The adventures of Mulan, the legend of the White Snake, and the romance of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai continue to fascinate both Eastern and Western audiences all over the world. As the embodiment of wisdom, virtue, and pursuit of love of the Chinese people, these tales have been performed on the stage, adapted for the big screen, and rewritten as dramas for television. They have inspired theme parks and postage stamps, violin concertos, and western-style operas. In their modern transformations these traditional tales have been hailed as the quintessence of Chinese culture and as instruments for cultural renewal.

Continuing its series of artistic reincarnations, The Butterfly Lovers: The Legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, as central to the Chinese culture as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is to the Western culture, comes alive yet again in a lovely short film by TED-Ed with the help of Lijun Zhang and Amir Houshang Moein.

Complement this video with the book The Butterfly Lovers which contains four versions of the tale and offers a historical perspective on its development and place in the Chinese popular literature and culture. In addition, Wilt L. Idema provides essential contextual information and discusses how the story of the Butterfly Lovers fits into modern Chinese concepts of gender roles and sexual freedom.

Ryokan (1758-1831), long beloved in Japan for his delightful verse, exquisite calligraphy, and eccentric character, belongs in the tradition of great Zen poets of Asian literature. His parents named him Eizo, but when he decided to become a monk in 1777 at the local Zen temple Kosho-ji, he adopted the name Ryokan: ryo meaning good and kan signifying large-heartedness. Eventually, he attained satori at Entsu-ji, a temple in present-day Okayama Prefecture, while studying under a famous Zen priest Kokusen.

Ryokan’s luminous poetry, capturing both the beauty and the pathos of human life, makes one feel as if spring has come on a dark winter’s day, a sentiment radiating from the “First Days of Spring” included in The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry edited by Stephen Mitchell.

FIRST DAYS OF SPRING
by Ryokan

First days of spring — the sky
is bright blue, the sun huge and warm.
Everything’s turning green.
Carrying my monk’s bowl, I walk to the village
to beg for my daily meal.
The children spot me at the temple gate
and happily crowd around,
dragging on my arms till I stop.
I put my bowl on a white rock,
hang my bag on a branch.
First we braid grasses and play tug-of-war,
then we take turns singing and keeping a kick-ball in the air:
I kick the ball and they sing, they kick and I sing.
Time is forgotten, the hours fly.
People passing by point at me and laugh:
“Why are you acting like such a fool?”
I nod in my head and don’t answer.
I could say something, but why?
Do you want to know what’s in my heart?
From the beginning of time: just this! just this!

Complement this moment of joyful communion that comes straight from The Enlightened Heart with Matsuo Basho’s meditations on the essence of poetry.

As a lover of ancient wisdom, I’ve been slowly savoring the now classic Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings — an extraordinary portal into the minds of the greatest sages of the East, oscillating between the transcendent and the mundane in the most thought-shattering way possible. From short stories that recount actual experiences of Chinese and Japanese Zen teachers to famous thirteenth-century collection of Zen koans to four-thousand-year-old teachings from India, the slim volume is a true cultural treasure.

Among its many highlights is a set of principles governing skillful action and livelihood by Zengetsu, a Chinese master of T’ang dynasty, titled “No Attachment to Dust:”

Living in the world yet not forming attachments to the dust of the world is the way of a true Zen student.

When witnessing the good action of another encourage yourself to follow his example. Hearing of the mistaken action of another, advise yourself not to emulate it.

Even though alone in a dark room, be as if you were facing a noble guest. Express your feelings, but become no more expressive than your true nature.

Poverty is your treasure. Never exchange it for an easy life.

A person may appear a fool and yet not be one. He may only be guarding his wisdom carefully.

Virtues are the fruit of self-discipline and do not drop from heaven of themselves as does rain or snow.

Modesty is the foundation of all virtues. Let your neighbors discover you before you make yourself known to them.

A noble heart never forces itself forward. Its words are as rare gems, seldom displayed and of great value.

To a sincere student, every day is a fortunate day. Time passes but he never lags behind. Neither glory nor shame can move him.

Censure yourself, never another. Do not discuss right and wrong.

