Knowledge and action: It is difficult to know and difficult to do
Knowledge and action: It is difficult to know and difficult to do
Knowing what is good and not being able to do it is the greatest weakness of morality. Therefore, moralists repeatedly emphasize that knowledge is easier than action, and requires us to unite knowledge and action. Then why do you still know what is good but can't do it?
The ancients said:
If the righteousness is not clear, how to put it into practice? If you are on a pavement, how can you walk if you don't see it? - Zhu Xi (Northern Song Dynasty).
Knowing but not doing, just to know shallowly - Cheng Yi (Northern Song Dynasty).
Those who do not know and do not know are just unknown" "Those who know the beginning of action, and those who do know the success" - Wang Yangming (Ming).
Most of them emphasize that we cannot unite knowledge and action because we do not know what is good, what is right, and what is true is not true.
At the same time, we can find that the "knowledge" here is conceptual, which refers to the understanding of reason, knowing the truth of the world, rather than the perception of a certain situation. For example, if a righteous man who sees death and saves him knows, he knows the truth that "man should see righteousness and act bravely", not the fact that he sees his son going into the well, and those who do not save him when he sees death also know this fact, and what they do not know is the truth that "man should see righteousness and act bravely".
I know so many truths, but why can't I live this life?
We have heard and known the truth of life, but we may not have experienced it.
The words of life and death, primary school students learn it as a new idiom, and Lang Lang reads it vigorously, until he grows up, his lover leaves him, and until his relatives leave, he knows it with deep understanding and deep understanding.
The previous knowledge and the later knowledge are not the difference between one knowing right and the other knowing wrong, but the depth of knowledge.
Knowing that it is evil and still doing it, it may mean that we only stay on "seeing and hearing knowledge" and do not have a deep understanding. Or, perhaps, in his view, there is a greater and heavier "good" than this evil that supports his actions, and the pursuit of interests is his true knowledge, and in a way, it is also a kind of "unity of knowledge and action".
From a practical point of view, only when a truth is deeply integrated into the body and mind of the actor can it be true knowledge.
Since you don't know it deeply, it's hard to do it really. So where does this come from? Is it from the truth and theory?
Sometimes we have to do it first and then slowly understand the truth, and sometimes we know the truth first and then put it into practice. In the realm of virtue, as in other fields, the role of exemplars is irreplaceable. "There is a way and righteousness", such as a pedestrian road, what this road is, at the beginning is not so clear, but first follow others.
Who to follow? The most prominent signs are success and fame, and of course, they are not the same as excellence. Learners always recognize the model according to their own stage of development and their level of comprehension, and in this way, grow slowly.
If you haven't seen people who are generous, it's hard to understand what generosity means.
A leader in the industry provides us with role models, they are real-life ideals, flesh and blood, rich in detail.
Each practitioner discovers his or her own role model in his or her own life situation, and chooses and demonstrates from his or her own situation and ability needs.
Such an ideal is different from a model set up by hard practice, which may arouse the reverence of young people, but it will inevitably lead to emptiness and hypocrisy.
We do not start our own practice from doctrine and theory, but from imitating others. In this way, it is only self-deception to conduct quality education with endless reasoning.
Enthusiasm without awe comes and goes gratuitously.
May we recognize in our actions and practice with knowledge.