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Chance Jul 2014
I'm having trouble getting out of bed lately.
It seems id rather dream because that's the only place i don't hate me.

Cynicism is my confucianism bury my coffin shallow so i can still fell the rain.

I can't stand the lack of pain.
-CRM
Matt Mar 2015
He Lead the Chinese people against the Imperialist Japanese
Chiang symbolized China's resistance against Japan
In 1938 he received the title of Tsung -tsai (party leader)

For 8 years he kept 2/3 of the Chinese people
And 3/4 of the  Chinese land
Free of the Japanese
He was fighting a defensive war
Against a more powerful Japanese army

He believed in one China
In his life
He hoped to restore the unity of China

Committed to Confucianism
A united strong prosperous stable society
Is achieved by freeing up the industrious economy

A mixed economy
With a strong central government
With noble firm leaders
Keeping control

His vision of China is reflected in modern china
Much more than Mao's
He hoped for a modern Confucian China


His vision is closer to China than Taiwan

The interview asked," Would the Chinese people be better off
If Chiang had won and ruled instead of Mao?"

Yes, the thirty million people would not have died
And China would not have suffered the setbacks
In their education and economy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNeq7oR1PKs
Chiang Kai-shek China
Sean Fitzpatrick Dec 2013
(I)
So concretey, these jungles
but not like this
Glass shards shoot up 45 stories
only to have tarp covered markets
populated by shouters

Oh, Powerpuff Girls on backpacks
one green
one purple
one pink
And 10 dollar Gucci bags
these people have it made
Four blocks from the world stock exchange
these people have it made

(II)
You ain't had won ton noodle soup
Or chicken feet
Or shrimp stuffed eggplant
Or food from Chinese franchise Pizza Huts
which happens to be an escargot joint
What does that say about US?
hopefully not much

(III)
Red taxis between every other car
Double decker busses
more common than city pigeons
Still the city finds time for trees
whiskery ents rising out of
ancient volcanic soil

You would think it's a city full of sin
Seven million souls, what-
that's higher than I can count
It's not
Everyone here is cute and wrinkly
Confucian
except for the young
These people have it made

(IV)
In this city, you're expected to stay
home with mom and dad
As they get cute and wrinkly
you're to return the love
Confucian
these people have it made
11 seated dinners
these people have it made

(V)*
Here in this ancient city
the gravestones dot the hills
coat the hills
And then the cremation jars bury the hills
(yes, they're dead)
cough*

Here's how a Chinese name is structured:
[family name] [given name]
Confucianism
and then these names fade too
These people have it made
but it's alright.
For everyone.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2020
Dear Mr......  I live in Melbourne.  Read your book--honest, bold, revelatory, trail-blazing.  I read much of Tolle and some of Chopra.  I like the way you have described your observations--they are sharp and insightful.  I am a Zen person and must have read Lao Tze's Tao -te-Ching 50? times ( my forthcoming book is on Tao leadership).   Every person finds their own way in their journey towards self-discovery and self-awareness. The path is a very hard one--it calls for so much patience, humility and determination. You mention happiness as a skill--so true.  What is so fascinating about Zen and Taoism is that it's an achievable art.  Happiness-gurus overstate their case,  they exaggerate,  they prescribe what they regard as THE ANSWER--- that's not true...and you have rightly written about their loss of cool, that they also exhibit impatience and dislike in stressful situations, that they self-aggrandise.  There is no perfect person on earth--even saints have their faults. Teachers must have humility, compassion, selflessness,  tolerance and goodwill----self-effacement I regard as the highest virtue being immensely affected by Taoism and Confucianism.  Yes, I live in the moment but my focus and attentiveness could never be the same or unencumbered.  But I do succeed in some measure.  He who wishes to meditate must come in purity of heart---he can't meditate if his heart and feelings are not right.  He needs to self-abandon, lose himself, feel as a child in the vast expanse of possible 'being', to be one with a Higher Reality or Consciousness....the letting-go is the route...My small book  IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ZEN--THE PATH TO A CALMER AND HAPPIER LIFE released in Melb in 2018 has sold quite well.  For an unknown hobby-writer, I am more than gratified and have thanked my publisher for their faith in me.  It has accepted my Tao leadership book for release later this year---many lessons are in the same vein as found in Zen--after all, Taoism is the mother of Zen.  Someone wrote that Zen is the greatest discovery since the Enlightenment.  It has permeated every sphere of thinking and living.  I read Thomas Merton's SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION some 50 years ago and continue to read him though I am not a Catholic (I don't have a religion being a humanist--agnostic?).  Merton was so enamoured of Zen that he edited a work of Zhuangzi, the most eloquent follower of Lao-tze.  The Vatican was very concerned as it was afraid he might abandon his original faith. But he didn't---his love of his faith even grew!  Now we have Zen-Christians, a phenomenon that testifies to the universality of faiths and beliefs.  I am sorry to have written so much.  Once again, thank you for your wonderful book.  Please drop me a line--I can learn from you.  Being a composer, musician and singer,  I find it easier to find my 'peak moments' when I am into it.   With my deep esteem and sincerest wishes.
Dawn of Lighten Nov 2014
Birthed and raised from once upon a time called the Morning Calm,
not to be confused by a place known as the Rising Sun.

