12 Mindfulness Lessons Listened to at Tsinghua University

Chapter 12 Keep and follow (3)
Some people say: As long as humans still need mosquito nets, don't mention the spirit of all things.Indeed, no matter how spiritual and intelligent human beings are, in the final analysis, they are just one of all things.However, as one of all things, human beings have never thought about following the laws of nature.In fact, this is the fundamental reason why human beings can become the spirits of all things.God created the world and human beings, and human beings transformed nature and created civilization.Without human beings, the world is nothing more than the ancient prehistoric state until today, and the earth is still spinning aimlessly in the universe without any meaning.However, in the process of transforming the world, human beings inevitably destroy nature. The faster and stronger the pace of this transformation, the greater the pressure of human survival.

Mr. Lou Yulie, a famous philosopher, once wrote in his book: "The biggest distress of human beings is the loss of self. Everyone can't be his own master and is led by others. We create all kinds of machines. In order to give humans more freedom, it has become something that binds us. We have lived in the environment designed by humans for a long time and formed dependence. This is alienation in philosophy, which has brought us many problems.”

The sages also have no shortage of discussions in this regard.We have all read the fable of "Pull the seedlings to grow", let's look at a similar fable:

Once upon a time there was a king who always wanted his little daughter to grow up right away.So he called the imperial physician and asked him if he could find a medicine that would make the princess grow up immediately after taking it.The imperial doctor replied that the medicine is available, and I can definitely do it, but this kind of medicine has to be taken far away.I ask the king to promise me one condition, that is, during the time I gather the medicine, you don't go to see the princess, and you can see her again only after I come back and give her the medicine. "The king agreed. The doctor went to a distant place to ask for medicine.

More than ten years later, the imperial physician went to the palace again to ask to see the king, saying that he had collected the medicine and returned.The king was very happy and told him to go and give medicine to the princess immediately.After a while, the imperial physician brought the princess who had taken the medicine to see the king.The king was very happy to see the princess who used to play around her knees "instantly" turned into a slim girl. After admiring the imperial physician's ability, he ordered his left and right courtiers to reward him with a lot of treasures.When the story spread, people laughed at the king for being ignorant, not knowing how to calculate the age of his daughter.

This fable comes from the "Hundred Metaphors", and its implication is that to practice Buddhism, you only need to do it in a simple way, and it will come naturally, and the merits and virtues will be perfect.If you don't act according to the objective law, you want quick results, and your mind is full of signs of success, it's just as ridiculous as the king in the fable.

Liu Zongyuan's "Tree Planting Guo Luutuo Biography" is also very instructive: Guo Luutuo is a person who grows trees for a living. All the trees transplanted by him will not fail to survive, and they will all grow tall and lush The fruit is big and plentiful.Many colleagues secretly steal the teacher, but they are still not as good as him.Someone learned from Guo Luutuo, and he said: "I don't have any special skills, but I can follow the nature of trees and let the nature of trees develop naturally. Generally speaking, when planting a tree, its roots should be stretched and given to it. The soil for cultivation should be flat, the soil on its roots should be original soil, and the rammed soil should be firm. After doing these things, don’t touch it again, and it will naturally grow according to its growth habits. Other tree planters It’s not like this: when planting, let the roots curl up and replace the original soil on the roots; Scratching the bark to see if the tree is alive, shaking the roots to check whether the tree is pine or firm... Doing this, on the surface, seems to be protecting the tree, but in fact it is harming it."

As we all know, Liu Zongyuan wrote this article not to discuss the way of planting trees, but to explain his political views, that is, the inaction of Taoism.The so-called inaction does not mean doing nothing, but doing something and not doing something.In layman's terms, it means not demanding, not taking things for granted, not being hasty, not being greedy, not being idealistic, not violating objective laws, and so on.

Wisdom comes from life, and many common sayings and slang words, such as "the melon is ripe", "the twisted melon is not sweet", etc., reflect the spirit of nature.Anyone who has lived in the countryside knows that when melons are ripe, they will naturally wilt and break off from the roots, or even if they are not broken, they will break off with just a light touch.If the melon is not yet ripe, it is a twist to rush to pick it. Although picking a melon is not difficult even for a child, but what is the use of picking an immature melon?
People often use the three words "truth, goodness and beauty" to replace the ultimate pursuit of human beings. In fact, the pursuit of "truth, goodness and beauty" should be natural, otherwise the truth will inevitably be distorted, the good will inevitably become hypocrisy, and the beautiful will become not beautiful.

For example, there is an ad saying: "You are beautiful in the first place", but I still don't understand: I am beautiful in the first place, why do you use your cosmetics?If you are already beautiful, then please maintain your natural beauty.Beauty does not need to be superfluous.A woman who walks with white powder all over the ground is not beautiful.Those artificial beauties are as beautiful as they are beautiful, but a mouthful of phlegm or a word of national abuse will immediately knock them back to their original shape.Another example is "whitening", which is often said in advertisements, "one white covers three ugliness", "you deserve it", in fact, white does not equal beauty, otherwise the white world would not need beauty pageants.There is nothing wrong with pursuing beauty, but if you don’t eat or use a knife for beauty, even beauty is morbid beauty, superficial beauty, unnatural beauty, imitation beauty, and beauty that cannot last.In the same way, there is nothing wrong with pursuing truth and goodness, but blindly persuading people to be kind and truthful often leads to the proliferation of hypocrisy and false morality.

