6/17/2017

章天亮:在2017年飞天艺术学院Middletown分校毕业典礼上的演讲

各位毕业生,各位老师,各位来宾,女士们先生们,大家下午好!

很荣幸能在这里向诸位致辞。高中毕业是人生中的一个里程碑。当你们穿上毕业服的时候,意味着你们已经18岁了,变成了一个成年人。现在的高中毕业典礼,就象是中国古代的冠礼。就是在中国古代,男子到了二十岁的时候,就把头发盘起来,别一个簪子,然后戴上一个冠。冠礼就是成人礼,非常隆重,这意味着这个人就此成为了一个成年人,需要承担社会责任了。

如果说,成年以前,我们的生活大多是由父母和老师安排的,那么从今天开始,你们就会更加自主地安排自己的生活。你们将进入大学,广泛地接触社会,选择你们的专业和职业。上面这些选择非常重要,因为它决定了你们将以何种技能谋生,但这不是最重要的。最重要的是,你们将选择自己做一个什么样的人。

家长和老师都希望通过教育,让你们成为一个成功的人。一个人能否成功,取决于很多因素,比如是否聪明、是否能不断学习、是否能够把握机会,甚至在关键时刻是否有贵人相助等,但这里我只想谈谈关于成功的其中三个要素。

最近我看到一则故事。上世纪六十年代,自由社会和共产阵营正处于冷战时期,出于对美国航天事业可能落后于苏联的担心,1961年,肯尼迪总统启动了载人登月的阿波罗计划。1962年,当肯尼迪总统视察美国宇航局的时候,他看到了一个清洁工,正在清扫地板。肯尼迪走过去,问他在做什么。清洁工回答说:总统先生,我在帮助把人送上月球。"Well, Mr. President," the janitor responded, "I'm helping put a man on the moon."

这个故事对许多人来说,都深具启发性。清洁工没有说:我在清洗地板,或者我在赚每小时两美元的工资。在他看来,虽然他的工作微不足道,但是却是整个庞大计划的一部分。因此,相比其它清洁地板的人来说,他认为他的工作被赋予了更大的意义。

因此即使在做一份微不足道的工作,我们也要尽职尽责地做到最好,要象那些设计航天器的发动机、仪表盘或逃生系统等等那些重要部件的科学家一样,尽到你最大的努力。这是你成功的一个关键,既怀有远大的目标,同时又尽力做好分内的事。

有一点可以肯定,如果你能抱着这样的态度去做清洁工,你就不会永远都是清洁工。

这个故事的第二个层面的意义在于,一个事业的成功需要众多人的配合,包括这个不起眼的清洁工。现在许多人都使用iPhone手机,一部iPhone手机的零部件来自于200多个供应商,比如提供内存、相机镜头、天线、外壳等部件的供货商,中间经过400多道工序。这还只是硬件部分,此外还有整体设计、软件开发、市场调查、统计、财务、法律、金融和人力资源等诸多部门的配合。

如果我们要想让我们所参与的计划能够成功,我们除了做好分内之事,还要能够积极配合他人。在许多书上、和人力资源部门交谈的过程中,我明白了一个道理。很多工作,并非只有一个人能做。从能力上来说,满足一个职位要求的人很多,而最终被雇用的人,未必是能力最强的,但必须是能够配合他人的人。

无论是开发一个成功的产品或做一个成功的企业,人的因素是第一位的。只有能够配合他人的人,并懂得如何让他人一起协调配合的人,才能成就更大的事业。

上述两个要素:尽力尽责、配合他人只是做事成功的要素。作为飞天的毕业生,你们还被赋予了更高的期待,就是做人的成功。

我们现在生活在一个大变动的时代。人类历史上经过了工业革命、电气时代、电脑时代和互联网时代等几次飞跃性的发展。每次革命都带来了经济的繁荣,并造就出一批企业家和发明家,而今网络把整个世界都联系在了一起。而伴随着物质文明的繁荣,则是精神文明的衰退。

在世界的历史上,出现过很多伟大的教育家。比如孔子,他是中国第一个私学教师,被尊为“大成至圣先师”和“万世师表”;在印度,释迦牟尼佛创立了佛教。当时释迦牟尼佛有很多称号,佛、如来、世尊等等都是他的称号,他还有一个称号叫“天人师”,也就是天上和人间的人都应该以他为师;古希腊的先知苏格拉底也是个伟大的教育家,他最著名的学生柏拉图创立了雅典学院。