Country echoed by Confucianism,
and imbued by philosophy of filial piety.

No one questioned the morals and ethics of elders,
No one would have questioned any nature of the father or mother!

A religion of zealous in family,
and pride in ancestry.

Older meant wiser,
And they can not do wrong.

Will not do wrong!
no wrong!

So that was the dawn of birth of our world,
Our teaching to obey until the bitter end!

Obeyed obeyed for the captain knew all,
fall into the bottomless pit for he knew it all.

Tortured from trusting,
And believing filial piety,
The only world we knew.

Falling falling the Titanic we were,
Trusting the captain,
We fell in a deeper hole.

Until we fell so deep,
And looking at rest of us free falling deeper,
Why were we falling with the captain?

Captain replied "Even if family moves away from a false foolish fear,
Carrying everything with the trust of the captain can carry even a Mountain!"

Is that what we were doing,
Carrying a false foolish fear,
Your fear, your mountain?

Is that what mother paid in price at the end,
Her blood for your mountain,
Your hole you are dragging us into?

From suffering I knew,
Grown from lies I knew,
You can only trust yourself!

Look at me now,
A man who will not share your mountain,
or hole that would of put us in an early grave.

I already buried my mother,
I will not follow your path,
I have grown from your rending.

I will forgive you,
I will love you,
But I became a man from your rending enough!
The price we all pay for families are blood and sweat,
but only you can choose to carry someone else's mountain for so long,
and you have to make that choice to become adult to move forward.
grim-raven Apr 2015
I don't know
No one knows

RELIGION

A greatly diverse word
The complexity from each Gods can't be explained

Christianity or Islamic?
Hinduism or Buddhism?
Confucianism or Taoism?

I don't know
No one knows
Which of these is the one?
Which God is the Man?

Each have their own beliefs
Each came from different myths
How the hell would humanity know?
How would a religion shatter every other's ego?

Just what if?
What if Christianity tells the truth?
Would it mean that homosexuality is just a bluff?
Is it just a wrong "choice" and can be cured by having faith in God is enough?

BUT what if?
What if Atheism tells the truth?
What if atheists just have so much strength?
Strength in facing the truth that after we die it will all end?

Until now, evidences are still vague
Even the most religious one had thought this inside their head
What if the world we have now is just an illusion?
No one knows for sure how to cure this confusion

RELIGION

I don't know
No one knows
Who knows?
Past Nov 2019
A little bit of Confucianism and Buddhism
The worthwhile life of Taoism .

