Original text
Confucius said: "Isn't it also true to learn and practice from time to time? Isn't it a joy to have friends come from afar? People don't know and are not surprised (yùn), not Are you a gentleman?" ("Xueer")
Translation
Confucius said: "After studying, isn't it pleasant to have like-minded people come from afar? Come on, aren’t you happy? If I don’t get angry when others don’t understand me, aren’t I also a virtuous person? These three sentences tell us: What should we do in the face of difficulties, changes, and confusion?
In the face of difficulties, "learn and practice from time to time", and often review the past and learn the new. This is our self-cultivation process. Just like today's reading, simple tool books, we can quickly master the core , and be able to apply what we have learned. In the application process, we must also master the method, have a plan, have steps, and persevere in order to see results. Facing the improvement of self-cultivation or Chinese classics, we need to study and read them repeatedly and constantly connect ourselves. Our understanding will naturally be different in different periods.
When we were children, when we read these three sentences and when we read them again now, the depth, breadth and height of our understanding must be completely different.
In the face of changes, "friends come from far away", is the visit of friends an interruption to our lives, or is it a kind of cooperation? No matter what, our original lives will change due to the visit of friends, so what attitude should we have in response to changes?
If we embrace change, adapt to change, and become those who control change, we should have the initiative. The one thing that never changes in life is change.
Faced with the puzzle of "people don't know but are not surprised", our best response is to treat each other with "joy". This is also the most worthy result of our practice in the end.
Everything happens spontaneously from the heart, not out of necessity. At this time, we have achieved the best state of cultivation.