Before studying the ancient scriptures, do these things well. (i)

Article 213:

[Zi Yue: "When a disciple enters, he is filial, and when he goes out, he is compassionate, he is sincere and faithful, he loves the people, and he is kind." If you have spare energy, you can learn the literature. ”】

This passage is from the Analects of Volume IX of the Qunshu Zhizhi.

The familiar Disciple Rules are also based on these six sentences. The meaning of this passage is that as a disciple, you should honor your parents at home, respect your elders and superiors when you go out, be cautious and careful in your work, speak with faith in your words, love others, and be close to people with benevolence. In addition to doing these six things well, then study the texts of the ancient sages.

"Disciple", Liu Baonan explained in the "Analects of Justice", "the title of brother and father is also when a person is a disciple when he is young", that is to say, he calls his father a son and a brother, and "disciple" mainly refers to the time when a person is a younger brother and a son. Of course, there is also a meaning, "disciple" is as far as the student is concerned, Mr. Li Bingnan said in the "Analects of the Essentials", "disciple, the person who seeks to learn, must have a teacher, so it is called a disciple", so the disciple can also refer to the student as it is now.

"Filial piety in the family", in the family, we must filial piety to parents, so that parents are physically and mentally at ease. "Out of the way is to be sad", "Ti" in the "Disciple Rules" is also written as "brother", the two are actually the same, both are said to study abroad or do other things, to practice the Tao. "悌", Huang Kan's commentary says, "Good brother is sorry", and good deed brother is 悌; Xing Fu's commentary says, "Brother, Shunye".

If a person can honor his parents at home, he must be able to respect his brother and do good deeds, because this is also what his parents want. If you can be filial to your parents and obey your brothers at home, then when you go out to study and work, you can extend the respect of your brother who is doing this kind of good deed, and you can treat people older than yourself as if you were treating your brothers with respect, which is called "compassion".

"Be careful and believe", zhou yi qian wen yan said: "the faith of mediocrity, the caution of mediocrity", this "mediocrity" is the meaning of daily life. This sentence means that in daily life, words should be faithful, and deeds should be careful, so this "caution" is for behavior, and "faith" is a requirement for speech.

"Loving the multitude" means loving the multitude. This means that in dealing with others, we should pay attention to fraternity, which is also to cultivate one's equal heart and the virtue of forgiving all. Only by being able to love everyone extensively can we achieve "the old and the old, the young and the young and the young."

"To be kind to oneself" is to "choose one who is benevolent and to be close to him." The previous sentence, "Pan-love for all", is to demand equal love and care for all people from the heart, and does not say that there must be a choice, but if you want to learn, you must follow the benevolent, which must be chosen, depending on whether the person who follows is benevolent.

"If there is spare strength in the line, we will learn the literature", and this "action" means that we have practiced and done well the filial piety, compassion, sincerity, faithfulness, universal love for the public, and benevolence mentioned above, which are called "deeds." In addition to doing these things well, it is "residual force". When a disciple seeks to study, he should take the practice of the above six things as the foundation, and should first learn "filial piety when entering, compassion when going out, being sincere and believing, loving the people, and being kind", which is the basis of learning.

Why? Because "it is not advisable to write without a root", if you do these things well, it is not advisable to specialize in some ancient classics. This "xuewen", Ma Rong's annotation said, "literati, ancient relics", "wen" refers to the classics left over from ancient times. Xing Yu's commentary further clarifies that "those who note the ancient relics are also the six classics of poetry, books, rituals, music, Yi, and Spring and Autumn", and he concretizes these "texts" and "ancient relics" into the Six Classics.

"When a disciple enters, he is filial, and when he goes out, he is filial." The person who has just studied is called a disciple, and the learning he seeks must be in order. Confucius taught students the four disciplines of virtue, speech, political affairs, and literature, and what did it mean to emphasize virtue first? It is explained that it is necessary to "correct its heart first, then for literature, and to swim in art." This order of teaching cannot be reversed. This is the order of our education, and so is the order of our education.

Looking at the present, there are many problems and drawbacks in the education of the current society, and one of the important reasons is that the order of education has been reversed. The order of this education must be what the "Three Character Classic" calls "the first filial piety, the second sight and the hearing", that is to say, first of all, to cultivate a person's virtue of filial piety to his parents, respect for his elders, and respect for his teachers, and after he has a humble and courteous attitude toward the world, he will be allowed to learn knowledge and skills. If a person does not first cultivate a humble and courteous attitude toward the world, and learns a lot of knowledge and skills, the more he will learn, the more arrogant he will be; the more he learns, the less he will pay attention to his parents and teachers.

