Chapter 2 Chapter 02

2.1 Universe and life Buddhism, teachings or principles, comes from having a certain view on life (or the world), and having a certain solution to life's problems.Therefore, talking about Zen and Buddhism is like finding the source of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, which cannot but be talked about in life. Life is "one", and the way of life (including views and approaches) is "many".There is a kind of way, which may be the highest in the eyes of Lao Zhuang, which is "If you don't know what you don't know, follow the emperor's rule".But this is not easy, that is to say, in terms of Lao Zhuang, praising "empty one's heart, solid one's belly", praising is already comparing and choosing, that is, a lot of things have already been filled in the heart, not empty-hearted, ignorant I don't know.The situation here, as Zheng Banqiao said, is "rarely confused."Don't be confused, you will see life when you open your eyes, and you will suffer from various life problems when you close your eyes.For example, Confucius had such a mood, so he said: "If you hear the Tao in the morning, you can die in the evening." ("The Analects of Confucius Liren")

Going back to Adam and Eve's Garden of Eden, at least as far as normal people say, is out of the question.So I had no choice but to accept the reality, see what I should see, and think what I should think.Regrettably, there are many phenomena that cannot be understood; there are many problems that cannot be solved.The biggest one is the environment or base of life. The old saying is heaven and earth, and the new saying is universe. We don't know what's going on.Since there are records in the literature, people have been guessing riddles, such as yin and yang and five elements, Wuji and Taiji, earth, water, fire and wind, creation of the world by God, etc., and so on.What about the successor of the laughing man?Obviously, we know a lot, big ones, from galaxies to quasars, small ones, from molecules to elementary particles, plus the theory of relativity and the uncertainty principle, etc. How much has the five elements and the like advanced?Like it's only moved a little bit.We live in a world of "being", what's the matter with "being"?We can't even think of a good way to prove that it is "existent" except for intuition.In this kind of place, as a last resort, we can only accept or what can be called instinctive belief. Since we have already "feeled" it as existence, we have no choice but to "believe" it as existence.

Believe it, it is settled, and then you will encounter a series of problems.Why "yes" instead of "no"?Is there a reason?If so, what is the "cause" or "initially"?Thinking of the beginning, I naturally think of the "trend", where?If there is a direction, does the traditional so-called "mandate of heaven" imply "purpose"?The purpose is to jump from the bridge of "will" to "life", and when it is close to "life", it will inevitably lead to a series of problems. These series of problems are all the more urgent and even more serious because they are close together, and even those who take "personal self-cleaning" as their creed cannot avoid it.Almost all the sages in ancient and modern China and abroad do not want to hide.Some even pursue it very far, such as Descartes in France, who doubted again and again, and finally became suspicious of the existence of "I".Thinking about it, eager to prove that it exists.In the end, I still took advantage of my left and right thoughts and said:

"I think, therefore I am." To prove that "I" is not false, just pat your chest.This proves that later some people (such as Russell) think that they are also deceiving themselves, because "thinking" can only prove that "thinking exists", and "I" followed in secretly.We are ordinary people, and we may not, or even should not, go into the mystery of speculation in this way; that is, relying on common sense or instinctive belief, saying that no matter what the reasons and evidences are, "I" does exist. "I" has a stable position, and the "life" related to "I" becomes a hard reality.Compared with the universe, although life is pitifully small, it is a matter within the family, so-called closely related, so it must attract more people's deeper thinking.

2.2 Problems of life The problems of life are limited to those who write books or gather disciples to teach. The west started from Socrates, and the east started from Confucius. It can be said that countless people have worked hard on this aspect.The income cannot be said to be less.However, because there are many views and methods, we can deduce that, in terms of quality, the gains are not very much.To be more specific, nine out of ten of the results are clear about the disease, not effective in pharmacology.Speaking of the illness, big and small, it's hard to describe in one word.Here we choose a few big names to talk about.

