Chapter 19 experience and thinking

experience and thinking Life is fundamentally a contradiction, there cannot be a non-self besides me, and the self and the non-self are an opposition.That is to say, as far as I am concerned, there is life and there is death, and death and life are opposites.If the living is me, then the dead is not me.If you recognize the dead as me, then the living is not me.Death and life are already the opposition between self and non-self, so there is right and wrong when there is life and death, right and wrong between life and death is the most basic opposition in life.Zhuangzi's Theory of Equality of Things has been pointed out.Human opinion always seeks to find a unity out of this opposition.However, if one seeks unity beyond this opposition, then this transcended unity becomes the opposite of the transcended opposite.If one goes deep into this opposite to seek unity, then this deep unity becomes opposite to the deeply opposite, so it is still a pair of opposites.

God and God are an idea that seeks unity beyond this, death, life, and self.It is said that everything is created by God, and everything returns to God, and if so, God is opposed to everything.Religion turns into philosophy, exploring a substance behind all phenomena.It is said that both life and death are phenomena, and there is a body behind the phenomenon. If so, the body unifies the phenomenon, but the phenomenon and the body are still in opposition.These two oppositions, religious and philosophical, are actually different in shape but the same in spirit, just like the difference between twenty-five and ten.

Human beings invented logic in language and thinking, and at first it was only a tool for finding unity in opposition.For example, if you say "this is A", it seems to unify this with A.However, in this unity, there is obviously the opposition between this and A.God and all things, noumenon and phenomena, are just the complex and complex changes of this and armor.Instead of saying "this is A", it is better to say "this is this".Do not seek another A besides this to seek unity with this, for seeking unity in this way is tantamount to seeking opposition.If you really want to avoid confrontation and seek unity, it is better to seek it only in itself.So this is A, it is better to say this.Rather than saying that life was created by God, it is better to say that life is life.Rather than saying that there is a body behind the phenomenon, it is better to say that the phenomenon is the phenomenon.

However, this is still a pair of opposites.The former is opposed to the latter, and they are still not unified.If you really want to avoid confrontation and seek unity, it is better to just talk about this, let alone what it is.All human life, all phenomena, this, this, and this, are all the same, life is also this, death is also this, I am also this, not-me is also this, yes is also this, not is also this, all opposites, all contradictions, only one word , then all belong to unification and mediation.Buddhists call this Ru, Taoists call this Yes, and they call it Ran.Buddhism says that things are as they are, and Taoism says that the cause is itself, and that everything is as it is.All are, all are, all are.Life and death are opposites, if you only say such, or only say yes, only say yes, then there will be no opposition.However, there is no speech and no room for thinking on this.If you want to speak, just say this, if you want to think, just think this, this is the only possible unity.

However, this universe, seeing this as it is, becomes a universe that is separated bit by bit, cut off section by section.This life that is so natural is also a life that is separated bit by bit and cut off step by step.In this universe, when people live this life, they can only jump suddenly, from life to death, from this to that.Because the points are separated and cut off, there seems to be no connection between them, and there is no hierarchy.Therefore, although it seems to be extremely static, it is actually extremely beating.But how can life be so sudden and sudden?Formal logic is originally a static logic.The logic of such things is a complete retrogression of formal logic.Separation bit by bit, cutting off bit by bit, all the connections in the universe and life were dissolved.But under the extreme stillness, a big reaction can't be restrained, but it turns into an extreme jump.This is just like modern physics, which regards everything as static, analyzes and analyzes, and finally analyzes the most beating and active atomic particles.

Westerners' point of view and experience are subjective, and subjectivity often leads to contradictions.Thinking is said to be objective, and they want to unify subjective experience with objective thinking.All logic arises from thinking.But formal logic cannot avoid opposition at all, as has been said.Hegel's dialectics, seen as the logic of motion, a series of pros and cons development, is actually still a pros and cons.His absolute objective spirit still inevitably opposes the material world and the phenomenal world, as mentioned above.The Eastern people's way of viewing such as such is to go back from experience to the road of pure experience and intuition, and in this way the opposites are really unified.But it suffers from being too abrupt and too beating.The so-called stream of consciousness that Bergson refers to as duration and creation is not purely empirical intuition, and there should be a distinction between the two.According to Bergson's theory, it should be said that the intuition of pure experience can only be obtained under the liberation of the mind.But in the view of Easterners, it seems that there should be no memory in pure empirical intuition, while Bergson's so-called stream of consciousness cannot be without memory. This is the most important difference between the two.In other words, the above-mentioned intuition method of Buddhism and Taoism, in the language of Bergson, should be the reversal of the flow of consciousness, not the advancement of the flow of consciousness.It should be the relaxation of vitality, not the tension of vitality.Bergson wanted to grasp the reality of life through purely empirical intuition, but he was still looking at it at a deeper level, and he still couldn't escape the so-called philosophical opposition.Therefore, Bergson's philosophy is still a philosophy of opposites, life and matter are opposed, upward flow and downward flow are opposed, and they still cannot be unified.Bergson believed that only philosophy can grasp the unity of reality, but in fact it still cannot get rid of the stereotypes of Western philosophers, so it fell into the problem of unity in Western philosophy.

