Let's start with "Hope for Nature".
"Hope for nature" means less talking, less tossing, less conceptual things. For rulers, it's about giving as few orders as possible. It's a bit like the previous "teach without words". Lao Tzu always said that "if you govern a big country and cook a small fresh", governing the country is like cooking a small fish, don't toss, don't mess around, if you always toss, you will pound the small fish into a pot of sauce, so you should "hope to speak naturally".
"Hope for nature" is also a kind of personal cultivation. The other day, I criticized a volunteer because he always felt the need to communicate with others. He didn't know that many times, communication didn't make much sense, it was just a waste of time. In this world, there are very few people who can change their personality by means of communication. Some communication is a waste. Of course, what I deny is only communicative communication, not learning communication. Communicative communication is just some emotions and thoughts, which the other party will quickly forget, and no matter how good it is, it doesn't mean much. But learning communication can be useful, such as reading books, and it must be good books, reading good books is to communicate with the masters in the books, to meet some people that you can't meet in your daily life, and you will benefit a lot from their way of looking at the world and the way they behave in the world. If you read a book for entertainment and boredom, it doesn't mean much, because it's still some thoughts and emotions, and after that, it's over, and it can't answer your questions, it can't make you sublimated, it can't bring you closer to the path, but it may cause you to deviate from the right path and aggravate your desires and ignorance. It's better not to read like this.
If you want to verify what I said, you can look at the world around you. Many times, life is our teacher, it will tell you everything, but it is difficult for ordinary people to have an eye that knows how to observe, and they tend to easily ignore some details. Because of ignoring the details, life loses the meaning of the teacher. At this point, you need someone who knows how to observe, who can be your teacher, who will tell you how to observe, or tell you what he observes. For example, if I criticize the volunteer for his communication, is his communication really ineffective? Yes, it doesn't. He spends a lot of time on WeChat and communicates with many people, but the previous problems still exist, the problems he wants to solve are still not solved, and the difference between before and after communication is just a waste of time. Sometimes communication doesn't do anything, it's better not to communicate.
What is the difference between a mediocre person and a genius? I told him that the heavens know how to spend their lives where they should be used, while mediocre people always consume their lives on trivial things. In other words, the wise man knows what he should and should not do in his life, and the mediocre man grabs his beard and eyebrows, and as a result, the latter is busy all his life, consuming his life and gaining nothing. Therefore, Lao Tzu emphasized "hope", doing less boring and meaningless things, and wasting less life. Lao Tzu believes that saying too many words and giving orders too much is not in line with nature and the avenue.
How do you know what makes sense and what doesn't? Let me tell you a story. There was a man who believed in God and saw God after he died. God gave him a basket and said that the contents belonged to him. He thought it must be his wife, but no, because his old age had become someone else's wife. Is that his property? No, his property has become someone else's property. Is that his body? Still not, his body is gone, turned to ashes. Next, he guessed a lot of things, such as fame, title, power, official position... God told him again and again, no, they already had a new owner. Finally, God opened the basket in front of Him, and it was empty. With tears streaming down his eyes, he asked God, "Have I been busy all my life and have nothing?" God told him, no, there is one thing that belongs to you, and that is the present moment, and everything will disappear and nothing will belong to you except this moment of the present.
You have to understand that each of us is like this, it seems that we have a lot of things one by one - relatives, friends, wealth, jobs, power, housing... But these things will soon disappear, and none of them are ours. To put it bluntly, they are just passers-by in our lives, or rather, we are just passers-by in the world, and life is just a process. What belongs to us is only one moment after another in life, and it is only the moment of the present, once it has passed, it has become a past, and it no longer belongs to us. On the material level, people are destined to have nothing, and don't lose the only thing that belongs to you in order to get a lot of things—the moment that belongs to you that you can grasp. Don't even try to get anything out of words.
There is a saying in Liangzhou: "If you talk less, your prestige will be high, and if you talk more, you will be scolded." It can be seen that our ancestors have long found that "words are useless". In the early years of the Southern Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a man named Xu Xuan, who was sent to the Northern Song Dynasty by Empress Li because of his ability to speak well, and won the first opportunity in the debate, so what was the result? This man, who was famous all over the world because of his good speech, was defeated by a guard who did not speak. In the end, he really didn't know what to say, so he had to admit defeat. This story is very interesting, and I use Lao Tzu's "great debate" to describe it. Lao Tzu believes that the best people who are good at debating seem to be very wooden, even stammering a little when speaking, and are usually taciturn. Because language is useless, language has disappeared the moment it is spoken, and it is impossible to win the world with language. Therefore, Lao Tzu felt that only by talking less and "hoping to speak naturally" could it be in line with the natural way of heaven.
I have a lot of friends on WeChat, and the WeChat circle of friends is also updated very quickly, so generally I don't look at WeChat, nor do I look at the circle of friends, but only look at the WeChat of a few friends, because they are worth my time. A lot of people ask me questions, and I don't answer them. Why? Because it doesn't make sense. You should never expect a few words to change someone's heart, impossible. Just as your words can't change the hearts of your children, just as your parents' words can't change your hearts. Many times, language pales.
Lao Tzu often denies language in the Tao Te Ching, such as "teaching without words", "hoping to speak naturally", "saying more and more is poor", etc., as well as "Tao is Tao, very Tao", these expressions are all to illustrate the uselessness of words. Lao Tzu believes that language is far away from the avenue, and "words are endless and the meaning is endless" (Yan Yu of the Southern Song Dynasty, "Canglang Poems?"), language has boundaries and will be exhausted, but the avenue is endless. Shakyamuni also said, don't say it, don't say it, if you say it, you're wrong. Why? Because, the true way transcends language. Lao Tzu believes that the fewer words, the fewer concepts, and the closer to nature.
Today's reading recommendation is recommended
"Qiang Village" Xue Mo's latest masterpiece
