Chapter 19 The second series: my attitude towards life, my thoughts in my early years, changing again and again

The second series of my attitude towards life Chapter 22 Changes and Changes in Early Thoughts (1) In the seventh chapter of the recent book "Human Heart and Life", he stated that his understanding of human psychology has changed before and after, because he also said that his thoughts on life have three different periods: (1) Modern Western utilitarianism, (2) Ancient Indians (3) Confucianism in ancient China, without even mentioning the origin of the changes during it.Hereby express its outline as follows. 1. The thought of the first period is consistent with modern Western utilitarianism

It is difficult to remember clearly the period of the period when recalling the events of the early years in the later years. After about ten years old and before the age of twenty, it can be said to be the first period.This period was mainly influenced by the thought of my father, who explained right and wrong, good and evil with gains and losses of interests, that is to say, right and wrong, good and evil were subordinate to gains and losses of interests.He believes that life should be attributed to eliminating suffering, seeking happiness, seeking benefits, and avoiding disadvantages.Right and wrong, good and evil, the public name of the society, from its choice to mark its admiration and shame, and if it is separated from gains and losses, how can there be a choice or shame?This kind of philosophical thinking is close to those of Bentham and Mill in Western Europe. It did not belong to my father, but came from my mind.However, his father enlightened him.

Yu was born in 1893, the year before the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War.The national crisis is here, and it is urgent, and my father's heart of worrying about the country is here.The reason why China is weak and weak is that my father said it was the fault of the literati. "Literati" refers to scholars who occupy a leading position in the society, and most of the time they only focus on practical writing and do not talk about practical learning.Speak, don't tell the truth (exaggeration); do things, don't do practical things, follow this and don't change, don't destroy the country.On the other hand, there is no other way for Westerners to become rich and strong. They only talk about practical learning and do practical things.To the east is a small country called Japan, and even if we managed to defeat us, it was only because of the fact that it was seeking truth from the West.All the words "practical learning" and "practical facts" refer to those who are practical.In the Qing Dynasty, Beijing had a private "realistic middle school" and a national "advanced industrial school".After entering the Republic of China, this Higher Industrial School was renamed "Industrial Specialized School", because its content was to teach various academic subjects in industry and mining.It can be seen that my father's knowledge and views back then were not much different from the current trend, only my father was a person with sincere feelings, and the meticulousness in every word and deed was beyond the ears of ordinary people.This kind of pragmatism or materialism is always seen in my father's words and deeds, and it is infected by me day and night when I walk around my knees.This is the origin of the formation of this period of thought.My father's life, speech and actions are very close to the first-class ancient Mohists, and he seems to have the same views as the Yan (Yuan) Li (NFDA3) school in the early Qing Dynasty.However, because of the current situation, I often have my own thoughts, and I have not inherited something from my predecessors.

2. Transition to the second phase of the thought of birth in ancient India Utilitarianism affirms its desire for life.It can be said directly that desire is everything in life. ——Isn't life just a matter of living through the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of desires?However, the idea of ​​birth of the ancient Indians is the opposite. It just completely negates desire, that is, it completely negates life.How did I switch from utilitarianism to otherworldly thinking? I was born with a mind that is good at thinking, so I don't swallow the so-called gains and losses, but I must ask what the connotation of the words refers to.Benefits and disadvantages, gains and losses, are not two things, different names, but the same reality.Seeking the truth, is it nothing more than suffering and joy in the end?Suffering and happiness are the real feelings in life.People's pursuit of advantages and avoidance of disadvantages is also to get rid of suffering and enjoy themselves.Gains and losses are not necessarily concerned with an individual's life, but the gains and losses of a family, a country, or even the world, the final result does not still fall on the person's sense of pain and happiness?

So we should ask again: What is suffering?What is happiness?I discovered a truth that says: Suffering and happiness do not lie in the external environment.The popular concept always associates suffering and happiness with the external environment, saying that people who live in wealth and wealth are happy, and people who are poor and humble are suffering.Because human beings rely on external materials to live, the wealth or poverty of materials determines how easy or difficult it is to satisfy life desires, and people are happy when they get what they want, and suffer when they are not. —This is not without reason, of course, but there is a confusion and error lurking in it.