2.2.1 The purpose is difficult to prove I mentioned "purpose" above. Is there a purpose in life?With the background of the macroscopic world we know now, it seems that there is no backing for the purpose.Life is a phenomenon of natural evolution, how to come, is groping; how to go, not even groping. "Man is the spirit of all things" is a sentence from the mouth of a "human"; if it is from the mouth of a "sheep", it is likely to be the exact opposite, because it is a human being who eats kebabs.From a philosophical point of view, the goal is the farthest point in the journey, and the designator should be something other than a person.The ancients imagined that "Heaven", or "God", or "God", no matter how you call it, is something with a personality far superior to that of a human being, or something that is supreme.But this "what" is conceived, or inferred from the many things that people can create, and it is difficult to prove it.To take a step back, even if we try to use the excuse of not being able to create something out of nothing, we will inevitably encounter a logical problem. There should be something above this "what", because Nothing can be created out of nothing.That is to say, in our knowledge system, the original cause cannot be deduced.As a last resort, I took a step back and admitted that there is something omniscient, omnipotent and all-good, and many phenomena are obviously incompatible with this assumption.Like one, the goal should be desirable and strive to be achieved. Since it is omnipotent, why not put it closer?Second, the purpose should not be anti-good, but there are clearly a lot of evil in the world, how can this be explained?Third, in the world, according to the research of geologists, there are many creatures that flourished for a while, but became extinct. Is this also the reason for the purpose?Fourth, in terms of daily chores, smoking cigarettes, playing mahjong, quarrels between husband and wife, plane crashes, etc., are all pre-determined and proper stages of moving towards a certain distant point, let alone trusting others.In fact, the idea has a purpose, and its nature is just a small business that wants to make a lot of money and expand itself.The often said "living is meaningful", "this life is not in vain", and "the Buddha was born due to a great event", etc., are also manifestations of this extravagant hope.The root of extravagance is faith.Faith is useful, or of great use, and one can gain peace of mind from it.But psychological satisfaction and reality are two different things.This raises the question: it is a good thing to have a purpose, but it seems that there is no such thing.

2.2.2 Obligation and Kindness The purpose is far away, unclear, or out of reach, so we have to narrow the scope, return to ourselves from the end of the world, and think about how to live, that's right; or, speaking of one person, the future seems to be many , which one should you choose?This is too complicated to say, so we have to start from the general aspect and turn it into a question of moral philosophy, which is: What should be the most fundamental standard for judging the good and evil or right and wrong of behavior?This answer is also varied in the speeches of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign sages.But it can be broadly classified into two categories, namely "righteousness" and "benefit".Let me talk about righteousness first.Mencius said:

"Life is what I want, and righteousness is what I want. You can't have both, and you can sacrifice your life for righteousness." ("Mencius Gaozi 1") This means that only those who are righteous Actions are good, yes.Moral philosophers in the past dynasties, or people who talk about such issues without having a family, and even ordinary people, consciously or unconsciously, can almost all be counted as this school (the emphasis on morality is a proof); naturally, when it comes to practice, there are at least quite a few. people, that's another matter.Speaking specifically from the aspect of reason, there are many problems with righteousness as the standard for evaluating behavior, so we only talk about the major ones.One is that the foundation is quite slim.Righteousness is good, yes, injustice is bad, no, who stipulated it?The ancients said: "The emperor has no relatives, but virtue is the assistant." ("Shangshu · Zhou Shu · Cai Zhongzhi Ming") said that the origin is the destiny.But destiny is illusory, hard to know, especially hard to prove.I can't find it outside, so I have to ask myself, saying that I have conscience and ability in my heart.But this, like destiny, is also illusory, hard to know and hard to prove.And not only that, we look for it, but it is often entangled with human desires, which makes us very disappointed.In short, righteousness is of great value, and it seems to be very appropriate, but it has flaws, and it is difficult to find its natal family.Using people as a metaphor, without roots, it is difficult to gain trust.Second, poor reason must be traced to the root, but righteousness often seems to have something behind it.Taking daily life as an example, when encountering someone who commits suicide, saving is against the will of the person being saved, but it is usually said to be righteous, why?Because they all intuitively believe that life is better than death.Another example is that it is unrighteous to lie, but doctors routinely lie when they describe symptoms to dying patients. Why?Because it can reduce the suffering of patients.It can be seen that our so-called righteous actions all have something to do; if something is done, it cannot be fundamental in principle.Third, righteousness, as a concept of value, sometimes fluctuates, not to mention different times and places, but seriously, it can vary from person to person. For example, as small as a buyer and seller, as large as a warring party, the meaning of righteousness is always in conflict.When things are the same but evaluations are different, the reality of righteousness becomes a problem.