All in all, nature has its laws, and often non-manpower can change them. We can only obey and adapt to this, and try our best to seek the harmony between man and nature.Going against nature is tantamount to going against yourself, and you will be punished by nature in the end.

6.let it go, let it come
Tsinghua is also called "Shuimu Tsinghua". Water and wood are both very humble, but no matter how humble a small thing is, because it grows in accordance with virtue, it grows and prospers every year, and never perishes.

——Yan Xiang (Director of Physics Laboratory of Tsinghua University)
Yaoshan was a famous eminent monk in the Tang Dynasty. He had two disciples. The first disciple was named Daowu, and the second disciple was named Daoying.One day, the three masters and the disciples were meditating in the courtyard. Yaoshan pointed to two trees in the courtyard, one withered and one flourishing, and asked, "Which two trees, do you think is better to be withered or flourishing?"

Dao Ying replied, "Good job, Rong."

Daowu replied: "It's good to dry."

A waiter happened to pass by, and Yaoshan asked the waiter the same question.

The waiter said: "Let the dry ones dry up, and let the glorious ones prosper."

One question, three answers, each has its own truth, each has its own realm.

The second disciple said "Rong is good" because in his opinion, "Rong" symbolizes vitality, sunshine, beauty, happiness, and joy, which is a splendid state of mind.

The big disciple said "dry is good" because in his opinion, "dry" symbolizes silence, inaction, indifference, and nature, and symbolizes everything that has nothing to do with troubles and troubles. This is the necessary mentality for practitioners.

But in terms of their cultivation alone, they are far inferior to that unknown waiter.Because the waiter's answer reflected the attitude of letting nature take its course.Trees are not only dry, but also prosperous. Both dry and prosperous are dictated by natural laws. We cannot change the former, and we don’t need to change the latter. Therefore, the best answer is "let the prosperous flourish, and let the dry dry".

There is a folk saying similar to it: "When it rains, the mother wants to marry." Some scholars have verified that the "mother" does not refer to the mother, but refers to the girl. In fact, it doesn't matter whether it is a mother or a girl. If they are determined to marry someone, even if you can stop the person, you can't stop the heart, and it is natural and inevitable that it will rain every day, which is far beyond human power.

Human beings cannot stop it from raining, nor can they force it to rain.Although artificial rainfall can be carried out in modern times, if God does not cooperate, human beings will not be able to rain after all.From this point of view, this sentence is full of helplessness.

There is a similar little story in the West:
There is a monastery in a certain European country. Because of its responsiveness, many people go there to pray.One day, the gatekeeper of the monastery said to the statue on the altar: "I really envy you! You take it easy every day without saying a word, and so many people send tributes. How can you work so hard like me? Only by drying in the sun can we have food and clothing..."

"Really?" A voice interrupted him and said, "Then I'll come down to watch the door and put you on the altar. But you have to promise that no matter what you see or hear, you can't say a word .” The clay idol suddenly changed into the appearance of the legendary God.The Lord has appeared!
"What's the matter, isn't it just not talking!" The gatekeeper tried hard to restrain his excitement, and hurriedly climbed up the altar.Every day, in accordance with his agreement with God, he remained silent and listened to the hearts of the believers.There was an endless stream of people coming and going, and some of their prayers were reasonable, some were unreasonable, and some were even ridiculous.But he held back and didn't say a word.

After more than half a year like this, a rich businessman came one morning. When he left after praying, he forgot to take the purse at hand.Seeing this, the gatekeeper really wanted to call the rich merchant back, but thinking of the agreement with God, he had no choice but to hold back.

Then came a poor man who prayed to God to help him through the difficulties of life.When he was about to leave, he saw the purse lost by the wealthy businessman who left earlier, and he was overjoyed: "God has appeared, and all requests are granted! Requests are granted!" Then he left with great gratitude.The janitor saw it and wanted to tell him that this is not your money and you can't take it.But the agreement comes first, so he can't say it.

Not long after the poor man left, another young man who was about to go on a long journey to the sea came. He prayed for God's blessing to bless himself with smooth sailing.After praying, the young man was about to leave, when the rich businessman who lost his money rushed in, grabbed the young man by the skirt, and asked him to hand over his money bag.The young man went inside without knowing it, he was full of blood, and quarreled with the wealthy businessman on the spot.

How can there be any noise in the place of cultivating Taoism!What's more, this misunderstanding can only be unraveled by himself. The gatekeeper endured and endured, and finally told the truth... When the matter was clarified, the rich businessman hurried to find the poor man who had found the purse, while the young man hurried away, fearing that he would not be able to catch up Ship of the day.At this time, the real God appeared again, pointed to the gatekeeper on the altar and said, "Come down! You are not qualified to sit in that position."

"I told them the truth, uphold justice, and resolve misunderstandings. What's wrong?" The gatekeeper was very unconvinced.

God said: "You are wrong. The rich businessman is not short of money, his bag of money is just for prostitutes; the money is in the hands of the poor man, but it can save the whole family; the most pitiful is the young man, if the rich businessman Has been entangled with him, delayed his time to go to sea, he can still save his life, and now, the boat he was on is sinking into the sea!"

Look at it, even the Creator knows how to keep silent and let nature take its course, but who is to blame for us doing nothing but asking for trouble in the end?We must believe in hard work, but we must also believe that everything that exists is the best arrangement of God. We should accept it with gratitude, face it calmly, let it go, let it come.

(End of this chapter)