Some things, though right, were considered wrong for generations. Since the value of righteousness may be recognized after centuries, there is no need to crave an immediate appreciation.

Live with cause and leave results to the great law of the universe. Pass each day in peaceful contemplation.

Published in 1957, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones became an instant sensation with a generation of spiritual seekers who were just starting to experiment with Zen. But even today it’s as popular as ever before and continues to inspire Zen teachers and students from around the world. Complement with a Zen story on how to love openly.

“Once, while Mahatma Gandhi’s train was pulling slowly out of the station, a reporter ran up to him and asked for a message to take back to his people. Gandhi’s reply was a hurried line scrawled on a scrap of paper, ‘My life is my message.'” So writes Indian spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran (December 17, 1910 – October 26, 1999) in his book Your Life Is Your Message: Finding Harmony with Yourself, Others, and the Earth.

It’s Easwaran’s deepest belief that no matter what crises may threaten the world, we can live in harmony with our highest ideals — and help others do the same. To illustrate his point, he compares humans to elephants for both are keystone species.

Easwaran writes:

Conservation biologists call the elephant a “keystone” species. Just as an arch cannot stand without its keystone, many other species, and sometimes entire ecosystems, would be lost without the elephant. On the African savannah, the elephant’s foraging creates a mixture of woodlands and grasslands, making the savannah hospitable to many more creatures, from the zebra to the giraffe to the baboon. In drier climates, it provides water not only for itself but for all the other species by creating new water holes and even digging wells. Because of the elephant, a huge, hungry animal with gentle habits, the entire ecosystem flourishes.

I believe that we human beings are meant for no less a role. Today, because of our skills and technology, human society has assumed the position of keystone in the vast, delicately balanced arch of nature. Like the elephants in the forest, our lives affect all the other creatures, plants, and elements around us. They all depend upon us for support and protection.

However, currently our influence is far from benign. Rather than supporting the rest of life, the human beings seem to be at odds it with it. Scientists tell us how our activities are not only driving other species to extinction but are threatening the water, soil, and atmosphere on which our own lives depend. We seem to lack the genuine capacity to relate even to our fellow human beings. The alienation of city lives, the increase in poverty, and abuse of drugs suggest that we lack the wisdom to protect even ourselves, let alone the rest of nature. Yet, in another sense, there is still a great promise today. Easwaran writes:

Even in some of the countries most troubled by poverty or civil war or pollution — many thoughtful people are making a deep, concerted search for a way to live in harmony with each other and the earth. Their efforts, which rarely reach the headlines, are among the most important events occurring today. Sometimes these people call themselves peace workers, at other times environmentalists, but most of the time they work in humble anonymity. They are simply quiet people changing the world by changing themselves.

[…]

Through such unobtrusive, almost inaudible work, the changes we would like to see in the world around us can begin immediately in our own lives, making us more secure, more contented, and more effective. Each of us has the capacity to become a little keystone, a healing and protecting force in the family, with friends, at work, in the community, in the environment.

Such little changes may seem painfully small when compared to the kinds of crises we read about in the headlines but, Easwaran notes, “there is no instrument of change more powerful than a well lived life.” Taken together, our small daily efforts add up to a very powerful force that, in the years to come, can become a spiritual revolution, providing a firm foundation for the kind of political, economic, and ecological improvements we need to make. And it all begins with ourselves, Easwaran writes:

The only way to influence people for the better — your family, your friends, your club, your class, your clinic, your society, even your enemies — is through your personal example. Harmony with the environment — the alleviation of our environmental crisis — and harmony with others — the easing of our social, political, and economic difficulties — both begin with a third harmony: harmony with ourselves.

The rest of Your Life Is Your Message goes on to offer us a simple eight-point program of spiritual growth drawn from the major world religions designed to help us achieve tranquility and become more compassionate, loving, and confident people. The program is adapted to the demands of an active modern life and spread out across the three chapters of the book: 1) finding harmony with yourself; 2) finding harmony with others; 3) finding harmony with the earth. Complement with Aristotle and his teaching on happiness as a quality of a complete life.