How does psychology lead the contemporary spirit out of the void dilemma?

Pu Yao Xue Palace

Needless to say, modern culture is paranoid about the intellectual rational subject and the erotic subject of consumption and enjoyment, ignoring the spiritual life of Mr. Yang Ming's "heavenly spiritual root", and the spiritual world of the Ming Dynasty mind master is a magnificent heaven and earth situation, the cosmic mind, providing practical experience exercises such as "recognizing heavenly reason everywhere", "all things are left behind", "all things are one", which can be used to treat the mental resources of contemporary people's spiritual nihilism and the source of motivation for the endless spiritual development.

Ming Dynasty psychology is a spiritual treasure in the history of Chinese thought.

From Wu Youbi, Chen Baisha to Zhan Ruoshui, Wang Yangming and other great Confucians, although the academic principles have their own emphases, their academic interests are inherited from Mencius, emphasizing the inner experience of kung fu, and then constructing the humanistic spiritual values of the unity of man and me, the unity of things and me. The essence revealed by the Ming Dynasty Psychology is the theoretical source for re-seeking the moral dignity of human beings and reconstructing the place where they have settled down, and it is also the most inspiring spiritual resource of the times to solve the contemporary spiritual dilemma.

In 1369, Ming Taizu replaced the Yuan Dynasty and re-established the Han regime, as a deep and extensive development of the mainstream academic thought of the Ming Dynasty. The science of the middle and late Yuan Dynasty was based on the development orientation of combining Zhu, Lu or Baoluo, Huizhu and Lu.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Huang Tiqi cited Zhu Xi's theory of science with the same surname as an official study, and Yongle cultivated the "Five Classics", "Four Books", and "Sexual Theory" in thirteen years. Ming Chengzu himself composed the "Preface", and Cheng Zhu Lixuewei was an official orthodox. Cao Rui and Xue Xuan represented the Northern Science of Science to strictly adhere to Zhu Xue's mental thought, and the Southern Zhu Xue represented Wu Youbi's tendency to meditate on inner experience of kung fu, and also had a point of enlightenment for chen Baisha's meditation to cause the virtual existence of the inner evidence of the mental body.

Huang Zongxi (1610-1695) commented: "Therefore, there are many People who are Wise Confucians, and there are also many people who do not lose their manners (officialized Zhu Xue). And the beginning of the saint's merit to Mr. (Chen Baisha) and the beginning of the Ming, to Wencheng (Wang Yangming) and the beginning of the great. Chen Baisha's master meditation practiced the work of inner experience of the moral essence, and his disciple Zhan Ruoshui revised his master's meditation method of "cultivating a clue from meditation (germination of the original heart)", advocating: "The so-called one who recognizes the heavenly truth everywhere, with the undeveloped, moves with the quiet." ”

With "the work of understanding, through the dynamic and static introduction". It is said that "Heavenly Reason" is the so-called "void spirit square straight and not biased, the essence of the mind, the so-called heavenly principle" that exists and manifests in the world of our transcendental original mind and Taoist consciousness. "Sacred Learning Grid", vol. XVIII. If people can reward things with the correct principle of the moral heart, then the spontaneity of the "Heavenly Principle" implied by it is randomly manifested, and the psychology of Baisha and Ruoshui also profoundly affects Yang Ming and develops the essence of "mind is reason", "knowledge and action are one", "to conscience" and "benevolence of oneness".

Modernization is already a global trend, but the advantages and disadvantages arise, and at present our world has developed from pluralism and openness to pluralism and various crisis eras caused by national cultural, religious, economic, political, and military antagonisms, conflicts, and divisions due to differences.

The rational subject of Western philosophy is the core value after the Enlightenment, and the religious soul that relatively involves the moral mind, aesthetics, taste and religious sentiments has gradually withered, and with the weakening of the value consciousness and the alienation of the value subject, it has become the sequelae of the interest-only subject.

Contemporary society and the world have lost the universal value belief of the humanistic spirit, that is, they lack the consensus and cohesion of seeking truth, seeking goodness and seeking holiness in human nature. The self-satisfaction of people who value profit over righteousness, emphasize things over people, and attach importance to "human desires" alienate the universal penetration and perceptual power of "Heavenly Reason" to people's hearts, and we can be said to live in a disintegrating spiritual nihilistic world.

Collectively caught in an era of anxiety, wandering and spiritual distress, of course, as a person with a heavenly spirit, he has his way of transcending vulgarization, walking out of the dilemma of spiritual nothingness, and jointly seeking "oneness with all things" to resolve the possibility of confrontation and differentiation. "The benevolence of oneness" has the spiritual world of human love, heaven and earth, and love of all things, and can share the harmony and happiness of human spiritual civilization.

The contemporary dilemma of spiritual nihilism

German social philosophers pointed out that the essence of modernization is the vigorous development of instrumental rationality, resulting in the rapid progress of science and technology. Under the accurate calculation and planning of enterprise organization, management or marketing, the commodity economy is infinitely dynamic, and the market economy has penetrating power to the world.