Now let’s talk about Confucianism in China.Mencius said: "Put benevolence in mind and propriety in mind. A benevolent man loves others, and a courteous man respects others. Those who love others will always love them, and those who respect others will always respect them." That is, the heart of love and respect has been integrated into others and me as one.People and I are not against each other, but love and respect.This is an experience, not a thought.Whatever you think, think in love and respect.Think about how to love, how to respect and stop, don't go beyond love and respect, don't think about it.Just like a husband and wife are in harmony, a father is kind and a son is filial, the other who is outside me and opposes me is actually where my heart loves and respects.To be able to love and respect and to be loved and respected, to be able to unite the subject and the object inside and outside, and to integrate body and function, that is the true unity.How can we regard it as an external one, one is, one is.Therefore, this kind of experience cannot be called a subject experience only, because the object has merged into one.That is to say, it is an objective experience, but it is no longer true, because the subject is also in this experience.In this way, love and respect are the essence of life, not just phenomena.But it cannot be called idealism.Because love and respect must also be spoken about things, and without things, there is no love and respect at all.

As we are, so are life and death.Confucius said: "Sacrificing to the gods is as if the gods are there. If I don't offer sacrifices, it is as if I don't sacrifice." The act of offering sacrifices is still an expression of love and respect.The unity of death and life is still only respected by the love of my heart.That's why Confucius said: "If you don't know life, how can you know death."So Confucius said again: "Be cautious in the end and pursue the distant ones, and the people's morality will be thick." Everything is still based on the virtues of my heart.And things are also in it.Therefore, this is also an experience, not thinking.

Thinking belongs to knowledge, and knowledge without benevolence is Western philosophy.Otherwise, as Zhuang Zhou and Sakyamuni saw, knowing and knowing will eventually become opposites.But Confucianism knows Guiren, and there is no such disease.Therefore, Confucianism does not look beyond the outside like Western theologians, nor does it go deep inside like Western philosophers.The attitude of Confucianism is closer to that of Taoism and Buddhism, so it is called the Eastern system.Confucianism is biased towards experience, especially when it is biased towards speculation.But Taoism and Buddhism have to retreat from experience to the stage of pure intuition, in order to seek the unity of the opposition of subject and object.Confucianism advances from experience and reaches the realm of objective experience through speculation, in order to seek the unity of the opposition between subject and object.Although its pursuit of unity is the same, and its reliance on subjective experience is the same, but its advancement and retreat in terms of the status of common sense experience are different from each other.It is because Confucianism has added the love and respect of my heart, so it is different from Taoism and Buddhism.

The so-called objective experience here, if compared with Bergson's terminology, is similar to his so-called pure duration.This kind of pure extension is the ontology of life, or the great stream of consciousness, which exists through the stream of consciousness of individual life.But this concept is undoubtedly that speculation transcends experience, so it becomes Western philosophy.On the other hand, Chinese Confucianism, in the long-term extension of the heart, must also contain the emotional part of the heart, that is, the aforementioned love and respect of my heart. Speculation, the flow of consciousness of pure knowledge is different.

Now, to put it bluntly again, if we discuss it from pure knowledge, life and death are self-contradictory.Adding emotions, life, death and self will naturally merge into one.In fact, this oneness cannot be experienced without emotion.But with both emotions, there is no distinction between subject and object.Let me ask again, as Bergson said memory, even if there is no emotion, how can there be memory? Now let’s talk about how this kind of objective experience can unify the opposition of many subjective experiences. In the pre-Qin Confucianism and Taoism, both used the word 一, while the Huayan School of Buddhism used the word 一理 instead, and created the theory that there is no hindrance to reason.In its own right, that is, in the subjectivity of each thing, each thing is opposed to the other.As far as the coherence between things is concerned, the opposition between things disappears and a unity is formed.So let's talk about everything.Everything is an experience, and the experience of all things is gathered to form an objective experience, so that one can experience a truth.So let's talk about everything.Everything is an experience, and if you gather the scattered experiences of all things to form an objective experience, you can experience a truth.The so-called objective experience is to extract a common principle from all these things and unify all these things.Otherwise, everything is flat and loose, and it is bound to turn into this as if, which is a pure experience.Otherwise, it must be above all things, or go deep into all things, and seek unity in addition, then it is religion and philosophy.Today, it is not above all things, does not enter into all things, but only expresses the common principles of all things in itself, recognizes the relationship between them and unifies them.Therefore, reason is neither above nor after the matter, but only in the matter, only in the matter itself to find unity, so it is true unity rather than the unity of opposites. After that, Zhu Zi adopted Huayan Zong's words quite a lot, and advocated the theory of the same origin of Li and Qi.But Zhu Zi said that nature is reason, and within nature there is emotion.He also said: "The virtue of the benevolent heart is the principle of love." It is still compatible with the concept of the word "Li" in the inner emotion, without losing the great tradition of Confucianism.Therefore, when he said that the study of things and knowledge in the university must be based on the overall great use of my heart and the essence of all things.Then how can I put aside my emotions and use the whole of my heart to great effect? Therefore, there must be emotion in experience, but thinking is only close to emotion. This is the only way that Chinese Confucianism can express its profound meaning.Therefore, Western philosophical thinking is ruthless. That is to say, in terms of religious beliefs, people seem to have feelings for God, but in fact they are ruthless, but their thinking and beliefs are ruthless, so experience is also ruthless.There are two families of Taoism and Buddhism, and the thinking of the Taoist family. The Buddhist school has mixed beliefs, but most of them are ruthless.However, Confucianism is based on experience and thinking, so it is a major part of Chinese culture. As for how Confucianism grasps this principle and makes good use of the practical skills of cultivating talents in its heart, it adopts the experience of Taoism and Buddhism especially after the Song Dynasties, so I won't go into details here.