Buddha crossing a predestined person: Dharma and wisdom in life

Chapter 45 Cultivate a Mind of Freedom with the Buddha’s Heart—Walking, Sitting, and Lying, with Zen Shadows Accompanying You (2)
Master wrote in the letter: "Disciple, you are now more than 300 miles away from our temple, but you don't feel any difference, do you? I know you don't feel any difference, because you still have The source of your troubles—that is, you. There is nothing wrong with your body or your mind, for it is not the circumstances you encounter that frustrate you, but your understanding of them. Imagination. In short, what a person thinks in his heart, he will be what he is, and when you understand this, come back. Because then you will be cured."

His master's letter made him very angry, and Fan Liao felt that what he needed was sympathy, not a lesson.

At that time, he was so angry that he immediately decided never to return to his temple.That night, when I passed a small temple, because there was no other place to go, I went in and chatted with an old monk for an hour.The old monk repeatedly emphasized: "It is better to be able to conquer the spirit than to conquer the city and occupy the land."

Fan Liao sat on the futon, listened to the old monk's teachings, and heard the same thoughts as his master - this swept away all the wild thoughts in his mind.

To feel like he could think clearly and sensibly for the first time, and to discover that he really was a fool—who wanted to change the world and everyone in it—and that the only thing that really needed to change was his own. mentality.

Early the next morning, Fan Liao packed his bags and went back to the temple.

That night, he read the scriptures calmly and happily.

Our peace of mind and the happiness we derive from life do not depend on where we are, what we have, or who we are, but only on our state of mind and have little to do with external conditions.

A person's liver is so sick that his eyes can't see, and his kidneys so bad that his ears can't hear.If the disease is inside, it will appear on the outside. The disease cannot be seen inside, but when the disease can be seen outside, it will be difficult to cure.Therefore, a gentleman uses the principle of preventing and treating physical diseases to treat mental diseases. He should know that if he wants to prevent conflicts from becoming superficial, he must put his efforts in places that people don't realize, and seek the root cause from the root of his heart.

This is the most distinctive part of Chinese comprehensive life philosophy: the principle of physical and mental conditioning.

The theory of traditional Chinese medicine is very particular about the exterior and interior of the disease.Among the "eight methods" of Chinese medicine treatment, the "reconciliation method" is the conditioning method for "when the disease is not strong, but the righteousness is not strong". "Huangdi Neijing·Suwen" said: "The ancient people, those who knew, the method is based on yin and yang, and the number of spells. Food and drink have festivals, daily life has permanence, and they don't work rashly, so they can form in the spirit, And to spend the rest of your life, to live a hundred years is to go." "The essence of yin and yang, the secret of yang is solid, the two are not in harmony, like spring without autumn, like winter without summer, so harmony is called sageness." Ming Dynasty Zhang Jingyue's "Jingyue Quanshu" said: "The system of harmony is to harmonize those who are not in harmony. For those who are both sick and weak, make up and make peace; for those who are concurrently stagnant, do it and make peace; If it is both hot, cool it and harmonize it. Harmonization has a broad meaning, and it is like soil combining the four qi, and its use in nourishing and reducing warm and cool is omnipresent. In the Qing Dynasty, Cheng Guopeng listed the usage of "harmony" as "there are those who are clean and harmonious, those who are moist and harmonious, those who have both appearance and harmony, and those who are both offensive and harmonious. The meaning of harmony is one, and the law of harmony changes. Infinity."

In short, "Harmony" is a conditioning method for those diseases that are at the beginning of the disease, when the righteousness is not strong, from the outside to the inside, and treat both symptoms and root causes. It is characterized by mild effects, parallel nature, comprehensive care, rich connotations, wide range of applications, and complex applicable objects. , the basic purpose of treatment is to dispel evil and strengthen the body, dredge the exterior and treat the interior, balance yin and yang, and live a long and healthy life.Everyone can use this method in self-care. For example, observe your own urine and stool every day. If you find yellow urine and black stool, you will know that it is hot, so you should use "cool and harmonious", eat more vegetables and fruits and other foods that reduce heat. It can be reconciled; if you find clear urine and loose stools, you will know that it is cold, so you can use "warm and fire" and eat more warming foods such as pepper, ginger, and cinnamon to reconcile.

And using the method of regulating the body to regulate the psychological world of people, the reconciliation method is the most commonly used and most effective method.

