I am already in the middle of my winter years, but as a human being, I am nowhere near reaching such a mature state of mind. However, considering the average life expectancy back then compared with now, Confucius’s 70 years old would be about one hundred and ten years old today. I am an octogenarian, but my practice and learning are still far from complete, and there are many things I do not know or understand, so therefore, I honestly think that I should continue to learn a

However, in order to build a brighter future, I think it is important that we look unflinchingly at these painfully sad events and the tragically cruel past. Because we are now receiving life, it is up to us to pass down these memories, reflect on them, learn lessons from them, and turn them into wisdom so that we can make the world a better place for future generations.

As I mentioned in last month’s installment, for those of us who are alive now, thanks to the relay of passing the baton of life in an unbroken chain of connections that forms part of the history of one great life stretching back to the birth of the universe, thinking about the meaning of being filial to our parents also means looking at the origin of our own lives through the lives of our parents and ancestors and asking what we can do now as we look toward the future.