The biggest enemy is "yourself"
Next, Lao Tzu still expressed several characteristics of a saint, or several criteria for measuring whether a person is a saint.
The first is "not self-seeing, so clear", and some people say "not self-seeing, therefore clear". "Self-manifestation" is to express oneself, to express oneself. In addition to self-expression, "self-view" also has the meaning of personal opinion and personal preconception. However, whether it is "self-seeing" or "non-self-manifestation", we interpret this sentence to mean that the saint never becomes stubborn, never judges the world by his own preconceptions and standards, and therefore has true wisdom.
In his expression of the sage, Lao Tzu attaches great importance to the characteristic of "goodness is like water". He believed that a saint must be like water, which has no shape of its own, and when it is poured into any container, it will follow the container and become the shape of the other. The wisdom of goodness is that there is no personal preconception, no stubborn personal opinion, so that no matter what container it puts in, it can reflect the world like a flat mirror. On the contrary, if there are prejudices, if there are stubborn personal opinions, there will inevitably be prejudice. The most obvious example is the struggle between countless "isms". The contention of a hundred schools of thought during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was essentially a struggle between countless kinds of "isms", and everyone thought that I was not right to you, which was "self-seeing, so unknown".
There is a saying that if there are "three publics" in a country, that is, there are three leaders, and there are three voices that have the right to speak, then the people will be at a loss and do not know who to listen to. This is "three monks have no water to eat". In other words, if everyone has their own point of view, it will cause confusion in direction, so that everyone has an opinion and no point of view. In the same way, if a country has an infinite number of value standards, it is equivalent to that country has no value standards. Because, everyone has their own values, has their own opinions, and everyone is expressing and promoting their own values and prejudices, then there will be a situation in society where "the public says that the public is reasonable, and the mother-in-law says that the mother-in-law is reasonable", and various points of view are fighting with each other, then the society is "unclear". If a person stands tall, transcends all points of view, and has no preconceptions of his own, and can see the whole world clearly, and sees all positions, angles, and values, then he has the wisdom of a mirror, then he is "not seeing himself, therefore clear." ”
Then there is "not self-sufficient, so it is revealed". "Not self-righteous" means not self-righteous. On the contrary, self-righteousness, believing that only oneself is right and others are wrong, is "self-right". The saint does not think that only he is right, and that what is different from himself is not correct.
In "Shangshu, Shangshu, Tang Huan", it is said that "Qier Wanfang is guilty, and he is giving one person", if there are faults everywhere in the world, the responsibility is on me. In a good family, if something bad happens, everyone will say that they are wrong, and they will not feel that someone else did something wrong. The same is true of the saint, who does not think that only he is right and everyone else is wrong. Moreover, the saint always feels that everything in the world is closely related to him, so no matter what he does, he will definitely be in line with the right path, and he will definitely bring a positive and positive impact on the society, and will not bring a negative or negative impact on the society.
The story of "Zigong ransomes people, Zilu receives cattle" tells this truth: when Confucius was alive, there was a rule in the state of Lu that if the people of Lu saw the people of Lu who had been reduced to slavery in a foreign country, and ransomed them back and let them regain their freedom, the state of Lu would compensate the ransom and give the ransom a certain reward. Confucius's student Zigong once ransomed a Lu man and let him return to his motherland, but when Lu wanted to compensate and reward him, Zigong refused. When Confucius learned about this, he said to Zigong, Zigong, it is not right for you to do this, you must accept compensation and rewards, and if you refuse, no one will redeem the slaves in the future. Later, another disciple of Confucius, Zilu, rescued a drowning man, and the drowning man gave him a cow to show his gratitude to him, and Zilu took it. When Confucius found out, he happily said to Zilu, just like this, everyone will save people in the future.
In Confucius's view, social influence is higher than personal reputation. If your actions are not beneficial to society, even if they seem noble, they are meaningless or even wrong. On the other hand, if your actions are good for society, they are right, even if they may be questioned. These are the values of Confucius. Confucius believed that people's words and deeds are closely related to the atmosphere of society, so everything must be done with the impact on society in mind. So, a lot of times you have to learn to accept rewards. For example, when someone gives you a certain honor, you can't refuse it, you must accept it. Because this honor does not belong to you personally, but to your actions, and the rewards and recognition you receive are also directed against this behavior, not for you personally. When you are rewarded for doing a good deed, others will know that it is right to do it and that it is very good, and then many people will learn from you and do good deeds in the future. This is the way of thinking of Confucius, and his way of thinking is different from that of many people. Because it is easy for us to look at things from our own point of view, only thinking about what we want to do, and always ignoring our inextricable connection with the world, but the saints do not ignore this. That's why saints always think differently than ordinary people.
Let me give you another example. Many years ago, there was an incident, which is very regrettable, a young man picked up an old man who was wrestling, but the old man took him to court, and the judge also found him guilty, and when talking about the reason for the sentence, the judge said a very shameless sentence: "You must have pushed him down, otherwise why would you help him?" After he said this, no one dared to help the old man who had fallen, because no one wanted to suffer an unjustified disaster, let alone be wronged because of his kindness. Therefore, this judge is a sinner, and he has corrupted the morality of the entire Chinese nation. No matter what the situation is, it is necessary to emphasize that saving people comes first, let alone saying "why should you save them if you don't have a weak heart?" Therefore, we should learn from the saints and consider more about the impact of our words and deeds on society. Especially for people in power, their words and deeds are closely related to the social atmosphere, and their handling of things will often directly affect the choices of the entire society. Therefore, we must have basic wisdom and virtue, otherwise, it is easy to affect the atmosphere of the whole society because of a certain detail that is not handled well.