The heart is fragile, fragile, easily broken, and easily damaged. We should take good care of it.Don't let your mood be too turbulent, throw a piece of ice when you are hot; don't let your mood be too melancholy, light a pot of fire when you are cold; don't let your mood be too depressed, go to the green water and green mountains, let the troubles dissipate in the blue sky and white clouds, the singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers ;Don't let the mood be too sad, let it fade from the thick place, turn it into thick from the light place, see the loss from the gain, and see the loss from the loss; Let the musical notes wash away the suspended sand on the heart canal; don't let the mood be too arrogant, share the best time of life with others; extract the vitality of life from the latest information of the times, don't let the heart be depressed; from all ideological resources Choose and refine the fundamental wisdom, don't hurt your heart.

Only when I have adjusted my mood to normal can I see the outside world. .Only then will "I am happy when I see people, and I like what others see", and solve the problem of "who offends whom" from the outside to the inside, addressing both symptoms and root causes.

The sea of ​​bitterness requires penance, the true taste of suffering

To make progress in the external world of life, one has to go through many unbearable loneliness, pain and sorrow soaking before one can reach maturity and abundance.Success is gratifying, but failure is not sad either.And the twists and turns, stumbling, searching, ups and downs, expectations, disappointments and tempering in the process of leading to success are the real taste of life.

Mencius said: "Heaven will send a great mission to the people of Sri Lanka, and they must first suffer from their minds and wills, exhaust their muscles and bones, starve their bodies and skins, empty their bodies, and disturb their behavior. Therefore, it has benefited what they can't do. "No pain No gain.Looking at the successful people in ancient and modern China and abroad, no one can easily achieve outstanding achievements.That's why the master said that "moving the heart and forbearance" is the real skill of self-cultivation.

In life, if you manage yourself well in the limited time, persevere and strive for strength, in order to use limited energy to do your best to do what you can do well, you can be called a hero.

A young man who had been frustrated repeatedly came to Puji Temple from a long distance, and found the old monk Shiyuan admiringly. He said to him dejectedly: "Life is always unsatisfactory, and life is also a struggle. What's the point?"

Shi Yuan listened quietly to the young man's sigh, and then told the young monk, "The almsgiver has come from a long way, please boil a pot of warm water and bring it here."

After a while, the little monk brought a pot of warm water. Shi Yuan grabbed some tea leaves and put them in a cup, then brewed them with warm water. He smiled and invited the young man to drink tea.The cup steamed slightly, and the tea leaves floated quietly.The young man asked puzzledly, "How does Baocha use warm tea?"

Shi Yuan smiled and said nothing.The young man took a sip, and after savoring it carefully, he couldn't help shaking his head: "There is no tea fragrance at all."

Shi Yuan said, "This is Tieguanyin, a famous tea from Fujian."

The young man picked up the cup to taste again, and then said with certainty: "There is really no trace of tea fragrance."

Shi Yuan then ordered the young monk: "Go and boil another pot of boiling water and bring it here."

After a while, the little monk came in carrying a pot of boiling water with thick white steam.Shi Yuan got up, took another cup, put tea leaves, poured boiling water, and put it on the coffee table.The young man looked down and saw that the tea leaves were floating up and down in the cup, and the fragrance was endless.

The young man wanted to fetch the cup, but Shi Yuan made a gesture to block it, and then lifted the kettle to pour a line of boiling water.The tea leaves churned even harder, and a ray of mellower and more intoxicating tea fragrance rose up and permeated the meditation room.Shi Yuan poured water like this 5 times, and the cup was finally full. The cup of green tea held in his hand was fragrant and fragrant, and the mouth was refreshing.

Shi Yuan smiled and asked, "Does the benefactor know that the same Tieguanyin tea tastes so different?"

The young man thought about it and said: "One cup uses warm water, and the other cup uses boiling water. The brewing water is different."

Shi Yuan nodded: "With different water, the ups and downs of the tea leaves are different. When tea is brewed in warm water, the tea leaves are light and floating on the water, how can it emit a delicate fragrance? Brewing tea in boiling water, repeated several times, will release the charm of the four seasons: There are not only the tranquility of spring, the heat of summer, but also the abundance of autumn and the coolness of winter. All living beings in the world are the same as making tea. No matter how good the tea is without boiling water, it will have no taste; No matter how talented a person is, he can't achieve great things. The best way to get rid of frustration is to practice hard and improve your ability."

The young man was suddenly enlightened. After returning home, he studied hard and humbly asked others for advice. Soon he attracted the attention of the people around him and made a career.

The ancients said: "If you don't experience a bit of cold, how can you get the fragrance of plum blossoms."If you want to get an ideal life and get rid of the state of being ignored, the most effective way is to temper yourself in suffering.