Go with the flow maker Lao,
Communism and Chairman Mao
Stood no chance against the holy prism,
Opened up a deep wide chasm

The way, The path
Just do the math.
All day and all day
Just look at nature and it'll be okay.

Reason and knowledge,
Take the pledge,
Just look at nature and stay away college.

Things you can't comprehend,
Sins to amend and commend,
Just look at nature and you'll find a friend.

Master Lao, the maker of Tao
Finding ones place within this town,
Be one with nature and forget the crown.

Remember the magic of this mystical place,
Right in your head and right in your face.
Yin and Yang,
Walking with a cane.

The End is near,
We got all but haste.
Receive with open arms and a fragrant taste,
A little bit of aloe that's nature's paste.,

All will heal and All will feel
Beneath the tree,
We will see
Beneath the tree,
Just you and me.
written junior for hs
As we usher in a new Dark Age giddy at the prospect of renewed ignorance where faith in absurdity lights the way and opinion is fact if it's shouted loud and long and our plagues descend not from evolving microorganisms but vengeful spirits aloft and doctors become the spiteful magicians next door I find myself curious who first will burn for the sake of reality?

Confucius say...you can't fix stupid, *******, everyone burn.
Dr Peter Lim Jan 2021
Dear Tom


Western existentialism is generally gloomy unlike Chinese philosophy ---both Taoism and Confucianism never speak of despair, angst or the predicament of living----such philosophy is immensely practical and can be followed by anyone--both sages speak of the Tao (The Way/the Path)---walk in the Tao and you will live in righteousness, beneficence and compassion.

  The difference between  the Tao of Taoism and that of Confucianism lies in this:  the Tao of the former relates to the spiritual and metaphysical while that of the latter relates to the human being in society and benevolent governing.  

A meeting of Nobel Prize winners in Paris in 1988 made this observation:

If mankind is to survive, it must go back 25 centuries ago to tap the wisdom of Confucius.

I am not a student of philosophy and this is all I can say

humbly

Peter
wordvango Dec 2016
all of a sudden
kung fu you and karate chops
I like more the martial arts of thought
like  confucianism
I throw words around
and that isn't always innocent
yet I hear people
being brought down by words and take
a second look at
my words and
I am not an innocent
god , either
Lou Nov 2017
I am an anorexic with a gluttonous mouth for bad table manners and my own feet.
I relate to 364 licks to the center of the tootsie pop to only find out it was just dirt and high fructose corn syrup.
Like my personality it is a disappointment. Maybe the world would of been better to let this one go.
C'est la vie my family, whom leaves me at the table with a cold meal I refuse to acknowledge as food.
My father's own teachings red on my face and my mother's lessons bleeding from my ears. Welcome to church today we will be eating the lord.

Cause I feel something must fill me more than nihilism which by nature fills me with nothing but more space for my lack of motivation and self deprecating.
I need to be nothing so I must eat just that.
I want to save someone so they can eat me one day.
If I gave myself up to be eaten on Sunday's due to lack of interest in feeding myself,
I'll put a spin on my suicide and say its for my followers.
I wonder what I would taste like.  
Arrogantly I'll claim myself as zesty a flavor of Passover dinner or just Christ. I can picture the burning cross on the sauce bottle.
I'd eat it.
But I may have consumed so much of Christ's body and blood, I must be what I eat.
I wanna be the devil in deserts of my passions.
The fats that I was told not to indulge just for me to steal and hide under my grandmother's shadow without shame as did Lucifer.

