Life is but a thought: Nan Huaijin's 15 Life Wisdom Lessons

Chapter 12
The eminent monk said slowly: "The way to carry water is not to pick enough, but to pick enough. If you are greedy for more, it will only be counterproductive."

After hearing what the eminent monk said, everyone felt very puzzled. What is the reason for this?At this time, the eminent monk selected one of them and asked him to fetch two full buckets of water from the valley again.I saw that the man was struggling to carry the water and was staggering.Before taking a few steps, he fell to the ground, spilled all the water, and broke his knee.

"When the water is spilled, don't you have to go back and hit the bucket again? With a broken knee and difficulty walking, doesn't that mean that you have to carry less water?" Seeing his appearance, the eminent monk explained to everyone.

"So monk, how much water should I carry?"

The eminent monk smiled and said, "Look at this bucket."

Everyone looked and saw a line drawn in the bucket.The eminent monk continued: "This line is the bottom line, that is to say, the water must not be higher than this line. If it is higher than this line, then you have exceeded your ability and needs, and it is easy to carry water. Spilled, or even fell down. If you pick more times, you don’t need to look at the line, and you will know how much water you should pick by feeling.”

Everyone nodded after hearing this, and then asked: "So how low should the bottom line be?"

The eminent monk said: "Generally speaking, the lower the better, because the low goal is easy to achieve, people are not easy to be hurt, and can also cultivate greater interest and enthusiasm. If things go on like this, step by step, you will naturally pick more, Choose more steadily."

Later, the eminent monk said: "Carrying water is not only a matter of more or less. This line can remind us that we should do our best and do what we can."

At this time, everyone suddenly realized.

In fact, whether we are eminent monks or ordinary people, we should draw a bottom line in our abilities as our own limitations.If you exceed this bottom line and do something beyond your capabilities, you will stumble sooner or later.

Coincidentally, American management scientist Peter proposed a wooden barrel principle: how much water a wooden barrel can hold does not depend on the tallest piece of wood on the barrel wall, but depends on the shortest piece of wood on the barrel wall.

The same is true of life. A person's life is like a wooden barrel. A person's advantages are like the tallest piece of wood on the barrel wall, and his shortcomings are like the shortest piece of wood on the barrel wall. The height of life is often not his strengths, but his weaknesses.How to make your "barrel" contain more water of joy, then you need to recognize your own shortcomings.

Although people often encourage themselves, the so-called "where there is a will, there is a way", as long as you work hard to improve your shortcomings and increase your "short boards", you can increase the height of your life.But the reality is cruel. It tells us with bloody facts: hard work does not necessarily pay off, and those who have aspirations do not necessarily achieve success.

In short, everyone's ability is limited, what others can do, we may not be able to do it.What others cannot do, we may be able to do.Only by truly seeing your own limitations, seeing your own strengths and weaknesses, can you make better use of your strengths, correct your weaknesses, and improve yourself.

Introspection is a human responsibility
The famous philosopher Plato once said: "Introspection is the responsibility of being a human being. Only through introspection can a person realize virtue and morality." A person who is good at introspection will often turn to himself when encountering problems, and find reasons from the inside instead of always Blame the problem on someone else.

Zixia said: "The faults of villains must also be written."

Zigong said: "The faults of a gentleman are like the eclipse of the sun and the moon. Everyone sees the faults; moreover, everyone admires them."

The Master said: "If you pass it and don't change it, you have passed it!"

Mr. Nan Huaijin explained the dialogue between Confucius and his disciples in this way: "Little people always try to find many reasons to cover up their faults. It is easy for people to discover their own faults, but they have It is a common problem that when you know you are wrong, you will find reasons to prove that you are not wrong, or you have to be wrong. However, a real gentleman will have the courage to admit that he is wrong and resolutely correct it. From Zi Gong's point of view It doesn’t matter if a man is at fault, as the saying goes, the faults of a gentleman are like the eclipse of the sun and the moon, just like the sun and the moon, occasionally there is a little dark shadow, everyone can see it, but it will always pass, and the original light will not be lost.”

