I would like to ask the city residents who live in the cement forest in a hurry, do you often look up at the sky overhead with deep affection? Have you ever cared whether the sky is still blue, whether the clouds are still white, and whether the western sky is still the sunset of childhood?
Shake off the city covered in red dust, wearing a cloth and sandals, standing on the yellow land of my hometown, I am an ordinary crop in Yuan Shang, looking up at the sky every time.
The loess plateau in early autumn. On the ground, yellow land and yellow vegetation are pure gold; Overhead, the blue sky is clean and spotless; Between heaven and earth, white clouds float leisurely. Clouds are three-dimensional, with distinct edges, alternating light and dark, and endless changes. Ruminating like a lying cow for a while, and expedition like a camel team for a while ... The blue sky is deep and unpredictable, the earth is solid and heavy, and the white clouds are leisurely and carefree, out of reach, touching and thought-provoking.
Is this the cloud when I was a child?
Is this the cloud in my hometown?
I left the mountain village and lived in the city for more than twenty years. Come to think of it, in the past twenty years, I have probably never sat alone in the wilderness looking at the blue sky and white clouds like today. This discovery shocked my mind: is the sky in the city not blue, or is the cloud in the city not beautiful, or is my mind covered with dust?
Modern people live in a place called "city": all the land is hard and hard, all the lawns don't grow crops, all the trees don't bear fruit, and all the animals are spoiled-no eggs, no milk and no calves. There is no running water in the mountains, no frogs, drums, cicadas, only cold bamboo shoots, flowing steel, crazy consumption, creating smoke all over the sky and mountains of garbage ... People are like ants running around in the cement forest, with gray yards on their heads and noisy streets on the ground. Where can there be blue sky and white clouds? Who will look up at the sky and be bored to see the clouds?
Long time no see, blue sky and white clouds.
Modern men and women in the city have reason to disdain the blue sky and white clouds, have reason to be indifferent to droughts and floods, and have reason to be ignorant of the alternation of the four seasons. Sitting in the concrete shell of the iron gate and the iron window, they have the clairvoyance of TV and computer network, and the clairvoyance of mobile phones and pagers, and they can "capture everything happening around the world" without leaving home. You can bring the blue sky in America, the white clouds in Australia and the virgin forests in Africa to your home for your own enjoyment. When "cool" and "handsome" urban men and women indulge in discos, karaoke bars, oxygen bars and Internet cafes, they have become a group of gluttons who spend money crazily, and a group of poor bugs stuck on the Internet. No matter whether the clouds outside the window are sunny and Wan Li is clear, no matter whether the world is rusty or not, I can't hear or understand the beautiful voice of nature.
When I left the city and returned to my hometown after a long separation, the vast yellow land accepted me with her same broad mind. In this mature land, I stand with my head down in the same scenery as sorghum and as pious as yellow land. I also cut myself, put my limbs flat on the ground, and put a "big" word. Lying on his back on the yellow land of his hometown, looking at the blue sky and white clouds; Smell the smell of earth and the fragrance of weeds; Listening to voles flirting, autumn insects singing ... Tao Tao was naturally drunk. Only when the body and mind are close to the earth can we truly feel the massiness of the earth, the vastness of the sky and the beauty of nature; I feel that I have found my lost self, and I have found the innocence of a child, a real life.
In the embrace of nature, I feel my own smallness.
Laozi said: "The Tao is big, the sky is big, the land is big, and the people's congress. Man's law is based on the earth, the earth is based on the sky, the sky is based on the Tao, and the Tao is natural. " More than two thousand years ago, he revealed the relationship between man and nature, and thought that the existence of nature was the highest realm of life. In Zhuangzi's view, man is "between heaven and earth, like a small stone in the mountain and Xiao Mu" and "like a grain of rice in big warehouse", which is insignificant compared with nature. At this time, I am not a grass, an insect or an ordinary crop on this vast loess plateau.