Most modern people are so fortunate that after World War II, they quickly got out of the dilemma of being free from material scarcity, and enjoyed a variety of materials under the continuous economic growth. Coupled with the widespread popularity of the open and pluralistic social form, the legal protection of human rights by democratic politics, and the individualistic outlook on life where personal happiness is paramount, modern people in developed countries and countries that are rapidly moving toward modernization have undoubtedly enjoyed the unprecedented material living standards of mankind, but when people pursue the secular enjoyment of material prosperity, does the state and quality of modern people's psychological and spiritual life improve in tandem with the times and material civilization?

Weber said that in the process of modernization, value rationality and instrumental rationality cannot be balanced and developed in a balanced way, resulting in the shrinkage of value rationality, that is, the dilution of humanistic literacy and the decline of humanistic spirit. The european existential trend of thought in the 20th century inspired modern people to weaken the spiritual world, and the poverty of spiritual quality of life produced a little self-consciousness and the voice of the times in the heart.

The German existentialist philosopher Karl Theodor Jaspers (1883-1969) argued that there are three boundaries in life that cause existential anxiety and distress. One is the illness, pain, aging, and facing death caused by the physical boundaries; the second is the sense of loss, jealousy, and self-denial derived from the psychological boundaries; and the third is the sense of loss of the noble meaning of life. He believed that man could initiate the path to being through the unpleasant experience of the "boundary situation."

The American Christian theologian Paul Johannes Tillich (1886-1965) believes that human beings will encounter many forms of "existential dilemmas", such as fate, death, nihilism, sense of meaninglessness of life, sin, anxiety, etc. These senses of existence predicament prompt people to face reality and activate the "courage to exist". Existentialism describes the interpersonal relationships of modern people, often portraying people's isolation in industrial and commercial society with indifference and alienation, and alienating people's true human nature and community attributes.

Under the long-term brainwashing of the commodity economy, people are unconsciously shaped to pursue quantifiable tangible values, such as high incomes, accumulation of wealth, brand-name consumer goods, luxury houses, etc. to set the achievements and value targets of life based on the highest consumption value of personal sensory enjoyment. Forgetting the dignity of human spiritual life and the lofty spiritual meaning and value of life without returning from things is the main reason for the hollowing out of the spiritual world and the nihilization of the meaning of humanistic life.

In fact, the modern commodity economy and public policies to improve people's livelihood and welfare have indeed enhanced the economic growth and material life enjoyment of the Chinese people on both sides of the strait. The promotion of public health and the development of medical treatment have also made us live healthier and longer lives. However, the pros and cons are twins, the development of science and technology enables human beings to master the ability to dominate nature and develop and change nature, but it also causes ecological destruction, energy depletion, climate anomalies, and the counterattack of nature also constitutes natural disasters and man-made tragedies, so that human life suffers from common threats.

The prosperity of the market economy, the improvement of work efficiency, and the simplification of manpower by science and technology have caused problems of work pressure, employment and unemployment. The fierce competition for survival in the workplace, the mutual distrust and mutual use of people, the weakness of human feelings, the continuous rise of contradictions and conflicts, the proliferation of black-hearted commodities, the rise and fall of fraudulent groups, and the greed, corruption and degeneration of human nature, make people have to worry. The growing popularity of psychopaths with melancholy, coupled with school shootings, the endless number of international terrorist incidents, and the anxiety and uneasiness of people's spirits are often in a state of anxiety and anxiety, all of which are enough to show that modern people are in the unspeakable suffering of spiritual nihilism.

The cause of contemporary spiritual emptiness

The infiltration of the commodity economy into the life of human desires and the shaping of imperceptible secular values have created a social atmosphere in which consumer subjects are only able to enjoy first. The increasing diversification, refinement, and dazzling of commodities, and the constantly incited passions and desires, have made people lose their resistance and immunity to the temptation of foreign objects.

In the discernment between righteousness and profit and the discernment of reason and desire, man unconsciously seeks to possess external objects, and the reason why he is a person is more and more alienated from his own transcendental moral nature, and man's calculation of his own worldly interests, regardless of power and fame and fortune, becomes more and more narrow and selfish, which not only causes the antagonism and conflict struggle of others, but also simultaneously blunts the mutual sense of care and sympathy for others. Over time, it is difficult to return to habits, people become more and more contradictory and alienated, and at the same time, people increasingly feel the indifference of others and their own inner loneliness and loneliness.

The root cause is that in the vulgarization of people outside the world, they gradually ignore the self-consciousness and spiritual root cultivation of their own inner spiritual life, and lose the introspection and life autonomy of returning to themselves, resulting in self-alienation and difficult self-understanding. The Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) pointed out in his famous book "Modern Man Pursuing the Soul" that modern man is a lonely person who is alienated from historical and cultural traditions, lacks spiritual trust, and cannot live in peace. He concluded that the alienation of man from himself, the alienation of man from others, the alienation of man from historical and cultural traditions, and the alienation of man from heaven and earth (nature) are the main reasons for the hollowing out of human spiritual life in this century.

Unfortunately, this disease of spiritual nihilism, with the modern commodity economy, scientific and technological products, personal supremacy values, uncontrolled consumption of life happiness, and a variety of different channels penetrate, in different ways to present our current living world. To put it bluntly, the wandering and helplessness of spiritual life has quietly formed a common knot of the times and the unsteadiness of spiritual life shared by the Chinese people on both sides of the strait.

