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

Chapter 36 Thrifty frugality is also simple simplicity (2)
In his will, he denounced the vulgar customs of heavy burials, and demanded that his own funeral should be simplified, and he made a clear request for his home "Baling": "All are made of pottery, and gold, silver, copper and tin are not allowed to be decorated. Save, don't bother the people." "Because of the reason, the mountains and rivers of Ba Ling should not be changed", that is to say, we should build a simple cemetery according to the original appearance of the mountains and rivers according to the local conditions, and don't build a tomb for ourselves. The original appearance of mountains and rivers.

Perhaps it was precisely because of Emperor Hanwen's lifelong dedication to the people, frugality and diligence that created the prosperity of the "Government of Wenjing".The frugality of Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty did not lie in his good reputation, but in the fact that he created a prosperous age of "Government of Wen and Jing", laid a solid foundation for the glory of the Western Han Dynasty, and helped the people find a happy life.

According to historical records, when he was in charge of the country, the treasury had so much money that the ropes through which the money was threaded were all rotten; the grain in the granary was piled up year after year, and it was almost piled outside the granary... In short, Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty required frugality both for himself and others.No wonder even Sima Qian spoke highly of Emperor Wen Wen of Han, "Wouldn't it be benevolent if his virtue was at its peak"!
For anyone, thrift is a traditional virtue that should not be ignored. Only those who know how to be thrifty can achieve great things in the future and benefit others.

Mike is a reporter for a tabloid.One weekend, he was in a small hotel and saw several prominent entrepreneurs coming out of a room. One of them was Ford.

I saw Ford walking towards the waiter with a bill in his hand, and said with a smile: "Young man, please see if there is a little error."

The waiter didn't even look at it, so he replied confidently: "No."

"You do the math again." Several entrepreneurs invited by Ford had already walked towards the door, but he still stood patiently in front of the counter.

Seeing Ford's serious look, the waiter said disapprovingly: "Well, I admit, I made a mistake. I charged you 50 cents more because I didn't prepare much change, but I think a rich person like you is won't care."

"I'm so sorry, I really care," Ford said.

Feeling very helpless, the waiter had to scrape together enough 50 cents and handed it to Ford.

Looking at the back of Ford walking away quickly, the young waiter murmured in a low voice: "It's really stingy, even 50 cents are so important. You are so rich, and you care so much, I really don't understand these rich people." Witnessed Mike, who had seen the scene just now, couldn't help standing up and saying, "No, boy, you are wrong. He is definitely a generous person. He just donated 5000 million US dollars to charity at one time." Then , Mike took out a newspaper two weeks ago and pointed out a report on it to the waiter.

After the waiter looked at it, he didn't understand even more.Why should he care about the 50 cents when he can donate so much money?Seeing through the waiter's doubts, Mike said: "That's because he knows how to take every penny that belongs to him seriously. He knows how to get back his own 50 cents and generously donate 5000 million US dollars, which is equally worthy of attention."

In this seemingly inadvertent incident of Ford, Mike realized the successful experience he had longed for, that is: there is no reason not to take everything in front of him seriously, no matter how big or how small it is.

Later, after years of hard work and hard work, Mike became a famous American newspaper, and the waiter who said Ford was stingy also became the owner of a five-star hotel in Chicago.

From this story, we also see Ford's nobility and spiritual abundance.A person's real wealth is the spiritual and moral nobility and wealth after dedicating to society, not just material wealth.

Who is the richest person in the world?I believe that the first thing that comes to your mind is Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft.Thinking of this, you must think: he is so rich, he must live a very rich life, wear the most expensive clothes, eat the most rare delicacies, enjoy the highest technology products, live in the most expensive location... In fact, his life is not not like this.On the contrary, his life is very frugal, and the furnishings in the only "mansion" are quite simple, not as magnificent as we imagined.Over the past few years, Bill Gates has donated much of his personal wealth to philanthropic causes.Bill Gates said: "I want to spend every penny I earn with great value, and I won't waste a penny." The richest man in the world actually cares about "every penny".

On the one hand, he is harsh on himself, and on the other hand, he is generous to others. Such a huge contrast makes people puzzled.In fact, Bill Gates' harshness and generosity are just the expression of caring about "every penny". He treats his every penny well and strives to make them worthwhile. "habit.

People often say: "Earning money is like picking dirt with a needle, and spending money is like pushing sand with water." This sentence vividly illustrates the difficulty of making money and the ease of spending it.Even if a person owns tens of millions of wealth, if he does not know how to be thrifty, but spends money lavishly, he will soon turn from a rich man to a poor man.Therefore, even if we are not as rich as Ford, we must take every penny of our own seriously and make more from less.

Cherish food and clothing, know how to cherish

For a person who knows how to cherish, happiness will "cherish" you.A person who knows how to cherish, wealth will "cherish" you.A person who knows how to cherish, good popularity will "cherish" you.

Mr. Nan Huaijin said in "Lao Tzu He Said The Philosophy of Movement": "It is like energy, use it slowly and frugally, although energy is full of the universe and exists forever, if you use it without restraint, it is just self-destruction. That's all."

The western philosopher Thoreau said: "Most so-called luxurious and comfortable lives are not only not necessary, but are obstacles to human progress. For this, people of insight prefer to live in a life that is simpler and cruder than the poor." Life, a simple and crude life helps to eliminate the gap between the material and the essence of life. In order to achieve a full life without regrets, we must recognize what we must have, what is dispensable, and what must be discarded of."

