Introduction: In life, do you also care about the views of others and the mainstream views of the world. And in many cases, there will always be unconsciously, influenced by the values of others.
Even driven by the various moral concepts of the world to do something against the heart. However, whenever this happens, someone will always tell you that you must learn to restrain your nature in life.
But no one ever tells you that more than 2,000 years ago, someone refuted this idea.
The Yangzhu school of the pre-Qin Taoists, which may not have a very good reputation in the hearts of most people, has always been labeled as selfish and indulgent.
But in fact, such a perception is definitely a great prejudice for this pre-Qin school. And it was also a chance for me to really come into contact with the connotation of Yang Zhu's thought.
The story begins
The other day I was on a business trip to a foreign country, and I happened to pass by a flyover and saw a beggar begging there. So without thinking about it, he put the change in his pocket in front of him.
But at this moment, a middle-aged man who passed by suddenly sighed and said lightly:
"People who are in the midst of a sea of suffering, but they still want to cross others, they really can't see through it!" Listening to this sentence, I was suddenly uncomfortable in my heart. ”
So he got up and asked:
"Then you are on the shore. If you really feel that you are superior to others, then why not give him some money to help him? ”
However, the other party was not provoked by my words, but said to me in a very calm tone:
In ancient times, there was a thinker named Yang Zhu who once said a sentence - pull out a maori world and do not do it. I'm that kind of person, can't I?
Listening to the other party's words, I instantly felt speechless, so I couldn't help but salute him:
"Then don't you think that such a practice and attitude is really too selfish?"
If everyone is as cold and heartless as you are, without compassion, without humanitarianism, do you think there is still warmth in the world?
At this time, the other party walked forward, and then suddenly turned his head and said to me:
"What you just said about benevolence, righteousness, compassion, and benevolence is actually just the result of acquired indoctrination, values that most people in this world have forcibly instilled in you, and this is not the true nature of a person." 」
Moreover, the charity of your talents is not a mercy, but rather harms him. Puzzled, I followed up and asked him:
"If you don't give alms, no one forces you to do it."
But why do you have to prove yourself by denying what others have done?
The middle-aged man shook his head and said:
"You're still too young. Take the beggar just now, for example, although he is poor and poor, he is also slightly disabled.
But if he leaves the begging industry, is there really no way to survive? Of course, he is not entirely able to live well in other ways.
But it is precisely because of those of you who are willing to give alms that he will be at ease and live the life of a beggar.
If there is no compassion and kindness in this world as you call it, wouldn't there be no breeding of beggars?
What's more, what a person gets through unearned gain, and what he has earned with his own efforts, is more worth cherishing for him?
So you think your sympathy is kind to him, but from another point of view, don't you think you are harming him? ”
I say:
"What you just said has some truth, but it can't be generalized.
Although that person can live without being a beggar just now, you can't deny that there are indeed many people in this world who have lost their ability to survive.
Do you still have to remain selfish and indifferent in the face of these people, watching them starve to death, freeze to death, and remain indifferent? ”
At this time, the middle-aged man looked at me and said as he walked:
Life in the world is actually a process, as Yang Zhu said, knowing the temporary coming of life, knowing the temporary of death. There's nothing you can't look away from.
Because since it is a process, there must be a beginning and an end. The sentient beings in the world are like one leaf after another growing on a tree. Eventually there will be moments of withering. It's just that some leaves have been blown off by the wind, some leaves have been bitten off by insects, and some leaves have been plucked by some people. And the rest is the natural fall.
Therefore, everything in the world is like this, from the beginning to the end, but the way it ends is different.
So from that point of view, how are you different from them? What right do you have to pity others?
It's just that you're a leaf that stays on the branch longer. ”
Hearing this, I couldn't help but retort:
"According to what you just said, since you can even see life and death, why should you be stingy with things outside the body such as money?" Don't you think your words and deeds are very contradictory?
The truths you say are like a gorgeous cloak that hides your selfish and indifferent heart. Even though you think you can see everything, you don't actually see through anything. ”
At this time, the middle-aged man waved his hand and interrupted me:
I'm not stingy in doing this, but I'm maintaining a balanced rule. Just like the line in the middle of the yin-yang transformation in the Tai Chi diagram, it is impartial.
You may not quite understand me when I say this, but you know what? Although Yang Zhu in ancient times once said, pulling out a maori world is not for it. However, after this sentence, there is actually a more important finishing touch.
It is called Xi Tianxia Feng yi Although I don't want to give anything for others, at the same time I don't need others to give anything for me.
I don't want to hurt myself, but I don't hurt others, and that's the balance I'm after. I know you may not quite understand what I say.
But you can think about it, you were taught from an early age to be compassionate, to be benevolent, to be moral. But behind this idea, is there really no purpose?
In fact, this is not the case, the purpose of your help and sympathy for others is to be able to get help from others when you have difficulties.
