12 Mindfulness Lessons Listened to at Tsinghua University

Chapter 36 Wisdom and Idiot (3)
Amei whispered: "I gave the key to my mother..."

"What are you doing for her?" Chaoyang was annoyed that he couldn't get in, and the decibel suddenly increased.

"What's the matter? Afraid my mother will come to steal things?"

The two of you talked to each other and I talked to each other, causing the neighborhood and neighbors to be uneasy. Anyone who had trouble immediately called Amei's mother and asked him to put out the fire.The old lady didn't live far away, and she was retired at home, so she arrived quickly.But when she found out what happened, she was very angry. She took out the key and threw it on Chaoyang, scolding: "I want your key to give you some rice. Don't say I'm not a thief, even if I'm It's a thief, what is there in your house that I should steal?" After speaking, he turned his head and walked away, cursing as he walked: "Blind girl, I found such a thing!" You can still hear it when you walk a long way.Seeing that her mother was really angry, Ah Mei followed anxiously and went back to her mother's house together.

After returning home, it happened that Amei's father also came back. Hearing that his wife had become a suspect because of his kindness, he became even more furious. If Amei hadn't stopped him, the old man would have beaten Chaoyang on the spot.Although the people stopped him, the flames could not be stopped. In the next few days, Amei's parents said that the son-in-law was not a thing when they met everyone, and they were regarded as thieves when they gave him rice.Thanks to the efforts of some gossiping compatriots, these words quickly reached Chaoyang's ears. He couldn't hold back his face, and immediately ran to his father-in-law's house to ask, "Why do you call me wicked?" Amei's parents said in unison Said: "You are wicked. We were really blind when we asked Amei to marry you." Chaoyang said angrily: "You can get a divorce if you marry the wrong one!" Amei's parents also responded: "Leave as soon as possible!" Wait! Don't delay my remarriage!" Chaoyang said a harsh word and was about to go out.

Amei never thought of divorcing Chaoyang at all. She followed her mother back home just to persuade her. How could she have thought that the matter would be more serious than this?She went up and grabbed Chaoyang's sleeve and said, "Acknowledge your mistake to your parents, and we'll go home right away. They're just like you, they have a bad temper, and they're all good people. You need to admit your mistake to your parents." Let's go." Chaoyang said, "They put a shit bowl on my head, and they want me to admit my mistake, it's unreasonable!" A Mei wanted to say something, but her mother jumped out and said, "Don't talk to him, you are young, Are you afraid you won't find a man? What's the point of following this poor boy?"

……

In this way, half a month later, Chaoyang and Ami finally ended up divorced.Ah Mei couldn't figure it out: she and Chaoyang had a lot of quarrels before, why did it get out of hand this time?
In life, there are many old people who can’t be old people. They don’t understand that the happiness of their children is their own happiness. They are often like the parents of the heroine in the story. The world is not chaotic, and as a result, the trivial matter of sesame mung bean can't be ended.In fact, there is nothing wrong in the world, so there is no way to make troubles. If you don't know how to be a peacemaker, don't intervene.If you don't intervene, others may solve it by themselves; if you intervene, you will be angry, and if you do not, it will complicate simple problems.Why bother?

As we all know, the Chinese pay attention to "self-cultivation, ordering the family, governing the country, and peace of the world". These four points are passed down like a fire, and they have been passed down in one continuous line. It is generally believed that a person who is not a good parent will generally not be too successful in society.Yang Zhu, one of the pre-Qin philosophers, encountered embarrassment in this regard: he went to see the king of Liang, wanting to find an official position, and said that governing the world by himself was as easy as turning the palm of your hand.Liang Wang didn't believe it, and sneered: "Sir, forget it! You can't even manage one wife and one concubine. The three-acre vegetable garden is full of grass, but you say that governing the world is easy. Others may believe it. Do not believe!"

