01
Wintering is practice
"The autumn wind blows away the old Tingke, and the yellow leaf DanFeng guests pass by." A little Zen lamp half round moon, this evening is more cold than last night."
The Ming Dynasty poet Wang Zhideng's "Standing Winter" not only depicts the transition from autumn to winter and from cool to cold seasons into three points, but also highlights the poetic Zen meaning of winter.
The poet who lives in a foreign land, at this time, sits in the middle of the night, and there is a clear lamp, not a lone lamp, nor a cold lamp, but a Zen lamp. The partial moon is not a full moon, not a new moon, just half a wheel, hanging in half a day.
Such a night, such a lamp, the poet's heart, more perceiving the cold, more prompting homesickness, is not only a seasonal journey of life, but also a pure and clear spiritual practice.
Wintering is a practice.
Folk cloud, "spring planting, long summer, autumn harvest, winter hiding". A "Tibetan" character comes with a kind of silence, a kind of peace in all things, and the "meditation", "meditation" and "retreat" of the practitioners can be described as "the same work".
The wind rises, and all things are hidden.
The silence of the earth is a kind of practice; the dead leaves of trees turn into spring mud, which is a kind of practice; birds and beasts lurking to avoid cold winters, which is a kind of practice; and it is also a kind of practice for farmers to live and recuperate.
Because of the harsh winter, the vitality of spring is cooled, the prosperity of summer is hidden, and the harvest of the earth in autumn is knotted, but it gives heaven and earth a time of purity and ice.
"The sky and water are clear, and the autumn and winter qi begin to intersect." Winter is the far side of the season, the blank space of time.
Such a time, in the human body, is to replenish and nourish the spirit in winter.
In the human heart, it is a practice of reincarnation of time and the blankness of the seasons.
02
Spend the winter and read well
For a person who likes to read, winter is a rare and pleasant time.
Especially in the old days, when people cultivated and read people, in the four seasons, only the days when grain entered the warehouse in winter and the snow flew in the snow could steal a season of idleness.
Unable to go far, outdoor entertainment is less, there is no need to go to the field, so you have to sit at home, with a charcoal fire, holding an old book, to pass this long winter.
Moreover, because of the cold, the mind is the most awake, there is no spring sleepiness, summer fatigue and autumn dryness, the heart is the most calm, reading books, self-improvement is more in the volume of true taste.
At this time, most of the reading was not to seek the golden house, qianzhongsu, and Yan Ruyu in the book, but only to entertain the quiet time of this season.
The so-called, "Good reading, do not seek much understanding; whenever there is a will, they gladly forget to eat." ”
If you think about it, the snow is flying outside the window, the north wind is whistling, the house is a lamp and a person and a roll, the gods are wandering outside, the movement is appropriate, this scene and this heart, the legendary paradise, I am afraid it is just like this.
Therefore, the Song Dynasty poet ZiJinshuang said, "The cold frost on the door can wake up the bones, and the window is good for reading." ”
In winter, it is not advisable to go out and read. If you don't have floral, grassy and fruity aromas, let's go with the aroma of books.
Reading through the winter is a practice that makes the soul more interesting and makes the years echo.
03
In the winter, it is advisable to empty it
Nowadays, people often chant "empty", because in the cities of the era of industrial civilization, the pace of work and life is too fast, the pressure is too great, and there is almost no breathing space.
There are many ways to empty, some people come to a trip that says they can go, some people buy a hangover, some people go to KTV to play a song, some people find an empty lawn to cry, and some people return to their hometown to live for half a month.
In fact, in the era of agricultural civilization, spending the winter was the best posture for the ancients to empty.
Throughout the winter, the busy agricultural work basically subsided, staying with the family, cooking the melon and fruit grains planted in the spring and autumn harvest, warming a pot of yellow wine, brewing a cup of tea, stewing a pot of broth, burying a few sweet potatoes in the hot ash of the fire, talking about the world, nourishing the body and mind, the body and mind of the world, naturally got the best rest.
You see, even the great poet Li Bai knows how to empty in winter, and the poems are too lazy to write, "Frozen pen new poems are lazy to write, cold stove wine when warm." Drunk to see the ink flower moon white, trance snow full of the front village. ”
Bai Juyi was also deeply envious and jealous of such an emptying, and in the early winter of October of one year, in "Xiaoyang Spring", his self-pity was still running around on the journey, "at this time, he was envious of idle people and drunk, and the five horses had no reason to enter the restaurant."