2.2.3 Happiness and Joy of All It is said above that life is better than death, and that less suffering is better than more suffering, which means jumping from righteousness to benefit.In order to avoid misunderstanding, we can use the usual saying in moral philosophy instead of making use of it: although there are infinite phenomena in life, what we want is happiness (in a psychological way); Wrong, it should be based on whether you can get rid of suffering and get happiness (in a moral philosophy way).Compared with doing righteousness, this idea of ​​seeking pleasure may be closer to common sense.Of course, there are many problems.One is that pleasure and righteousness sometimes conflict (as small as drinking alcohol, as big as taking drugs), what should I do?Second, happiness and morality seem to have no flesh-and-blood relationship.If there is no connection, it may be driven out of the moral law. Will there be standards for evaluating behavior outside the moral law?Third, there are problems that may not be coordinated between the happy person and the self. For example, fighting for the person or thing you love is like this. If A is happy, the second will suffer, and if A suffers, the second will be happy. What should I do?Benthamism is trying to solve this last difficulty. It expands the scope of pleasure, saying that the so-called good in moral philosophy should refer to the behavior that can bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people.In this way, when there is no coordination between people and themselves, it can be solved by measuring (naturally, there will inevitably be problems of inaccuracy).Bentham's idea, which was called utilitarianism in the past, is actually ancient, and it is "to be happy with the few, to be happy with the crowd, which is the best?" in "Mencius" ("Liang King Hui") can be called "the doctrine of joy for all".The principle of "quantity" is the expansion of the principle of "quantity": on the one hand, one part of happiness is not as good as two parts, and two parts is not as good as three parts; on the other hand, it is the same in terms of society.Taking into account the society and affirming altruism can make the moral law find a more solid foundation.But taking happiness as a value worthy of pursuit, after all, it is easy to understand in terms of oneself, because there is "real feeling" as evidence; it is not easy to find a reason outside of oneself, because there is no evidence of real feeling, especially the suffering of others When Le can't coordinate.In addition, there is a very serious problem. Fourth, the principle of quantity is rarely applied universally, because there are many things that are enjoyable but not appropriate.The young Mill who wrote "Logical System" was a Benthamite, and he also admitted that there are high and low happiness.Common sense also sees it this way. For example, in normal times, between gambling and reading poetry, between chaotic times, pruning people and generosity, most people think that the former is humble and the latter is noble.But in this way, the principle of quantity has to be equally divided with the principle of quality. As the principle of evaluation, if it is allowed to be equally divided, it is over.Fifth, speaking of common sense, many of people’s daily activities obviously have nothing to do with seeking pleasure. The small ones, such as squeezing forward to watch a car accident, and the big ones, such as being unable to raise children and wanting to give birth, etc., all fall into this category. .There are behaviors that do not seek pleasure, and the number is not small, which makes us have to speculate that if there is motivation, or desire, in the various activities of life, this motivation or desire may be more fundamental than happiness. what.