"If you get what you want, you will be happy, and if you don't get what you want, you will suffer." These two sentences are a good summary, and they can be used as a criterion to evaluate the balance of things.Desires come from the subjective, and whether they are fulfilled or not depends on the objective circumstances. Therefore, suffering and happiness are not one-sidedly obtained from the subjective or one-sidedly obtained from the objective.Anyone who refers to any kind of external environment as suffering or refers to any kind of external environment as pleasure, such as the popular concept of the world, is under-analyzed and incorrect.The problem of suffering and happiness is closer to the truth than focusing on the external environment rather than focusing on our subjective aspects-it is closer to the truth.The following is a trial argument——

Desire is usually expressed in our consciousness, and the essence of desire is in this body.The direct experience of suffering and happiness is in this body, but every time it passes through consciousness, it changes greatly: it may be strengthened, or weakened, or even change between suffering and happiness.This common sense is all but one that must be paid attention to.Pay attention to this, and you will know that happiness and suffering are not fixed in the external environment.Desires are not static in human beings. Desires in the past and future will emerge in endlessly and increase gradually.This must pay attention to the second.Pay attention to this, and you will know that the son of a daughter of gold does not want her son, but has other desires; the pain of failing to fulfill her desire is the same as that of ordinary people.Ordinary poor people don't have the time to fulfill their wishes; the rich and honored people also have their own troubles; if you look at it well, you will be equal and equal.People with different personalities have different desires and different feelings; since desires and feelings follow people's different personalities, they are often elusive.This must pay attention to the third person.If you pay attention to this, you will know that it is unavoidable to confuse and erroneously conjecture one's suffering and happiness from the external environment.

At this point in the research and speculation, another conclusion is reached: life is basically suffering.Look, life has brought all kinds of lack (lack of food, lack of clothing, lack of...), or a series of problems to be solved, which is the root of desire, and suffering is what it is.Is suffering not lacking and not satisfying?Does suffering mean that problems cannot be solved?It is clear that suffering is inherent.Try it again, how much is a person's life satisfied with what he wants?Is it normal when you can't suppress it?It is obvious that it is not normal.Haven't there been many suicides throughout history?Including those who had conceived suicidal thoughts, the number is even more.Doesn't this mean that his life is not enough to love and his suffering is unbearable?Needless to say, human civilization is advancing day by day, what is lacking will be enriched, and many problems can be solved through science and technology.Mr. Zhang Taiyan's "Theory of Evolution" is the most insightful. I read the article "Theory of Evolution" sixty years ago and admired it deeply.The second volume of the first compilation of the "Taiyan Wenlu" in the "Zhangshi Series" can be obtained.It points out that pain and happiness are all connected and advanced since primitive organisms.As for the higher animals, as for the human beings, all the happiness and all the sufferings are all the more advanced. The detailed examples are enough to break through the confusion of the world.

Don't you think that the problems encountered by human beings are solved day by day by human beings, and they seem to be calm day by day.Let me tell you: the so-called problem solving has no meaning other than introducing a higher and more difficult problem.In the end it will lead to a problem that has no solution.What unsolvable problem?To live without dying of old age is an insoluble problem.For this meaning, see page 105 of the small print edition of Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy.The original text slightly says: the universe is not permanent but successive; succession means impermanence.And we want to get the universe (the life in this body) beyond impermanence, and be safe in love, this is a dead end.