Qian Mu (1895-1990), a master of traditional Chinese studies, said: "Today's China problem, and even the world problem, is not only a military, economic, political, or diplomatic problem. It's a cultural issue of the whole world. All problems arise from culture, and they should be solved from cultural problems. ”

However, as far as the education and culture of China and the West are concerned, due to the strong influence of the modern trend of thought, looking at the advanced countries of contemporary modernization, hundreds of scholars with professional knowledge and technology of various disciplines have accumulated like ancient Chinese dieters, and they have divided their labor and cooperated in scientific research, which has produced the phenomenon of knowledge explosion in the 20th century.

David Riesman (1909-2002) said: "Universities have become the academic halls of secularity. Clark Kern points out: "Modern universities have become the powerhouses of the knowledge industry. "China, which suffered from the humiliation of the great powers in the last century, faithfully learned the modern culture of the West in order to revive and decline.

Cai Yuanpei studied in Europe in the early 20th century, and he used the University of Berlin in Germany as a reference model for his future preparation of the Chinese university system. In 1911, he served as the director of education and promulgated the "University Order", which designated the university as seven major disciplines of arts, science, law, commerce, medicine, agriculture, and engineering, and adopted the main disciplines of arts and sciences and abolished the disciplines of economics.

Since the establishment of universities in China in the early 20th century, science has become the focus of university disciplines, and in addition to theoretical science, it has also expanded to applied science (mainly instrumental rationality), social sciences and various professional disciplines. The humanities have shrunk relatively in the entire spectrum of knowledge, and Chinese philosophy and the study of the mind of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties have retreated into small disciplines.

Nowadays, universities are no longer the learning of "Mingmingde", and China has unconsciously followed the pace of Western modernization. As everyone knows, in the West as a system of knowledge science (especially natural sciences, theoretical disciplines) in the university ranks, almost become the scale and model of knowledge, especially the emergence of "research universities" is remarkable, Bella (Robert Bellah 1927-2013) said that the development of research-oriented universities has gradually shaped a "cultural model of scientific knowledge".

Western philosophy in psychology and the Ming Dynasty

At this point, we can't help but ask what is the difference between the "psychology" of the Ming Dynasty and the "psychology" of the West, which is a cultural model of scientific knowledge.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle gave an essential definition of man, saying that "man is a rational animal", his so-called "reason" refers to logical rationality and intellectual reason, he created three-paragraph argument and formal logic for the former, and constructed a set of abstract conceptual speculative knowledge and knowledge theory corresponding to concepts and empirical facts for the latter.

Western philosophy, which was founded by ancient Greek philosophy, is derived from the curiosity of knowledge, the desire for knowledge of reason, and the love of accurate true knowledge, so it is called "the study of love of wisdom" and the Ming Dynasty's psychology advocates the a priori moral essence, nature, cultivation of morality, and respect for virtue, so as to realize the personality realm of benevolent gentlemen and even sages. The western traditional philosophy of mind mainly believes that the "heart" has three functions, that is, knowledge, affection, and intention.

The exception to materialism is that this school of thought regards "mind" or "consciousness" as "brain activity" caused by physical and chemical changes in the body, and does not affirm its physical existence. As far as the general scholar understands, the "mind" is interpreted as perception, imagination, memory, conceptual speculation, analysis, reasoning, intention, likes and dislikes, senses of honor and disgrace, joy and sorrow, and sorrow. self-subjects such as inner life activities.

In traditional Western philosophy, there are also extremely simple spiritual "souls" of individual bodies (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, and Christian philosophy and theology, the British philosopher G. Ryle of the last century. Ryle 1900-1976) was a master of the philosophy of mind, and believed that the French philosopher R. Descantes (1596-1650) distinguished the mind and body from the dichotomy, emphasizing the difference in body and mind attributes, and there was a danger of seeing the mind as "a ghost in a machine", and he believed that the human mind does not occupy space and is not subject to mechanical laws.

Timothy Leary's theoretical analysis of "psychology" does not agree with the materialist claim, and he emphasizes that "self-consciousness" is an important concept that is decisive for a person's life. In fact, "self-awareness" is the foundation of all ethics, and it is of great reference and supplementary academic value to Chinese philosophy, especially the Ming Dynasty mind that pays attention to the intrinsic moral essence and nature.

Modernization is, in essence, a movement for the cultural transformation of "modernity." As far as the basic concepts of philosophy are concerned, the "modernity" of the West can be summarized as rationality, subjective philosophy, representational culture and expansive slaughtering with both theoretical rationality and instrumental rationality. The basic meaning of the so-called "reason" should refer to the ability and legitimacy of reasoning, the main feature of the mental subject of Western philosophy is the cognitive ability of rational thinking, that is, "reason", and its basic meaning should refer to the ability to reason, that is, to think in accordance with logical rules, and the content of the discourse (conceptual connotation, propositional meaning and the ability to argue and reason), pay attention to not violating empirical facts.

