Chapter 11 respect the facts

Respect for facts is the third principle of self-discipline.Respecting the facts means viewing reality as it is and avoiding falsehoods, because falsehoods are completely opposite to facts.The more we know the facts, the better we can deal with problems; the less we know about reality, the more confused our thinking will be.Falsehoods, delusions, and hallucinations can only overwhelm us.Our conception of reality is like a map with which we constantly negotiate and negotiate with the topography, the landscape, of our lives.When the map is accurate, we know where we are, where we are going and how to get there; when the map is full of holes, we lose our way.

The truth is obvious, but most people still ignore the facts.The road to the truth is not smooth, and we were not born into the world with a map.In order to move smoothly on the journey of life, we need to draw a map, and it obviously takes effort.The greater our efforts, and the clearer our awareness of the facts, the more accurate the maps will be.A considerable number have no interest in knowing the facts.Some people give up drawing maps after puberty.Their original maps were narrow, vague, and rough, and their understanding of the world was narrow and extreme.Most people think that the map is perfect, the world view is flawless, and even considered sacred and inviolable. They don't have much interest in new information and information, and they seem to be exhausted.Only a very lucky few can continue to work hard, and they continue to explore, expand and update their understanding of the world until the end of their lives.

The difficulty of drawing a map of life is not that we need to start from scratch, but that only by constant revision can the map be informative and accurate. The world is constantly changing, icebergs come and then recede; cultures appear and then disappear; technology is limited, but technology seems to be infinite... The angle from which we observe the world is also being updated and adjusted.Little by little, we grow from weak, dependent children to strong, dependent adults; when we get sick or old, our strength wears off again, and we become weaker and more dependent again.Starting a family, starting a business, having children, will change our worldview.Our moods change as children grow from infancy to adolescence.

The world is one way when we are poor; it is another when we are rich.There is new information around us every day. To absorb them, the revision of the map must be carried out continuously.Enough new information piles up, and we even have to do massive revisions of maps, making revisions harder and sometimes more painful, and a source of many mental illnesses. Life is short, we just want to be smooth sailing.We have grown from children to young people, middle-aged people and even old people, and through unremitting efforts, we have achieved a map of our outlook on life and the world, which seems to be perfect in all aspects.When new information conflicts with past beliefs and requires drastic revisions to the map, we become terrified and prefer to ignore the new information.Our attitude has also become quite strange——

Not just passively resisting new information, but even accusing new information of confusing right and wrong, saying that it is heresy and comes from evil forces.We want to control everything around us so that it fits perfectly on our map.How sad it is that we spend so much time and energy (much more than revising the maps themselves) defending outdated and stale ideas without thinking about how to update the old ones!