2.2.4 Desire Satisfaction It may be sentimental to say, what is more fundamental, or it has no value at all.The reason is that human life, extended to life, is a part of natural phenomena. It is inexplicable why it came from, and it is also inexplicable what it means.This is one side. On the other hand, a part of this phenomenon (life) is real, and it has already been ordered before perception, it can only be this way but not that way, it can only go here and not there.In the words of "The Doctrine of the Mean", this is "the destiny is called nature".I don't know why the sky is destined, why it is so, all people can do is "willful".Want to resist?The power and method of even resistance cannot but come from the destiny.To put it bluntly, at least Schopenhauer looked at it this way and was completely passive.This passive situation, no matter whether you admit it or not, you can't do nothing anyway.This brings us to the problem of life: how to understand it?How to act right? "The Mandate of Heaven is called sex" is an understanding.The problem of the sexual nature connected with it is very troublesome.For this reason, Mencius once debated with Gaozi.Mencius is an idealist who advocates good nature and wants to govern the country and the world by virtue of his conscience.This is obviously a daydream of the scholar sitting in his study.Compared with Mencius, Xunzi is much more practical. When he walked from his study to the street, he saw all kinds of things, so based on what he saw, he advocated that nature is evil, that is, he became an enlightenmentist.Enlightenment will be more effective; however, if the evil thoughts are correct, where will the good thoughts that advocate enlightenment come from?After Meng Xun, for two thousand and hundreds of years, countless scholars, including Han Yu, Li Ao, and almost all Neo-Confucianists in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, up to Dai Dongyuan and Tan Sitong, have been brainstorming on this, because like Meng Xun, they all think that this There is a flesh-and-blood relationship with self-cultivation, governance of the country and peace of the world.There are more and more tricks, such as good and evil, good nature and evil emotion, and so on.Now, it is generally believed that the idea of ​​Gao Zi (who has no book to hand down) who was judged in absentia on the contrary is closer to the truth.He said:

"Nature is like turbulent water. If you choose the east, it will flow east, and if you decide the west, it will flow west." ("Mencius·Gaozi 1") This means that nature does not matter good or evil, but is just a certain tendency of nature.We say that this kind of thinking is only near-true because it is still associated with good and evil.In fact, sex and good or evil are not directly related: the object of evaluation of good and evil is the "behavior" within the scope of will, not sex.Sex is determined by destiny and cannot be controlled by human beings. If there is life, there must be death. If you are hungry, you must eat, and if you are thirsty, you must drink. What is good or evil?But Gaozi is reasonable after all, and after the metaphor of water, he also said this famous saying: "Food and sex, sex also." These words are worth our deep thinking.Why?Because it touches the mystery of life: if you don't eat, you can't keep your own life; if you don't have sex, you can't keep the life of the race.In short, life, no matter how gaudy it is, the most basic and real thing is to live and survive.This situation can also be said to be more majestic, and it is "the great virtue of heaven and earth is life".Life, generalization, and therefore close to mystery, can you speak more substantively?The ancients have already done this, as Xunzi said: Human beings are born with desires, and if one desires but cannot obtain one, one cannot do without seeking, and one cannot do without contention if one seeks without measuring boundaries.Conflict leads to chaos, and chaos leads to poverty.The former kings hated chaos, so they established rituals and righteousness to divide them, to nourish people's desires, and to give people what they want.So that desires must not be limited by things, and things must not be subdued by desires, and the two will continue to grow together, which is the origin of rituals. ("On Rites") The most important thing here is "human beings are born with desires" in the first sentence, especially the "desire" in it.Desire is a force that stubbornly demands satisfaction. According to modern psychology, especially the view of Freudian psychoanalysis, this is the bottom of life.The expression of desire is seeking, and seeking must touch the outside world (including people and things), so there is gain, there is no gain, there is harmony, and there is conflict. Powerful "emotions", such as joy, anger, sorrow, joy, etc. These add up to "life".Understanding life in this way is simple in nature; as for expression, it turns into a mustard seed and has thousands of threads.It also allows expansion, or daydream, such as Yan Ruyu in the book, the three immortals of virtue, meritorious service, and Liyan, etc., all belong to this category.But no matter how daydream, how beautiful the thought, the pursuit to the