At a Chinese supermarket, at the seafood section, inside a water tank marked $2.85 a pound, I saw a crab, fettered-up tightly, trying its best to climb up the tank wall and over into the next-door tank, marked $4.35 a pound. Tears ran down my cheeks—little crab, what a spirit! How determined you are to move up!

A relative emailed me this joke a few days ago. As soon as I read it, I couldn’t help doubling over in laughter. At the same time, I also felt vaguely downhearted.

This crab has been forced out of its carefree life in the ocean and is now incarcerated in a tiny supermarket tank waiting for its inexorable doom.  Despite such an unlucky fate, this future crab rangoon is completely oblivious to its precarious state, and is intently focused on raising its personal stock by climbing into a more expensive tank exclusively reserved for the real good crustaceans. Even if it succeeds, what could it possibly get out of it?

When I stopped and thought about it, many people around me, including myself actually, sometimes make fools of ourselves just like this crab.

How many of us spend days on end thinking about how to make money, make a name for ourselves, or else are unhinged by love and romance? Could a heart wrung by all these emotions and desires not feel drained? Alone at night, is it possible to never wonder if the meaning of life is really just to seek money and fame and love—and to hold on to them for a few short decades? Could it be that trivial?

When I’m alone in the stillness of night, I look up at the sky, at the canopy of stars stretching from the horizon, silently flickering in the boundless heavens, and I feel just like that crab—small and ignorant. “I lift my drink and sing a song, for who knows if life is short or long? Just like morning dew is human life, the days are gone, the bitterness rife.” As Cao Cao exclaimed with a sigh, human life is bitter and short. Many people say we should treasure life, that years pass us like flowing water, never to return again. But when people say these things, do they know what the meaning of life is? What is the purpose of our coming to this world?

Probably each person who ponders these questions comes up with somewhat of a different answer. For me, the answer is that only by constantly raising our moral standard and working hard to purify our spirit is it possible to realize the true meaning of life.

In the short time I’ve been dancing with Shen Yun Performing Arts, my spirit has been immersed in traditional Chinese culture in all it’s splendor, and its profound inner meaning has fully enchanted me. It’s like I’ve been spellbound by the grand play of five thousand years of Chinese civilization, washed away by the ebb and flow of its plots unfolding on stage, feeling joy or sorrow as I follow the brilliant historical figures shining through the drama. I admire the noble moral character of the sages like Confucius and Mencius; I revere the utter loyalty of the great generals like Guan Yu and Yue Fei; I am awestruck by the brilliant stratagems of Zhuge Liang and Xun Yu... Ancient Chinese civilization is like soft rain sating my intellectual, moral, and emotional thirst, inconspicuously quenching me with its lofty spirit.

Even more delightful is how being on this hallowed stage is a process of lifting and purifying my soul. That’s because what Shen Yun presents on stage is the cornerstone of Chinese civilization—divinely inspired culture. Many times, when I play the role of a Bodhisattva or a celestial maiden, I really feel like Buddhas and divine beings are by my side, giving me strength. Immediately, in my heart I have this feeling that’s beyond expression, a sense of gratitude and reverence; my eyes can’t help becoming a little moist.

My happiest moment is when the applause roar and we dancers come out on stage for the curtain call. Seeing the audience members’ satisfied smiles and hearing the kind of applause that can only come from the heart, I feel that the fatigue from performing, the hecticness of our schedule, and the scrambling from one place to another for months on the road vanish in an instant. Being able to bring happiness to other people is such a beautiful thing.

Shen Yun has inspired me and brought me to the realization that purifying one’s spirit and giving others the best and most beautiful is what makes for a meaningful life. On the other hand, blindly betraying our conscience for the sake of profit and gain is what I think makes for a squandered life and definitely, in the future, regret; after all, our lifetime is barely a short century.

If you find yourself also pondering the meaning of life, why don’t you come watch our show? I believe it will give you some inspiration.

March 5, 2011