Friday, February 09, 2007

Squirrel at Confucius Temple in Taipei (台北孔廟)


We found this squirrel at the Confucius Temple, eating bread on a tree. Note the stash of bread to the left, overflowing a hole in the tree. When it was finished with a piece of bread, it would run back to the hole, pick out another piece, and run back to its perch to eat. It seemed like it had been eating for a long time, and was never going to stop. The stash of bread looked large enough to last for a while.

The bread was obviously given to it by people who visited the temple. It seemed like a good life. A beautiful, quiet temple with big trees on its grounds. Plenty of food that it did not have to work very hard for. Plenty of company – there were quite a few squirrels around.


I liked the temple grounds. I enjoyed the elegant temple, the exhibits reminding of the long history of China and the many interesting characters and stories in it, the children practicing the ceremonies, the beautiful big trees, the funny but lovely squirrels, the few leisurely visitors. Even the man who told us we should not step on the
門檻. At the end I was reluctant to get back to the city bustle.

Why is it so hard for us humans to be satisfied with the simple things of life?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is easy to enjoy it at a moment, but when you stay longer, you have to think about how to earn money to support your family or how to live in such a competitive society. It is not so hard to be satisfied. The hard thing is how to abandon your responsibility. 莊子 is easy to be satisfied because he only cares about himself's 境界.孟子is hard to be satisfied because he has to convince empires to stop finghting.

Anonymous said...

There is perhaps no totally satisfactory way to escape. And no way to solve all the world's problems - until God Himself comes again. But we don't need to add to the suffering by chasing after things that ultimately do not make us happy.