Chapter 50 Chapter Fifty-Four

A person who is good at building cannot be pulled out and cancelled.For a person who is good at holding, it is impossible for the things he holds to fall off and be taken away.For those who have children and grandchildren, the sacrifices they enjoy will never be interrupted. Only by cultivating the Dao as one's own, and achieving the consistency and unity of oneself and the Dao, can one's virtue be true.Only by cultivating the Dao as one's own home, and achieving the unity and unity of the self and the Dao, can one's virtue be abundant and inexhaustible.Only by practicing the Dao in the village and achieving the consistency and unity of the village and the Dao, can one's virtue last forever and be endless.Only when the Dao is practiced in Bangjun, and the unity and integration of the country and the Dao are achieved, can its virtue be enriched and enriched.And if the Dao can be practiced in the world, and the unity and unity of the world and the Dao can be realized, then its virtue can cover all peoples and make the world share its virtue.

I can cultivate the Dao in myself, and I can observe and judge a person.I can cultivate the Dao in my own family, and I can observe and judge one family after another.If I can cultivate the Dao in the village, then I can observe and judge the villages and towns one after another.I can cultivate the Dao in the states, but I can observe and judge one state after another.I can cultivate the Dao in the world, so I can observe and judge the world.Why can I judge the major events and trends of the world?The cultivation of the Dao, this is the key. Here Lao Tzu is talking about the unity of Dao and cognitive subject, the unity of self, family or family, village or hometown or country town, state or princely kingdom, Tianxia and Dao.That is to say, the Daoization of people is about the unity of the subjective world of people and the objective world of nature.

Lao Tzu's ideal is the integration of man and Dao.Although the definition of this integration is vague, not as codified and clearly defined as the integration of the European Union, it is still a philosophical-theological ideal. The Daoization of man is the essentialization of man, the integration of man and Tao. The pursuit of "one", that is, the unity of the world, the pursuit of the essence or the ultimate, is the highest pursuit of the Chinese sages, and the final result of this pursuit is the Dao.Whether it is the body, the family, the township, the state, or the world, they are finally unified in the Dao.Dao, this is the ultimate concept and original concept of Lao Tzu’s philosophy, political science, sociology and theology. tiny or microscopic.

It is not architecture that is built and built, but the practice of preaching.Similarly, talking about holding is not talking about labor or sports, but also talking about the Tao, how to talk about how to be like the body, the mind, the soul, the self, never deviate, never forget, never get off the track for a moment, and never deviate from the slightest deviation. The fruit of good construction is the integration of people, avenues and buildings.That is to say, the things you have built are deeply rooted, luxuriant, co-existing with the heaven and earth, and co-existing with the Dao. If they are integrated, how can they be removed?

The result of a good hug is the integration of the person, the Dao and the person being held. How can there be a problem of falling or not? Think about the great buildings in ancient and modern China and abroad, such as the Great Wall, Dujiangyan, the Temple of Heaven, the Sui Pagoda, the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids and the Temple of Karnak, the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame de Paris, think about those great works and ideas , Think about the examples left by those sages? They or they will never be pulled out, will not fall off, and will not be forgotten by future generations. Moreover, the meaning of descendants is the continuation of life, the essentialization of life, that is, the integration of life and Dao, and of course there is no doubt about whether the sacrifices will continue.

To make oneself consistent, unified, and integrated with the Dao is also a kind of thinking similar to the unity of man and nature, called the unity of Tao and body.Why can heaven and man become one?Because man is originally a part of heaven, a subordinate.Man is the masterpiece of heaven, the concentrated and flexible expression of heaven.Similarly, man is the derivative of the Tao, the masterpiece of the Tao, the download of the Tao, the proof and embodiment of the evolution of the Tao, and the fruit of the Tao.It is actually impossible for man to be separated from heaven and Tao. How can man be separated from nature?Man has gone mad, committed suicide, committed a crime, committed heinous crimes, and is still a part of nature, a washed-out or abandoned part.How can man be separated from time and space?How can people break away from the laws, essence and origin of all things in the world?All the self-defeating behaviors of people who violate the Dao are also a negative version of the Dao, a warning example, and an appearance of the Dao: it must not be like this.