root, always comes from desire.It is worth lamenting that, although desire is powerful, it is insignificant. That is to say, "life" like "the great virtue of heaven and earth is life", in terms of the body, it must end eventually, and in terms of race, it is difficult to find a guarantee.In short, if you seek complete satisfaction and ultimate meaning, you will be disappointed.It is no wonder that among the various phenomena of life, there is a kind of suicide; it is even elevated to a theory, that is, the so-called pessimism, such as Schopenhauer is a prominent representative.Fortunately or unfortunately, the vast majority of people belong to the "Lushi Chunqiu" school, which pays attention to "precious life", at least the actual "precious life".But life is precious, if you want to live, you have to encounter various problems related to life, the so-called life problems.This comes from the heart; the inside cannot be outside, so it has become a social problem of various natures and forms.All these problems can be summed up in terms of their nature: desires cannot be satisfied, or life cannot be smooth. 2.2.5 Rough understanding As for the problems of life, we analyze from the perspectives of righteousness and benefit, and from the perspective of being born with desires, and we can roughly get the following understandings.One, "people are born with desires" is the root, righteousness and benefit, good and evil, as well as optimism and pessimism are all branches and leaves, at most it is only the stem rather than the root.Second, having desires is ordered by heaven, what is going on with heaven, we don’t know, whether we accept it or not, we have no freedom of choice, so it should be admitted that there is no “meaning” of moral philosophy and aesthetics here.3. Desires manifest as various tendencies, or in other words, various activities, tendencies may be smooth, but due to conditions (including oneself, others, and social environment), it is more likely to be unsmooth, which is form various life problems.Fourth, emotion is the superficial manifestation of the psychological form of desire. It has the functions of both representative and assistant. Therefore, when talking about life issues, self-cultivation, governing the country and the world, its status should not be underestimated.Fifth, when it comes to the "way" of life, at least for ordinary people, one has to accept the reality and walk the path of noble life, or the path of "successful life".Sixth, Shunsheng is desirable, or it is just because it is "easy" (with no ultimate meaning); if so, obviously, we cannot use the easy behavior as a reason to oppose other difficult ones, which are different from ordinary ones.This means that although life and life problems are "same", the way of life may not be the same, but "different". 2.3 The way of life The way of life, in ordinary terms, is how to live; or more specifically, how to deal with a certain situation, and how to solve a certain problem.The situations are infinite, the problems are infinite, and therefore the remedies and solutions are infinite.Unlimited specific can not say, only the principle.The sages in ancient and modern China and abroad only talk about principles when talking about life problems, or use specific activities as examples to demonstrate principles.But that's it, there are too many, because the scope is ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign.This is not to talk about the history of thought, but to pave the way for talking about Zen, so the scope can be greatly narrowed, and only a few big households in China are involved, in order to see the face of Zen more clearly through comparison. 2.3.1 The road of diligence This road is the road of Shunsheng, which is what "The Doctrine of the Mean" says, "The way of being straightforward is the way." Being reckless means following one’s nature. Using the statement from the previous section, since one has desires, one should find a way to satisfy them.This can also be quoted from the classics, which is: "Eating and drinking men and women, people's great desires can survive." ("Book of Rites·Li Yun") Such a way of life, if it is allowed to use democratic principles, it will become a winner, because ordinary people Always vote for it.Victory is mentioned here, and victory does not mean correctness, because as mentioned in the previous section, the road can diverge, and any divergence will not have any ultimate meaning.Ordinary people do not necessarily think too much about the reasons for voting when they vote, which is close to "I don't know what I don't know, follow the emperor's rule".But this does not know that there is great power, because the small one goes against the way, and the big difficulty; the big one goes against the way, and it is impossible to do it.Many schools of thought in China follow this path, mainly Confucianism.Now that you have a family, of course you not only want to do it, but also think about it.And so there is a litany of what can be called positive and optimistic theories.As Mencius said: Keeping healthy and dying without regret is the beginning of the kingly way.For a house with five mu, there are mulberry trees, and fifty people can wear silk