Buddha crossing a predestined person: Dharma and wisdom in life

Chapter 57 Cultivate self-discipline with Buddha-nature——Buddha’s Words Are True, Faithful to God (2)
Confucius then asked the temple guard, "Please tell me, what kind of vessel is this?" It is generally used as a vessel for sitting with." Confucius said: "I heard that this kind of vessel for sitting with water will fall when there is no water or less water; the water is moderately filled, no more, no less When it is filled with water, it will be straight; if it is filled with too much water or it is full, it will fall over." Then, Confucius turned around and said to his students: "Pour water into it and try it. After hearing this, the students scooped up water, and one by one slowly poured water into the container that can be used to hold water.Sure enough, when the water was properly filled, the vessel was right there.After a while, when the water was full, it toppled over, and the water inside flowed out.After a while, the water in the container ran out, and it tilted, and it was tilted there again as before.

At this time, Confucius said with a long sigh: "Alas! How can there be anything in the world that is too full to overturn!"

The moral of this story is to use the phenomenon that the receptacle overturns when it is filled with water to illustrate that pride and complacency often transform into its opposite—emptiness.Thus telling people to be modest and prudent, not to be arrogant and complacent. All those who are proud and complacent will fail.

In fact, it is also the case. No one can have the capital of pride, because no one can say that he has thoroughly mastered and studied everything, even if he has profound attainments in a certain field. "Life is limited, but knowledge is infinite." Any knowledge is an endless ocean and a boundless sky... Therefore, no one can think that they have reached the highest level and stand still and hold their heads high.If that is the case, it will soon be overtaken by peers and surpassed by future generations.

"Laozi" said: "If you don't cut yourself down, you will be meritorious; if you are not proud, you will grow." Only by not being proud and arrogant can you have success and achievements;In other words, humility is a prerequisite for success and achievement.Furthermore, it is easy for a person to be humble if he has no credit, achievements, or capital to be proud of.But with credit and achievements, it is not easy to not take credit for pride, but still be humble.It is easy to be humble for a while, but it is not easy to be humble all the time.There are many people in history, such as Han Xin, Wei Yan, Nian Gengyao, etc., who claimed credit and invited fame, but ended up ruined.Only a gentleman can be "working modestly" and "have an end", so it is said "auspicious".Only in this way can people be truly convinced, just as the "Xiang" said: "A humble gentleman will be convinced by all people."

Feng Yi, the founding father of the Eastern Han Dynasty, is a good example.Feng Yi conquered the south and the north, conquered the east and the west, and made great achievements.But he himself was as humble as ever. Like Lin Xiangru, when he met other generals on the road, he took the initiative to lead the car to avoid the road.During the intermission of the battle, other generals sat together to argue about military merits, while Feng Yi hid far away by himself.Because of this, all the soldiers in the army were willing to be subordinate to him, and Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu also praised him for this.It is precisely because Feng Yiqian told Zhizhi that he became a famous general of ZTE, and after his death, he will be followed by his descendants.

Victory always belongs to those who are humble and upward, and their achievements can often bring double value, thus obtaining a double harvest of material civilization and spiritual civilization.

"Smart? Genius? Weird thinking? No, I understand that the trait of Gates is humility." Kai-fu Lee, who was the vice president of Microsoft and the president of Google China, said, "A humble genius is rare."

In Lee Kai-fu's memory, Gates was a person who liked competition very much. "He enjoys debating, he just wants to hear different points of view, and he always wants to win." However, his competitiveness and curiosity did not affect Gates' ultimate humility. "I remember a technical assistant getting into an argument with Gates in an internal meeting at Microsoft, and the assistant said, 'Gates, you're wrong!' Gates said, 'I'm right.' In 'Wrong and Right' After several rounds of stalemate, the assistant listed detailed evidence, so Gates suddenly realized, and immediately replied, 'You are right, I am wrong.'”

In fact, the wisdom of life is not an "old fox motto" in the first place, but a transcendent state.Catwalk and Tigerwalk are almost identical, but are they the same?Therefore, one should be modest in some complicated and sinister living environments; one should also be humble in a gentle and drizzle living environment.Don't be angry when you are free, and don't try to figure anyone out. Look at the blue sky and white clouds, think about the world outside the sky and the world outside the mountains, at least you can make yourself happy.

