Chapter 10 Nine Temperance

Xunzi said, "People are born with desires." No one seems to have refuted this, because it is a fact that everyone has personally experienced.Desire, why come?What for?Hard to say.We only know that desire and non-desire are like the boundary between life and non-life. In other words, desire is the decisive nature of life.We are born with it, it is innate, whether we like it or not, anyway, it is natural before our body can perceive and make choices, so there is no question of whether or not, only how to treat it. Desire is often manifested as a strong desire in life.If you get what you ask for, you will feel satisfied (or according to common sense, it is called happiness), but if you don’t get what you ask for, you will feel distressed.Obtaining depends on many conditions, some conditions are easy to meet, and some conditions are not easy to meet. Therefore, the result of desire may not necessarily be happiness, but may be distressed.

Whether it is common sense or philosophy, suffering is regarded as something to be avoided (ascetics want something else, suffering is a means, not an end).From a theoretical point of view, there are two ways to avoid suffering, one is to respond to requests, and the other is to simply not ask for them.Responsiveness, may it be impossible in theory?It depends on the requirements; in any case, from a practical point of view, it must not work.Perhaps it is for this reason that some people talk about life, advocating that they would rather take the second path than simply pursue it.For example, Taoism is like this. The way of life they preach is to think less and desire less, to "empty your heart and fill your belly". There will be disappointment.Buddhism goes a step further, regards desire as the root of suffering, and uses the power of the hero to look at the emptiness to eliminate desire and overcome suffering.Only by eliminating desire, overcoming suffering, and realizing Nirvana can one obtain true happiness and bliss.Seeing the Saha world as suffering, and going to the other shore for joy, this is rebirth, and it cannot be regarded as world-weary.Schopenhauer went even more extreme, simply refusing to admit that there is happiness, and thinking that life is just dominated by blind will, which forces people to think, compel people to seek, and is fortunately satisfied. The so-called happiness is only a temporary release from the suppression of desire. In other words, the so-called happiness of temporary relaxation is an illusion, and the pain of being bound by desire is real.Looking at it this way, the so-called life is controlled by blind will, and it is deceitful to work tirelessly to satisfy desires, and even rejoice. Therefore, it is better to have life than to have no life, which is world-weary.

There is desire in birth, birth and desire are inseparable, talk about the end of desire after receiving birth, thinking this way, maybe it should be called wisdom, and doing this, maybe it should be called perseverance; but the problem is that it is actually very difficult to do, At least most people do.The Ahan Sutra records the situation of the Buddha's extinction, and the four people are still crying and crying. This is common sense, but it can express the reality of life.It can be seen that such things as extinction of desires, talking about life in terms of life can only be thought about.

We are born with desires, we have to face the reality and admit it, this is one side.There is a more important aspect, how to deal with it.Unlimited pursuit of satisfaction, right?In ancient and modern China and abroad, there are people who indulge in lust, but there is no school of thorough indulgence, because in fact it doesn't work.Why?It can be divided into three aspects. 1. Human desires can be said to be unlimited. As the saying goes, if you become an emperor, you still want to become a fairy, and you seek satisfaction without limit. If you are lucky enough to satisfy one, maybe two or three more will follow, or fortunately you will satisfy a trivial one. , and soon two or three huge ones were born.However, the conditions for satisfying desires cannot be unlimited, and some are even rare and difficult.This goes back to what I said earlier, the result is that the more you ask, the harder it is to satisfy, so you have to suffer a lot.

2. Life and desire are inseparable. The original intention of satisfying desire should be to complete life and benefit life.For example, when you are hungry, you want to eat, and when you are thirsty, you want to drink. If you can get it, you can survive, but if you can’t get it, you can’t live. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to seek its satisfaction.But the so-called satisfaction should be stopped when enough is enough. If you don't get tired of eating, and you don't stop being full, it will also cause disasters and harm.What's more, some desires, such as the so-called hobbies, are different in nature from hunger for food and thirst for drink. If you crave more than you want and become addicted to them, the result will be the opposite and become a great harm to life.

3. Desires cannot be satisfied indefinitely. A more important reason is that people are born in society, and there are a large number of others besides themselves, for the stability and prosperity of the society, or even for their own survival and happiness. , must also take into account the society, that is, a large number of others outside of oneself.One has desires, and others have desires, the nature of desires is similar, and the conditions for satisfaction are the same.Some conditions are many and easy to obtain, such as air for breathing, and generally speaking, they will not cause disputes.The vast majority of conditions are not like this, but limited, and some are even rare and rare.Therefore, often, there are too many monks, and only some people can get satisfaction, but it is difficult for all people to be satisfied. Or, if some people seek excessive satisfaction, others will find it difficult to obtain moderate satisfaction, which will cause disputes. Conflict leads to chaos, and the result may be that both sides suffer.For the stability and prosperity of the society, everyone in the society can survive and be happy, and this kind of dispute must be avoided.The way to avoid it, the specific method can be very complicated, but the principle is very simple, that is, if you want what you want, there must be a limit, and no one can move beyond the limit.

Restrictions, generally speaking, are social in nature, such as institutions, laws, customs, habits, etc., all come from social forces, which limit how people should act and how not to act. The coordination between desire and restriction is a combination of society and individuals. An important condition for all to be safe.But in terms of the nature of desire, it is not easy to coordinate without breaking the rules.As mentioned earlier, desire is a strong force of desire. If it is strong and bursts out, it will come one after another. If it cannot be stopped, it will easily go beyond the limit and disturb others.How to avoid it?In addition to social power, one must use one's own power to control, which is called "temperance".

Influenced by Buddhism, Confucianism in the Song Dynasty regarded desire as evil, saying that there are two aspects of human nature: natural law and human desire.In fact, as Dai Dongyuan pointed out, apart from human desires, where is the principle of heaven?Life and desire are inseparable. To live, denying desire is wrong and extremely difficult to do.But lust is easy to get into trouble, so how to deal with it is like treating a fierce horse. On the one hand, it must accept the fierceness, and on the other hand, it must be trained to be restrained, so that it can run along the road without recklessness.

Don't act recklessly, just have desires and demands, but enough is enough.How can this be done?As mentioned above, institutions, laws, customs, habits, etc., are important limiting forces in society.But relying on these alone is sometimes not perfect and cannot be easily achieved; or from an individual point of view, just relying on external forces and letting things go is ignoring moral responsibilities, and sometimes breaking through restrictions and harming oneself and others.Some desires are natural, and some should not be. Of course, some pursuits exceed the limit, and they should not be.The moral responsibility of the individual is temperance, that is, relying on one's own knowledge and strength of will to distinguish what is natural and what should not be, and to be able to take what is natural and reject what should not be.Of course, this is not an easy task, at least in the early trials.But we should not give up our responsibilities in fear of difficulties, let them be.We have to trust ourselves and be strict with ourselves, even if it is not easy, we must take it for granted.In this way, if you work hard for a long time, temperance will become the force of habit, and then you can do nothing and feel at ease.