A city is a gathering place for the achievements of human civilization and a great masterpiece of mankind. Country people dream of becoming city people, city people are proud of owning cities, and modern people are proud of conquering nature. Desire has been expanding since humans walked upright. From farming and nomadism to industrialization and urbanization, the city is like a monster with huge energy, constantly eating away at the land, devouring the countryside, plundering the rural scenery, squeezing people into narrow walls, away from the blue sky and white clouds, and away from the natural landscape ... But the voice of human yearning for nature and returning to nature has never stopped, and nature's revenge on human beings has never stopped, sometimes even devastating. Let's look at the birthplace of ancient civilization. What did Maya civilization, Nile civilization and Loulan civilization leave for mankind? Some pottery fragments, stones and ruins. When humans cut down the first tree with a stone axe and walked out of the forest, apes bid farewell and humans moved towards civilization. When man cut down the last tree on the earth, the building of civilization began to collapse. ...
This is a disaster brewed by anthropocentrism.
Shan Ying's shrill cry woke me up from my thoughts. Shan Ying probably took me as prey. When I opened my eyes, the eagle had already flown in the blue sky. No fireworks, no noise, long days, long land, long clouds and long hearts. The grass is trying to grow, the cicada is trying to scream, and every life is proving its existence in its own way. At this time, I felt ants crawling all over my trouser legs, grasshoppers jumping freely on my chest, and a lizard came out of my neck and crawled towards my face. The lizard's stomach was cold on my face, and then I really thought it was a cold-blooded animal. I played with lizards when I was a child, but I've never seen them so close. The lizard under the eyelid is huge, like a reptile dinosaur, with a triangular head held high and a letter in its mouth, standing proudly on me. I felt its weight and read its contemptuous eyes. We just looked at each other, without malice or interruption. A variant of this dinosaur was demonstrated in front of me, allowing all the small animals to crawl all over the body. I think they are so close to me that they probably regard me as an ordinary crop or a strange insect.
In fact, in ancient times, as long as they were animals, most of them could be called insects. "Dai Yi's Lifelong Monument Core" said: "There are 360 feathered insects, and the phoenix is its long; The caterpillar is 360, and the unicorn is long; There are 360 beetles with long turtles; There are three hundred and sixty scale worms, and dragons are long for them; The worm is 360, and the sage is long. " It seems that birds with feathers are insects, unicorns with short hair are insects, turtles with shells are insects, and dragons with scales are insects. Even people are called insects and are local caterpillars. Authentic insects are not among the above insects. In fact, animals have always been kind to human beings and regarded human beings as companions who shared the earth's resources with them. The ancients also treated animals and people equally for a long time.
It is said that American law punishes cruelty to animals very severely. The Fisheries Law stipulates that insects and shrimps cannot be used as bait, and young lives are not allowed to be harmed. Small fish and pregnant females should be put back into the lake; The hook should not have barbs, for fear of tearing the fish's lips when taking the hook and aggravating the fish's pain. The hunting law also clearly stipulates that only two shots are allowed, and these two shots are released before being killed, in order to alleviate the pain of animals ... The American forest police are very arrogant and ruthless, and they strictly investigate fishermen and hunters. If problems are found, hell to pay will be. If the juvenile or female fish whose body length and weight do not reach the specified limit is caught, 500 yuan will be fined.
The ancients and westerners were so kind to animals and pursued ecological ethics, but what about our people?
At this time, I want to be a crop that watches the earth and the blue sky every day, a carefree insect. Unfortunately, this crop and this insect have left this land for many years. I wonder if they can grow up freely again under the blue sky and white clouds in their hometown?
advance and retreat
It is certainly good for a person to be proactive and achieve a vigorous career, but it will be another realm if he can know how to turn back in time and be good at retreating. Buddhist poetry:
Put your hands in the field,
You can see the water in the sky by looking down.
Six clean roads are roads,
Backward is forward.