The best thing to do is to never be self-righteous.
We know that some people always want to build a monument for themselves, so they create some image projects, hoping that people will always remember him, but the building is easy to disappear, and sometimes, when he is still alive, the so-called landmark building is demolished. Some leaders want people to forget him, but the people will never forget him. Because the people remembered what he had done. Therefore, if you are not self-righteous, you will not be self-righteous, and your thoughts and the culture you carry can be carried forward.
The next step is "not self-cutting, so meritorious". In ancient times, boasting was called a war, a crusade. This is very interesting, the ancients believed that boasting and complacent were a kind of harm to themselves. Only when you do something, but don't cling to what you've done, can you be meritorious.
Zhang Liang is so important to Liu Bang, many times he is "in the midst of strategizing", and Liu Bang can "win thousands of miles away". It can be said that if there was no Zhang Liang, there would be no Han Dynasty. Although Han Xin is also important, without Zhang Liang, Liu Bang may lose Han Xin. For example, once, after Han Xin captured Qi, he wanted to be the king of Qi, but he was embarrassed to say it clearly, so he wanted to coerce Liu Bang to make him the fake king of Qi and act as the king of Qi. At that time, Liu Bang was very angry, thinking that Han Xin was not authentic, so he actually took advantage of the fire to rob, and when he was about to be furious, Zhang Liang quietly kicked him. This kick kicked Liu Bang awake in one fell swoop, he knew that he couldn't offend Han Xin at this time, because Han Xin was very powerful, if Han Xin didn't help him, or even fought against him, he couldn't succeed. So, he immediately changed his words and said: "If the eldest husband wants to be the real king of Qi, what is the fake king of Qi!" Then, he named Han Xin the king of Qi. This is "the song is complete", and the compromise is complete. Han Xin was very happy, fought in the east and west, and fought the world for Liu Bang, but after the completion of the work, Liu Bang cleaned up Han Xin again. Of course, this approach is not right, but we still have to understand that the reason why Liu Bang did this was not as kind-hearted as Zhao Kuangyin, but also because of Han Xin's own reasons. On the contrary, Zhang Liang handled it very well at the critical moment, everyone knows that it was his strategy that directly led to the establishment of the Han Dynasty, but when Liu Bang became the emperor and was about to reward him, he excused himself and said, I have no credit, everything is Your Majesty's own blessing, thank you for helping me realize my dream and let me be the emperor's teacher. Now, though, I just like monasticism. And when he had said that, he went to the Tao. When Liu Bang was the emperor, many heroes were beheaded, but Zhang Liang not only saved himself, but also his children and grandchildren. It is said that until now, there are still his descendants among the people. And Han Xin, who was the king of Qi for a few days, was killed by Liu Bang, and his descendants have long been gone. This is "not self-cutting, so meritorious". Don't boast and complacently ask for credit, always be grateful, always feel that others have helped you, don't feel that you have helped others, this is a very important character.
In my life, what I see is always the kindness of others to me, and I will never say how good I am to him. Why? Because there is no reason for someone else to be nice to you, but he is so good to you, how can you not be grateful? Even if you are very good to him, you should be, because you want to have a good character, you want to practice, you want to attain the Tao, so you have to be good to everyone. Others are not like this, others just want to be an ordinary person, so he does not take it for granted that he should be good to you, if he is good to you, you should be grateful. Therefore, I am always grateful to many people, always with a heart to help others, and always grateful to others for giving me an opportunity to help him, which is also helping me to improve myself.
"Not self-conscious, so can grow", "self-restraint" is the meaning of pride and arrogance, feeling that Lao Tzu is the first in the world. The overlord of Western Chu has great strength, can lift a thousand catties of Ding, and is always invincible when he leads his troops to fight. When he led the soldiers of the Chu army to fight with the army of Qin, the princes did not go to support, and when he destroyed the Qin Dynasty and descended like a god, the princes did not dare to look up at him, so they could only kneel in front of him and admit their mistakes to him. Therefore, the overlord of Xichu is very remarkable, but his greatness is just the courage of a horseman, and he feels that he is right until he dies, saying that God wants to destroy him. In fact, he really has a problem, because he is just the opposite of Cao Cao, Zhou Gong and others, the latter is Corporal Lixian, and he doesn't look down on everyone. The only talent he values is Fan Zeng, who he calls his father, but he can't listen to Fan Zeng's words, and he doesn't even use Fan Zeng. Therefore, his demise was inevitable. He is too proud and conceited, and always thinks that Lao Tzu is the best in the world. This kind of person will not last long.
You must always feel that you are not good, and that you are incompetent when you enter the WTO.
A friend of mine wrote a couplet: "Avoid others and be free, but you are incapable of entering the world." "In the past, I felt too negative. Only now do I realize that it was too right. Because, it advocates never comparing yourself to others, always feeling that others are better than you, always feeling that you are the most incompetent person in the world, feeling that you don't know anything, so that there will be no enemies, and everyone will think you are good. In the past, I wasn't like that, I used to be very flamboyant, when I was eighteen or nineteen years old, I was very flamboyant, everything was exposed, so everyone didn't like me. Later, I learned to be introverted through mind training, but others still thought I was a flamboyant person. So, to this day, I still make enemies everywhere. In my hometown, there are always people talking about me behind my back, and the reason for this is that I haven't done a good job. Because I am always self-conscious, I am always criticized.
I'm a writer, and I'm going to have the habit of being a writer. Of course, there are some habits that I have intentionally done. Because, the ass decides the head, and when you become a writer, you have to say what a writer should say.
Excerpt from "Lao Tzu's Thoughts - Snow Boiled "Tao Te Ching" Second Series
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