Month: May 2023

MEANINGFUL FRIENDSHIPS VIA ASIAN TEA CULTURES

~ Billy

Chinese Tea Culture

Tea is considered special if served on hills with mist or cool breezes and in the moonlight. “The Chinese emphasize the harmony between humans and nature.

Chinese teacups are small because this allows for a better focus on taste and overall appreciation of the tea.

Chinese Golden Dragon Gongfu Tea Set with Black Stone Tea Tray for you to make your tea perfectly in Gongfu tea ceremony, known for its beauty and artistry.  You will begin to enjoy every nuance of taste and aroma from your tea. Using this gongfu tea set with tea tray, you will find yourself in extremely tranquil artistic mood while sipping a cup of excellent tea. Meaningful Conversations Follow.

GETTING TO KNOW CHINESE TEAWARE – Keats Blog

1 THE LIDDED TEA BOWL (盖碗/găiwăn) & FAIRNESS PITCHER (公道杯/gōngdaò bēi) · 2 PURPLE SAND TEAPOT (紫砂茶壶/zĭshà cháhú) · 3 TEA TRAY (茶盘/chápán) · 4 SCENT CUP …

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Japanese Tea Culture

Japanese tea culture, or “chado” (also known as “sado” or “chanoyu”), is a tradition of preparing and serving tea that has been practiced in Japan for over 800 years. The practice of chado emphasizes the principles of harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility, and it is seen as a form of art and a way of cultivating mindfulness and spiritual awareness.

The ceremony is often conducted in a special tea room called a “chashitsu,” which is designed to create a sense of harmony and tranquility.

ANCIENT JAPANESE TEA HOUSE SET IN AN ORNATE ZEN GARDEN  – Encouraging EMPATHY, COMPASSION, & CONNECTING

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HOW A DEAR FRIEND IMPROVED MY CHINESE POEM – by Billy Lee

~ Billy

Dear Prof. An,

Please correct the words for me as needed.

My 6th grade Chinese is still pretty remarkable however,

don’t you think ? Too Bad: that’s best I have, and

that’s what I write apologetically. Cheers !

From the Heart.

Billy – Lee Ming Sing

李会长：您好！

您已经写得很棒！很了不起！ 根据您的要求，提点修改建议。

中文骈句的规则，一是对仗，二是平仄，三是押韵。三者都具备，念起来就会朗朗上口，容易记诵。 修改如下：

人生一世

春暖秋寒

追善少恶

追恶少善

宽仁慈爱

美满百年

这样修改，基本符合上面说的对仗、平仄、押韵三个条件。大意如下：

人的一生很短，

就像植物春天生长秋天凋零一样，很快就会结束。

追求善良的人少恶习，

追求恶行的人少良知。

只有那些宽厚、仁义、慈悲、友爱的善良之人，

才能百年美满，无悔人生。

供您参考

安蓉泉于杭州

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Friendship and Compassion

~ Billy

STEPHEN LEE CONTINUES TO EXPLORE DIFFERENT CHARTS –

From: “Mindfulness Turns A Brain from Antagony to Compassion” to “Self-assessment For Personal Growth in Good Citizenship”, to adding “Four Levels of Friendship” to the above.   May 2023

It occurred to me after creating the two-dimensional and four-quadrant chart in my last posting on How to Turn Fear to Compassion, that there is an interpretation for the number inside each small box of the chart.

An obvious interpretation is a score of Fear vs Compassion, ranging from -8 to +8.

Let’s explore the following definition:

Good Citizenship = Unselfishness + Understanding of the Needs of Others

Poor Citizenship = Selfishness + Suspicion of the Intention of Others

Then we can interpret the numbers in each small block of the chart as a Score of Good or Poor Citizenship. In this perspective, the words in the lower left quadrant should be revised to describe poor citizenship. The new chart is as follows.

A score of zero may be described as an Indifferent citizen. A score of 1 – 2 may be described as a citizen with Pity for others. A score of 3 – 4 as one with Sympathy, 5 – 6 as one with Empathy, and 7 – 8 as one with Compassion.

On the score of Poor Citizenship, the adjectives to describe the different levels may be Passive, Cautious, Resentful, and Antagonistic?

Citizenship Score (-8 to +8)

If a social score (from -8 to +8) is self-awarded to a person after a mindful act self-assessed with a Citizenship Score, it would be informative to self-ask how he or she would rate his or her level of Selfishness to Unselfishness, from -4 to +4. This is of course a subjective and qualitative self evaluation, but over time, the self assessment will still provide a valuable indicator of self improvement.

Then the two numbers, the social score and the self rating of Unselfishness, would be two useful statistics. They can be also visualized as statistical distributions or a statistical mean value of the person doing the self assessment or for a group of people if the data are collected for people in different groups, socially or culturally. If both the social score and the self-assessed Unselfish index for a population are plotted as a statistical distribution on top of the chart, as shown in the following chart, for two different years, the improvement would be noticeable.

This approach would also be used for comparing different groups of people over the same year of study, for example, to see if culture makes a difference.

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A NEW CHART EXTENDING COMPASSION INTO FOUR LEVELS OF FRIENDSHIP.

Acquaintance

Friends

Close Friends, and

Bonded Friends   ( This last one is akin to the Chinese male bonding of Yi Qi )