The development of modernization in the West since the "Enlightenment" in the 18th century has been around for two hundred years, and "reason" is an essential element of modernization. We can even say that modernization is rationalization, and the state presented is the vigorous development of intellectual rationality (theoretical rationality) and instrumental rationality.

The German philosopher Jurgen Habermas (1929-) pointed out that the process of rationalization moves towards regular control, a process of specialization, resulting in the separation and parallel of science, art and norms, each with its own autonomy. Not only that, but specialized knowledge, holistic systems, and justification are also functional roles based on rationality and have the ability to establish a postscriptive narrative. In other words, the "mind" of western philosophy of mind refers primarily to the cognitive mind or subject of knowledge.

However, the core meaning of the development of Confucian psychology from the heart of Mencius to the heart of the Ming Dynasty is the moral mind, that is, the intellectual mind of benevolence rather than the abstract speculation, conceptual boundary theory, and argumentative reasoning of the subject-object opposition. The main schools of Song Ming Science are divided into Cheng Zhu LiXue and Lu Wang Xinxue, and the differences between them can be expressed in their different understandings of the phrase "GeWu Zhi Zhi" in the "University" text. Cheng Yichuan interpreted "grid" as exhaustive, and "thing" as the principle of things, which is called "to know, to know." The poor thing is the knowledge. ”

"Ercheng Testament : Mr. Ikawa's Words I". Zhu Xi explained that "grid" is "to" also; "thing", "Jushi also" refers to objective objects. He said: "The word lattice is the best, and things are things." When the reason for the extremes of things is exhausted, there is one yes and one wrong. It is the bottom, not the bottom. Everyone who has to experience right and wrong physically and mentally. ”

He said in the "Supplementary Biography of The Grid Things" that he later called: "The so-called one who knows in the grid thing wants to know me, and he who is in the thing and exhausts his reason." The spirit that covers the hearts of the people is not known, and the things under the world are not reasonable. Wang Yangming's explanation of "lattice" is: "I decipher the meaning of the character, and the meaning of the thing is the meaning of the word." ”

He further says, "He who is a thing, a thing, must be a thing in whatever is intended, and what is meant is a thing." The grid, the right one, the right one, the right one, the right Those who are not righteous, go to evil. Those who are righteous are also said to be good. Fu is the meaning of the grid. ”

In short, Wang Yangming interprets "zhizhi" as "zhizhi" in order to judge right and wrong and remove evil for good and evil. The essence of the book "University" is not only to teach people mingming virtue in the achievement of moral personality, but more importantly, to inspire people to "from the son of heaven to the common man, all of them are based on self-cultivation." "Extending from the individual to the family, society and the country, if everyone can consciously cultivate their hearts and cultivate morality, and take self-cultivation as the first priority, then the foundation of the family, society and the country can be healthy, happy and maintained for a long time."

The contemporary Confucian Tang Junyi (1909-1978) pointed out: "The so-called wisdom of the Chinese tradition is not just the so-called knowledge of the West. Knowledge is one of the fruits of man's quest for knowledge, while the so-called wisdom in the Chinese tradition does not refer to the fruit of man's quest for knowledge, but refers to a virtue and ability of man. The so-called wise man in China does not mean a person with a lot of knowledge. And at least it should be a person who can distinguish between good and evil in the present, or a person who can observe and think of ways to deal with it, or a person who is good at using the knowledge that has been made.

Although Zhu Xi said in his theory of knowledge that everything under the world has its own reason for existence, it can be exhausted. In terms of the value orientation of the application of knowledge, the moral knowledge of the practitioner should be preferred. Wang Yangming also said: "Conscience does not come from seeing and hearing, and seeing and hearing cannot be used by conscience, so conscience does not lag behind seeing and hearing, and it is not separated from seeing and hearing." ”

In the empirical world, man's moral practice should integrate the general principles of metaphysical morality with the specific factual judgments of the metaphysical differentiation, and carry out rational dialectical integration. In other words, the a priori benevolence and the precise objective understanding of empirical facts by intellectual reason are reasonably intimately intertwined, that is, benevolence and wisdom are mutually reinforcing, and benevolence and wisdom complement each other in order to achieve concrete virtues. The Shangzhi of Western philosophy of mind and the reverence of Confucian psychology can be closely matched.

The backbone of Ming Dynasty psychology and its essence

"Heart study", no doubt, is the backbone of the Ming Dynasty heart science, and the heart study is far from Mencius's "benevolence, righteousness, wisdom rooted in the heart, the honor of heaven, and the house of man." "Yao Shun is an ancient sage, and everyone is born with the same four-ended heart and four-end nature as Yao Shun. Therefore, for Confucianism, saints are the same as me, and those who can consciously do things, as long as they are determined to become holy and virtuous, then everyone can become saints.

Looking at the entire Confucian tradition of mind in China, especially the foundation of the Ming Dynasty mind, the starting point and the goal of the ultimate value, which can be summed up in one word, it is aimed at becoming holy and virtuous with all our hearts, and we can explain that the core of the entire generation of mind is to enlighten everyone to be self-aware of the transcendental moral essence (benevolent heart), and then to achieve the sage's level of sainthood in the work of sainthood, that is, the ontology, that is, the work of sanctification.