clothes.Chickens, pigs, pigs, and pigs are not lost at the right time, and those in their seventies can eat meat.Don't seize the time for a field of a hundred mu, so that a family of several mouths can live without hunger.I would like to recite the teaching of the preface, affirming the righteousness of filial piety and brotherhood, and those who award it will not be burdened by the road.Those who are seventy wear silk and eat meat, and the people of Li are neither hungry nor cold, but they are not kings, and there is no such thing. ("Mencius · King Hui of Liang Part I") The hope here is obviously the so-called happy life in the world.What is happiness?It is nothing more than satisfying the desire for fullness, warmth and comfort.This is naturally not so easy, because there is more than one person in a society, and it is simply impossible to coordinate everyone's desires without causing harm due to conflicts.The sages of Confucianism clearly understood this, so after "the way of being straightforward is called Tao", they immediately said that "cultivating the Tao is called teaching".To use our current words as an annotation, we need to use culture, especially the morality in it, to restrain and mediate.Naturally, this is not easy to do, so we must "know what can't be done", and hope to use human power to overcome the destiny.Because, to get to the root, is the desire to deal.But I also gradually realized that desire is Xiu Qi Zhiping's great enemy. Therefore, although I still believe in the way of willfulness, I feel wary of desire.Xunzi said that the result of desire is seeking and fighting.Confucianism in the Song Dynasty went a step further, assuming that "natural principles" and "human desires" are two opposing forces of good and evil, and the way of life is to uphold the natural principles and restrain human desires.However, from the surface to the essence, the law of heaven is just the restraint of human desires. Without human desires, where does the law of heaven come from? (Dai Dongyuan thinks so) Therefore, when it comes to this kind of way of life, we'd better put aside the mysterious and unknowable, and just say, to take this ordinary people's willful way, we should establish such a way, or it can also be called the measure. The principle of human beings: it is best to satisfy the desires including others to the greatest extent.This so-called large number includes various levels, or various properties.Specifically, not only can you eat Coca-Cola, but you can also listen to Beethoven's symphony.Similar to music, there are various other activities of artistic creation and appreciation.By extension, there are also various knowledge research activities.This is a metaphor. If you are already fed and clothed, you should encourage people to hang pei around their waists and arrange flowers on their temples to make life a little poetic and rational.In our current popular words, we should seek to improve and enhance our lives.This is the normal state of ordinary people, but as a way of life, it can also be related to philosophy, and this philosophy is especially taught by Confucianism.This can also be said the other way around. Confucianism is accepting the attitude of ordinary people when it talks about this.Because it belongs to ordinary people, it has become traditional again, such as the pre-Qin classics "Shangshu" and "Zuo Zhuan", etc., when discussing right and wrong, deciding what to choose, they all follow this path.This way, compared with other ways of life, has at least two advantages.One is reasonable, because the foundation of reason is desire, desire to affirm, and the satisfaction of seeking peace, which most people are willing to accept or cannot but accept.The second is because of diligence, it will lead us to civilization, even though down jackets, chocolates, air-conditioning rooms, helicopters, and astronomical mirrors, atomic energy, democratic systems, mutual assistance and cooperation, etc., from a philosophical point of view, have no ultimate value of. 2.3.2 The road to burnout This can be represented by Taoism in the pre-Qin period, strictly speaking.Confucianism and Taoism see the same life and society, but react differently because of their different interests.Confucianism also sees the dark side, but they think this colorful world is interesting and worthy of bothering to think of ways to improve it. Manpower can overcome the sky and turn darkness into light. Even if it fails, don’t be discouraged. ".Taoism is not the same, but believes that darkness cannot be turned into light, and even if there is what ordinary people call light, it is meaningless, so it is not worth pursuing.This is due to looking at the dark side (including one's own body) and being discouraged and unwilling to resist the attitude of life. It is burnout, and it does not go deep into Schopenhauer's pessimism. There is nothing left to do but live in peace."To be safe is to let it be, not to be obsessed with choices because of love and dislike.This kind of meaning is described most vividly in "Zhuangzi: The Great Master": Zisi, Ziyu, Zili, and Zilai said to each other: "Whoever can take nothing as the head, life as the spine, and death as the buttocks, whoever knows that life and