Wang Yangming, a great thinker in the Ming Dynasty, once told such a story in his book:
Once, Wang Yangming had a written conversation with a deaf-mute man named Yang Mao.Wang Yangming first asked: "Can your ears hear right and wrong?" The other party wrote: "No, because I am deaf." Then asked: "Can your mouth tell right and wrong?" He wrote: "No, because I am deaf." You’re a mute.” Ask again: “Does your heart know right from wrong?” Yang Mao was so happy that he pointed at the sky and danced, and then wrote on the paper: “Can, can, can.” So Wang Yangming Said to Yang Mao: "Your ears can't hear right and wrong, so you save a lot of time; your mouth can't tell right and wrong, so you save a lot of time; your heart is enough to know right and wrong."

Indeed, right and wrong, pain and troubles are unavoidable in life, but some of the right and wrong are caused, provoked, and intensified by those who do not know how to downplay right and wrong. Why don't you pretend to be deaf and dumb when necessary? Woolen cloth?Don't talk about self-esteem at every turn. Excessive self-esteem is not only a manifestation of inferiority, but also a manifestation of lack of quality.

6. Wisdom is born when sin is born

Gentlemen!You must not think that acquiring some fragments of knowledge is considered knowledgeable.Let me tell you honestly, if you are a human being, the more knowledge you have, the better; if you are not a human being, the more knowledge you have, the worse it is.Don't you believe it?Just think about the traitor so-and-so whom the people of the whole country despise, are they knowledgeable or ignorant?Just think about the bureaucrats and politicians hated by the people of the whole country-the people who specialize in helping warlords do evil and good people, do they have knowledge, or do they have no knowledge?
——Liang Qichao (famous modern writer, thinker, political activist, one of the four mentors of Tsinghua University)

In "Zhuangzi", there is a story of "holding the urn to irrigate the garden": One day, Zi Gong, a disciple of Confucius, went to the southern state of Chu to do business. When he returned, he was going to the state of Jin. There was an old man watering the ground.The old man's irrigation method was very backward: he first opened a ramp leading to the bottom of the well, then carried a water urn, walked to the well water step by step, filled it with water, and then carried it to the field to irrigate.It takes a lot of effort to go back and forth like this, but the efficiency is very low.Zigong went up to him and said, "Old man, why are you so stupid? I've heard of a machine called Juchao, which can irrigate hundreds of vegetable fields a day with less effort and high efficiency. Juchao is also very simple..." Unexpectedly, before Zigong finished speaking, the old man snorted coldly and replied arrogantly: "I heard from my teacher that people who use machines to do things must have the mentality of opportunism. Psychology will destroy a pure and clear state of mind, and people without a pure and clear state of mind will be restless, and if they are restless, they will not be able to carry the Tao. It’s not that I don’t know about oranges, but I’m afraid it will affect my heart.” What he said made Zigong feel ashamed and speechless, full of thoughts.After walking for 30 miles, he returned to his normal state, and said to his disciples with emotion: "This old man who is unfathomable, virtuous, and doesn't care about utility and ingenuity can be called a true saint!"

When this story was mentioned in the past, people always accused the old man in the story of being rigid and conservative, but it is not true. In Zhuangzi’s fables, almost all the "square" characters are the incarnations of Zhuangzi himself, and we know that Zhuangzi is the most carefree Man, how could he be rigid and conservative?The real significance of this story is to point out that a person living in the world must first maintain a pure and peaceful heart from beginning to end, be a pursuer to pursue, a giver to give up, and a perseverer to persevere. The banner of wisdom plays tricks and plots.Otherwise, the organs will be exhausted, and in the end they can only be counted on their own heads.