This is what everyone calls me for everyone, and everyone is for me. Therefore, people's so-called benevolent morality itself carries a very strong sense of purpose.
Only pay attention to the exchange of pay and return, so it seems that who is clinging to gains and losses?
Can't I see through it, or can't you see through it?
Then he saw that I was silent, so he continued:
How many people in this world do you think can do that kind of effort without asking for anything in return?
Even if some people do not covet material rewards, are they expecting rewards of fame?
Because for some people, fame is more valuable than material. Although I say this with some conspiracy theory flavor, you have to admit that there are many such phenomena in this world.
For example, those Internet celebrities who rely on promoting positive energy and self-hype, are they not this routine?
First create a person who simply pays without any return, and then win traffic and attention. Finally, relying on this heat, we began to make a lot of money to realize, and even realized the leap of social level.
And while they publicize the so-called positive energy, they also affect the values of many people, and form a certain moral standard invisibly.
If someone does not do it according to this standard, it will be condemned by the public. And this is what we often call moral kidnapping.
It's like you gave away more money than the beggar just now, and I didn't do it. So you ran over to question and condemn me.
But now I can tell you that I don't give because I don't covet anything nominal or material in return. So I won't be kidnapped by anybody, in any name.
I say:
You do this yourself really dashing, don't care about anything. But at the same time, it also abandons the moral concepts that most people agree with.
Although you live in a vast sea of people, you are mentally like an isolated person. In your mind, everything in the world seems to be more important than your own comfortable life.
So in my opinion, if the Mo family in the Warring States period is a group of extreme altruists. Then people like you who pursue Yang Zhu's thought are undoubtedly the kind of selfish egoists who are selfish to the extreme.
After saying this, I had expected the other party to argue with me very angrily. But he did not expect that he actually gave a very subversive answer:
Do you know? In fact, what you just said about selfishness for me is the best state of existence for a person. Life should have regarded its life as the most precious thing in the world.
This is just like lao tzu in ancient times said--therefore, if you think of yourself as the world, if you can send the world; if you love your body as the world, if you can support the world.
The Theory of Noble Life
Then I interrupted him again:
I've actually heard this sentence for a long time, but it's also the most incomprehensible sentence in the entire Tao Te Ching. If a king who sits on the whole world does not think about the whole world, he cherishes his body. So isn't it a disaster for the world?
And through this view, it does remind me of a story about the Yang Zhu school. I remember reading in the book before that during the Warring States period, the two countries of Han and Wei once fought over a place. King Han Zhao was depressed and sad about this.
At this time, Yang Zhu's disciple ran over to persuade King Han Zhao, saying that if you cut off your two arms, then give you the whole world. Would you like to?
King Han Zhao replied very dryly, of course it was impossible.
So Yang Zhu's disciple said again. So if you think about it, is South Korea much smaller than the whole world? Compared with the whole of Korea, is the area you are now fighting with Wei much smaller?
Since you are not willing to damage your body for the sake of the whole world, why should you bother to be sad for such a small place?
At this point, I deliberately paused, then looked at the middle-aged man in front of me and said:
Do you think that if King Han Zhao completely adopted Yang Zhu's ideas, he would value his body and take things as light. Completely concerned with the interests of the entire country, only concerned with their own self-cultivation. Then Korea is probably already destroyed by the State of Wei.
At this time, I saw the other party smile and said:
In this world, there are too few people who can truly understand Yang Zhu's thought. Including his disciple, he also had his form in vain, and lost his god.
Because the core idea of the Yangzhu School is not guisheng but guisheng. Although there is only a one-word difference between the two, the real meaning is far from the same. For the body is only the body, and the birth represents the overall state of life.
The state of the body is only the outward manifestation of the life form, and its essence depends on the human mind and heart. In other words, man, as a living being, is actually like a big tree in nature.
The external state of the body is the trunk and branches that we can see. The lushness of a tree's branches and leaves depends entirely on whether its root system is healthy and developed.
Therefore, according to the traditional theory of the ancients, if a person wants to be healthy, he must ensure the access of qi and blood in the body. If you want to make the qi and blood in the body accessible, you must be able to achieve inner patency. But how exactly can a person achieve inner clarity?
The first thing is to deal with what you should do properly, and then you can be at ease and comfortable.
For example, as the king of a country, King Han Zhao, must make his country rich and strong, and there are no internal and external troubles, so that he can be able to understand the inside without hindering his body.
Therefore, Yang Zhu's disciple actually did not really understand the essence of it, so he would blindly emphasize the light objects of your body, and did not know how to complete himself through external objects. In the end, it is still too persistent, too one-sided.
I say:
So, isn't everything you just said contradict your previous point of view?
You said before that Yang Zhu emphasized neither giving nor taking, but if a king pays for his country, doesn't that balance be broken?
