What is the hardest thing in life?
Poor? No. Frustrated? No. Old? Dead? Neither.
I said that the most bitter thing in life is that I do not suffer from carrying an unfinished responsibility.
If a person can be content, though he is poor and not bitter; if he can be at peace (do not make much extra hope), although he is frustrated, he is not bitter; old age and death are inevitable things in life, and the people who have attained insight see it very ordinaryly, and it is not a bitterness.
One day a mortal is born in the world, and one day he should do what he should do. If the work that should be done is not finished, it is like there are thousands of pounds of burden on the shoulders, and there is no more suffering.
Why? Because he was rebuked by that conscience, there was nowhere to escape!
Promising people to do one thing and not doing it, not repaying the money owed to the person, not repaying the favor of the person, and not paying tribute to the person who has offended, even the face of this person almost dare not see him; even if I do not see his face, in my sleep and dreams, it is like his shadow haunting me.
Why? Because I don't think I can't stand him! Because his responsibility to him has not been lifted!
This is true not only for a person, but also for the family, for society, for the country, and even for oneself.
Whoever belongs to me who has benefited from him, I have a responsibility to him. Whatever I should do, and the power can do, I have a responsibility for it. Whenever I make up my own mind to do one thing, it is that the present self and the future self have made a contract, that is, I have added a layer of responsibility to myself.
With this responsibility, the conscience is always behind, and the responsibility that should be fulfilled in one day is not fulfilled, and in the night the day is a miserable day; and if the responsibility of a lifetime is not fulfilled, it will die and go to the grave with pain.
This kind of suffering, however, is not as good as ordinary poverty and old age, and can be solved from view. That's why I say that there is no pain in life, and if there is pain, of course, there is nothing heavier than this.
Conversely, what is the happiest?
The completion of natural responsibility is the first joy in life.
As the old saying goes, "As a burden is relieved"; as the saying goes, "A stone in the heart falls to the ground". At this time, the kind of lightness and pleasure that people have, it is impossible to describe it in words.
The greater the responsibility, the longer the day of responsibility, and when the responsibility is over, the sea and the sky are wide, and the heart is at ease, and the happiness will be multiplied several times! The happiness that comes from suffering in the world is really happy.
Life must know that there are responsible sufferings, in order to know the joy of responsibility. This cycle of bittersweet is a kind of fun in this vibrant human world. But they are not fully responsible, they are rebuked by their conscience, and these sufferings are all found by themselves.
Once you turn over the past, you will be happy everywhere when you do your duty, and you will be happy all the time when you are responsible. The right to happiness is your own. Confucius said, "No entry and no self-satisfaction," which is exactly this effect.
But why did Mencius say, "A gentleman has lifelong worries"? For the more sages and heroes he is, the greater the responsibility he bears; and he often has to take on all kinds of responsibilities, and the burden on his shoulders has never been let go.
Zeng Zi also said: "The task is heavy and the road is long", "After death, is it not far away?" "The compassion of the benevolent man and the country, the compassion of the saints and Buddhas, even though he has felt pain all his life, can do so. But he was there every day to fulfill his responsibilities, and he was really happy in suffering there every day, so he was still happy in the end, not bitter!
Someone said, "Since this suffering arises from responsibility, if I abdicate it, won't there be no suffering forever?" "This is not the case, the responsibility is to be lifted to be absent, not to be discharged."
If life can always be like a two- or three-year-old child, there would have been no responsibility, then there would have been no suffering. When it comes to growing up, the responsibility naturally falls on your shoulders, how can you hide? But there is a difference in size.
If you do a great responsibility, you will have great happiness; if you do a small responsibility, you will have a small happiness. If you want to hide, you will throw yourself into the sea of suffering, and you will never be able to lift it.
August 12, 1922 "Current Affairs Newspaper • Learning Lights"
Especially recommended
▼
Worrying about the Country and Patriotism: AnThology of Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao
Biography of Li Hongzhang
Academic History of China in the Past Three Hundred Years
Introduction to Qing Dynasty Scholarship