"For my sake", she would say,
Force fed in line to ingest the breast and white meat of Jesus with no seasoning. Just gross.
That token of him a flake disk ******* of Bible versus and boxed wine, the same meal to have fed a congregation.
A congregation that must have starved and ate each other to really live, that's probably how we have Catholicism.
My halo childhood head would crave the cheap red dry and knew what the point was to drink his veins and get drunk off of me.
I was fed not my saviors life but my-self lie, placed into my mouth as a tasteless disciple, cannibalizing my identity for salvation.
"Save me", is a phrase I never said,
Cause I thought I was made in his image.
"Feed me", was more like it.
as I chomped on my fingertips and hair.
So I conclude I must be passover for I have been eating myself.
And I am not zesty.
I'm boring and salty like I would be later on.
Chopping from the branches of trees low hanging meat,
hearts and hands boiled into my idle grip cauldron. All theories and none of it stone soup for anyone's soul.
What useless things are my hands without knifes and forks.
I am simply their slave as I was to my addictions to eating saviors.
Now I'm useless, godless and starving.

Gandhi was bony, spicy and tasted like young women.
Crowley tasted like young boys and patchouli
LaVey was chewy dark meat but too Gainey for me
And Nietzsche...Nietzsche was good,
in spite of the syphilis just not enough to go around.
Had to overcome that man.
I tried just about everything to cure my hungry nihilism.
I've binged on fortunes from cookies that have more faith in me than I have in myself. Sentiment in sugar, not so sweet but bland and stale as my eyes and heart.
Confucianism is a light diet kind to nature but I am not willing to share my plate nor am I that kind.

My teeth still picking saviors out.
The taste of the lamb of god hasn't washed out of mouth for years
I tried to burn it out with the devils fruit but its just humanities ******* in a gardening hose blasted in my mouth.
I can still hear the nails on my dinner plate go into his wrists,
the blood being dropped on  marble as the nuns lashes crack me,
To lick it off the basilicas floor.
I am the last at my families table undecided to starve at a feast of philosophy.
Or gnaw on the bones of those I already ate.
I'm certain with a good cookbook of my creation,
with remnants left over of condiment hymns,
two slices of existential crisis,
One molded cheese of absurd ideas
and a garden of seeds I planted from the bowels of dead Messiah's.
I will have a meal.
One that maybe you all would like to partake in.
Poetic T Feb 2020
You know they have these,
           those groups for
people who are,
          were,
        are going through addictions.

Well I was going to one such place...
I'm not addicted not like these people.
My failings are
              light compared to those others.

I was hooked on the deity addiction,
              I was raised to believe in certain
                          noncorporal
unsubstantiated constructed fear factors.

I was for many a immature years fearful of
           what I was doing till I was 7 years old.

Questions were my maturity, I'd read that
            these man made constructs, well the
top of today were all
                      with an area of minimal distance..

                                               It was like,
the central point for god creationism,
                   who had the most followers,

who had the snakes tongue, the intellect
              to make other listen to there lies..

But so it happened, there were the old gods
   fading into obscurity..
they were real for a time,
           but the thing about time, everything dies.

But the words huddled the masses,
      you see there was a religion,
religions already around that stood the
   testament of time.

These new ones approaching gaining ground,
they were either an off shoot of
                      there disagreements,
of the word of there god not others
                                                   as they weren't real...


No there's was real, but the gods before were wrong??
                                            ok...…..

But moving on and we have the oldest religions still
around. Some have the masses where some have but a
only a few followers not as many as way back when.
Here's a quick lesson in gods and spirituality,
counting down we have:

1. Hinduism (Circa 7,000 BCE)
2. Judaism (Circa 2,000 BCE)
3.Zoroastrianism (Circa 1,500 BCE)
4. Shinto (Circa 700 BCE)
5.Buddhism (Circa 600 BCE)
Jainism (Circa 600 BCE)
Confucianism (Circa 600 BCE)
Taoism (Circa 500 BCE)

So you see that there are some old that still remain..


But the thing that people forget is that in the old times
wars were fought on the premise of there gods words
were the truth and the others were distortions not the
right word of god, gods.. look down, I know...