Fundamentally speaking, Tao, heaven, and man are originally one, and they are originally one. Then why are there so many things and people that deviate from the Dao, go against the Dao, and have no Dao?Why are there so many foolish kings in history, so many unrighteous self-defeating people, and a lot of "going against the grain" incidents? The problem is that people are sometimes caused by greed, madness, delusion, mainly because they overestimate themselves, because they are strong in ignorance, strong in history, strong in nature, and strong in Dao. Difficulties—for example, the pursuit of immortality, the pursuit of victorious battles, the pursuit of eternal foundation, the pursuit of absolute authority, the pursuit of gathering wealth in one body, and the pursuit of hegemony for all generations... and they have reached the opposite side of the road, so they are self-defeating, drawing tigers like dogs, and seeking fish from trees. Contrary to each other, cleverness is misunderstood by cleverness,

Ambition is misunderstood by ambition, will is misunderstood by will, and action is misunderstood by doing.Man, what folly you have done!The result can only be a crushing defeat. The second is due to the development of culture.Lao Tzu is one of the earliest figures in the world who reflected on culture, confused and questioned it.Culture is indispensable, but the development of culture comes at a price.The pollution of the environment, the destruction of the ecology, the complexity of personality, the excessive tension of competition, the excessive complexity of survival and enjoyment, the disappearance of beautiful pastoral and pastoral sentiments, the insincerity of interpersonal relationships, and the decline of the simple joys of life ?? Lao Tzu has long seen these problems, and even hoped to turn back the wheel of history and personal learning—the ultimate goal he proposed was the infantilization of human beings, which is a bit utopian.

It is impossible to turn backwards, and it is quite meaningful to discuss how to reduce the cost of cultural development. Not only does the development of culture come at a price, but so does the growth of people.The price of the blooming season of youth is to bid farewell to childhood and adolescence; the price of maturity is to say goodbye to youth; the price of abundance is to say goodbye to innocence;Having seen too many costs, of course there will be the urge and request to return, and there will be a dream of returning to the baby state. Lao Tzu believes that the practice of the Dao is actually a return, a return to the original.Once a person has cultivated and returned to the Dao, you will be authentic. You don’t need to show off, confess, or force yourself to endure. You are naturally in line with the Dao, and only when you are naturally in line with the Dao is the real Dao.If your family habits are back to the main road, your family will be able to do things with ease, have more than enough every year, and be rich for life. You don’t need to be taught homework, you don’t need family rules and laws, you don’t need to work hard, and you don’t need to worry about it.What an ideal state this is.

But in the village where you live, if you have returned to the Dao, the virtues of the Dao, that is, the functional grace, will be full and full, and you will never suffer from material or spiritual deficiencies.The people who live in the Dao are so happy, so beautiful, contented and happy, how can they be dissatisfied? What about your Bongshire Kingdom?If the ruler and the people return to the Dao of Xiyang, won’t all good lives last forever, be stable forever, and be able to continue to be happy and happy? What about this side of the world?The whole world has returned to the Dao, and all things are nourished by the Dao, and its great virtue has become a true universal value. What a harmonious world and what a smart world this will be!

This can be said to be Lao Tzu's Dao utopianism. Although this cannot be achieved, I yearn for it.This is a conception of universal values ​​by Chinese sages 2,600 years ago.Of course, people at that time did not have the concept of Tianxia and the world that they have today. People at that time did not know that there was a sky outside the sky, that there were countries outside China, and that there was a world outside the world.But Lao Tzu's pursuit is universal and permanent, not just one place, no doubt.What a pity that it has not been heard enough by the world and the local people.The universal values ​​and laws that people like to talk about nowadays seem to be the patents of Western Europe and North America, and they seem to have become imported products.And we can only use the special national conditions as an argument for what we want to do and what we don't do. It seems that we are not without embarrassment in front of the universal value law.Alas!