In the deep winter of another year, the poet finally stayed at home, the stove was new wine, the sky was low and snowy, and the mood was different, "Green ant new wine, red clay small stove." Late to the day want snow, can you drink a cup of nothing? ”
A thousand mountain birds do not fish alone, thousands of miles of ice and calm, in the lonely boat of people in the sky, look down on the world like river snow!
Even in the modern winter, although the rhythm of the city is still tense, we must inherit the mentality of emptying in the winter.
"The Winter, the End, the Collection of All Things".
The year is coming to an end, it is a collection and an inventory, a summary and a farewell. Gain and loss, sorrow and joy, encounter and miss, return and leave, all in the winter, the dust has settled.
In the end, just like a heavy snow covering all the colors of the earth, a winter, but also a complete emptiness of our hearts.
The sky is cold and frozen, the pure earth is also wiped with dust.
Heavy snow flies, white earth, and purifies the soul.
"There are no more days for the spring to go, where the plum blossoms are fragrant", there are many bitter days to go, the deceased is already gone, why should we obsess over the past?
In life, the most important thing is to focus on the future and live in the present, just like the plum blossoms in this winter, just like the spring of the next year.
In winter, completely emptying down all kinds of dust in spring, autumn and summer is a practice that smooths out the ups and downs of one year old and cleans up the dust of a year.
04
Winter, and go home
The colder it is, the more people need warmth and affection for warmth.
The warmth of the body is a warm quilt, or a cup of hot tea, or a charcoal fire.
And the warmth of the heart is the hometown, is the home, is the gathering of relatives and friends, is the night talk of the hearth.
Because of winter, the hometown and home become unusually warm.
Because of winter, lovers and love, become unusually gentle.
It is no wonder that the New Year also falls on the time of the winter of March 9.
It is no wonder that the famous singer Qi Qin missed his lover across the strait and sang:
You ask me when I'm going home / Ask myself softly / Not at this time / I don't know when / I think it will be about winter /
The Song Dynasty poet Ge Shaoti, the day before the establishment of winter, was still far away in the vast world, and nostalgia was affected by sorrow, and there was nowhere to dissolve:
Chrysanthemums have been planted in Chongyang, and the autumn color is frosted. Hugh said that tomorrow the wind will rise, and the intestines will break the people of the world.
In 1369 (the second year of Ming Hongwu), Zhang Yining, who was nearly ancient, was ordered to send an envoy to Annam (present-day Vietnam), and on the way to the boat, he encountered the warm winter in the south, but he was obsessed with "the weather is not cold", and remembered the winter in the northern country in his dream:
Beach after beach, light boat paddle on the turbulence. There was little rain outside the Three Autumn Ridges, and it was not cold in October. Dew shore reed flowers understand feathers, wind forest oranges move golden pills. How to return to your hometown dream overnight, not afraid of the difficulty of closing the mountain.
In winter, no one is homesick, everywhere is homesick.
This may be an instinct of being born as a human being!
In about winter, it is better to miss your hometown and relatives than to go home.
When you embark on the road home at the end of the year, you are destined to wait for a warm whole year of practice.
05
Winter, not winter
Behind each bloom there is a moment of silence.
After winter, although everything on the earth has been silent, it is secretly accumulating the power of the coming spring.
Ice and snow frost freeze the harmful microorganisms in the soil and the land becomes healthier.
The same is true of farmers, who are recuperating their physical strength while turning out all kinds of agricultural tools, knocking and tinkering.
How hard the winter is, how gorgeous the spring is.
Of course, winter also has winter growth, and winter also has winter bloom.
For example, plum blossoms that "remote knowledge is not snow, for dark incense", such as peas that "plant peas in winter, a bucket and a bucket", such as winter wheat in the Jiangnan region, such as "lonely boats, fishing alone in the snow of the cold river".
For example, the hexagonal snowflakes that are flying one after another are the spring dreams of winter and the gifts of time.
In the Hakka in the south, farmers would lead their cattle to plough the land deeply, as the proverb goes: "Plough gold before winter, plough silver after winter, and plough iron after spring."
You know, the heavenly path is rewarded with diligence, and the plum blossom fragrance comes from the bitter cold.
Winter is coming, will spring be far away?
Spend the winter in a slow rhythm, but do not fail this winter, hug with the self who is stumbling forward, quietly accumulate the strength to grow in silence, work hard to heal, and patiently wait for the re-bloom of the years.
This is exactly the practice of hiding without stopping, tired and not sluggish, a practice of precipitating oneself and accumulating strength.