Forbearance is a kind of ability. "Shuowen Jiezi": "Forbearance, ability."What kind of ability is tolerance?A kind of restraint and convergence force, which is the feedback adjustment ability of life to adapt to the external world, and it can also be called potential energy.Its function is to make life adapt to the outside world under any circumstances and maintain a healthy balance.

When a single life enters a complex society, it is like a car driving out of a garage and entering a criss-cross road network. It must process various information at any time, and constantly make feedback adjustments based on objective external conditions, and cannot always move forward at full speed.Sometimes you have to slow down, sometimes you have to back up, sometimes you have to detour, sometimes you have to brake, and you have to repair it when something goes wrong.Perseverance is like slowing down, backing up, detours, braking and braking devices in this forward process.Human beings are not machines, and life activities are much more complicated than mechanical movements. A single life will encounter more unexpected situations after entering society.We need to make correct judgments and make wise choices in a timely manner, and all of these judgments and choices are related to the word forbearance.

The living conditions of human beings are getting better and better, and at the same time, there is a crisis, that is, the ability of human survival is getting weaker and weaker, and the ability of perseverance is getting lower and lower.A wolf can survive in the wilderness of ice and snow, but a person often collapses in loneliness and hardship. "Difficulties and hardships, Yu Ru Yu Cheng".God loves people, and the outstanding person who can endure loneliness and adversity the most can enjoy the special experience of suffering the most, and become more mature, stronger, and more perfect with perseverance in the midst of hardships and worries, and unravel the untie the ordinary people. "Dead knot" and achieved the enviable success.

"A good man knocks out his teeth and swallows his blood" is a common saying that Zeng Guofan, a famous official in the late Qing Dynasty, advocated all his life.This sentence talks about the process of subject transformation from "difficulty and hardship" to "beautiful and successful".First of all, we must strategically swallow all the difficulties and hardships as digestible nutrients, and then from a tactical perspective, chew the cud to the teeth and saliva, and chew carefully by category to see how to turn all these difficulties and hardships into success one by one. motivation.No matter what its original flavor is, something that is chewed carefully will become more and more delicious. Don’t we all have this experience in life?
In Zeng Guofan's life, being trapped in Qimen was the most difficult time for him.Li Hongzhang has always held objections to Zeng Guofan's setting the Liangjiang Governor's Mansion in Qimen, which cannot be attacked or defended. In Xianfeng's view, he just did not adopt Li Hongzhang's suggestion of "moving the army early".Claim: "If you are timid, you can disperse."Li Yuandu was Zeng Guofan's savior, "a general who has worked hard for a long time". At this time, he was attacked by Li Shixian because he was defending Huizhou. After returning to Qimen, he abandoned Zeng Guofan and left privately.Li Hongzhang "led a group of people to fight", and said that "the fruit must be impeached, and the disciples dare not draft." Zeng Guofan said: "I belong to the manuscript." Li said: "If this is the case, the disciples will also leave and cannot stay here. Let's go." Zeng Guofan was even more angry: "It's up to you." Zeng insisted on impeachment and dismissed Li Yuandu.Li Hongzhang resigned angrily when he saw how dangerous Qimen was, and left Qimen to return to his brother's home in Nanchang.

At this time, Zeng Mu was dying and lifeless due to internal strife.However, Li Xiucheng led a large group of people and approached the Qimen Camp.Zeng Guofan urgently called Bao Chao to help.Before he arrived, he knew that he would die, and even wrote his will. Seeing the chaos in the camp, he made a plan out of his heart.One day, he said to one of them, "How about dying together?" All the staff members silently transported their luggage into the boat, preparing to escape.One day Zeng Guofan suddenly sent an order: "The situation of the thieves is like this. If you want to return temporarily, you will be paid three months' salary. I don't mind if you still come to the camp. Of. "People's hearts are solidified."After persisting for several days, Bao Chao's reinforcements arrived, defeated Li Xiucheng, and the siege of Qimen was temporarily lifted.

After this incident, Zeng Guofan reflected on what he had done, and believed that Li Hongzhang was quite knowledgeable about current affairs on the issue of the Qimen garrison.The suggestion to move the army eastward as soon as possible should be adopted.So he moved the army eastward according to Li Qian's proposal, and wrote a sincere letter to Li Hongzhang urging him to return to the camp to help.Li Hongzhang put aside his former suspicions and went to Dongliu, and joined Zengmu again.Zeng Guofan "especially favored him, carefully studied political and military affairs, and made the best of his influence".

