“Who knows the ways of the universe? Is it an accident? Or destiny? It is a secret.” – Secrets of the Scroll (2016)

Are our lives written done before we were born? If yes, does it also consider our personalities? Our willpower will make decisions throughout our lives, and each of them is like choosing a direction in a complex road crossing. A sequence of decisions will also take us to different places, with different scenery along the journey.

Is luck important? I would definitely say ‘yes’. But is it also written in our lives? Even if yes, life is still mysterious and exciting, just like a great movie whose plots are clear to the producer, but totally new to the audiences. It would be more exciting if the movie is interactive, and each decision can lead to different destinations.

We are born to experience the rich and colorful of this world. If we only seek guaranteed success, would our lives be way too boring? Amid countless uncertainties and possibilities, we must strive to identify a path toward hope and make decisive choices with calm and self-aware willpower (Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler). No matter whether it is happiness, sadness, euphoria, depression, they are necessary components of our lives and they help us to achieve the fullness of life. This is beautifully expressed in the Zen saying, “The snow falls, each flake in its appropriate place” (Eckhart Tolle).

“People, who can’t throw something important away, can never hope to change anything.” – Attack on Titan

Source: List 50 Master Oogway’s quotes from the wise Kung Fu Panda Tortoise

In terms of experiencing the life, I prefer vicarious pleasures from reading books or watching travel vlogs or documentaries. I personally think that I am not a physically energetic person, and travelling more and more often is a drudgery to me.

The first book in my life that impressed me significantly, or even deeply shocked me, is Carl Jung’s autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Before that, I felt that I was quite weird among the crowd and nobody understood me at all. When I was trying to read this book, I was quite surprised that in this world, in another era, there was a person who and I share so many similarities regarding the ways of thinking, the sensitivity to the environment, and even the attitudes towards Freud. Every minute and second when I was reading the book, I felt I was having a heart-to-heart conversation with a long lost friend, and this conversation stays in my mind till now, probably will last forever.

The second book that makes me feel enlightened is The World as Will and Presentation, by Arthur Schopenhauer. Obstinate against then-current Zeitgeist, he insisted on his pessimistic philosophy and trenchant criticism and opinions about the essence of life. I cannot think of anyone else to be able to point out these truths of lives so cruelly.

“Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”