including acupuncture, herbs, and many TCM classics (such as the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic). Now I am half way through the acupuncture, and I am deeply fascinated and happily overwhelmed by the beauty and intricacy of the art. The theory is flawless. The practice calls on a practitioner’s sensibility and wisdom to see a solution — much like being a general leading an army to fight a tough enemy (disease), what’s your tactics and strategy? You have memorized every word in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, but how do you use them now?

I plan to talk more about TCM’s view of many modern diseases, and how it’s utterly different from the Western medicine point of view. An alternative source and perspective for you, the choice is always yours.