In recent years, due to the unsatisfactory work and various pressures in life, I have gradually become addicted to the world of "Zhuangzi".
In the process of reading "Zhuangzi" for a long time, I found that all my previous troubles were due to the fact that I had too high requirements for myself, and the goals I set for myself were too difficult, because it was difficult to achieve, so I felt depressed.
If you want to learn true liberation in the complicated world, in fact, according to Zhuangzi, you can follow nature, which is a bit similar to what people now say about working with the mentality of resignation, not to let everyone slack off and let themselves go, but to follow the order of the world, follow the laws of the Tao, and use the "Tao" to guide their own lives, rather than being swayed by artificially created narrowness and prejudice.
As the ancients said: "It is easy to be false for people, and it is difficult to be false for heaven (Tao)." It means that when a person is driven by external things, it is easy to fall into the trap of hypocrisy and deception; However, if we can follow the way, go with the flow, and live with sincerity, we can truly be at ease.
In the chapter "The Fortune of Heaven", Zhuangzi is the first to ask the world: How does the heavens work? Why is the earth so calm? How can the sun, moon and stars coexist peacefully where they are? How should people guide their destiny when they live in the world? What is behind this?
Through these questions, Zhuangzi leads us to think about the mysteries of the world, the true meaning of life. In this complex world, the wisdom of Zhuangzi is like a beacon that illuminates our way forward, allowing us to pursue a material life while not forgetting our original intention and returning to inner peace.
Zhuangzi once said: The six extremes and five constants are the way of heaven. If the emperor can obey it, the country and the people will be safe, otherwise there will be disasters.
All things in heaven and earth are in harmony with the Tao and follow the way, so peace and tranquility can be maintained. There is no other way but to go with nature.
Lao Tzu Yiyun: Tao gives birth to one, life to two, two to three, and three to all things. Everything originates here, and it is all prepared here.
Then he said: Man is the law of the earth, the earth is the law of the sky, the heaven is the law of the Tao, and the Tao is the law of nature. Therefore, the highest state of life is to go with the flow.
However, human beings are born between heaven and earth, and as the spirit of all things, they are often guided by the ideas they create, and eventually deviate from "nature". Not only is this exhausting, but it also burdens others.
Human beings stand between heaven and earth and become the standard in themselves. There is no single one, but there are still many standards, how can we achieve success? What is the standard life?
After all, for most people, fame and wealth are seen as symbols of success, and owning a car, home, family, and savings is the norm. However, such a standard does not make people's lives better, but instead makes countless people fall into the predicament of involution and internal friction, and distorts life itself.
Today, many people are no longer free because they have built a cage in their hearts that they have set up for themselves. And it is the ideas that give people freedom.
However, it is also ideas that bind people in the first place. As Rousseau said: it is the idea of slavery that keeps them in slavery for eternity. For in their conception they regard themselves as slaves, and obey all the rules that slaves should obey.
Someone asked Zhuangzi about benevolence. Zhuangzi replied:
The tiger wolf also has a benevolent heart, and the blind date between father and son is not a kind of benevolence? The man was still puzzled by what he meant, and found it a little difficult to understand.
Zhuangzi explained:
The true meaning of benevolence lies in caring for all things, whether it is a tiger or a wolf, or a human, there is family affection and love. Only by jumping out of narrow concepts can we truly appreciate the true meaning of benevolence. ”
The man was persistent and asked Zhuangzi again: What is the state of the highest level of benevolence?
Zhuangzi replied: Benevolence and selflessness.
As soon as this remark came out, the man was even more confused, so he said what he had seen and heard in the world:
If you are selfless, you are not close, and if you are not close, you are not filial.
Isn't filial piety the realm of the supreme human being?
This is nothing but the sophistry of the world. Everyone tries to find a standard and then follows it. The simplest is successology, but successology does not create successful people.
Zhuangzi's benevolence, of course, does not mean unfilial piety. He explained:
Filial piety is not enough to explain what I mean by charity.
It is easy to fulfill filial piety with respect alone, but it is difficult to practice filial piety with the source of love.
It is easy to fulfill filial piety with pure and immaculate love; However, it is quite difficult to care for parents with a calm and detached state of mind.
It is even more difficult to treat parents with an indifferent and detached state of mind, so that parents can also look at themselves indifferently and detachedly.
It is even more difficult for parents to look at themselves indifferently and detachedly, and then to be able to be free from the world and detached from things.
Being able to be free from the world and transcendent from things, so that all beings in the world can forget their selfish desires, this is the most difficult realm.
In this complex world, many people love their parents, not out of true feelings, but because they are bound by secular morality. Some parents raise their children, and they always have the mentality of raising children to prevent old age, they treat their parents in the way they think is best, and parents demand their children with their own concepts.