This poem shows the scene of farmers bending over to transplant rice seedlings in rice fields. Poetry tells us a truth: to know yourself and observe your own nature, you must step back and lower your head. The world looking backward is wider than the world looking forward, and the world looking down is wider than the world looking up. Only by turning back, letting go, being humble and forbearing can we enter the truly carefree and comfortable realm of freedom.
Buddha believes that there are two worlds in life: one is the forward world and the other is the backward world. If we can grasp these two worlds at the same time-go forward bravely and turn back decisively when we turn back, life will be more perfect. However, in the commodity age when material desires awaken and the soul sleeps, all beings, driven by fame, desire and vanity, often only know how to move forward. The pressure of survival, the cruelty of competition and the temptation of material make people constantly alienated into slaves of money and machines chasing fame and fortune. Life is an endless drudgery. Few people can turn back, and there is still a vast space behind them. When they stick to their own opinions, go their own way and hit a wall everywhere, they have already paid a heavy price for their lives, and it is too late to regret it!
Zeng Guofan, an important official in the Qing Dynasty, entered the official career for the first time, which can be described as a towering officialdom. But since he was ordered to go back to Hunan for group training, he has been out of the mountain for five years, and he has lived the way of Confucianism and Legalism. Although he is upright, he can't be allowed to be in Hunan and Jiangxi officialdom. Loyal to the emperor, but attracted the jealousy of the elders; Always doing things impartially, but hitting a wall everywhere. After his career was frustrated, he retired to his hometown, Heyetang, to recuperate, and sought advice from Taoist priests in the mountains. The ugly Taoist said: Huang Qi can cure physical diseases, while Huang Lao can cure heart diseases. Teach him to abandon Confucianism for the time being and switch to the technique of Huang Lao. Zeng Guofan lived in a secluded lotus pond, quietly tasted the Tao Te Ching and the South China Ching, and finally realized: "Great softness is not soft, just not just." It turns out that China's entry into WTO is complementary. A Tao Te Ching can be summed up in five words: weak wins over strong. After that, he used Zhu Cheng's birthright openly, used Shen Han's method secretly, and mixed Huang Lao's weakness, so he came out again and succeeded in one fell swoop. When Jinling recovered, the chaos was put down, his power was high, and his achievements covered the world, he took the initiative to disarm and retire. In his later years, he named his study "Autumn Quezhai", which shows that he longed for the shortcomings of life and did not seek perfection. There are also Yao and Shun who abdicated and let the country go, leaving an eternal name; Beihong and Qing Shizu died in mourning, and they took off their yellow robes and put on their robes, which was even more enlightening, and truly reflected Lao Tzu's Taoist style of "becoming, retiring and being heaven". In fact, the sun, the moon and the sky pass by, and the night comes out; Cold comes to summer, and Qiu Lai comes in winter; Life is full of plants and trees; Flowers bloom and fall, and they are endless. They came and went in a hurry, leaving behind fruits, and naturally withdrew from the ranks of life, leaving no trace. Isn't this the heaven of nature? What a sad thing it is that only human beings covet possession and pursue immortality.
A bus came in the distance, and everyone was desperately crowded with it. When I got on the bus, I looked back and saw an empty car coming from behind. When a person encounters bumps and setbacks in the journey of life, if he can persist in "forbearance, broad horizons;" To take a step back, the sky is wide and the sky in front of us is clear and clear; When a person is in adversity and frustrated in life, he can think of the old saying that "turning back is the shore", so where is the bright and infinite hope?