From the whole process of Zeng Guofan's handling of the Qimen crisis, we can see that perseverance is the means to stand firm and defeat the enemy in the stage of strategic stalemate, especially in the critical moment of entanglement. "Meeting on a narrow road, the brave wins."Courage can be divided into great courage and small courage. Perseverance is not a small courage, but a synonym for great courage.The result of the stalemate stage is often: whoever can hold on to the end is the winner.And the outstanding thing about outstanding people is that they can grit their teeth and encourage them to hold on until the last moment.

No master, no view, no Buddha to seek

There is no outlook on life, and you just follow everyone else, which is called following the crowd.It is very problematic to follow the tide of the times casually.

As the successors of the ancient Chinese civilization, we should cultivate the characteristics of "outstanding" in order to walk the world.What is "drow"?Everyone should develop an independent personality, have independent morals, don't follow the times, don't follow others.

Do what you want to do, say what you want to say.Don't follow the crowd, face yourself truthfully, and respect your inner feelings. This is also a great joy in life.

What is valuable about talents is that they have independent opinions, original ideas, don't follow the trend, and act without winking. This kind of talent is a person who has ideas and does practical things.

Zen Master Damei has studied Zen for many years. Although he studied very hard, he never realized the Tao.One day, he went to ask Zen Master Mazu: "What is a Buddha?" Zen Master Mazu replied, "The heart is the Buddha." Zen Master Damei suddenly realized.After enlightenment, Damei left Zen Master Matsu and went down the mountain to promote Buddhism.When Zen master Mazu heard that Damei had become enlightened, he didn’t quite believe it. He thought to himself, “How did he become enlightened all of a sudden after studying Buddhism for so many years? Let’s ask someone to test him!” So ​​Mazu sent himself The disciples went to test Damei.When this person saw Zen Master Damei, he asked, "Brother, what did the master say that made you suddenly enlightened?" Damei replied, "The heart is the Buddha." The heart is Buddha'!" Damei said in amazement: "Oh! Then what does he say now?" The man said: "The teacher often says 'not the heart is not the Buddha'." After hearing this, Damei smiled and said: " Didn’t this old monk intentionally seek trouble? I don’t care what he says about ‘the heart is not the Buddha’, I still insist on my ‘mind is the Buddha’.” The man went back and told Zen Master Mazu what happened, the Zen master He said excitedly: "The plums are really ripe." It means that Zen Master Damei has really become enlightened.

As a human being, you should have your own opinions, and don't follow others and be led by the nose.

The grandpa and grandson bought a donkey and walked home. The grandpa let the grandson ride on the donkey when he saw that he was young. Some people said that the grandson didn’t understand filial piety; Someone pointed out that the grandfather does not love the grandson; what should we do?The grandpa and grandson stopped riding at all, and led the donkey away; but someone laughed at them for not riding the donkey when it was in good condition, they were pure fools; hearing this, both grandpa and grandson rode on the donkey, but some people still Said, these two people are really cruel, and they wanted to exhaust the donkey to death; in the end, there was no other way, the grandfather and grandson tied up the donkey's four hooves and carried it away.

Now, there are some people who can’t do big things, can’t do serious things, and there are a lot of crooked ways. They like to pick bones in eggs, make sarcastic remarks, and sing the wrong show. Either this is wrong or that is not right. Liberalism is quite serious.These people can be roughly divided into three types:
One is the self-righteous type, no one is as good as him, only he is smart, he looks down on what others do, and even calls it "horrific";
The second is the nonsensical commentary type, making irresponsible comments on other people's work and opinions, making irresponsible remarks here and there, and so on;

The third is the small-bellied type, who hates others for being the first to achieve excellence, satirizes others for being eager to learn and make progress, and is afraid that others will go ahead of him and be picky, accusing, ridiculing, etc.

Therefore, if you listen to them, not only will you not be able to do anything, but you will also make jokes about "grandfather and grandson carrying donkeys".These people are connected with the same disease, and they are born with the same curse-one-sidedness of thinking method, simplification of thinking method.Of course, it is not ruled out that individual people have problems with their ideology.We can only retaliate with four words for what these people said: don't believe it or listen to it.As the philosopher said, go your own way, what others like to say.

If you don't have your own opinion, you have no thought, and if you don't have an opinion, you have no idea. That way, you will be useless in your life and achieve nothing.

In class, the philosopher Socrates took out an apple, stood in front of the podium and said: "Please smell the smell in the air."

A student raised his hand and answered: "I smell it, it's the scent of apples!" Socrates stepped off the podium, held the apple and walked slowly in front of each student, and said: "Smell it carefully, everyone!" Smell, is there an apple scent in the air?"

(End of this chapter)