1.Second War of Kappel
2. Lebanese Civil War
3.The Crusades
4. Second Sudanese Civil war
5. First Sudanese Civil War
6. German Peasants’ War
7. Nigerian Civil War
8. French Wars Of Religion
9. Thirty Years’ War
10. Eighty Years’ War

I know what your thinking what the fudge has this
got to do with now, quite a lot it would seem.
We have new religions popping up, some are just
plain ***... and people follow these.

But the good thing is time is awaking the masses to
the ridicule of what these old books stood for.

Hate, Love ******, ****, intimidation to believe or
                                 pay a levy or pay with your life.

But the world is awake, more than ever.
         So I sit here in this room, listening to the
stories of what made them rescind the notion
of belief in a deity, that controlled them now
                                          they have cut the strings.  

I just hope one day that we all can look behind us
and wonder why we were so immature to think
that  these things helped us find our keys,
                         but let a child die of starvation..

if you don't see the contradiction your still blind I see...
Dr Peter Lim Dec 2017
I hope this is the voice of writers in general, however humble.

Every writer's intention is to share his thoughts.  He doesn't compel the reader to buy or read his book. It's natural of him to write/say this:
'here I am writing what I am thinking and about my experience....'.

But life is never short of philistines.  A few might even say:
' Don't advertise before me!'

That the person should articulate the above shows how low- down he/she is---it smacks of ill-will, ignorance, contempt and spite, immaturity and in the worst case--schadenfreude!

Confucius  the sage (600 BC) wrote about the chun-tze (the gentleman, the perfect person) who is kind, tolerant, encourages learning, practises humility, kindness, generosity, shows respect for all people, and delights in the success of others and never denigrates others as the xiao-ren (the 'small' or inferior person) does.

Confucianism has captured the imagination of the West which has openly declared that the founder was among the world's greatest philosophers.

Was the sage advertising himself? If he were so,  would he have survived for over 2,500 years?

Anyone who dares say that the writer is an advertiser must be among the most deplorable.  He or she should be pitied!
Dr Peter Lim Mar 18
In response to a post on the existential thinking of Albert Camus:

It so happens, in the book I'm writing, that I'm comparing Confucianism with Western existentialism;  the former talks of life in the affirmative-- cultivate yourself, understand yourself and others, practise Ren ( humanity), be virtuous and ethical, serve your family, society and the nation, create social harmony and stability, know your role, duties and responsibilities,  don't speculate on the metaphysical and the after-life (we know so little of life, why discuss death?),  follow the Tao (the Way), live in harmony with your fellow-beings and the Universe, follow the Middle Path, live simply, be fair in all dealings with others,  be the Superior Person who talks of value , not the inferior person who seeks only profit, know your faults and don't fail to correct them, acquire all the arts,  call things by their proper names,  write and speak with clarity,  learn from past sages, be humble, don't do to others what you wish not to be done to you, hold everyone as your brother or sister, pursue only ethical pleasures, control your passions,  act always in decorum,  follow traditions and etiquette, death is not to be feared.    (In contrast with Western existentialism,  there is no sense of meaninglessness, despair, angst, futility or monotony in Confucianism).   Copyright 2025, Peter Lim
Dr Peter Lim Feb 15
I gave up my intellectual mind at least 40 years ago as I recognised that it would  not guarantee or contribute to my happiness, success or fulfilment-- this mode of thinking would tend to impede my spontaneity, joie de vivre, sense of adventure, wonder and curiosity which I deem to be my raison d'être for living.

I've found from my experience that, in many cases, intellectuals have fixed and rigid mindsets and, as such, become inflexible and even intolerant and arrogant.  Being insular and inward-looking,  they find it hard to accept the views of others, even their colleagues' or peers'.
Their thinking tends to be along this line:  I'm an authority on this subject....'.

Such people don't make good company and might not attract others to become their friends.

They can also be awfully boring.  I attended a social dinner many years ago and happened to be sitting next to an academic whose field was chemistry.  He went on non-stop for a hour telling me and those around that he had written over 50 research papers and had received various awards.  His  wife seemed ravished by his outpouring.