There is such a little story in ancient books:

There is a man named Pi Ziyu in a certain place. There is a foolish spring outside the city where he lives. Whoever drinks the spring water will become a fool.Pi Ziyu thought, if I secretly lead the Fountain into the river in the city, everyone will become fools, and I will become the lord of the city?That night, Pi Ziyu secretly led the Yuquan into the river in the city, and secretly dug a well to drink water.A few days later, all the people in the city turned into fools. Everyone scrambled to give away their treasures and properties to others, but everyone else became fools too, so no one was willing to accept it, except Pi Ziyu. Take everything according to the order, so that not long after, all the property in the city will belong to one person.But before Pi Ziyu had time to be happy, the people in the city wondered: jewels, fields and other crap things are not as good as dung, and everyone discards them, but Pi Ziyu treats them as treasures. What if he is not a fool?Everyone is so smart, but let him spoil a pot of good soup with such a mouse shit, it's better to drive him away.So all the idiots in the city drove Pi Ziyu out of the city with sticks.Pi Ziyu had no way out, and couldn't bear the gap from rich to abject overnight, so he threw himself into the river and died.

Pi Ziyu is just a fictitious character, but there are many similar people in real life, Zhang Ziyu, Li Ziyu, Niu Ziyu, the so-called foolish spring is not outside the city, but in people's hearts.Huisheng is the time when sin is born.For most people, there is no distinction between being smart and stupid. The so-called "smart" is nothing more than liking to calculate others, playing around the edges, breaking the law and not committing crimes, or even directly committing crimes with high IQ.The so-called stupidity often means honesty and kindness.

Tolstoy said that most people want to change the world, but very few people want to change themselves.Thinking about it carefully, it is true. We always complain that the people in the society are not old-fashioned and morally corrupt, but we often ignore that we ourselves are becoming philistine, mature and sophisticated step by step.It is naive to demand that the whole world is full of moral people, but as the saying goes: the crow landed on the pig, only seeing others black but not oneself black.If you can't do it yourself, why blame others and complain about the society?
During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, someone once wrote a letter to Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, claiming that he could eliminate treacherous officials in the court and promote the long-term stability of the country.Li Shimin has always paid attention to talents, and he is eclectic, so he immediately interviewed the applicant in person.

Li Shimin asked the visitor: "The ministers in the court are all loyal and virtuous people who have undergone repeated inspections. How do you know who is treacherous and who is loyal?"

The petitioner replied: "The grass-roots are not in the court, so naturally they don't know who is treacherous and who is loyal. But the grass-roots have learned the art of the emperor, as long as your majesty uses the grass-roots tricks, it will be immediately clear who is the traitor and who is loyal."

Li Shimin asked curiously: "What trick?"

"It's a clever plan, but it's actually very simple," the writer said triumphantly, "When your Majesty discusses issues with the ministers, you can deliberately insist on wrong opinions and take the opportunity to get angry, and you can try out loyal traitors—those who are not afraid of holy wrath , Those who insist on correct opinions and dare to speak directly are honest and loyal ministers; on the contrary, those who fear Your Majesty, obey His Majesty's wrong opinions, and flatter you are definitely treacherous officials."

The author talked eloquently, thinking that he would be appreciated by Li Shimin, but after listening to it, Li Shimin said disapprovingly: "Although your strategy is clever, it is useless to me. I think that the emperor is like the source of spring water, and the courtiers are like the source of spring water." The source of the water is turbid, but you want to keep the water clear, how is it possible? The emperor himself cheats, how can he ask his courtiers to be upright? I govern the country by trusting my courtiers, and I will never engage in crooked ways!"

After hearing this, the writer was ashamed and retreated in fear.

There are many emperors who are proficient in political strategy in history, but there are only a handful of emperors with outstanding political achievements like Tang Taizong.The reason is that they are too keen on power tactics, but they often ignore the leader's personality.The so-called "the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked", once the person in power falls into the misunderstanding of using power, it will inevitably cause the entire group to deviate from the normal track.It was precisely because of the self-knowledge that "the source is clear, the flow is clean" that Tang Taizong was able to "lead all the heroes of the world into the network", thus creating the eternal prosperity of the Zhenguan Dynasty.We should also keep the heart spring clean at all times, resist the erosion of various poisons, use our own water of life, the bow of the urn, to water the world and people's hearts, and guide those "sages" who have temporarily entered the magic barrier to return to their innocence.As long as a good atmosphere is developed on a large scale, there will definitely be fewer and fewer people in society who are "not old-fashioned".

(End of this chapter)