Hall
of Happiness
by
Cheng Man-Ching
May the joy that is everlasting gather in this hall.
Not the joy of a sumptuous feast, which slips away even as we leave the table;
nor that which music brings—it is only of a limited duration. Beauty and a
pretty face are like flowers; they bloom for a while, then die. Even our youth
slips swiftly away and is gone.
No, enduring happiness is not in these, nor in the
three joys of Jung Kung. We may as well forget them, for the joy I mean is
worlds away from these.
It is the joy of continuous growth, of helping to
develop in ourselves and others the talents and abilities with which we were
born—the gifts of heaven to mortal men. It is to revive the exhausted and to
rejuvenate that which is in decline, so that we are enabled to dispel sickness
and suffering.
Let true affection and happy concourse abide in this
hall. Let us here correct our past mistakes and lose preoccupation with self.
With the constancy of the planets in their courses or of the dragon in his
cloud wrapped path, let us enter the land of health and ever after walk within
its bounds.
Let us fortify ourselves against weakness and learn
to be self reliant, without ever a moment’s lapse. Then our resolution will
become the very air we breathe, the world we live in; then we will be as happy
as a fish in crystal waters. This is the joy which lasts, that we can carry
with us to the end of our days. And tell me, if you can; what greater happiness
can life bestow?
Cheng Man-Ching
New York City, 1973, hung in the Tai Chi studio on 87 Bowery.