"Integrate with light and dust, roll with the times, dive with scales, and think with the wind and cloud."
Judging from the book On the Collection of Emperor Xuandi, the general idea is that it contains brilliance and dust. It should curl and stretch with the changes of the four seasons and the rhythm of day and night, just like a fish hiding scales and a bird gathering its wings, always pay attention to the changes of heaven and earth, hide its utensils in the body and wait for the opportunity.
In fact, the earliest source of this sentence is Tao Te Ching.
Chapter four: "Whether Tao is used or not is as profound as the doctrine of all things. Defeat its spirit, solve its disputes, and its light, with its dust. Zhan Xi seems to exist, and I don't know whose son is like an emperor. "
Chapter 56: "The knower doesn't speak, but the speaker doesn't know. Plug the switch and close the door; Frustrate their spirit and resolve their disputes; Harmony with its light and dust is called Xuan Tong. "
Some scholars who have studied the Tao Te Ching believe that "frustrating its sharpness, resolving its disputes, sharing its dust with its light" appears twice in the original work, which means that Laozi emphasizes and attaches importance to its life thoughts of "frustrating its sharpness, resolving its disputes" and "reconciling its dust", which should be the core idea of the book; Some scholars also think that the word "12" appearing in the fourth chapter is suspected of misinformation and should not appear here. No matter how the academic circles understand it, "settling down to resolve disputes" and "sharing the dust with the light" are profound principles of self-cultivation and a humble and harmonious attitude towards life in China culture.
"Closing the door" literally means closing the five senses that sense external information, such as eyes, tongue, mouth, nose and ears. In fact, it refers to eliminating the interference of the external environment and focusing on the arrangement and repair of the internal environment. Excessive stimuli such as sound, light and taste will make people restless and lose peace ("five colors make people blind, five tones make people deaf, five flavors")
"Discourage its spirit and resolve its disputes" eliminates external interference, and then you can start sorting out your inner things. "What's inside must be tangible and what's outside must be tangible". The sharp edges and corners on the outside have no other advantages except to show their own personality. Sharp edges and corners are bound to have angles, which are easy to stab others and may also hurt themselves. So the damage should be reduced. How to "lose" When you start by solving your inner troubles, you can unify yourself in your heart. Internal disturbance is flat, external manifestation is obvious, natural and peaceful, and the edges and corners disappear.
"With its light, with its dust", the reason why people are independent of the sky must be due to their independent personality. It is not to eliminate the unique views, opinions and ideas in your heart and make it the same as others. On the contrary, its heart is square, its appearance is round, and the light it emits is restrained, just like the rising sun, which is bright, soft and not weak. However, looking at him, elegant, like morning light, like dust, getting along with people, emitting a soft light, making people feel warm, dressed simply, making people feel clean and naive. However, it has always been an independent corner of the world, sharing dust with everything.