Reading "Autumn Water" in "Zhuangzi", the realm is fully open!

An ancient saying said: "I read the lacquer garden book, and the autumn water is enough." An used 100,000 words, and Lei fell into his belly. ”

The lacquer garden refers to Zhuangzi, who once served as the lacquer garden official of the Song Kingdom.

The article "Autumn Water" is very literary and philosophical, and there are many popular idioms, such as Wangyang sighing, summer insects can not speak ice, frogs at the bottom of the well, Taicang Yisu and so on.

The whole work is divided into two parts, the first part is written about the seven questions and seven answers between Hebo and the sea god, and the second part is six fables.

Today we will talk about the first part.

In autumn, when the river rises, all the small rivers flow into the Yellow River, and the water flow is so wide that even cattle and horses cannot be distinguished between the two banks and the water banks in the river.

So, Hebo was complacent, thinking that all the good things in the world were gathered in him.

He went east to the North Sea, looked east, and found that he could not see the edge of the water at all.

At this time, He Bo changed his previous smug appearance, looked at the ocean and sighed to the sea god: "As the saying goes, 'After hearing many truths, I think that no one can compare with myself.'" That's talking about me. ”

Standing in front of the boundless sea, He Bo realized his shallowness, and he said to the sea god: "If I hadn't come to you, it would have been dangerous, and I would have been ridiculed forever by those who knew the Great Dao." ”

Poseidon Ruo said: "The well frog cannot talk about the sea with it because it is limited by the region; Summer insects can't talk about ice because they're limited by time; Scholars can't talk about the Great Dao because they are bound by secular rituals. Today, you have come here, and you know that you are small, so I can discuss the avenue with you.

There is no greater water in the world than the sea, but I am not complacent because of this, I think that I have received form from heaven and earth, and I have received life from yin and yang, and I am like a pebble in a big mountain between heaven and earth, like China in the four seas, and a drop in a big warehouse.

Human beings are only one of all things, and isn't one person like the end of a hair that exists in the whole body of a horse compared to all things? ”

He Bo asked again: "Then I regard heaven and earth as the largest, and the end of the hair as the smallest, is it okay?" ”

Poseidon said, "No." Because all things are inexhaustible, there is no end to time, there is no unchanging routine for gains and losses, and there is no unchanging cause in the end.

Therefore, the great wisdom of the person never observes a corner of things, so that the small ones do not think that there are few, and the big ones do not think that they are too many; If you understand that the ancient and the modern are the same, you will not get tired of living a long life and suffering from a short life; Insight into the truth of profit and loss, not happy when you get it, and not sad and annoyed when you lose; If you understand that there is a smooth path between life and death without barriers, you will not be doubly happy when you are born in the world, nor will you take death as a disaster.

Man knows far less than he knows, and he lives in the world for far less time than he absences. To pursue an infinite realm of knowledge with a very limited life is bound to be at a loss and to gain nothing.

From this point of view, how can we know that the end of the hair is the smallest limit, and the heaven and earth are the greatest realm? ”

"People always say, 'The smallest thing has no body, and the greatest thing has no periphery. Is this true? ”

Poseidon replied: "It is impossible to see the big part from a small point of view, and it is impossible to see the small part from a big point of view." So it's the case that everyone has their own paranoia.

The so-called subtle and vast is to describe things with tangible traces, and things without traces and without peripherals cannot be discussed in words, cannot be conveyed in mind, and cannot be expressed in quantities, so it does not matter whether they are small and vast. ”

He Bo asked again: "Then how to distinguish the nobility and size of things from the outside and the inside?" ”

If the god of the sea says, "From the point of view of the Tao, there is no distinction between high and low; From the perspective of all things themselves, all things are expensive and other things are cheap; From a secular point of view, the high and the low are from the outside and not from themselves.

From the point of view of the difference between things, if you think that everything is big on the big side, then nothing is not big, and vice versa; From the point of view of people's tendency towards things, if they follow the right side of everything and think that it is right, then nothing is wrong, and vice versa.

The timber of the pillars can be used to siege the city, but it cannot be used to block the cave, which is the difference in the use of utensils; Horses can travel thousands of miles in a day, but they are not as good as wild cats can catch mice, which is a different skill; Owls can see the end of their hair at night, but they can't see the mountains during the day, which is a difference in nature.

It is often said, 'Why don't you just take what is right and discard what is wrong, and what governs by law and abandon what is chaotic?' This is a statement that does not understand the truth of heaven and earth and the truth of all things.

This is like taking the law from the sky and not from the earth, and taking the law from the yin but not from the yang, which obviously will not work. ”

He Bo asked again, "Then what should I do?" How to choose between resignations? ”

If the sea god said: "From the point of view of the Tao, it doesn't matter if you are high or low, the high and low are mutually transformed, don't restrain your mind. It doesn't matter how much, how much is replaced by each other; Don't act on one side of things.

All things in the universe are mixed together, who is superior and who is inferior? There is no continuity in the avenue, but all things have life and death, and they are not to be relied upon for a moment; Sometimes everything is empty, sometimes full, and there is no fixed form.

Time does not remain, time never stops, fades, grows, enriches, emptiness, and everything in the universe ends and begins again.

What should and shouldn't be done? Everything is naturally changing. ”

He Bo said: "In that case, then why is the Tao still precious? ”

If the god of the sea says, "Those who know the Tao must be able to understand things, and those who know things must understand the situation, and those who understand the way will not let external objects hurt themselves."

A man of the highest cultivation cannot be burned by fire, flooded by water, harmed by cold or heat, or harmed by beasts. It is not that he approached them without being harmed, but that he was aware of the danger, content with good and bad, and prudent in advance and retreat, and avoided the damage.

Therefore, the heavenly machine is hidden in the heart, and the personnel are exposed outside the body, and the most virtuous thing is not to lose nature. Understand that human behavior is based on nature, live in a self-satisfied environment, advance and retreat, bend and stretch, and return to the road to the point of rushing and can talk about the ultimate truth. ”

Hebo asked, "What is nature?" What is Human? ”

If the god of the sea says, "Cows and horses are born with four legs, this is natural; Wrap the bridle around the horse's head and thread the reins through the nose of the ox, which is artificial.

Therefore, don't use human resources to destroy nature, don't use artificiality to destroy human life, and don't seek fame because of greed. Keeping these teachings and not violating them is called a return to the innocent nature. ”

The seven questions and seven answers between Hebo and Haishenruo are progressive, from Hebo's "taking the beauty of the world as his own" to knowing his own insignificance of the "small and big debate", to the infinity of time, space and the change of things, to the cosmology of "the greatest and the smallest", to the relativity of all things, the high and the low, and then to the natural law of the mutual transformation of the positive and negative sides of everything, and finally the separation between nature and man-made.

The content is broad and profound, and many sentences in the text can be taken out separately to savor and ponder.

In the text, Hebo's question about the way of heaven is like an ordinary person asking the way of heaven to a person who has attained the way.

To use a less appropriate analogy, a two-dimensional line is an insurmountable obstacle for ants, but for other three-dimensional creatures, it is not an obstacle at all.

In other words, the Tao is a higher dimensional thing than ordinary human beings.

Of course, ordinary people can't attain the Tao, but we can imitate the Tao, and "the Tao is natural", so the human law is natural, and conforming to nature can eliminate the entanglement of various emotions between the world to a large extent, so as to achieve inner silence, which can not only maintain health, but also be free, which can be described as "double cultivation of life".