Lately I've been reading the Tao Te Ching every night, and in the morning I've been reading some books related to current politics and the Book Club.
Cute sister circle of friends
Some time ago, most of my public accounts were talking about the Analects, during this time I read the Tao Te Ching, my next reading plan is to read the I Ching, plus the "Art of War of Sun Tzu" I read before, these four books have become my "four sacred books".
When reading some classic reading materials that intersect with ancient wisdom, many students will ask me a question: Sister Meng, are you reading the original text?
The first thing I look at is a small blueprint, basically no translation, it is essentially the original text. Then many people will ask: Can you read the original text alone?
I want to tell you that behind any original text, I will read a lot of auxiliary content to help me understand the meaning of the original text, let me give you an example.
For example, when I first read the Analects, I would listen to Mr. Liang Shuming talk about Confucius, Mr. Nan Huaijin talk about Confucius, and so on.
Listening to a series of experts talk about Confucius, listening to how others understand Confucius, and then combining how I understand Confucius, I will finally form Meng Jie's knowledge and understanding of Confucius.
Similarly, reading the Tao Te Ching is the same, Lao Tzu is about 20 years older than Confucius, and it should be said that his theoretical doctrine is even earlier than Confucius.
But Lao Tzu's theory seems to be farther away from landing, so its spirituality/ideology may be more profound. Therefore, it is even more necessary to find a series of big names and listen to how they understand the Tao Te Ching.
Like the Analects, the Tao Te Ching is not written by Lao Tzu himself, but is also the result of editing and teaching and discussing. Therefore, there will be N people in the market to understand and tell the Tao Te Ching.
I myself know a few experts who study the Tao Te Ching, and many people ask: Is the Tao Te Ching Taoism Taoist?
In fact, the "Tao Te Ching" is the core philosophical wisdom of Lao Tzu, which is like "water conservancy and all things are not disputed", "big sound Xisheng" These are the wisdom in the Tao Te Ching, the key is what kind of role does it have for us?
I heard that the only book in Mr. Ma Yun's bag was the Tao Te Ching, and he would read it when he was fine.
Some time ago I was studying Charlie Munger, and I found that Charlie Munger's usual public words to the media, although not the original text of the Tao Te Ching, were extremely profound.
Once a reporter asked Charlie Munger: You obviously have your own private jet, why don't you use it? He smiled and said: I don't use a private jet for two reasons, one person taking a plane is a bit too wasteful, I don't want to be so violent. The second point is that I have studied that civilian aircraft will be safer.
Charlie Thomas Munger
American investor, Warren Buffett's golden partner
Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
When you see this, you will think that he is very wise, but I want to tell you that you must know where his wisdom comes from.
First of all, he summed up the two points of his doing, not because he was born to do it, but because he took the time to study, including learning about it.
Chapter 50 of the Tao Te Ching calls birth into death:
What does this sentence mean? First of all, he said that a person has a process from birth to death. About 30% of people are particularly long-lived, but 30% of people who have a short life, and some people have a long life span, but because these people have no wisdom, they go to death every day, and 30% of these people still have 30%.
Later he said a sentence, why did he? Why?
Because these people enjoy too much luxurious material life, they have ruined what should have been a long life.
Let's go back to what Charlie Munger just said, he said he doesn't use a private jet, the first reason is that he thinks it's wasteful to use a plane alone, you see this is called Fu Ho, after surviving, it is to put an end to luxury waste.
The people I just talked about who really take care of their lives, they will not go to that kind of dangerous place at all. Charlie Munger has said many times that to enter a career, he must first know how he can die, and he said that once I know where I die, I will not go, so I will stay away from death.
Have you ever wondered why he wants to fly civil aviation? He has investigated that the probability of civil aviation crashes will be lower, that is to say, it will be safer to sit in civil aviation, which is why he considered this matter.
So you see that chapter 50 of the Tao Te Ching reflects everything about Charlie Munger's cognition and thinking, so I sent a circle of friends, you can take a look.