death are one body, I will be friends with him." When people look at each other and smile, they are irresistible in their hearts, so they become friends with each other.Er Ziyu was sick, and Zi Si went to ask about it. (Ziyu) said: "Great! The creator of the world will restrain you for this. He has a curved back with five tubes on it. His eyes are hidden in Qi (navel), his shoulders are higher than the top, and his sentence refers to the sky. The energy of yin and yang is disturbed. His mind is idle and has nothing to do. He tramples on the well and looks at the well, saying: 'What a shame! The creator of the creation will use it to restrain you.'" Zi Si said: "Are you evil? " Said: "Death (nothing), what evil do I! Soak in the fake and turn it into my left arm as a chicken, and I will ask for the time and night; If you turn Yu’s scorpion into a wheel, and use God as a horse, how can you ride it because of it? It’s even better! Moreover, those who win will be at the right time, and those who lose will be at the same time. The ancient so-called county (suspension) solution, but it cannot be solved by itself, and things are bound together. Besides, things can’t overcome the sky, and it’s been a long time, so why should I hate it?” The attitude towards the destiny, using entertaining guests as a metaphor, Confucianism (representing ordinary people) is enthusiasm, and Taoism is indifference.When things go smoothly, everything doesn't matter.All these include the joys and sorrows of the body and the chaos of the society.Because it doesn't matter, standing upright is not doing anything, and would rather drag your tail on the way and end your life in vain; it is against society's intentions and despises all cultural facilities.Compared with Confucianism, the attitude of Taoism is far more than that of ordinary people, so in-depth inspection will find that there seems to be no obstacle in the mind of that kind of thinking, but if it jumps out of the mind and enters the reality, it will hit a wall everywhere.The big aspect is that the society will never change or even regress because of the ideals (perhaps it should be called fantasy) of a few people; the small aspect is that Zhuangzi himself, if he was born in modern times and had the opportunity to travel from Beijing to Guangzhou, he would also take advantage of it. Airplane, or take an express soft sleeper instead of running around on foot?If so, the value of his theory is questionable.But Taoism, as a way of life, has a great impact, because life is complicated, just like a large warehouse, even if it is for food, it is no problem to squeeze a box or two of razor blades.The most obvious influence is the Qingtan during the Six Dynasties period, when literati waved their tails and went to the world, with the highest priority of getting rid of world affairs.What is not obvious is that the heart is indifferent, and the heart is secluded, and it has dominated many so-called refined scholars for almost two thousand years.Looking at it from a sympathetic perspective, it can be said that it is unavoidable. Asking for something because of willfulness or desire, especially if the request is not satisfactory, is indeed annoying or even unbearable. 2.3.3 Reversing into Shun As mentioned above, although the phenomenon of life is one, there can be many views on life. There are mainly two reasons.First, the phenomenon of life is all-encompassing, and what a person can experience personally can only be bits and pieces of it. These bits and pieces have specific properties, and in terms of the degree of satisfying desires, there are quantitative differences, or even big differences, that is, or a lot of happiness. Less suffering, or more suffering and less happiness.Second, even if the degrees of suffering and happiness are the same, people's hearts are different, and each person will have different feelings and reactions.Different feelings and reactions lead to different views and treatment methods; if there are many and deep differences, differences in "Tao" will be formed.This is like buying tickets for leisure. Some people watch Beijing opera, while others watch ballet.The difference between Dao, as far as China is concerned, the most prominent is the divergence between Confucianism and Buddhism.Two reasons can be cited for why Buddhism is far from Confucianism, which represents ordinary people.A small one is social reality.In general, there are natural disasters and man-made disasters, and there are some chances and mistakes, so that safety and happiness are not guaranteed, or there are indeed many sufferings, even unbearable sufferings.One big one is that Buddhism came from India, and brought with it non-Chinese ideas from the place of origin, such as suffering in this world, reincarnation in the six realms, and liberation through ascetic practices.Wearing this kind of foreign glasses to see life, the result from the shallow to the deep becomes: 1. The myriad phenomena in the phenomenal world, when you open your eyes, you have a choice, always see more undesirable things and less desirable things, or see suffering But not happy.Second, it is often that ordinary people think it is desirable, but Buddhists think it doesn't matter, or