In the afterlife, a gentleman should stand tall, be accommodating all his life, be generous to the world, and be immune to himself. The ancients said: Heaven avoids profit, and the industry is not profitable. Sometimes retreat is progress, and peace is gain. Where the path is narrow, leave a step with pedestrians; When the taste is strong, subtract three points for people to eat. Endurance is an indomitable spirit and a manifestation of the great desire to sacrifice the ego to complete the ego and benefit all beings. In Laozi's view, keeping the meaning of music or being content with perfection is the perfect way to live. He believes: "Flexion is the whole, waste is the straight, depression is the surplus, I am new, less is the gain, more is the confusion." It is this dialectics of life that enables a person to see the whole, see the straightness in waste, see the surplus in depression, see the new and see less in our life, thus avoiding chaos and achieving perfection in these two poles. The Christian Bible says, "Love your enemy"; Confucius told his disciples: "Good for good, not responsible for others"; The Buddha's "Lucky Compassion" and "Compassion with the Same Body" treat people and everything in the world equally, which is the enlightenment and awakening of human future consciousness. Only when a person has virtuous, generous and tolerant cultivation and mind can he become a real man.
How can we take a step back, endure three points and turn back in time? Buddha believes that if someone gets all the wealth in the world, it is better to listen to a dharma. He advised all sentient beings: if you get lost, you will know to return, and if you suddenly realize it, you will become a Buddha. Laozi taught us that "sin is greater than desire, disaster is greater than dissatisfaction, and blame is greater than desire." He advocates that people should be content with poverty and be happy. Confucius said, "Listen in the morning and die at night!" He believes that only contentment can make a way out. A gentleman seeks a way without seeking food, just as Yan Hui lives in a mean alley and eats and drinks without changing his pleasure. Lutz's clothes, robes and foxes are not shameful, which can be said to be deeply satisfying. People who indulge in debauchery all day will never understand the mystery.
According to legend, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty visited Jiangnan and stood at Jinshan Temple in Suzhou. When he saw the passing ships, he asked an old monk, "How many years has this old monk lived here?" The old monk said, "I have lived for decades." He asked again, "How many ships do you see coming and going every day?" The old monk twisted the beads with his hand and replied, "Only two." Emperor Qianlong was puzzled after hearing this. "What does this mean?" The old monk said, "There are only two boats in life, one for fame and the other for profit." Emperor Qianlong nodded deeply. The old monk told such a metaphor: bees fly around every day to collect pollen to make honey, and they work hard to make honey as feed for young bees. As a result, the honey thief smoked and burned all the bees out of the hive with fireworks, stole the honey, killed all the eggs and destroyed the hive. It is difficult for bees to make honey, and mussels cut jade into pearls, such as burning their teeth. What is the difference between these and human accumulation of wealth and trouble?
The world is bustling and famous; The world is bustling for profit. However, "everyone knows that immortals are good, but gold and silver can't be forgotten. In the end, I only hate to get together and close my eyes for a long time. " Even Deng Tong, who had a bronze mountain given by the emperor, could earn his own money and eventually starved to death? It is human nature to have endless desires. If you don't keep your soul, purify your soul and indulge in meditation, you will never be satisfied: think more, think more, think more, get more, get more, get more, get more trouble and pain.
Those who are not satisfied, although you are the son of heaven and rich in the world, are also miserable people, and there is no happiness at all. Those who are poor and happy are rich in spirit. Although they are only naked and have no food to eat, their hearts are clean and happy.
Buddha said: the sea of suffering is boundless, and turning back is the shore.
The wisdom of survival
I have never had an injection or infusion over 20 years old. I think my health quotient is quite high. One day in the early spring of this year, I suddenly fell ill and was admitted to the hospital.
After getting up this morning, I felt uncomfortable in my left ear. I pulled my ears and dug my ears, but it was still a mess. At that time, my first feeling was that I was deaf and entered the ranks of the disabled, so I thought of Beethoven's angry eyes and the deaf with hearing AIDS.
The wife said that the ear is the most important organ of the human body, and acute deafness is urgent. After work, I rushed to the hospital to find an otologist. The old expert twisted the hair of his left ear with his hand first, but I didn't respond. Then use the instrument to measure the hearing, and the result is that "the hearing of the left ear is seriously reduced." The expert asked me if I was tired from work and had a bad rest recently. I'm right. There were many meetings at the beginning of the year, and I stayed up late reading materials, which made me exhausted. The expert immediately made a diagnosis with confidence: "Acute nervous deafness, overwork, neurasthenia." He said it was another modern and fashionable disease. Fortunately, he came to the hospital in time for treatment. If he is not cured for a long time, he will be deaf for a long time. "Have a good rest for a few days, the body is the capital of the revolution, and life cannot be overdrawn ..."