这其实提出了一个很深刻的问题,也就是教育的目的绝不仅仅是技能的传授,更重要的是培养人的美德。当你们步入大学的时候,你们就会发现,与那些大师的时代乃至后来上千年的传统教育相比,在现在的大学中,人文的精神已经缺失得非常严重了。因此,我今天想告诉各位毕业生的是,在未来的人生中,你们需要重新拾起这种人文的精神,在学习各种技能的同时,完善自己的道德。

这个世界上有不同职业的人。每种职业都有他的顶点,比如搞政治的人可能最高成就是当总统;搞法律的人可能最高成就是做最高法院的大法官或者法学家;搞艺术的最高成就是成为大艺术家。但如果我们抛开职业,就一个人做人本身来说,能够达到的最高成就是什么?

按照中国儒家的观点来说,做人最成功是能够做到圣人。佛家认为,做人最成功的是能修成佛。而道家认为,能够修成真人。这是作为一个人能够到达的顶点。而通向这个顶点的道路,则是遵循圣者的教导。就象我今天找到了法轮大法的教导,并以“真善忍”为原则去生活,才能够不迷失于世俗的洪流中。

因此,在未来的日子里,我不仅祝愿你们学业有成,事业有成,更要祝愿你们,在这个光怪陆离、充满诱惑的时代,能坚守住传统的道德,乃至对“真善忍”的信仰,做一个真正成功的人。

2017年的毕业生,再一次祝贺你们!


敬请转载时注明:转载自作者博客 http://zhangtianliang.com

博主Youtube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/zhangtianliang

博主Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tianliang.zhang

新唐人大型讲史系列《笑谈风云》之《东周列国》、《秦皇汉武》和《隋唐盛世》均已出版DVD。 网上签售地址为 http://zhangtianliang.com/shopping

章天亮:《笑谈风云》之《秦皇汉武》在线观看第1集:受命于天

【方菲时间】《笑谈风云》章天亮专访

章天亮:《笑谈风云》之《东周列国》在线观看第一集:风云莫测

Commencement Speech at Fei Tian Academy of Arts in Middletown

Good afternoon, graduates, teachers, parents and esteemed guests!

Great things have humble origins. In 1642, Harvard College, the first institution of higher learning in New England, the “first flower in the wilderness,” graduated only 9 students. When New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), now the largest Chinese-language TV station outside of China, was founded in 2001, it was stationed in the basement of an ordinary house in New York, hardly noticeable to a passerby. You’re a small graduating class, but in fact, you are precious gems, and the beginning of something much greater!

I am very honored to be speaking in front of you today. High school graduation is a milestone in your life. When you put on the graduation gown, it signifies that you have already turned 18 years old (or 16, as in my case), and have to start bearing social responsibilities.

Up to this point, your life was mostly arranged by your parents and teachers. But from today forth, you will be more independent in pursuing your dreams. You are about to enter college, have more interaction with society, and choose your profession and occupation. These choices are important – they determine how you’ll make a living; however, there is a more important choice, about choosing what kind of person you will be.

Parents and teachers all wish that you can become a successful person through education. There are many deciding factors. Some are in your control; others are not: Your IQ, Your EQ, whether you are willing to take challenges, whether you can recognize opportunities when they appear, or whether you have the good fortune to get help from someone at critical junctures of your life. In my opinion, there are three factors of paramount importance that nobody can afford to ignore.

The first one is a sense of responsibility.

I came across a story recently. In the 1960s, when the free world and the communist regime were still in the midst of the Cold War, there was a possibility that the U.S. space program could lose the race against the Soviets. In 1961, President Kennedy initiated the Apollo mission to send a man to the moon. When President Kennedy visited NASA in 1962, he saw a janitor mopping the floor. President Kennedy walked over and asked him what he was doing. “Well, Mr. President,’ the janitor responded, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

Think about this—the janitor did not say: I am just mopping the floor, or I am just doing a job that earns me $2 an hour. In the eyes of the janitor, though his job may seem trivial to others, he was doing his part in helping with the greater goal. He was contributing to a greater purpose.