even detest it.Third, further development will become a negation of "desire" and "emotion" as the expression and support of desire (it is naturally difficult to be thorough, see below for details), for example, the brocade clothes and jade food, green sleeves and skirts that make ordinary people fascinated And so on, the so-called great desires of human beings exist, but Buddhism just wants to avoid them like enemies.Fourth, because of the above impressions, I have devoted my life to realizing Nirvana; the method is "purity of self-nature" in Zen Buddhism; what is purity?The essence is nothing more than eliminating all ordinary human desires.Ordinary people, and Confucianism representing ordinary people, the way of life is whimsy, which is the reasonable satisfaction of desires.From the point of view of Buddhism, this road is not only fruitless, but will lead to eternal suffering.In this way, Confucianism and Buddhism are just the opposite in terms of their attitudes towards desire.But according to the Buddhist point of view, only in this way can we get what is really worth getting, which is "shun".If we stand in the standpoint of ordinary people, we might as well say that Buddhism is "obedience leads to obedience".This rebellion, the Buddhists are not turning a blind eye, because they admit that their way of life is "the law beyond the world".In this world, if one can imagine a life without desires, at least from the perspective of ordinary people, there must be many difficulties.This point is also clearly recognized by the Buddhists, so they have to talk about the principles of prajna and vacuum, adhere to the practice of precepts, concentration and wisdom, and develop into Zen, sitting on futons, participating in machine fronts, from drinking sticks to burning wooden Buddhas, Although the appearance is strange, the heart is bitter.Not only is it hard with the heart, from the perspective of ordinary people, this road is also bitter, because even sailing is too difficult because of the adversity.Many people go further, not only saying it is difficult, but also saying that it is contrary to human nature, which is false and untrue.However, when talking about the way of life, there must be a premise to tell the truth, and to imagine a premise, which can be recognized by everyone in theory, is probably more difficult than the perverse nature of Buddhism.Therefore, as a way of life, it is best for us to take a look at it with an open mind, think about it, analyze it first, and then evaluate it. 2.3.4 Similarities and differences of Tao There are many ways of life, among which there are big differences and small differences between individuals, even if we only talk about the big differences, we can't say enough.But it can be said in a nutshell that the differences all come from the difference in likes and dislikes, as well as the different levels of love and dislike, as well as the different treatment methods.The extreme of evil is the Schopenhauer-style pessimist, who believes that life is only restricted by the natural destiny and has no positive meaning; .Schopenhauer did not commit suicide, but wrote the article "On Suicide", thinking that it was a challenge to the natural destiny.From the nature of the way of life, Schopenhauer's view is like a five-legged cow, which is very rare although possible.Middle-earth, including Buddhism, does not have such pessimism, because they all believe that how to live is "good", although in terms of "how", the opinions of different schools are quite different.The important thing is to admit that there is "good", but Schopenhauer does not admit it.To use an analogy, in the summer season, there is a dispute over whether the Middle Earth school should go to the mountains or to the sea, and Schopenhauer does not want to go to the summer.Ordinary people are always unwilling or unable to accept the unbearable heat if they do not avoid the heat.In fact, from the perspective of physiology and psychology, everyone (including Schopenhauer) is an ordinary person (in the sense of not transcending the world), so, at least from the perspective of "behavior", there are no complete pessimists in the world; Defeatists who commit suicide all their lives are only seeking pleasure, because they did not despise pleasure when they were dying.In this way, there is hope and longing for this kind of mental state and behavioral state theory. The Middle Earth School, Confucianism needless to say, even Buddhism is positive, and even more extravagant (see below).However, the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism is delicate after all.From the perspective of both acknowledging the existence of "happiness" and seeking "happiness", the two are following the same path.But the way to go is very different. Confucianism accepts common sense, and from the aspect of "desire" (the desire that people are born with), it is to seek reasonable satisfaction; A desire of a completely different nature, the desire to eliminate the desires of ordinary people.This is naturally not easy, so we have to think of ways to prove that it is not only desirable, but also feasible.This method is the so-called "Buddhism", which will be introduced in the next chapter.