Admitted to the hospital, as usual, it is an injection and infusion. The first time I was lying on my sickbed, although I had to endure unprecedented pain every day, I didn't hear the noise of the market, but it was also very quiet. Self-mockery is "experiencing life". Some people say that modern people enjoy too much happiness, but their happiness is getting less and less. They often don't know who they are and how to live. You should visit three places often: First, go to the hospital and feel good; The second is to look at the prison and feel that I am still a free man; The third is to visit the crematorium and feel that I am still living happily. However, we are often exhausted by a vulgar service and a half-paper reputation. Who wants to admit that we will face hospitals, prisons and crematoria tomorrow? Now I finally overdraw my life and my health is in a hurry. Is it worth it? Having health but not cherishing it, only after losing it can we understand the value of health, and we have paid the price.
Sick and bored, thinking about life, occasionally looking through old books, reading a Song of Half Words by Mr. Li Mian in Li Mo in Qing Dynasty. Suddenly, I was so thirsty that I took a good medicine. "Half-word Song" wrote: "He who sees through the floating life is infinitely useful. Half a year is leisure and half a year is work. Half country and half house, half mountain and half water countryside. Semi-cultivation, semi-study, semi-education, semi-marriage, semi-family. Semi-elegant, semi-rough, semi-Chinese and semi-real. Clothes are half plain and half fresh, vegetables are half rich and half frugal. A child servant is half capable and half clumsy, and his wife and children are half simple and half virtuous. The state of mind is half Buddha and half fairy, and the surname is half Shimada Hanzo. Half the world is returned, and half the world is made. Half thinking about future generations and Cang Tian, half thinking about what Yamaraja thinks. Half-drunk drinking is just right, and half-blooming flowers are beautiful. Half a sail avoids overturning, and half a rein stabilizes the horse. Half a little but spare the taste, half a lot of anti-entanglement. A hundred years of bitterness and joy only accounts for half. " This is the best interpretation of China's golden mean philosophy and the spirit of Buddhism and Taoism. Is a thorough understanding of life, a thorough understanding of life!
Since Laozi and Zhuangzi issued the cry of "Taoism is natural", "Heaven and earth are my life, and everything is one with me", human beings have begun the process of returning to nature while constantly conquering nature, but sadly, human beings have gone further and further and embarked on a road of no return. Until today, there are almost no virgin land on the earth. Man's desire for conquest, man's dependence and pursuit of material things have never been so strong as today.
This is a century when material desires awaken and the soul sleeps; This is a world of network survival and virtual life; This is an era of stimulating desire and crazy consumption. From "oral servitude" to "mental servitude", human beings who have been "material servitude" for too long finally move towards materialization and alienation. How many people care about the destination and meaning of life with detached and open-minded Taoist feelings from their compassion for all things in the world?
There are many contradictions in life, and there are always two opposing aspects. Great to advance and retreat, gain and loss, out and in, sadness and joy, right and wrong; Small to work and rest, struggle and entertainment, rationality and openness, prudence and chic. Dealing with these contradictions well is the art of life and the wisdom of survival. Confucianism advocates self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country, leveling the world, making positive progress and making contributions. Taoism believes that if you advance, you will retreat, if you gain, you will lose, and if you are full, you will lose-when the moon is full, it is the time to begin to fade. How to reconcile the contradiction between Confucianism and Taoism, some people put forward that "Confucianism and Taoism complement each other and are reversely conserved". This is the beauty of half-word philosophy. Confucianism and Taoism complement each other and keep half in the middle to get a happy life.