The famous philosopher Plato once said: "Introspection is the responsibility of being a human being. Only through introspection can a person realize virtue and morality." A person who is good at introspection will often turn to himself when encountering problems, and find reasons from the inside instead of always Blame the problem on someone else.Strangely, many people choose not to reflect on themselves when they encounter setbacks or make mistakes, but choose to blame or blame others.Even the famous Japanese entrepreneur Konosuke Matsushita is no exception.

Once, a subordinate went to collect a loan, but because he had no experience, the loan was not recovered.In this regard, Konosuke Matsushita was very angry and questioned the ability of the employees.Later, he severely criticized the subordinate at the meeting.

Afterwards, Matsushita thought about it carefully and thought that his behavior was too radical.Moreover, I also signed the loan disbursement form, and the employees were just not familiar with the situation.If you want to be responsible, you should also take some responsibility.

Later, he called the employee and sincerely apologized to the employee.

Those who know shame are almost brave.As the saying goes: "People are not sages and sages, no one has faults, and if you know your faults, you can correct them, and there is nothing good about it." If you are really wrong, you must know how to introspect, reflect on yourself, and correct yourself, so that the problem can be solved.If you blindly make excuses for yourself, how can you truly introspect yourself?

Edward Taylor, the "father of the hydrogen bomb" in the United States, has very good behavior habits, knows how to introspect himself, and knows how to correct himself.In normal times, if he has a new opinion, after a period of time, he will deny it mercilessly, because he knows very well that some of his opinions are wrong.Perhaps, relying on the good habit of introspection, he was able to "dig for gold in the sand" and made extraordinary achievements.

In life, people always regret their own mistakes when bad luck strikes; only face up to their extravagance and waste when they are in financial difficulties; only lament their absurdity when they are seriously ill; Only when he was old and weak, and his teeth were dying and bald, did he regret that "you don't work hard when you are young, but the old man is sad".

There is a sentence in the "Tao Te Ching": "Seeing the small is bright, keeping the soft is strong. Use its light to return to its light, and it is a habit to leave no body." It means that the inner peace can observe the subtleties, which is called Being "bright"; being soft-hearted and treating people equally is really "strong".

Carefully observe the current situation of things, and then deduce the origin of things in reverse, so as to understand the original appearance of things, and then improve or prevent them, so as to avoid disasters and avoid suffering from bad consequences.Over time, we get everything right, too.

Mr. Nan Huaijin has his own unique opinion on this sentence.He believes that there is also a kind of advice implied in this sentence: "Only by facing up to one's own shortcomings can these shortcomings be prevented and corrected, which is conducive to the long-term development of individuals." In other words, it is not terrible to have weaknesses. The terrible thing is that you can't face up to your own weaknesses, and only then will you really destroy yourself.

yes!Only by working hard to face up to your own shortcomings can you constantly discover yourself, challenge yourself, and improve yourself.When faced with a problem, the first thing we have to do is to admit our mistakes.Don't cover up your mistakes, don't make excuses for your mistakes, but find the root of the mistakes and find the reasons from yourself.The second is to correct mistakes.Only in this way can we seek the true solution from the mistakes, turn the true solution into truth, and turn the truth into the achievement of life.

Avoid blind obedience
There are no absolute standards for beauty, ugliness, good and evil.Establish a model of goodness, and goodness will be used by others, and become a shield for doing evil; establish a standard of beauty, and the bad habit of "imitating others by imitating others" will appear.Therefore, we should grasp the root of blind obedience in order to effectively avoid the harm of blind obedience.

Blind obedience means following the crowd, saying what others say, and doing what others do.When someone asks him what he thinks about a certain matter, he will turn his head to one side, ask other people's opinions or say directly: "XX's opinion is my opinion."

(End of this chapter)