All problems originate from human life itself and are not outside, but people always look outside for solutions.This is really the most common and fundamental mistake!Looking around, who can see this?I'm afraid there are only Buddhists.The rest of the schools of thought, all the sages in ancient and modern China and abroad, although you intend to save the suffering of the living people, the path you take has not escaped from this fundamental mistake, and it is not recommended.So at this time, I turned to the ancient Indians who fundamentally denied life's other-worldly thinking.At that time, I was not influenced by Buddhism and admired the world, but I pursued this step in my own thinking, and then looked for Buddhist scriptures for reference and study, and gradually deepened them.My analysis, observation, thinking, and experience of suffering and happiness began when I was fourteen or fifteen years old.After participating in the Revolution of 1911, he was born as a concubine. He found Buddhist scriptures from Youzheng Publishing House in Liulichang and read them in "Buddhism Congbao" published in Shanghai.At that time, there was a branch library in Qianqingchang that also contained Buddhist scriptures, which I often borrowed and read.For the thought of being born in the early years mentioned here, you can see the long article "Jianyuan Casuism" written in the summer of 1914.This article was first published in the "Oriental Magazine" of the Commercial Press, and later included in "Oriental Library" as a single edition. The view that "desire is everything in life" has not changed at this time, but the person who affirms desire has changed to recognize desire as delusion.Lamenting that life is nothing more than confusion and distress, as the Buddhists say: create confusion, create karma, and suffer.