This kind of coming-and-going has long lost the essence of nature.
Good qualities such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness, in Zhuangzi's view, can also limit the true freedom of our hearts.
Because people live in the world, they often only know how to demand themselves by these external standards, but forget that these are the natural behaviors of those who have truly lived their lives.
A person who can live his own life, constantly approaching the realm of morality, approaching the state of true nature, some things are no longer things that need to be deliberately pursued, but will be presented naturally.
Therefore, we can see that the ancient sages and sages were the ones who truly lived their lives.
Nowadays, many people, although they use external standards such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith to demand themselves, they have forgotten that they must truly live out their own nature in order to truly embody the connotation of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith.
It is not natural to demand oneself with external standards in many cases.
However, when we have not really lived our own lives, we have to regulate ourselves with these external standards.
The most difficult thing in life to get rid of is the shackles of fame and fortune.
People work hard for fame and fortune, but they let themselves suffer more.
When Confucius traveled to defend the country, Yan Yuan asked Jin, a master of Taoism, for advice
What will be the outcome of His Holiness Patriotic Trip? ”
Shi Jin had insight into the heavens and said to Yan Yuan:
Alas, your husband is destined to encounter hardships and dangers. ”
Yan Yuan was puzzled when he heard this, and he didn't understand the mystery.
Shi Jin explained: Those dogs that are tied with grass for sacrifice must be favored before the sacrifice begins; However, after the sacrifice is completed, it will be abandoned and eventually reduced to a cooking fire.
In Shi Jin's eyes, what Confucius pursued was such a dog to be sacrificed.
Everyone in the world wants fame and fortune, so when you are in power, people tend to be powerful; Once frustrated, he will be ridiculed. Fame and fortune are like this straw dog, which attracts attention when it is useful, but is trampled on when it is useless.
There are some things, although everyone is vying to imitate, but most of the time, people are competing to imitate things, just like Dong Shi's imitation, which seems to be pretentious, and the tiger is not an anti-dog.
The beauty Shih Tzu has a small problem - chest pain. She always frowned whenever the pain hit. When walking through the crowd, even though her brow is furrowed, people still think she is very beautiful and moving.
One day, a mediocre-looking woman came to the neighbor's house. She was amazed to see Shih Tzu frowning and decided to follow her example. So, whenever she felt unwell, she frowned.
Fate did not favor the imitator. Although the rich would stay away from her when they saw her; But the poor people will actively avoid her. Why? It's just because she's so ugly!
The ugly woman knew that frowning was one of the signs of beauty, but she didn't know why she was doing it. As a result, a huge scandal broke out.
Many people seek fame and fortune, but forget that what really matters lies in self-awareness and inner cultivation. They ignore their true value in pursuit of vanity goals. In this way, they can only become slaves to fame and fortune.
Those who see prominence as their goal in life are doomed to lose the respect of others; And those who covet power can only have power for a short time. When these people have money, fame, and power in their hands, they may feel happy and ambitious. But once they lose these things, they fall into deep pain.
Zhuangzi said: Those who peep at it are the people who kill the people in the sky.
Such a person is destined to be a punisher of nature.
Fame and fortune are important, but once you are trapped by fame and fortune, you become a slave to fame and fortune.
Confucius pursued benevolence and righteousness all his life, and once visited Lao Tzu and talked to him on the way of benevolence and righteousness. However, in Lao Tzu's view, the poison brought by benevolence and righteousness is the most painful, and it can even make people become mediocre and lose their original innocence and nature.
He admonished Confucius:
If you want the world not to lose its simplicity, you should act naturally as the wind rises and falls, and act according to the laws of nature.
He also said: When the spring water is exhausted, the fish are foaming at each other and surviving the difficulties together, but they forget each other in the rivers and lakes, so that they can be truly free.
Only by returning to the most authentic state of nature can we appreciate the true unrestrained.
Hearing Lao Tzu's words, Confucius went home and pondered for three days, ** asked curiously:
After meeting Lao Tzu, what did you gain?
Confucius replied, "It is only today that I have seen a real dragon." The dragon, united as one, becomes one; When it is dispersed, it turns into gorgeous literary brilliance. Ride the clouds and wander between yin and yang, and be able to recuperate.
Zigong did not believe in evil, so he visited Lao Tzu in the name of Confucius. He explained to Lao Tzu the rule of the Holy King, but Lao Tzu told Zigong that the best way to govern was to conform to nature. Later generations of people advocate benevolence and morality, but they make people lose their original benevolence and righteousness; The pursuit of fame and fortune by people leads to the competition for fame and fortune for future generations, and the society is thrown into chaos.
