Beautifully Broken Issue #30: An Orchid In The Empty Valley

IDEAS, ART & WISDOM TO REPAIR OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD

Happy Saturday! Welcome to Beautifully Broken Issue #30: An Orchid In The Empty Valley. Each week's issue will be reserved for paid subscribers first (but you can obtain a free preview of an issue as a free subscriber). After a month the issue will become free and can be found in the archive.

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IDEAS:  An Orchid In The Empty Valley

Professor wrote a poem to his students:

One's life only reaches 100 years,
the body begins to deteriorate when you pass 40.
How good is it to fight for both fame and money if the body cannot take it?
Just enrich your knowledge by reading and
improve your skill by diligently practicing this art.
Be an orchid in an empty valley, its fragrance will attract admirers.

Cheng Man-ch'ing or Zheng Manqing (29 July 1902 - 26 March 1975) was a Chinese expert of tai chi, Chinese medicine, and the so-called three perfections: calligraphy, painting and poetry. He was born in Yongjia (present-day Wenzhou), Zhejiang Province, during the Qing dynasty. Cheng died March 26, 1975; his grave is near the city of Taipei in Taiwan.

Because of his skills in the 3 Perfections or "Excellences" – considered to be among some of the traditional skills and pastimes of a Confucian scholar – plus Traditional Chinese Medicine and tai chi, he was often referred to as the "Master of Five Excellences." Because he had been a university art professor, his students called him "Professor Cheng." He lived and taught for many years in New York's Chinatown and in addition to a large following in Taiwan, taught many American students who have spread his tai chi teachings widely.

Professor Cheng Man Ching teaching in New York. Photograph by Kenneth Van Sickle

Ideas: What is the idea of the orchid in the empty valley? What is the essence of you? When you look deep inside and let all the veils of identity fall away, what is left?