Life is practice, learning Buddhism is like being a human being

Qu Zi chanted, his anger sank into Miluo, and his true nature was to be angry with the world;
Zhuge Zhonglie, dying endlessly, bowing is purely his true nature;

Taibai is arrogant, the imperial concubine studies ink, unrestrained is her true nature;

Let Weng Shier go, don't forget family sacrifices, it is his true nature to have the world in his heart;

Mr. Tan is generous and dies at the neck, and his righteousness is his true nature;

……

Acting is not driven by profit, and speaking is purely based on true temperament. We call it true color.

Throughout the ages, there have been more than tens of millions of people who stick to their true colors. They may be silent but not ashamed, or small but not humble, or well-known but not arrogant, or rich but not ostentatious; ;Content with the present, complacent with one's own appearance, don't move even if there are dogs and horses;They don't slander and flatter, don't flatter, and don't follow the crowd, so Mencius said: poor and humble can't be moved, mighty can't be subdued, rich and honor can't be promiscuous.

Cultivate an awe-inspiring spirit, keep a clean body, handle things with true colors, love and hate true disposition.

However, the current society is full of feasting and debauchery, and many people lose their true nature, let alone their true colors?

Driven by profit, they are full of greed:

——Even if you are a scholar, why do you care about the conscience of science;

——Even if you are a doctor, where is the heart of a doctor’s parents;
——Even if you are a teacher, how do you know how to preach and teach;

——Even if you are a businessman, where do you care about his moral conscience;
——Even if you are a public servant, how can you still remember to serve the people;
……

Some of them are just the benefits of the world, and some are just greedy and hard to fill. They are busy all day long and care about it frequently. They call it happiness when they get it, and they feel nothing when they lose it.

Don't you know:

——If you are the richest person, you can't compare to Bill Gates;
——Thousands of buildings, you can only sleep on five feet;
——Even if you taste all the delicacies, you only have one stomach;

——If you have wives and concubines in groups, you will suffer kidney failure one day;

……

The heart is enslaved by the body, the true nature is lost by the desire for profit, even if you are satisfied, you will not feel happy, even if you are rich, you will still feel loss, so it is not as good as the true nature of a villager in the mountains, singing when you are happy, crying when you are unhappy, and treat the night as a cure A good medicine for insomnia, making nature a relief for the soul.

People's pursuit of material things has always been nothing more than clothing, food, housing, transportation, and sex. The simpler you live, the more calm you will be. The essence is a state of calm life.Living in the world, you may inevitably do things against your will, and it is inevitable that your nature will be lost, but as long as you stick to the belief of being a human being in your true nature, you will eventually do less of those things.Life is in a hurry, but we have to take it easy, live a simple life, and be a human being, this is our only choice.

Adhere to your true colors, is a wonderful life.

Lao Tzu said: "Because it does not claim to be great, it is truly the greatest." Not being great is a kind of true life.

A person should be like the sky, although there are many dark clouds drifting over it, but after the rain, the sky clears and the clouds clear, it is still blue and spotless; a person should be like white jade, no matter where it is buried, it will not change own pure nature.

A young woman next to Ruan Ji is astonishingly beautiful. She is the housekeeper of a tavern and often sells alcohol by the stove.Ruan Ji and his friend Wang Anfeng went to her place to drink whenever they had time, and slept next to the young woman when they got drunk.The young woman's husband began to suspect that Ruan Ji had some crooked intentions. After observing carefully for a while, he was relieved to see that Ruan Ji had no malicious intentions.There was a girl in Ruanji village who was both talented and beautiful. Unfortunately, she died before she got married. He was neither in-laws nor had any relationship with her, but he felt very sad, so he went to her house to cry bitterly before leaving.

Liu Ling, who often drank with Ruan Ji, often got very drunk.One day the wine at home was all gone, and he wanted to drink like crazy. He pestered his wife and asked her to go to the hotel to buy wine for him. The wife threw the bottle on the ground and said, "You drink too much. Are you ruining yourself? You must stop drinking from today!" Liu Ling said: "It's great, I don't have the willpower to stop drinking, I can only pray for God to bless me. Now go and make wine and meat." I was so happy, I hurried to buy wine and meat as an offering, and asked Liu Ling to swear before the gods. Liu Ling knelt down and swore: "Liu Ling was born with wine as his life, drink a bucket, and five buckets will be sober. Don't listen to the words of women." !” After speaking, he drank and ate all the wine and meat offered before the gods.He also took off his clothes while drinking, and drank by himself in the hall naked.People laughed at him after seeing it, and he replied: "I take the heaven and the earth as my house, and the house as my clothes. Why do you run into my pants?"

