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Montaigne: How do you get through life's darkest hours?

author:Philosophical
Montaigne: How do you get through life's darkest hours?

Don't let yourself indulge in joy too much

You shouldn't be crazy about pursuing lust and profit. When I was young, I resisted love too quickly, deliberately arranged it less pleasantly, so as not to indulge in it, and finally completely at the mercy of love. I did the same on other occasions when I was too energetic. When I felt like I was running out of wine and trying to get drunk, I went against my will. I quickly escaped, not allowing myself to indulge in joy too much, lest my head break and bleed when I had to withdraw my heart.

People's minds are confused, they can't see through things, and bad things don't harm them enough, so they think that they have made good luck. It is also a kind of mental leprosy, and the complexion is healthy, and even philosophy does not underestimate this health. But that's not a reason to call this wisdom, as we often do. An ancient man ridiculed Diogenes for being naked on a cold winter day to hug a snowman and test his endurance. The man was in this state when he met Diogenes. So I asked, "Are you cold now?" Diogenes replied, "It's not cold at all." The man said, "Since it's not cold, how can you hold such a difficult demonstration action?" ”

Arrogance is an innate disease of ours

Arrogance is a disease we are born with, and the least, weakest, and most conceited of all creations is man. He saw himself in the barbaric miasma, surrounded by sludge and weeds, living and dying in the darkest and deadest corners of the universe, far from the heavenly dome, but his heart was higher than the sky, and he fantasized that he was soaring in the sea of clouds in space and stepping on the sky. It is this arrogant imagination that makes people compare themselves to God, think of themselves as divine, and think of themselves as the spirit of all things, different from other creations. Animals are actually man's friends and companions, but man dominates them at will and self-righteously assigns them certain powers and certain characteristics. How could he, by his own little cleverness, know the inner thoughts and secrets of animals? What kind of comparison did he make to say that animals are stupid?

The plague of mankind is the self-righteousness. This explains why our religion teaches us that ignorance is a fundamental prerequisite for faith and obedience. "Be careful, lest someone use his theory and his vain words not according to Christ, but according to the inheritance of the world... And he will take you captive. (Colossians of the Bible)

In this matter, all philosophers of all schools are consistent: the root of everything lies in the peace of mind and body. But where to get peace?

It seems that nature, in order to comfort the sad and fragile situation of human beings, makes each of us have a conceit. This is what Epicteide said: There is nothing inherent in man, except self-righteousness. What we all have in common is dreams and fantasies.

How to face regrets?

To face loss without regret is not because it brings trouble and trouble, but because it is meant to be lost. So only those who are happy to live are not afraid of death. Enjoying life requires skill, and I enjoy life twice as much as others because the degree of enjoyment depends on how much and how little we pay attention to life. Especially at this moment, I found that I didn't have much time to come, and I had to live in the shadows. Time passed quickly, and I grabbed it quickly. I also worked hard to offset the rush of the sun and the moon. The shorter the time I have to possess life, the deeper and more fulfilling I will have to live.

Other people feel the sweetness of contentment and prosperity, and I feel the same way as they do, but there should be no feeling of smoke and clouds.

Enjoying one's existence with openness is divine absolute perfection. We seek other situations because we do not take advantage of our own situation. We want to step out of ourselves because we don't know our potential. It is also futile for us to step on stilts, because stilts also rely on our legs and feet to walk. Even on the highest throne in the world, we sit only on our own butts.

In my opinion, the most beautiful life is to take ordinary human nature as a model, to be methodical and reasonable, not to seek miracles, not to think about absurdity.

The mind is equally restrained in dealing with pain and pleasure

The greatness of the mind is not to go up and go forward, but to know self-reliance and self-discipline. The mind thinks that what is right is great, and the love of the middle is greater than the excellence of its superbness. The most beautiful and reasonable thing is to be a righteous person, the most profound learning is to know that this life is naturally good, and the most sinister disease is to ignore one's own existence.

Indulgence is the plague of pleasure, and moderation does not cause disaster to pleasure, but makes it taste good. Eudoxyus preached the supremacy of pleasure, and his friends took pleasure to the extreme, and raised this pleasure to an incomparably wonderful state through moderation, which was extremely prominent and typical in them.

I command my soul to be equally restrained with pain and pleasure, "the mind that is open in joy and decadent in pain should be condemned." [Cicero] looked at it with the same firmness, but one happily, one sternly, and at the same time, according to the power of the mind, with the same thoughts to reduce suffering and expand pleasure. To look at good things healthily is to look at bad things healthily. The slow onset of pain comes with something inevitable, and the end of hyperhelion comes with something avoidable.

Plato combined the two, arguing that the struggle against pain, the struggle against the pleasures of indulging in it, was a courageous act. These are two wells, and whoever draws the right amount of water from the right one at the right time is lucky for the city, for the people, for the livestock. The first well proceeds from physiological necessity and is to be calculated precisely; the other well, which proceeds from thirst, is to be stopped before intoxication. Pain, joy, love, and hate are all the first feelings of a child. When reason arises, reason must be taken as the criterion, and this is virtue.

The most important thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself

Of our thousand habitual actions, not one is necessarily relevant to us. You see that the man braved the arrows and climbed to the top of the ruins in defiance of life and death, and the other man was scarred, cold and hungry, and his face was pale, and he didn't open the door for him, do you think they were there for themselves? They were there for another person, whom they had probably never seen before, who was staying on the sidelines for pleasure, and who had absolutely no concern for their lives or deaths.