What people admire will inevitably lead to the debasement of other things; What people value will inevitably lead to other things being despised as well. And the real nature never distinguishes between the rich and the poor, everything is natural, there is no distinction between high and low.
Zhuangzi lived in poverty, and once when he went to see the king, he wore tattered clothes. However, he is not ashamed of this, because he believes that the real hardship is not material deprivation, but the inability of people to live with their natural nature.
In this world, everyone aspires to live a better, more natural, and freer life. However, many people, at the end of their lives, fail to fulfill these wishes. Confucius was over fifty years old and still did not comprehend the true meaning of the Great Dao, so he decided to ask Lao Tzu for advice.
Lao Tzu asked, "Have you already attained the Tao?" Confucius replied, "Not yet." Then Lao Tzu asked, "How did you seek the Great Way?" Confucius said, "I have spent five years searching for norms and laws, but I still have not attained enlightenment. Then, I studied it from the perspective of yin and yang changes, and as a result, twelve years later, I still haven't found the answer. ”
This dialogue reveals Confucius's confusion and persistence in the pursuit of truth. He kept trying various methods, but he never reached the other side of his heart.
This search for truth is a journey shared by countless wise men in human history. In the process, we can't help but think: what is the real avenue? How can we find that inner peace and freedom in a complex world?
Lao Tzu once said to Confucius:
However, if the way of morality is presented, it will be offered to the monarch; If the way of morality is preached, people will pass it on to their loved ones. If the way of morality could be communicated to others, it would be told to its brothers; If moral principles are shared, they will be passed on to future generations.
However, this is not true.
The way of morality is not a material, but a kind of understanding, a kind of following, conforming to the principles of nature.
It is a pity that countless people have difficulty understanding the path of morality, for no other reason than the inability to control their hearts, which makes it impossible for the Tao to stop.
Lao Tzu Yiyun: The truly outstanding person pursues freedom without restraint and worry-free, which is to conform to nature and rule without doing anything.
It is precisely because it follows nature and does not seek luxury and complexity, so life is easy and easy.
Resentment, gratitude, taking, harmony, admonition, teaching, life, and killing are all instruments of the righteous path, and only those who can adapt to great changes can use them.
These are common things in the world, but only those who have truly realized the Great Dao can use them freely, and most people are bound by them.
For most people, the teachings they follow are authorities that are recognized and admired by all. Thus, they rejoice in what they approve of, and disgust them with what they despise. The recognition of authority restricts their behavior; And those who oppose the authority are afraid of them.
They follow these dogmas without knowing why they do it. They hate certain things, but they don't understand why they feel the way they do. Confucius once said to Lao Tzu: "I have studied poems and books for a long time, and I feel that I am quite familiar with them. Yet when I expounded these wise words to the king, no one would listen. ”
Lao Tzu once said: The Six Classics are just the traces left by the previous kings, not the origin of their footprints.
And what you say is only the mark you have left behind.
Footprints are the remnants of the soles of shoes, but how can these marks represent the shoes themselves?
What kind of gains can be found by clinging to the footprints of others?
Lao Tzu continued to elaborate:
The nature is constant, the destiny is irresistible, time cannot be turned back, and the road is everywhere.
Those who are truly enlightened are unimpeded wherever they go; Those who have lost their ways will find no way back.
The Tao is under our feet and in our hearts, and it is only natural to follow it.
After Confucius returned, he did not go out in March and visited Lao Tzu again. Confucius sighed
It's been a long time since I have been able to become friends with the natural changes of all things! If you can't get acquainted with the way of nature, how can you educate others!
In short, it's just about going with nature.
There is no doubt that nature here is the law of the Great Dao, the law of the operation of the universe, not man-made. If we truly conform to nature, live with heaven and earth, and coexist with all things, then what else can influence us in this world?
Let it be, this is simple, but in fact profound. Fate may be at the mercy of nature, but we are not completely helpless. Since stepping into the red dust, we have been subject to the laws of the world, like puppets being pulled together, and we can't help ourselves.
Years of precipitation, experience accumulation, these laws take root in our hearts, indestructible. If you want to break it, it is like destroying the Great Wall. And this Great Wall was built by our own hands.
Only by breaking through this narrow world can birds feather and ascend to immortals and soar above the nine heavens.
The same is true in life, to break free from the shackles of the past and explore infinite possibilities. Not bound by stereotypes, not limited by prejudices.
Only when we have the truth in our hearts and understand the way of nature can we live freely and freely.
Sadly, most people in the world are still bound by others, spending precious time in worldly opinions and prejudices, and living a less free and less natural life. List of high-quality authors