Huang Zongxi (Lizhou, 1610-1695) once said succinctly: "To do the work of holiness, to Mr. (Baisha) and to The Beginning, to Wencheng (Yangming) and Dacheng." "Zhan Ruoshui (Ganquan, 1466-1560), a disciple of Chen Baisha (Xianzhang 1428-1500), obtained his mind science and true transmission, and then made a pact with Wang Yangming (Shouren 1472-1524) to pass on the essence of Baisha heart to Wang Yangming, who developed the study of mind to the peak of "to conscience", so that the Ming Dynasty's spiritual study of the sacred heart "Daming" was born.

Jiang Yunming, a contemporary scholar specializing in Chen Baisha, once had a series of incisive articles on the inheritance relationship between these three people, who occupied the backbone of the development of ming dynasty psychology, which was collected into the book "Wang Yangming and Chen Baisha". The purpose of this article is to expound the essence of the spiritual inheritance between Baisha and Ruoshui, Ruoshui and Yangming to a main axis of vertical relationship to clarify the main trunk and essence of Ming Dynasty psychology.

Ming Taizu shun followed Zhu Xue in the Yuan Dynasty as the standard for the imperial examination, and Zhu Ziqin, who was the same emperor of the Ming Dynasty, as an official scholar. He not only formulated the "King James Textbook", but also rewarded the imperial examination with great events. In order to seek the first place in the scientific examination, candidates must have the hope of being able to raise the middle of the examination in order to have the hope of being able to lift the middle of the examination by reciting his words and forgetting his taste, and the unreasonable phenomenon that his mind is inconsistent with the content of the objectiveized Knowledge of Zhu Xue.

Both Bai Sha and Yang Ming went through the rigid learning mode of this period on the road to sanctification, and Bai Sha described himself as a teacher at the age of 27, when he was 27 years old, he worshiped the Zhu scholar Wu Youbi (Kang Zhai 1391-1469) as a teacher, saying that "his book of ancient sages' teachings covers everything, but he does not know where to enter." Than returning to the white sand, Du Men does not come out, and he is dedicated to the way to use his strength, and there is no guidance from his teachers and friends, but he relies on books to find it every day, forgets to sleep and forget to eat, and if so, he is tired for many years, and he has not yet succeeded. The so-called unattainable means that there is no coincidence between my heart and this reason. ”

From this discussion, we can know that Cheng Zhu Lixue's way of exhausting things is to absorb the "reason" in the book outside the mind with the mind of knowledge, which is the knowledge of the concept of reading and reasoning. Bai Sha introspected himself on the knowledge of the concepts he had understood and absorbed from the books, which did not necessarily coincide with his own inner mind, and Yang Ming met the Zhuzi scholar Lou Yu (Yi Zhai 1422-1491) at the age of 18 and was taught the sacred science of Sanctification in Zhu Zi Ge Wu Zhi

Yang Ming has a feeling similar to baisha's mental journey, the so-called "self-reading circumscribe art is not enough to reach the Tao, ask for teachers and friends in the world and do not count encounters, the heart is afraid." One day to read the obscure Song Guangzong Shushu, there is a saying "Ju Jing Zhi Zhi, for the basis of reading, step by step, for the method of reading." "But it is regretted that although the discussion of the day before yesterday is broad, but it is better not to try to be refined in order, it is better to have nothing to gain; and in order, the thinking gradually becomes chaotic, but the physical my heart will finally be judged as two... Self-commissioned sages have a point. ”

Confucius said that "the seventy desires of the heart do not exceed the rules", which means that the realm of the saints is already the source of the heart, fits the nature of nature, and does not do anything but natural, and does not reluctantly become a realm. However, Yang Ming followed Zhu Zi's "orderly and refined" reading method, and although he had mastered the status of "gradually staining and qia" in absorbing the conceptual knowledge in the book, he was introspectively aware that his true intentions and the conceptual knowledge obtained from the books inside and outside could not be closely matched, and there was an endless gap. "University" teaches that the character character is known to the point, and the knowledge is sincere, and Yang Ming practices the sanctification kung fu of Zhu Zi's reading and reasoning, and finally realizes that he is reasonable in the book and cannot be sincere in his own will. In other words, there is a lack of inevitability between knowledge and sincerity and righteousness.

Bai Sha faced the path of Taoism and learning: "This mind and this theory are said to have a contiguous point" is the turning point and easy way to seek oneself and experience self-realization to introspection to the heart. He practiced meditation for ten years (1455-1465) by building the "Spring Balcony", and finally realized the natural freedom of the moral heart without having to practice sanctification outside. He said, "Therefore I gave up all my multiplicity and asked for my covenant, but I sat in meditation." After a long time, I saw that the body of my heart was hidden, and there was always something, and all kinds of socializing between daily uses, as I wanted, like the royal title of the horse. Recognize physics, audit all the hadiths, each has a clue, such as the water has a source of commission. So I was confident: 'Do the work of holiness, it is in zihu!' ’”

Generally speaking, Cheng Zhuju's work of sanctification is to use moral knowledge to prove moral beliefs, from the outside to the inside. In other words, the essence of the Daoist sacred work is to seek conceptual knowledge or smelling knowledge of morality outwardly, and to seek reassurance from oneself, and to seek reassurance from oneself, to precipitate one's own distractions and worries in meditation, to screen off the interference of habitual habits and to present the true face of the moral heart, which is the kung fu of seeking the source against the original, reversing the original to the truth, finding the root of wood, and the source of water. This is different from knowing and condemning the essence from external knowledge. Obviously, the Ming Dynasty psychology was the study of the song dynasty's influential Cheng Zhujujing poor reason, returning to the original and returning to the original nature of the transcendental morality.