At this time, the middle-aged man said dismissively:
For this question, it depends on how you understand it. If a person always feels that he is giving for others, then his heart will never be at peace.
Only when you can clearly realize that everything you do is for yourself, not for others.
Then you can really understand what Yang Zhu said in his thoughts- full fidelity.
Full fidelity
Hearing the other party mention the four words of full sexual fidelity, I finally couldn't help but pick up the stubble and say: Isn't all-sex fidelity the set of ancient people's self-cultivation? Pay attention to maintaining their true spiritual nature, not being consumed by external objects, so as to achieve long-term vision.
The middle-aged man smiled and shook his head and said:
What you just said is just an extension of the thought of future generations according to Guisheng, but in fact it has deviated from the essence. The so-called wholeness is not to preserve nature, but to perfect one's own nature.
Fidelity, on the other hand, does not allow one's own nature to be influenced by the indoctrination of secular morality, and advocates that people dare to face the true disposition in their hearts. The so-called true disposition actually refers to one's six desires.
Because in the view of the Yang Zhu School, only by making life, death, ears, eyes, mouth, and nose "all six desires suitable" can it be called "whole life".
If only part of it is appropriate, it is "loss of life", but if the six desires are not suitable, and they are wronged and insulted and live, it is called "forced life". In the world, it is best to be "full life", followed by "loss of life", and "forced life" is the state that life is worse than death.
I say:
Isn't it human nature to seek advantage and avoid harm? To put it mildly, it is selfishness. If people just blindly pursue the six desires, and let their own nature go unchecked, then won't the world be chaotic?
At this time, however, the other party said:
If you can't see through it, everything in this world, once it develops to the extreme, will inevitably evolve in the opposite direction.
This is an immutable law, just like Lao Tzu said, husbands are indisputable, so the world cannot compete with them!
But if everyone in the world fights for themselves, then the whole world will also show an indisputable state. Because the so-called pursuit of profit and avoidance of harm is nothing more than not wanting to let yourself be hurt in any way, and at the same time trying to satisfy your six desires.
But if everyone doesn't want to be hurt, then it is not necessary for people to be able to do what Yang Zhu said, to give the whole world and not to take it.
Although the pursuit of desire satisfaction, but will not do harm to others and self-interest. But at this point, you think in a different direction. What exactly should be done to make everyone meet this standard. Is it to find a way to improve people's moral standards?
Not really, because morality will be used by some people in turn, becoming a tool to kidnap others and satisfy their own selfish desires. Especially in the feudal era when the people's thinking was relatively backward, such means were even more endless.
In order to maintain their position of power, rulers will always use various ideas to enslave the people, and even influence the trend of the whole world. Therefore, in Yang Zhu's view, the best way is to let everyone awaken their self-awareness and live only for themselves.
No longer kidnapped by other people's ideas, for some false name or foreign objects, and damage themselves to pay for others. In this way, we can achieve a state in which everyone is unfavorable to the world, and at the same time, everyone is not harmful to the world.
I couldn't take it anymore when I heard this, so I said to him in a tone that raised the bar:
If everyone in the world had done what you say, then humanity would not have been able to reproduce to this day. It is even possible that it was extinct from the earth millions of years ago.
If parents do not pay for their children, then how does a child grow up? If all the parents under the heavens were like this, wouldn't humanity be extinct?
The middle-aged man sighed and said:
You still don't understand, whether everything you do is for others, it's all in your own thoughts, assuming you have a child.
Do you feel like you're really paying for him when you raise this child as an adult? Aren't you doing this to keep your heart at peace?
While allowing your children to grow up healthily, isn't it also perfecting your own life and satisfying your own desires? If you can improve your life and heart after you do something, then why don't you do it?
But if there are some things you do, they will cause a series of vicious chain reactions to the world. Even in the end, it may be possible to implicate yourself.
So why would you want to do such a thing? This question is the same as what we just said that kings rule the world in order to stabilize their bodies and minds.
So when people can look at the stakes in the world with a very thorough vision.
Then he no longer needs to think about what to think about for others and what to pay. As long as you live your life well, it is enough.
As the saying goes, if everyone is unfavorable to the world, there is no rule of Yao Shun.
If no one harms the world, there will be no chaos.
Only if people do not pursue certain aspects of extremes can the world run smoothly for a long time and smoothly. After saying this, I didn't wait to say anything more.
The middle-aged man turned and walked into a shop on the side of the road, bought a bag of bread and a bucket of mineral water, and delivered it directly to the beggar. Then without a word, he walked into the distance.
end
Watching his back fade into the crowd, a feeling suddenly arose in my heart.
I feel that my whole life seems to be a lot easier at once.
Because before that, I had been looking for some kind of value for my behavior.
But from that moment I came to understand that instead of using some kind of idea to persuade or cover up my heart.
It is better to face nature frankly and live in a real world.