Those who can see with their eyes, hear with their ears, speak with their mouths, and think with their hearts are all out of school. Those who cannot see with their eyes, hear with their ears, speak with their mouths, and think from their hearts, will reach up. As for the rest of the day and night, the line is smooth and flourishing, it is the ascendant, and the people can anticipate their strength! Therefore, all those who can use the work and speak can go to school. Ascending is only in the lower school. Whatever the saints say, though it is very subtle, is a lesson. Scholars only work hard from the lower school, and naturally go up, and there is no need to find another way to get up.
Hatsukai
What the eyes can see, the ears can hear, the mouth can speak, and the heart can think about is "going to school"; what the eyes can't see, the ears can't hear, the mouth can't speak, and the heart can't think of is the "going up." Just as planting trees, cultivation, and irrigation belong to "going down", as for the trees growing day and night, and gradually growing with branches and leaves, it is "ascending", how can this be intervened by manpower? Therefore, everything that can be said with work and words is "going down", and "going up" is included in "going down". Everything that the saints talk about, even though it is extremely subtle, is also "lower school". As long as scholars work hard in "going down", they will naturally get closer and closer to "ascending", and they don't need to seek "ascending" elsewhere.
Pot Tianshan people interpret
The meaning of Mr. Yang Ming's words is not difficult to understand, the key is to understand the concepts of "ascending" and "going down". "Shangda" refers to some metaphysics, that is, the "Heavenly Principles" of Confucianism, the "Tao" of Taoism, and the "Xiaxue" refers to the various efforts of scholars in daily learning, self-cultivation, and self-cultivation.
Cheng Yi said: "When you go to school, you are going to heaven. Mr. Yang Ming is expressing the same meaning here, everything that can be reached by thinking, words, and deeds is "going down", and the real "up" is only to be understood, not spoken, and it is "the wonderful principles of the Buddhas, not about words". Sitting and talking, or going to school, smiling, is the way up.
Wang Yangming asked people to only work hard in "going to school" and not paying attention to "going up", in order to warn Confucian scholars not to indulge
In the study of oral hearing, we should not indulge in humility, but should work hard in the "lower school" in a down-to-earth and honest manner, and there is no "upper reach" in the world that is separated from the "lower learning".
Anyone who has aspirations should know that if you don't go to school, you can't go up, and if you don't go down, you can't achieve high grades. The problem of many people today is that they are not high or low. Knowledge is not afraid of not being high, as long as it is accumulated, progress is not afraid of slowness, as long as it continues day by day. Daily learning is not to learn tall and cutting-edge things everywhere, but to repeatedly learn what you are doing, do it well, and do it to the extreme, which is the truth of going to school and going up.