The second series of my attitude towards life Chapter 23 Changes in Early Thoughts (2) 3. Turning back to Chinese Confucianism as the third period Around 1911 and before 1920, when I Zhiqie became a monk and went to the mountains, although my father was still there, I did not become a monk immediately, but I kept the Buddhist precepts, became a vegetarian and never married.Later, when I was sorting out my father’s posthumous handwriting, Shouze (the spring of 1925), I wrote the article "Missing Relatives" with the following sentences: Since the first year of the Republic of China (referring to the first year of the Republic of China), Shuming has admired the Shi family.Words and the avenue of life must belong to Tianzhu, and the governance of the world is far away from the west; (Omitted below) (For the original text, see the first volume of "Mr. Liang's Posthumous Letters in Guilin")〗I turned to Confucianism late, and this is evidence. I gave up my idea of ​​becoming a monk in the winter of 1920 and got married in the late winter of 1921, so the third period of thought should be counted from 1920.How did it change in thinking?Briefly speaking, as a few times——When I was young, my father taught me to read "Earth Rhymes" and other books, so that I could know the general trend of the world. I was never asked to read "Four Books and Five Classics" ".Afterwards, he went to primary school, then middle school, and read some textbooks, but in the end he didn't read any ancient Chinese scriptures.For me, the ancient scriptures are just like flipping through newspapers and periodicals, and I read them by myself during the summer vacation. The ancient characters in the classic books are not easy to understand by yourself, and many of their meanings are not very clear, but the words in "Mencius" are not difficult to understand.It is the presence of new sensations in my mind.All the whole body does not see a word of bitterness.On the contrary, the word Joy appears right from the beginning.Afterwards, the word "Le" appeared with me, with a natural tone, easy expression, and innumerable fingers, which could not but arouse my thinking and research.After death, I corrected some wrong views on life in the past, and gradually gained a correct understanding. The tortuous process of researching and searching in the mind cannot be described, but here is where the consciousness lies.I realized that the root of desire is in my body, but my heart is superior to my body and can be the master of my body.Therefore, we do not necessarily fall into entanglement in desire.How do you see it?That is to say, it can be seen in this birth thought. The saying goes, "Where is the great desire to eat, drink, and eat?" Doesn't this come from the structure of the body?This represents the two major desires of individual survival and racial reproduction, which are inherent to all living things, and there is no exception.But in the process of biological evolution, human beings are far above everything else, and their desires are not simple, and they are almost ever-changing.However, if it is direct or indirect, if it is near or far, why is it not derived from this body?Only the out-of-the-world thought that desires to reflect, criticize and negate on this body clearly transcends this body.Doesn't this mean that I have the mind to be able to reflect on myself without being covered up by my body?Only humans have a view of life, but cattle and horses cannot have the view of cattle and horses; how can those animals have no heart, cherishing that their hearts are locked in their bodies, and the hearts are only for the body and ears.This difference is due to the gradual development of the brain of vertebrates, and the special development of the brain of humans is actually its material basis.Confucianism says: "Form and form are nature; only a sage can practice form." It also says: "The reason why human beings are different from animals is rare; the common people go away, and the gentleman keeps it." These words are evidenced by today's scientists. Then you can see that every word has its place.The ancient sayings quoted here are all from the book "Mencius".Form and color refer to the body.Human life relies on the body structure with a particularly developed brain to carry out various activities; all innate capabilities (continuously growing and developing) are what it is.The brain is the seat of the human heart; and all functions are unified in the human heart.What distinguishes humans from beasts is that they are very small in terms of physical structure, and in terms of their invisible and visible psychological functions, they seem not to be large, but they are also very large.If there is not much difference, don't the lives of humans and animals tend to be activities for survival and breeding?It is also said that the human heart is superior to the body and is the master of the big one, but the animals are not enough to say this.However, the superiority of the human heart to its body is only possible in its nature, and it is not fixed at first; in the lives of ordinary people (common people), it is common for them to be "mind-serving their bodies", why is it different from other animals? ?There are probably only a few people (gentlemen) who do not lose this gap.The great possibility (great function) of the human body and mind is truly fully developed, that is the saint.The recent book "People's Heart and Life" discusses this in more detail, so you can refer to it.The study of Confucianism is nothing more than the study of human beings' practice. People are not necessarily entangled in desires, nor are they always in suffering.Where does the joy of Confucianism come from?Those who said before, "If you get what you want, you will be happy, and if you don't get what you want, you will be miserable", you should know that this is a one-sided view, and you have not fully grasped the truth.The reality of suffering and happiness depends on the smoothness of life.It can be summed up in one word: Life flows smoothly and freely, and life is joyful; on the contrary, life stagnating in one place is bitter.To say that suffering and happiness depend on what one wants and fail to achieve it is just the ears of ordinary people who are always dependent on the transformation of external stimuli to help their lives flow smoothly.If the external conditions remain unchanged for a long time, the pleasure will turn into suffering; this is not difficult to obtain from the facts of daily life.The reason why people's desires emerge in endlessly, and those who gradually increase, is precisely for this reason.People with the right way—those who have learned the way of natural flow of life—do not need to wait for external stimuli, and they can be happy all the time. Later generations, like Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, said "seek the joy of Kong Yan" every time.Confucian Wang Xinzhai of the Ming Dynasty even wrote "Song of Le Xue", which says: "To be happy is to enjoy learning, and to learn is to learn this joy; not to be happy is not to be learning, and not to be learning is not to be happy." (See the chapter "Taizhou Xuean" in "Ming Confucianism Case") Wang also said: "People's hearts have nothing to do, and they are not happy when they have things. It means that the heart is hindered, that is, it loses its fluency.It says "no matter", which means that the heart responds to the feeling, passing by without staying.This kind of joy is the joy of self-satisfaction in further studies, and it is completely different from the joy of getting something out of it. It is exactly the two threads of life. Taken together, there are three directions in life: 1. Desire is affirmed, life is affirmed; desire is everything in life; 2. Desire comes from the delusion of all beings; negating desire means denying the life of all sentient beings, so that life is in negation; 3. Human beings are different from other animals and have extraordinary The possibility of falling into the rut of desire; thus affirming that man is born to reject desire.Confucianism has always been strict with the distinction between "righteousness" and "benefit", and the distinction between "natural principles" and "human desires", because they all distinguish between people and birds. Lectured at Peking University in 1920, and the old book "Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophy" published the following year, based on the three roads or three attitudes towards life, it is said that Confucianism and Buddhism develop and change from human life. From the perspective of history, they are all precocious products of human future culture; looking forward, Chinese culture will soon be revived in the world in the near future.I belong to Confucianism, and I would like to recreate the style of lectures of the Song and Ming Dynasties—the unique and popular style of learning derived from the Taizhou School—and integrate it with modern social movements.See the original book for details, so I won't go into details here.Since then, my engagement in the rural movement is to practice what it says. It belongs to grass before the National Day of the year, and the grass will be formed on October 21.