The hallmark of a mature person ( Confucius in 600 BCE used the terms ' superior person' and 'the gentlemen' ) lies in their humility, grace, broadmindedness, tolerance, kindness, generosity, respect for others , sense of humour, willingness to share and co-operate, and, last but not least,  their altruism as manifested in their charity and contribution to society and the nation. Confucianism regarded people as part of society and that they were measured by the good they contributed.

Tolstoy in his later years suffered from a deep spiritual crisis. In his Confessions, he wrote that intellectualism stifled his life. He looked at the common people and was amazed that they were able to bear sorrow with such courage and equanimity which he would be unable to.  He said that as soon as he cast away his intellectual life, he was cured of his existential angst.  What a revelation!

I conclude:  happiness and fulfilment is found in understanding ourselves and our place and station in life, in living in simplicity and in harmony with our fellow-men, in kindness, humility and humaneness.  All this has nothing to do with being 'intellectual'.
Dr Peter Lim Nov 2024
West: personal success

    Confucianism: collective success
Dr Peter Lim Sep 1
You've the potential
       to be a superior person
       but must first acquire
       the art of self-cultivation
Mark Manson is the author of
THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A F...K' 2016, Harper Collins)


   HELLO, Mark


   I enjoyed your THE SUBTLE ART..

  First of all, I am much enamoured of the writings of Ernest Becker whose
  THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF MEANING I read nearly 5 decades ago.
  I quoted from his THE DENIAL OF DEATH in my Zen/happiness book, 2017-
Google Lim Meng Sing.

  My thinking drew much parallel to yours in some ways-
please excuse me—I know you like truth and honesty-
  this had been before I read your book.

60% of such thinking evolved from my thinking and experiences,
and 40% from my reading.

I have been very active in Linkedin and Hello Poetry where I posted
ideas such as (not exact words):

1. Why would you need to remind yourself of ‘positive thinking’
unless you were dissatisfied with yourself?

2. PT is a malaise and scourge

3.  Praise would destroy me

4. Delete my name from your ‘Honours List'

5.  I was the last to arrive but I learnt more along the way than those arrived sooner

6.  Trust is necessary, but trusting absolutely would ruin you.

7.  They understood the world, but never understood their own selves

8.   Happiness can’t be chased after—it will arrive when you are ready.

9.   There’s neither freedom nor happiness if fear is not overcome.

10.  Who said the other person was happier than you?

11.   The greatest wisdom is the acceptance of death and suffering (this theme appears in my
book yet unpublished—couldn’t find a publisher as at now)
titled REFLECTIONS IN TURBULENT TIMES:
         A HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

12.   Don’t expect people to be always consistent.
Most people would let you down—rely on yourself

13.  My failures I embrace ,  I’m silent on my successes, if any

14.  Life is less the problem, it’s people , the more

15.  Be prepared to be spurned, maligned or mocked-
this will strengthen you and your character

16.  Death is mocked by your acceptance or indifference

17.  Know and accept life’s downside—more bright will be your life

18.  Give me patience , not wisdom

19.  I’m a fool but a happy one

20.  Because I ain’t special nor exceptional,  I court no enemy nor critic

   (Sorry, I shouldn’t go on).

I think you had read Zen, Buddhism, Stoicism but am not sure whether Taoism and/or Confucianism.

You are bound to be a cynic——just an observation.

     I am a humanist, very much so.  If you do meet or know me,
you’d discover I’m a humanist and humourist  (life is too short to be taken seriously-Oscar Wilde was right).

   I ain’t a philosopher or intellectual but only a life-observer.

The Wheeler Centre in Melb holds an annual writers’ conference and both local foreign writers are invited.  Alan de Botton and Norman Doidge spoke here before.
We’d love to have you in Melb and in other Aussie states.

   I wish your further success in your future works

   Humbly but honestly yours

   Meng Lim

— The End —