Spent most of the years for others, leaving the last years to yourself. Think and plan for ourselves and for our comfort. Andu's retirement life is not an easy task. Let us have something to do and not worry about other things. Because God has given us time to move, we need to be prepared for that. Pack your bags, say goodbye to relatives and friends as soon as possible, and get rid of your strong attachment to people and things. These bondage obligations must be lifted, and thereafter it is possible to love this or that, but not to take it too seriously.

That is to say, let everything in the future belong to oneself, but the affection should not be too close, and when we are separated in the future, we will not pull off a piece of flesh or a layer of skin on our body. The most important thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

Let the mind be educated and learn how to endure suffering

While beneficial ideas are becoming more and more enriched and stable, they are also becoming more and more fetters and burdens. Sin, death, poverty and disease are all important themes that are heavy. The soul must be educated, to learn how to bear and overcome these sufferings, to learn the rules of living well and believing well. Often also in this wonderful learning to inspire it, exercise it. But for an ordinary mind, it must also be carried out in an orderly manner, and if it is too hasty, it will make it crazy.

Some people say that the personality is lively and healthy, and it is not suitable for such serious and wise thinking. I'm in a different state right now. The twilight years have repeatedly sounded alarm bells for me, and they have also made me obedient. I went from acting rashly to becoming old and heavy, but it was even more harmful. Therefore, at this moment, I deliberately indulge myself a little, sometimes letting my mind stay in the nothingness of young people. After that, I will only be too calm, too steady, too mature. Every day of the years, I have been taught to be calm and temperate. The flesh is both hiding and afraid of deviant behavior.

Now it is the body's turn to lead the spirit to transform. It is its turn to discipline more violently and arbitrarily, whether asleep or awake, so that I will not have an hour without hearing the admonitions of education, death, patience, and repentance. I prevent myself from exercising restraint as I used to prevent myself from indulging. Restraint pulled me back to the point of being in a daze. I want to be my own master in every sense. Wisdom also has excessive times, and it also needs to be tempered like madness. Therefore, in the intermittent moments left by the illness, I was afraid that my spirit would be exhausted, my thoughts would be cut off, and I would be too cautious to take action.

Of course, it is also necessary to find another medicine outside the dream, and fighting nature is only a way to help. The measures taken to prolong life are the simplest. And I'd rather get old and go quickly than fade away before I get old. I want to seize any slight opportunity for joy that I encounter. I have heard many gentle, cheerful, and decent pastimes, but I have not aroused interest in listening to them.

The mind has no weight, and as soon as an argument is pressed on, it will easily sink

It is not unreasonable to believe in others or to be persuaded by others, and to be classified by us as simple or ignorant. Because I have heard before that "believing" is like a trace of the soul, the softer and looser the soul, the easier it is to leave a mark.

The more empty the mind, the less weight it has, and as soon as an argument is pressed on it, it will easily sink. This is why children, mediocres, women and the sick are most likely to be partial. But on the other hand, the contemptuous denunciation of everything that is not easily understood as nonsense is also a manifestation of stupid arrogance. This is a common disease of those who think they are intellectually superior.

I used to be like that. When I hear stories of the dead returning their souls, calculating the future, seduction, witchcraft, or stories that I can't take seriously, I sympathize with the little people fooled by these absurdities. Now I feel that I was at least worthy of pity at that time. It is not that later experience has made my opinions more than my initial credulity (which has nothing to do with my curiosity), but that reason has taught me that it is not a great folly to insist that something is false and impossible, that is, to presuppose and boundaries in our minds of the will of God and the power of Mother Nature, and to include them within our own limited capacities and knowledge.

We worry about death and disturb life, and we worry about life and disturb death

We worry about death and disturb life, and we worry about life and disturb death. The former annoys us, and the latter makes us afraid. We are not prepared to fight death, it is a matter of too short time. A quarter of an hour of harmless, consequence-free suffering is not worth telling any great truth about. To be honest, we are prepared to fight death.

"The philosopher's life is a meditation on death." But I think death is the end of life, not the end. This is its end, its pole, not its goal. Life should have its own ambitions and intentions. The main topic of the study is self-discipline, self-cultivation and self-sufficiency. There are many other compulsory courses in the general subject of settling down, and understanding death is one of them. This would have been a light topic, if we hadn't bothered ourselves to make it heavy.

In terms of practicality and simplicity and sincerity, the doctrine of advocating simple human behavior is not worse than the doctrine of advocating erudition, but on the contrary. People's tastes and strengths are different, and they should be guided to beauty through different paths according to their actual situation.

Montaigne: How do you get through life's darkest hours?

Faced with the question of what kind of life he had, there was a great god who also handed over such an answer sheet 400 years ago.

In his manuscript in his later years, he wrote: The most beautiful life is modeled on ordinary human nature, orderly and reasonable, not seeking miracles, not thinking about absurdity.

This great god is Montaigne.

Montaigne: How do you get through life's darkest hours?

One day 452 years ago, montaigne, 37, resigned his 13-year-old job as a judge and returned to his family's aristocratic castle to begin a 10-year-old life of seclusion.

In the study, he wrote down the way of life, thoughts and feelings he had experienced in half his life, and the real life he understood in the most simple and frank words.

Montaigne: How do you get through life's darkest hours?

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