When the moon is fullest it begins to wane,When it is darkest it begins to grow.

—Chinese Proverb

There is a calm wisdom in this old saying that impressed me when I heard it first from a monk of a Buddhist monastery in China. It has often, helped me to retain a good measure of equanimity under stress and hardship as well as when some unexpected success or good luck might have made me too exuberant. There is hope and consolation in the sure knowledge that even the darkest hours of pains and troubles won't last: but also a warning against overrating the passing glories of wealth, power and great good fortune. A warning and a hope, not only for the individual, but also for governments,nations and their leaders, a brief summing up of all that history and human experience can tell us. And beyond all that we might hear in it an echo of the law and order that holds our universe in safe balance.

月盈則虧，晦則明。”

中國古諺

這句中國的古語里有種平靜的智慧，它最初是由佛教寺院中的一位和尚告訴我的，當時我在中國，這句話給我的印象很深。從那時起，每當我遭遇困難阻礙，或者遇到可能使我過于興奮的成功或好運的時候，這句話對我的幫助很大，它使我保持鎮(zhèn)定，泰然處之。這句話啟示我們，不論痛苦或困難的時刻有多么黑暗，它們不會長久持續(xù)下去，我們因此會感到希望和寬慰;這句話同時也警示我們，財富、權力或鴻運當頭的榮耀，都不過是過眼煙云，我們不必太放在心上。這個道理對個人如此，對于國家和政治領袖也是如此。這句諺語所提供的希望和警示，是整個人類歷史經(jīng)驗的結晶。除此之外，我們從這句話里面還可以聆聽到使宇宙保持平衡狀態(tài)的法則與秩序的回聲。