Master Hongyi once said: "Treasure clothes and food, not for wealth and fortune; to seek fame and profit, you must know how to seek self-victory and seek others." From this, we can see how important it is to know "cherish".

In 1924, Master Hongyi lived in Mount Putuo for seven days.During this short period of time, he found that Master Yinguang only ate a big bowl of porridge every morning, without even vegetables.

Master Hongyi felt very strange, why did the master treat himself so harshly?Later, he couldn't help but ask the master.

Master Yinguang said to him: "When I first arrived in Putuo, I had pickles for breakfast every day. Because I am a northerner and I am not used to eating them, I only ate plain porridge. It has been 30 years now."

After the master finished his meal, he licked the bowl clean with his tongue.Then, he poured boiling water into the bowl to rinse off the soup, rinsed his mouth with the soup, and then swallowed it, for fear of wasting a grain of rice.

For lunch, there is a bowl of white rice and a bowl of popular vegetables.Master Yinguang still licked the rice in the bowl very clean, and didn't waste a single bit of food.Then, he rinsed the bowl with boiling water, rinsed his mouth with the soup, and swallowed it immediately.

In fact, Master Yinguang is not only strict with himself, but also very strict with others.Once, he ate with guests who came to visit the temple. After the guests finished eating, there were still rice grains in the bowl, and the master would reprimand loudly: "What a blessing you have, to waste it like this!"

If a guest throws away the cold tea, the master will seriously advise him.

Since we were young, we have learned a poem: "It is noon on the day of hoeing, sweat drips down the soil, who knows that the food on the plate is hard-earned." It tells us that food is not easy to come by, don't waste it at will, and don't live up to the labor of others results.Nowadays, people's living environment is getting better and better, their material requirements are getting higher and higher, and their requirements for food are even more stringent.Some people may just throw away food that is not to their liking after taking a bite of it. In fact, such waste is already a kind of viciousness.Master Yinguang was right: "What a blessing you have, to be wasted like this!"

Every bite of our meal has to be savored, it bears the tears and sweat of many people.Every sip of water we drink is hard-won, and we must cherish it, otherwise the world we live in will become "let tears become the last drop of water on the earth".This is not alarmist talk, but the status quo.In some cities or some underdeveloped countries, even eating and drinking water are problems. Why don't we cherish everything we have?

Three monks went to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to place orders.In the Great Zhaitang of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, most of the vegetables here are vegetables cleaned up in the vegetable market, and some of them have even begun to rot.Here, rotten vegetables can be thrown away, but those that are just yellowed or damaged are still edible.

In this place, there is another motto: "People take what I give, and people abandon me to take."

One day at noon, when the monks were about to leave after finishing their fast, Master Xuanhua came here.

All the monks clasped together and saluted.

With a smile on his face, the Venerable Master looked at the dinner plates used by the three new monks out of the corner of his eye, pointed to the remaining food on the plate, and asked, "Is the food not delicious?"

One of the monks replied: "The vegetable leaves are hard and cannot be chewed."

After hearing this, the Venerable Master smiled and picked up the rest of the food and put it into his mouth, chewed and swallowed it, and said with a smile, "It's okay!"

All the monks present were stunned, they did not expect the Venerable Master to make such a move.At this time, the Master said again: "Don't waste what you can eat." After speaking, he turned and left.

Then, the monks present sat down again and ate all the food left in the bowl.

A crowd of disciples knelt down behind them.

The sentence "Don't waste what you can eat" points out the center of the story.yes!When we have it, we must know how to cherish it.Only by cherishing will you gain the respect and love of others.Of course, in addition to cherishing food, we should also cherish everything we have, including food, clothing, housing, transportation, family, friendship and love.

For a person who knows how to cherish, happiness will "cherish" you.A person who knows how to cherish, wealth will "cherish" you.A person who knows how to cherish, good popularity will "cherish" you.

Save resources, protect the environment for everyone
We cannot easily damage this living body, otherwise, we are destroying ourselves.It is for this reason that China, with its vast land and abundant resources, is fortunate enough to preserve its rich mineral deposits to this day as the capital and conditions for the survival of future generations.

Saving water, saving electricity, saving paper... These seem to be "everyone's" affairs, but in fact they are also "my" affairs.If "I" don't save and waste resources, then "everyone"'s resources will gradually decrease.You must know that these resources are not inexhaustible or inexhaustible.Only with the awareness of environmental protection can we let "myself" and "everyone" save resources and benefit future generations.

Mr. Nan Huaijin is erudite and talented, proficient in the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and he has mastered the classics of various schools, which is amazing.He once told such a story.

According to legend, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was the coach of the navy, he recruited men from all over the world to dig Kunming Pond, and found a foreign object, which looked like a black stone, its color was like lacquer, and there was a strange sound when it was knocked.Wu of the Han Dynasty asked Dongfang Shuo, Dongfang Shuo made a fool of himself, and then suggested that a certain Hu monk from the Western Regions would pass by a certain place on a certain day, month and day, and you can know it by asking.Afterwards, monk Hu came to the west, and when asked, he replied: "This is the ashes of the previous catastrophe."

The "black stone" in the article is coal.Coal is "black wealth" all over the world, and it is even more indispensable in the cold winter, relying on it to burn heating.However, since the ancients already knew the existence of coal, why didn't they develop and use it early, but they always went to the mountains to collect firewood and use vegetation as fuel?That's because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty banned the collection after hearing the remarks that "this is the ashes of the previous catastrophe".

(End of this chapter)