Baisha has both the Experience of Inquiry in seeking the knowledge of the concepts in the book and the experience of deep self-satisfaction in the existence of one's inner benevolence. So how does he comment on the impoverished nature of expatriate objects and inward perception of the potential nature of illumination? In other words, the study of the saints has a path of dragging down knowledge, and there is also a path of insight (essence) of the mind that looks inward and listens.

When Bai Sha and his disciples discussed the path of sanctification, they made a summative point: "There are those who come from accumulation, there are those who do not come from accumulation, there are those who can be passed on, and there are those who cannot be passed on... Si Liye, Song Ru's words are prepared. I often despise him too strictly, so that those who see and hear it do not gamble on its truth, but scratch with me in vain. It is the way that the one who has attained it is self-obtained, and the self-talking, but also. The more the crowd, the more empty the way, and the more chaotic the people. ”

For us, the knowledge obtained by abstract speculation can be fully expressed through linguistic symbols, but it is difficult to express the intrinsic nature of the human inner reality in words, but it is necessary to realize the knowledge of the real existence in the living world. Bai Sha sat still for ten years and finally perfected the self-realization of the inner realization of the original mind, that is, the work of holiness, which affected the entire Ming Dynasty, he asserted: "Several sages from ancient times to the present have been passed on from the heart. ”

In his sermon poems, he often uses Zhuangzi's "Duan Ni", Xiangshan's "Duan Zhu" and Mencius's "Good End" to recognize his true experience of the reality of the mind and body, and he once discussed "learning the graded stage" in a letter to his disciple Lin Guang (Jie Xi 1439-1519), saying that "the general idea only allows him to sit still and find the end, but says that the section on conscience and conscience can make him confident, in order to refute the disease of miscellaneous fragmentation, such as the recent theory of Ke ye." ”

Yang Ming dictated through the heart of Baisha disciple Zhan Ruoshui, and was deeply influenced by Baisha's heart to learn the work of being a saint, composing a poem: "Sentence and sentence chaff character Chen, where does jun find Zhiyin?" Youyun: "But to the conscience into virtue, from the spirit of ancient paper fees." The Gein scholars do not use books to clarify their hearts, but to lose their hearts with books. The core of Yang Ming's mind is "to conscience", which is the essence of his aspiration to sacred learning, and Bai Sha's "Guide to Learning" can be described as its "zhiyin".

The Baisha Guide to Mind Science says: "The beginning lies in sincerity, its merit lies in being clear and good, it is vain to seek tranquility, and it is true (the original mind) to prevent merit (the flow of human desire to germinate)". If we carefully read Yang Ming's heart in the Dragon Field, sitting in the sarcophagus in the night, and having an epiphany of the meaning of "heart is reason", compared with Baisha's guide to psychology, it can be said that it echoes back and forth, and the heart corresponds, Gai Yangming was 37 years old (1508) in the life and death of a thought, but when he asked himself what the sage was more like this, he suddenly realized, saying to himself:

Day and night, he lived in silence in order to seek jingyi (the same kung fu as Baisha's "seeking tranquility in order to seek jingyi") ... Suddenly in the middle of the night, the great enlightenment of the purpose of knowledge, if there is a person who speaks in sleep (can it be that in the subconscious, Baisha's "Guide to Learning") appears... Knowing the way of the saints, I am self-sufficient (the goodness of the clear mind), and those who seek to reason with things are mistaken. It is evidenced by the words of the Five Classics of Meditation , which do not coincide with the white sand sitting on the spring balcony, ten years of enlightenment: "This body of the mind is hidden... Recognize physics, audit all the hadiths, each has a clue, such as the water has a source of commission. "Echo. ）

The profound enlightenment of the White Sand Meditation "Spring Balcony" "does the work of holiness, it is here!" "With the Yang Ming Jingza sarcophagus self-realization" to know the way of the saints, I am self-sufficient" If you are attached to the festival, this should be the bloodline of the Ming Dynasty before and after the study of the mind.

The Enlightenment of Ming Dynasty Psychology to Contemporary Spiritual Nihilism

Jasper believes that the causes of the anxiety, distress and meaning of the existence of contemporary people come from the three boundaries of body, mind and soul. The German philosopher Habermas understands the reasons for the formation of the crisis of contemporary civilization as a society in which contemporary Western civilization is developed in technology, instrumental rationality prevails, professional division of labor and systematic work models, and excessive expansion.

