The Writer's Almanac said that today is the anniversary of the publication of the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist document of wide importance. The Almanac said that it is one of the oldest documents ever published. The Wikipedia says it was published on May 11, in the year 868. Various files and copies are available on the internet including several PDFs for downloading.
I have enough to think about right now, more than enough, in fact. I did read a small bit of it and I may get back to it one of these days. I imagine that documents and ideas and concepts in Chinese and other portions of the East would be of interest to me. This business of Eastern and Chinese history and thought brought to mind a book I read about called "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out". When something comes to mind, I often do a little checking into it.
I knew the book was something I had heard about, probably on Amazon in the book section. I looked it up on my computer and yes, again, got that message, "You purchased this item in 2013". See? I told you I had heard of it. I have many Kindle books in my purchased archive and I don't expect to remember them all. I really appreciate the practice of telling me that I have an item in my library.
I downloaded the book and looked through it. I saw a notice that the book had been published in China as "Shengsi pilao". I often use Google Translate to try for some insight into languages I don't know, which is all of them except English. I didn't even know if I could look up a Chinese word in Translate using letters from our alphabet. Turns out it worked.
"Shengsi" was translated as "life and death". I was surprised that evidently a single word meant all that. "Pilao" was "fatigue". I think I might use the English "existence fatigue" but Life and Death are wearing me out is much more poetic. The book is written by Mo Yan, a Chinese author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012.