I said that I think Munger should be familiar with or memorizing the Tao Te Ching, but in fact I have a lot of powerful entrepreneurs around me, as well as some civil servants engaged in politics, and some of the leaders who lead the team are loyal fans of the Tao Te Ching.
Many people will misunderstand "inaction" and think that "inaction" means doing nothing. I think "doing nothing" is the highest, promising realm. It's not that he does nothing or does nothing, but how he can have great wisdom.
One of the biggest characteristics of reading the Tao Te Ching is to upgrade one's pattern.
Why didn't you make money in the past? Why can't you keep making money? It's not because you don't have the ability to make money, it's that you put yourself in a position where you won't make money at all.
Whether you are from the perspective of doing business, the perspective of entrepreneurship, the perspective of being a person, or the perspective of onlookers, the Tao Te Ching is a blueprint and model in all aspects.
Indeed, studying the Tao Te Ching is a particularly difficult thing, and I started reading the Tao Te Ching in 2019, not particularly early, because during that time I was frantically studying the history of China's intellectual development, and I happened to read the Tao Te Ching that year.
Sister Meng Weibo
The first time I read it, I liked it so much that I read it several times, and I hung up a lot of the original Tao Te Ching in my office.
At that time, I especially liked the self-cultivation section of the Tao Te Ching, because I felt that my self-cultivation was like that
This quote comes from chapter 33 of the Tao Te Ching, when I wrote down the commentary with great insight. That's what I'm going to do myself.
It is said that a person is wise to understand others, but it is the most intelligent to know oneself. Many people did not understand themselves, at that time I was thinking about the road of self-exploration, and I needed to know Zhang Meng better.
The next sentence, "The winner is strong, the self-victor is strong", that is, the person who can overcome others is powerful, but the person who can overcome himself is strong.
Many people actually can't overcome themselves, after encountering problems, they first shrink back, and after encountering difficulties, they can only solve the problem by avoiding or changing an environment, I will not be like this.
There is also "contented people rich", you see I used to do business I pursued growth rate, but now the growth rate is a very important indicator of motivating the team in our internal, but I am more concerned about how to make the heart full of abundance.
"The enforcer has the will" refers to the perseverance of the person who has an immortal will. Fans who have followed me for a long time know that Zhang Meng's biggest feature is that she has strong willpower. She doesn't give up just because she can't finish a small thing.
"Do not lose what they have for a long time", do not lose their own principles and morality, people can last forever. You will find that when you have a good relationship with you, you will say something that goes well, but when you have a bad relationship with you, you will turn your face faster than turn a book.
These are people who are constantly losing their own principles, constantly destroying their own boundaries, constantly destroying the boundaries of the organization, I call them "moths of the organization", and this kind of person must be removed.
In the Tao Te Ching, in terms of leadership, management, self-management, etc., it is a very wise and mysterious book.
So many powerful leaders and big names are reading, then it must be a good book, but to what extent it can be read, there are really different opinions, because everyone's realm is different.
Cute sister bookshelf
I talk to a particularly powerful person every month, and this time I also found a man named Mr. Wu Qiang, who wrote a book called "Leadership with Moral Scriptures", and he used to be the editor-in-chief of the media and mentored many entrepreneurs.
I read his book, and he analyzed it according to the entire chapter of the Tao Te Ching. One of the things he did before was to take entrepreneurs to read the Tao Te Ching, and I think he would definitely give everyone a lot of thought from the perspective of management.
Therefore, this evening from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., [Zhang Meng Parlor] will invite Mr. Wu Qiang to be our guest in our live broadcast room and discuss the Tao Te Ching with you.
I think everyone usually watches the live broadcast, you listen to everyone's dialogue, sometimes the degree of this wisdom is actually more powerful than a person's speech, (master tricks) This live broadcast must be wonderful.
Well, tonight weChat video number, Zhang Mengmeng sister, 7:00 p.m. ~ 8:00 p.m. Meng sister in the live broadcast room dialogue Mr. Wu Qiang, with everyone to talk about "with the moral and classics leadership", 7:00 p.m. we do not see each other.