What makes you worried? Perhaps your work? Or money? Or certain people in your life? I used to think that life would be good if I just didn’t have any worries. But then I learned that even my idol Confucius has worries! In Book 7 of The Analects of Confucius…

I’ve been very busy over the past couple of weeks, and one day, my mother suddenly got very upset at me, complaining that she hasn’t had any time to talk to me properly over the past couple of weeks. I told her, “But we set 5PM as our talk time…

I recently heard an analogy of three types of people you see in line at the grocery store. Person 1 gets in a line and sticks to it no matter how slow it is or how much faster the others are. Person 2 changes lines repeatedly based on whatever he…

This week, I visited Niagara Falls with a group of people who study Traditional Chinese Culture (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism). Among the group was an esteemed guest named Venerable Cheng De. I was first introduced to Traditional Chinese Culture around two years ago from his talks on Di…

Compassion, Frugality, and Humility — Do you have any treasures? Perhaps a prized possession, or a person whom you love dearly? In philosophy, treasures are precious human virtues that shine light to the world. Different philosophies have different guiding virtues. Today, let’s look at the three treasures of Daoism (Taoism) In Chapter 67 of the…

Three Attitudes Towards Adversity — A young woman went home to visit her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She was tired, upset, and annoyed at all these difficulties. Often times, she wanted to run away or give up. Her mother listened empathetically, then took the…

How to Not Care About What Others Think — Recently, a friend asked me for help with self-esteem. She told me she wished she could be skinnier, but she doesn’t think it is for health reasons because if it was truly for health reasons, she would be willing to make herself go through the suffering of restricting her diet…

Is there a best personality? An optimal personality? A well-balanced personality? These are questions I’ve been pondering ever since a couple of years ago, when I became fascinated with personality. I studied various personality tests such as DISC: useful for teamwork Four Tendencies: useful for getting ourselves and people to…

When we understand The Middle Way, we don’t ask if something is good or bad. Instead, we ask if WE are following The Middle Way. — Is excitement good? Is criticizing others bad? Is it better to talk too much or talk too little? If your answer is, “You need just the right amount,” then you are a wise person! Ancient philosophers call this principle The Middle Way. Another way to explain The Middle Way is…