Wei and Jin people used this kind of wild behavior to expose their true colors in front of the world. They used their naked bodies to mock the false and pale faces of literati and refined scholars.

Ji Kang was a friend of Ruan Ji and Liu Ling. He put forward the slogan of "better known than taught and let nature go". "Yue Mingjiao" means throwing away the traditional etiquette and status that bind people, stripping off the disguise of one's personality, emotion and thought, and exposing oneself nakedly.

He used to be an "iron buddy" Shan Tao who used to drink together, but later he became vulgar and sophisticated.After hearing the news, Ji Kang angrily wrote him a letter of breaking up the relationship, saying: "I'm afraid you are a little shy to sell your personality for wealth alone, so you drag me into the water to accompany you, and make me feel bad."

But in real life we ​​can't really express ourselves:
——When seeing a snob, few people openly express contempt, and most of the time they have to deal with him perfunctorily with a smile on their faces;

——A lot of public affairs are really annoying, but no one will leave in a hurry, and they have to be patient to finish it;

——My usual depression and disappointment are rarely shown on my face, and I always pretend to be confident in front of others;

——I have achieved success in my career, and I dare not show an air of excitement and complacency on my face, otherwise I will inevitably attract accusations of "tail cocking";

——Even in front of your husband (or wife) or lover, you will inevitably say something, express an attitude, or do something against your heart.It is difficult to see the real face in this world, and all people show are fake "faces" in disguise.

This is the fruit of civilization.

No one thought there was anything wrong with it, and not only was masquerade and lying acquiesced, but it was constantly encouraged.If you don’t believe me, if you spit at the snob, not only the snob will fight with you, but others will also say that you are “two hundred and five”; ", "flirty", "pride" will all be on your head.

In the dictionary of modern people, suppressing one's own nature is called "restraint ability", and being good at disguising is called "restraint".

If you are asked to wear a mask on your head every day, you must feel extremely uncomfortable; similarly, people are too tired to live wearing a mask of consciousness every day, so human beings have been inseparable from the carnival since the birth of civilization. It is also born along with civilization.

Always hiding in a dark corner without seeing the light of day, isn't this a living pain?
Isn't it uncomfortable to always hide your true colors?
Everyone is willing to show their true colors, just like everyone likes sunshine.Everyone knows that drinking alcohol is bad for health, but human beings cannot live without alcohol.It's easy to see the truth after drinking.After three glasses of wine, I dare to say things that I usually dare not say, and dare to do things that I usually dare not do.Tao Yuanming once said to others about "what's good about wine" that wine makes people "closer to nature".

Only a great hero can show his true colors.Returning to the basics and getting closer to nature is the starting point of human beings, and I am afraid it is also our destination. One day, human beings will abandon the disguise on their bodies and regain their pure and simple nature.

A true monk cannot be bullied
Two Canadian psychologists conducted a study and found that people who gamble on horses have some rather intriguing psychology.Once the horse friends sign the bet, their confidence will increase in an instant, and they are convinced that the horse they bet on will win.Of course, the action of betting has no effect on the game at all, the horses that will run next will still be the same horses, and the venue and track will not change.However, in the eyes of Ma You, once the bet is placed, the chance of winning the horse bet is as high as it looks.Such a psychological twist may seem puzzling at first glance, and has much to do with a common weapon of social influence.Like other kinds of weapons of influence, it also lurks in the heart, quietly guiding our actions with invisible forces.Quite simply, it’s the desire, once we’ve done something, to be (or appear to be) able to do it.No matter what decision or choice you make, there is pressure to behave and behave in accordance with it.This pressure prevents us from dismantling ourselves, and we have to try to believe that our previous choices are correct. There is no doubt that we also believe that we have made a wise move.

What does this boring experiment prove?It just proves what the master said: it is common for people to lie to others, and the best thing is that people like to lie to themselves.But when he was about to die, he still couldn't lie to himself.If you want to have no debts to others in your heart, you will be "like walking on thin ice when you are facing an abyss".

There are basically three major differences between humans and animals:
① Human beings can laugh.Except for humans, most vocal animals express their happiness by howling.

(End of this chapter)