For example, when children communicate with their parents, they often say "you don't understand", "what do you understand", "you don't understand", which are all the expressions of a person's arrogance. In China, the ancient sages, including enlightened emperors, taught the people in the correct order. Like the Kangxi Emperor, in order to implement the concept of "building the country and the people, teaching first", he specially promulgated the "Sixteen Sacred Sayings", the first of which is "Dun Filial Piety Brother values human morality", and in this preface, it is written: "Good deeds parents are filial piety, and good deeds are brothers." Gai's parents gave birth to me, and there was a great grace. My brother was born before me, and he had the same friendship. This means that being kind to one's parents is called filial piety, and being kind to one's brother is called filial piety. Parents have children, there is a grace of recklessness, and it is also said in the Book of Poetry that the grace of parents is as high as the sky, endless, and children cannot repay it if they want to, so it is called "the grace of the extreme".

"Disciples enter filial piety, out are filial piety", as mentioned earlier, "disciple" also means "student", if it refers to students, whose students do they mean? We study the sages, and of course we are students of the sages. If we study the Analects, then we are students of Confucius. What were Confucius's students like? Can we learn to be like them? This is what we want to compare and reflect on.

For example, there are four sentences at the beginning of the "Disciple Rules" "Entering the filial piety", "Parents should not delay; parents should not be lazy; parents should teach, they must listen; parents must be responsible, they must be obedient", which is the focus of filial piety that should be fulfilled by children. Why? In fact, this is to let children gradually put down the "me" from the attitude towards their parents and learn to care for others. Even if parents are not very good to their children, even if they are like The Stepmother of Da Shun and the stepmother of Min Ziqian, they are embarrassed with their children everywhere, and even try to put their children to death, the children cannot hold grudges in their hearts, retaliate against their parents, and hurt their parents, but should know how to reflect on themselves, impress their parents with a heart of benevolence and gratitude, and learn to resolve contradictions instead of intensifying contradictions. In terms of attitude towards parents, never disobeying their parents, children can cultivate a heart that is not hostile to anyone, not to oppose anyone.

The ancients said that "the benevolent are invincible", not that the benevolent person can defeat the invincible hand in the world, but that the benevolent person is a truly benevolent and loving person, who can not oppose anyone from the bottom of his heart, because he understands that he is one with others. The ancient Chinese extended their filial piety to their parents, and they treated all people, all animals, and even all things in heaven and earth with benevolence.

Zhuangzi has a saying, "Heaven and earth are born with me, and all things are one with me", which shows that we ourselves and others, and even everything in nature, is one. What is the oneness relationship? It is like a body, no one can be separated from anyone. If you use this kind of mind to deal with the problem, you will deal with it very well, and there will be no sequelae.

Again, the word "filial piety" is an "old" above and a "son" below, which tells us that the previous generation and the next generation are one. The previous generation has the previous generation, and the next generation has the next generation, and this previous generation and the next generation are one and the same from beginning to end. Therefore, if filial piety can be done well, vertical interpersonal relations will be handled well, which is what the ancients called "vertical poverty and three worlds".

"Compassion" is about friendship between brothers, and by expanding this friendship, we can achieve "brotherhood in all parts of the world." Therefore, if you can do a good job of the path, the horizontal interpersonal relationship will be handled well, which is what the ancients called "crossing the ten directions".

The words "filial piety" and "filial piety" have been achieved, and vertical and horizontal interpersonal relationships have been handled well. What is this thing that can "vertically and poorly three worlds and cross ten directions"? That is self-nature, nature. Therefore, the person who can really fulfill filial piety is the person who can truly reach the state of "benevolence", that is, the so-called saint. In the Analects, it is said that "filial piety is also the basis of benevolence", which shows that starting from filial piety and achieving the ultimate, you can return to your own nature and reach the realm of "benevolence". So it is the source of water, the root of the tree.

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In terms of "going out and being sad", there are two sentences in the "Disciple Rules" that are the most fundamental, that is, "Things to the fathers, as the fathers; things to the brothers, such as the brothers." This means that we should treat the elderly with the same respect as our own brothers; we should treat the parents of others as filial piety as we would our own parents. In this way, the heart of filial piety is expanded, but it is easier said than done.

If we can truly extend the heart of filial piety and treat all people and all sentient beings equally and selflessly, then we will reach the realm of saints. In short, "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", in order to solve the current social conflicts and promote social harmony, we must fundamentally grasp it, that is, we must start from cultivating people's filial piety.