As a result, the subject of human knowledge excludes the subject of value, the meaning of human humanistic life is gradually lost, the overall view and function of social integration are gradually dysfunctional and the society is facing disorder, the theoretical hegemony of postmodern ideological trends over the over-expansion of modernization, the generalized and objectified knowledge criteria, and derived from them the rules of external norms and standard operations of community life, and hold a common negative attitude.

At a deeper level, they intend to abandon the basic concepts of norms and rules, such as truth, reality, universality, certainty, objectivity, and even intellectual rationality, logical rationality, and other concepts that are the basis of theoretical activity. Habermas's critique of the "postmodern" theories is a kind of conservatism against the Enlightenment, which is dominated by objectiveized reason. He even argues that "postmodern" is almost synonymous with "anti-modern."

Throughout his life, Luo Siguang (1927-2012) focused on the crisis of philosophy and culture and the new direction of Chinese culture, and in his later years he mainly studied cultural philosophy. He believes that the materialized humanity of capitalism in modernization and the denial of all theoretical constructions of postmodernity have led to the loss of the dynamics of contemporary spiritual culture and the crisis of contemporary culture. He cites the term "materialization" to explain the main cause of the nihilism of contemporary spiritual culture, which he refers to in modern English as "under the capitalist system, man gradually becomes a commodity." ”

In short, "materialization" refers to the fact that the human mind cannot withstand external temptations and is trapped in sensual desires conditioned by a series of conditions. Therefore, "materialization" means that man loses the "consciousness" and "autonomy" of his spiritual life and succumbs to his own selfish desires, and loses the spiritual power and human dignity of free will.

If people cannot exercise the right to choose free will, then in the absence of the exercise of moral human rights, value judgments have no landing, the realization of values cannot be said, people do not care about the question of responsibility for their own actions, Luo Siguang believes that all humanistic values are manifested in people's awareness of value consciousness and free will choices, followed by moral and ethical or legal responsibilities, which is his consistent philosophical position.

Therefore, one of the two major characteristics of modernization is the paranoia of rational subjectivity oriented to the epistemology and the neglect of the intrinsic value subjectivity, that is, moral subjectivity, aesthetic subjectivity and religious life, and the other is the vigorous development of the capitalist market economy, giving birth to a hedonistic outlook on life with personal consumption first, and greedily pursuing tangible secular values outside the body (such as: food, color, wealth, power, famous brands, Mansions and other material enjoyment) and the emergence of the moral true self, that is, the original nature of the four ends of the mind valued by the Ming Dynasty mind, the self-awareness, identification, and noble exemplary personality of the conscience essence of the heavenly roots of conscience, that is, the adoption of the ultimate value ideal of sanctification as the ultimate value of life.

As far as Song Ming's theory is concerned, if there is no conscious knowledge of experience and ontology for the benevolence and benevolence of everyone's talents, this is the inability of people to deeply understand and identify with themselves, and the fundamental nature of the value of people as human beings is unclear, which not only produces the phenomenon of "self-alienation" called by the Swiss humanistic psychological master Jung, coupled with the materialization of human nature, the greed and blind pursuit of worldly human desires that are paranoid to the root of lust, alienating people's moral souls and trapped in the cage of self-consciousness.

Leading to alienation from history and culture, alienation from others, and eventually the emergence of a state of isolation in which spiritual life cannot be settled, the sense of absurdity and the sense of nothingness of meaning that pervade the prevalence of melancholia make modern people become the pursuit of the soul in their hearts, looking for how to break through the difficulties of existence and implement the requirements of settling down, ming dynasty psychology left unlimited spiritual resources, can cure this deficiency Ming Dynasty mind science from Chen Baisha to Wang Yangming after the road of intellectual rationality can not be implemented into the ultimate value ideal of the spirit of the sage, It is from the outside to the inner world of the mind.

After reversing from Daoist inquiry to the profound self-understanding of the subject of their own moral mentality, they finally found the sense of existence of the world of meaning and the ultimate value presented by Chen Baisha and Zhan Ganquan in the "Zhiren Chapter" taught since the Ming Dao. From Baisha, Ganquan, and Yangming, those who are interested in the study of sanctification and the unity of knowledge and action "enable scholars to seek their own essence and have no pain of fragmentation." ”

They embody the ultimate meaning and value of the spiritual world in the moral world of the nature of the heart, for example: Chen Baisha said: "Cut off the desires and thoughts, forever remove the heavenly obstacles, dwell in all things, and the heart is on all things." "The bamboo outside the window is green, and the people sitting alone between the windows." In the end, bamboo and people, there are no two yuanlais. ”

At the age of 56, Yang Ming published "University Questions" to explain the extremely rich spiritual world of his mind and learning, that is, "the benevolence of oneness". Bai Sha and Yang Ming's psychological academic circles have discussed a lot, and Zhan Ruoshui, who is in the middle link between these two people, occupies a central position in inheriting the past and the future, which is of importance that cannot be ignored. He took Cheng Zhu's reading of Mingli's theoretical characteristics and Chen Baisha's psychological characteristics of "recognizing Heavenly Reason everywhere" into one furnace, and fully reflected his own characteristics of "changing temperament" and "All-That-Is" in psychology.

