Hu Shi: Life itself, people are like cats and dogs

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The meaning of life is all found and created by each person himself: noble, despicable, noble, dirty, useful, useless, all by his own deeds.

What is the significance of life itself as nothing more than a biological fact?

What is the difference between a person and a cat and a dog? The meaning of life is not in how you live, but in how you live.

If you are willing to bury these six-foot bodies above the day-to-day dreams, that is the meaning of your life; if you are angry and uplifted, determined to seek and create the meaning of your own life, then you will have the meaning of one day in your life, and the meaning of doing one thing will add to one thing, and life will be infinite, and the meaning of life will be infinite.

Wu Zhihui, an old predecessor of the ideological circles, said that man is the spirit of all things, how to say it?

First: people can make things with two hands;

Second: The human brain is larger than all animals. There are hands that can do things and a brain that is larger than all animals, so it is said that man is the spirit of all things.

But what is the meaning of life? I often think: the meaning of life lies in how we see life. The magnitude of meaning is shallow and deep, all in how we use our hands and brains.

Life is very short, the life expectancy is not more than a hundred years, and when it is completely possible to do things with the hand and brain, it is only a few decades. Some people say that life is a dream, a very short dream. Some people say that life is nothing more than a soap bubble.

In fact, even the most pessimistic statement also confirms what I said above, whether life has meaning or not depends on our view of life.

Even if he is dreaming, he must have a lively, vigorous good dream, do not have a pessimistic dream.

Life is not alone, man is an animal of society, he can see and imagine what he cannot see, whether it is the past, present, or future, man cannot escape the relationship between people.

Our every move also has social significance. For example, if I spit on the ground casually, dry by the sun, and the wind blows, if I have tuberculosis, the wind can bring germs to several people to countless people.

A word, a maxim, can affect people. Let me give you an extreme example. Two thousand five hundred years ago, not far from Nepal, a beggar died on the road, and the body was rotting.

At this time, a young young master named Gotama came, and later it was Shakyamuni Buddha. This young master grew up in the deep palace and did not know how to be poor, and as soon as he saw the corpse, he asked what it was?

People say it's death. He said, "Oh! It turns out that death is like this, can't we not die?

The aristocratic young master went back to think about this problem, and then ran to the forest to think about it, thought about it for a few years, and came out to publicize his doctrine, which is the so-called Buddhism. The decay of this corpse has such a great impact.

Every move we make, every word and deed, and every action we do can have an indelible impact forever.

I tell a story: In the first year of the Republic of China, an Englishman came to our academy to speak, and the content of the speech was ridiculous, but the pronunciation of his O character, unlike ordinary people, was shrill, which also affected my O pronunciation, and many of my students were affected by me.

Forty years ago, one day I went to a foreigner's house and when I came out, the shoelace fell off, and the foreigner reminded me and told me that when I tie the shoelaces, I would turn the bottom of the knot and it would not fall off.

I remembered this sentence and told many people that now the foreigner is dead, but his words have had an indelible impact.

When Confucius was young, a Luguo man said: There are three immortals in life, that is, morality, meritorious service, and speech. Lide is the greatest personality, like Jesus Confucius and so on.

To make a contribution is to make a contribution to society. The doctrine includes thought and literature, and the greatest ideas and literature are immortal.

But let us not regard this sentence as aristocratic, but as civilian, such as leather shoes knotted, spitting, O pronunciation, are immortal.

That is to say: not only are good things immortal, but bad things are also immortal, good is immortal, and evil is immortal.

A good word can affect countless people, and a bad word can kill countless people. This gives us a standard of life, the negative side we should not take to harm others, to understand their own behavior;

On the positive side, to add a little benefit to this society, it is always necessary to ask others to get me a little benefit.

Back to it, even if life is a dream, you have to have a decent dream.

If you really have the words of the Dharma, you recognize that life is like a dream, so you don't want anything. But asking for nothing is not doing nothing.

Life is certainly only a dream, but there is only this opportunity to dream in life, can you not try to make a vigorous dream like a look?

How can you be confused and confused for decades?

In short, life has no meaning, and if you can give him any meaning, he will have meaning. Instead of meditating all day on the meaning of life, try to do something meaningful in this life...

Everyone can say that there is a "outlook on life", and I am offering a few points of advice based on decades of experience.

A lot of people think that individualism is a flood beast, a terrible thing, but I say it's ordinary, sound and harmless. Chinese thought has a sound individualistic ideology, which can be corroborated with Western thought.

Wang Anshi is a person who has worked hard all his life, and who seeks security for the country and the welfare of the people, should be regarded as an individualist. But from his poems, we can find his individualistic outlook on life, his own outlook on life.

Because he once compared Yang Zhu, who was extreme to me in ancient times, with Mozi, who advocated both love and love.

In the article, it is said that "to be oneself is the foundation of a scholar, and to be a man is the end of a scholar." The work of a scholar must first be for himself and for me, and if he has more than enough for himself, then the things under the world can be human, and must not be left alone. ”

That is to say, a person should be for himself in the beginning, and when he has more than enough for himself, he should be for others, and must not be for others.

Ibsen of the nineteenth century, in his later years, wrote to a young friend:

The only thing I hope for you is a word, I hope you can achieve true, pure egoism, to sometimes feel that the world's affairs are only their own most important, others are not enough to think, the best way for you to benefit society is to cast your own piece of material into a tool.

Another famous liberal work, "On Freedom", has a chapter on "Individuality", and it is also repeatedly said that the most valuable thing about people is the individual's personality. These words are the most sound individualism.

A person should cultivate himself into an instrument, so that he has enough knowledge, ability and feelings before he can go to others.

Confucius's disciple Zilu asked Confucius one day, "How can you become a gentleman?" Confucius replied, "Cultivate yourself with respect." ”

The meaning of this sentence is to carefully cultivate, train, and educate yourself. "Respect" is interpreted in ancient Chinese as prudence.

Zilu said, "Is this enough?" Confucius replied, "Cultivate yourself to appease others." The meaning of this sentence is to cultivate, train, and educate yourself first, and then for others.

Zilu asked again, "Is this enough?" Confucius replied, "Cultivate oneself to appease the people, cultivate oneself to appease the people, and Yao Shun is still sick." ”

The meaning of this sentence is to cultivate, train, and educate yourself well, and then go to the people, and cultivate yourself to go to the people again, even a saint such as Yao Shun is not easy to do.

Confucius's words also started from individualism.

Since then, it can be seen that from the nineteenth century to the present, from now back to the time of Confucius, it is almost all based on self-cultivation.

Self-cultivation is to train, cultivate, and educate yourself well.

Therefore, individualism is not terrible, especially when young people establish a view of life, they need to carefully cultivate, train and educate their own materials.