Even if our jobs seem trivial, we should be responsible and complete our jobs with utmost diligence, just like how the engineers designed the engine, the dashboard, or the emergency escape system for the spaceships. This is a key point in succeeding: you must have an ambitious goal, while at the same time striving your hardest to fulfill your responsibility.

One thing is for certain: if you can do everything with a purpose like that janitor, you definitely won’t be a janitor forever. You will shoulder bigger responsibilities in the end.

The second level of meaning in this story is: for an organization to succeed, everyone needs to cooperate, including a seemingly inconspicuous janitor. Nowadays many people use iPhones. A single iPhone contains parts from more than 200 suppliers, like suppliers for memory storage, camera, antenna, case, etc. Assembling an iPhone also takes over 400 steps. This is only from the hardware aspect. There must also be cooperation from departments such as the system design, software development, marketing, research, statistics, financial affairs, and so on and so forth.

If we want to succeed, aside from doing what is assigned to us, we must also actively cooperate with others. I’ve read many books and talked to human resources managers, and I have come to this conclusion. Many people have the capability to qualify for a certain position. However, the person that gets employed in the end is not necessarily the most capable person, but the one who can most harmoniously cooperate with others.

To be a successful businessman or entrepreneur, a person’s character will always be top priority. Only when you know how to cooperate with others and how to make others cooperative, can you obtain greater results.

So, the above two essential factors are: trying your best, and cooperating with others. But as a Fei Tian graduate, you are entrusted with even greater expectations: to be a morally upright person.

We live in a time of great changes. In the past two centuries, our society has gone through the Industrial Revolution, Electric Age, Computer Age, and Internet Age. Each of these revolutions brought about great economic prosperity, as well as a generation of inventors and entrepreneurs. Today the Internet has connected the entire world. Unfortunately, the growth of material prosperity has been accompanied by a decline of spiritual belief. People are more disoriented than ever, and society has become more unstable.

We can’t help but turn to the many great educators that walked this earth. Confucius, the founder of the first private school in China, was known as “the Eternal Paragon of Teachers." In India, Shakyamuni founded Buddhism. People referred to him as Buddha, yet he has another title as “the Teacher of Both the Heavenly and Human Beings”. In Ancient Greece, the prophet Socrates was also a great educator, and his most famous student Plato founded the Academy.

This brings up a profound question: what is the goal of education? From those great teachers’ perspective, it is not only to pass down technical abilities, but more importantly, to cultivate a student’s virtues. When you step into college, you will realize: compared to the time of those great educators, or even compared to universities a century ago, colleges today have very much departed from the way set by those great teachers.

In view of this, I would like to have a request of today's graduates. As you embark on the exciting journey of your life, you should be ambassadors of traditional culture and traditional values; you should strive to be part of the great cause of reviving the great cultural heritage of humanity. As you learn various skills, be sure to improve your morals at the same time.

There are many different professions in this world. Every profession has its zenith. For example, the pinnacle of a politician could be becoming the president; the summit for a lawyer is becoming the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court; the highest apex for an artist is to create immortal artwork. But if we set our professions aside, what is the highest peak for being a human?

According to Confucianism, the highest peak a human can reach is to become a sage. Buddhism believes becoming a Buddha is the ultimate transcendence. Taoism believes becoming a zhenren, or True Person, is the final goal. These are the ultimate goals of a human being. The path to achieving these goals is to follow the teachings of these sages. Just like how I found the teacher of Falun Dafa, and follow the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance” to lead my life.

So in the days to come, I not only wish you guys the best of success in academic studies and professions, but I wish even more for you, in this world filled with temptations, to hold onto the traditional moral standard, to hold onto the belief of “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance,” and become a truly successful person.

Congratulations again, Class of 2017!


敬请转载时注明:转载自作者博客 http://zhangtianliang.com

博主Youtube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/zhangtianliang

博主Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tianliang.zhang

新唐人大型讲史系列《笑谈风云》之《东周列国》、《秦皇汉武》和《隋唐盛世》均已出版DVD。 网上签售地址为 http://zhangtianliang.com/shopping

章天亮:《笑谈风云》之《秦皇汉武》在线观看第1集:受命于天

【方菲时间】《笑谈风云》章天亮专访

章天亮:《笑谈风云》之《东周列国》在线观看第一集:风云莫测