When he explained the relationship between the mind, he said: "He who has a heart is also a man, and he who embodies all things in heaven and earth and does not leave behind." Sex is also the one who is one in heaven and earth. ...... Therefore the nature of righteousness is also born from the heart. The husband's heart is quiet and responsive, and the movement is divine. To the silence and emptiness, to the sense and the understanding... The heart is also the Lord of heaven and man and the door of the path of nature. Therefore, the mind cannot not exist, but the four (compassion, shame, resignation, and right and wrong) can be established, so they can establish a mind for heaven and earth. ”

The "mind" has its wonderful use of illusory spiritual perception in the vaporized heavens and the earth and all things, and not only that, but in the present moment of sensing and contemplating all things, the mind can attain the state of "no body and nothing" and rise to the realm of oneness with all things. In the realm of being one with all things in heaven and earth, people unconsciously enjoy the pleasure of spiritual self-sufficiency. In other words, in the spiritual world where xuezong nature and Dahua pop are in harmony, the harmony and harmony embody the heart of heaven and earth and the cosmic situation, and the wordless natural joy is a true music with infinite charm and fun. This is the most spiritual blessing of the mind that makes people feel self-sufficient and do not wait for external demands.

Wang Yangming is also willing to admit that the ontological happiness embodied in conscience in things and things is true happiness, that is, the spiritual happiness of super-worldly happiness, but Yang Ming said: "The theory of 'conscience' in this place, derived from hundreds of deaths and difficulties, has to be spoken out with people; only fear that scholars will be easy to get, play with a kind of situation, and work hard without real effort. ”

Yang Ming's understanding of "conscience" is not only based on the conceptual knowledge of abstract speculation, but he has been interested in the study of saints since he was twelve years old, and has undergone the first three changes and the last three changes in the process of five drowning and lifelong experiences, and has been transformed from the twists and turns of arduous experience. He said that "conscience" has the characteristics of a spiritual sense that is not ignorant, but the appearance of conscience does not depart from the heavenly truth contained in the mind. What he calls "playing with the situation" is a state of emptiness and no physical object, and his emphasis on conscience is the benevolence of oneness, the judgment of right and wrong, resignation, shame... The actual existence of the contents of Tenri.

In his book The Four Noble Philosophers, the existentialist Jasper selected Confucius, Jesus, Socrates, and Shakyamuni as models of the great human personality. He said that although these four sages were losers in the practical deeds of life, their greatness lay in having lofty ideals in life and making choices and persistence of ultimate significance.

Although they experienced the tribulations of Yang Ming's so-called "hundred deaths and thousands of difficulties", they aroused extraordinary spiritual strength. Their common denominator lies in the rich and profound connotation of their souls and the endless spiritual dynamics. Jasper believes that the boundary of the human soul lies in the loss of the noble meaning and profound value of life, resulting in the sense of loneliness of existence and the withering of spiritual power, that is, the nihilization of the spirit and the hollowing out of the soul mentioned in this article.

The inner spiritual world of these three masters of mind science in the Ming Dynasty is the magnificent heaven and earth situation, the cosmic mind, and their practical experience of "recognizing heaven and earth everywhere", "being all things and leaving no one behind", and "all things being" are enough to cure the mental resources of contemporary people's spiritual nothingness and the source of motivation for spiritual incessant development.

epilogue

Chen Baisha, Zhan Ruoshui and Wang Yangming, the main veins of the Ming Dynasty's heart science, have a back and forth echo, and the study of sanctification is consistent. The transition from the Song Dynasty Cheng Lixue to the Ming Dynasty's view of the course of mind science runs through it, and the common thread is the Taoism and the dignity of virtue. From the transformation of Baisha's mind to benevolence, to the knowledge of Guiren of Zhan Ruoshui, back to the study of Confucius's "benevolence" and "wisdom" of the sages, and finally Yang Ming said with "to conscience": "Conscience does not come from seeing and hearing, and seeing and hearing cannot be used by conscience, so conscience is not stuck in seeing and hearing, but also not separated from seeing and hearing." ”

Finally, he put forward the humanistic spiritual value belief of "the benevolence of oneness" and the unity of things and me, and teaches people to fulfill their moral responsibilities to mankind and all things. He explicitly said: "The heart of a saint, the heart of the heart also.". Yao Shunyu's teachings were known: "The human heart is only in danger, the Tao's heart is small, the essence is the only one, and the source of this mental learning is also in the middle of the practice." ”

In the current trend of modernization, theoretical rationality and instrumental rationality have flourished, resulting in the rapid development of science and technology, industry and commerce for mankind, and contemporary people can be described as unprecedentedly popular in public construction and material prosperity. It is indisputable that modern culture is paranoid about intellectual rational subjects and consumer enjoyment of the supreme erotic subjects, partial to the spiritual life of the spiritual roots of Yang Ming's so-called "heavenly spiritual roots".

Under the contradiction between the two values of life and the mood of life, the spiritual nihilism of modern people has caused many mental illnesses that have lost their roots in life. How to find the lost soul of modern people, from Mencius to the Ming Dynasty, the psychology of the mind to the heart of deep self-awareness is the most inspiring spiritual resource for the treatment of human alienation, the dignity of human beings and the survival of life.