Yan Xishan believed in and practiced the philosophy of "Zhong" all his life, pushing it to the extreme. He said: "China is not biased, but not as good as it is. Unbiasedness is the fixed point of the Ministry, not as good as it is. The essence of' zhong' is one, not just one, but the balance of two plus one and two. " He believes that people's daily life, eating neither too much nor too little, wearing neither too cold nor too hot, living neither too big nor too small, using neither too extravagant nor too fast, is "moderate." "Zhong" is the law of achievement of all things. Everything is successful, and failure is ruined.
Zhuangzi led the students around the mountain and came to a logging farm. He saw a big tree with lush foliage and asked the woodcutter who was resting under it, "Are you going to cut down this big tree?" The woodcutter said, "It's no use, don't cut it." Zhuangzi smiled and said to the students, "Because it's useless, I won't be stabbed. This tree has a good life and can live for several years. " Zhuangzi went down to stay at a friend's house. The friend asked the boy to kill the chicken and entertain the guests. The boy asked, "Which of the two cocks will be killed?" A friend said, "It's useful. If you can prevent burglars, kill the one who doesn't like to scream. " On the way back to the paint garden the next day, a student asked the teacher, "The big tree on the mountain didn't sting yesterday because it was useless. The rooster at the foot of the mountain was stabbed because it was useless last night. Whether it works or not, you can get a knife. Which side does the teacher stand on? " Zhuangzi couldn't help laughing and said, "On the one hand, it's useful; on the other hand, it's useless. Neither side can stand, so we have to stand in the middle. Then I will stand between useful and useless-I am useless from the useful side and useful from the useless side. " Zhuangzi believes that standing in the middle sometimes leads to a very tired life. If you want to live a relaxed and happy life, and get rid of it completely, you can only walk with wings, work with wings, and Xiu De with wings, conform to nature, drift with the wind, walk up and down, advance and retreat freely, and live in harmony with everything, thus getting rid of the category of usefulness and uselessness. Without honor and blame, it is a happy life. He warned his disciples that Xiu De was the only way to settle down.
From the natural life of Laozi and Zhuangzi to Tao Qian's "Going back, the hometown will be destroyed in Hu Bugui!" ; From "Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest" to Li Bai's "If you drink today, you will get drunk today"; From Li Mo's Song of Half Words to Master Hongyi's advance and retreat, sages and sages always take the lead in understanding life among all sentient beings, and then enjoy life and become "half Buddha and half fairy" respected by generations.
Mediocre people are often tired of fame and fortune, in the final analysis, they are tired of expanding desires. Man's desire is innate and human nature. Without desire, there will be no human development and progress. Scholars from Ohio University in the United States have made a research result and put forward that all human behaviors are controlled by 15 basic desires and values. Curiosity, honor, appetite, sexual desire, independent consciousness, social prestige, family, disgust, revenge, fear, socialization, strength, order, sports, civil rights. It is these basic desires, which are different from those of animals, that constitute a huge "valley of desire" that can never be filled, which leads mankind to the abyss. Judging from the history of human development, people's desires are constantly expanding with the development and progress of society. In this respect, people today are not as good as the ancients. Confucius said to his student Yan Hui, "Yan Hui, your family is poor and your status is low. Why don't you be an official? " Yan Hui said, "I don't want to be an official. There are 50 acres of farmland outside my city, and it is enough to eat dry food every day; There are ten acres of Sang Ma Garden in the city, and it is enough to wear silk and hemp every year; It is enough to have a piano at home and entertain yourself with string songs; I have the truth taught by the teacher in my heart, and I am happy, which is enough. What do you mean, content? Why be an official? " . Hearing this, Confucius reflected on himself and said with emotion, "Your idea is really good. I believe that contented people are not worried about profit, complacent people are not afraid of failure, and people with improved morality are not ashamed of being low. I know these three sentences by heart, but I just can't do them. Seeing that you did it, I learned a lot. " Yan Hui has surpassed his teacher in life. In contrast, how do we treat life? All day long, I pursue fame and profit in the DPRK, pursue the market, satisfy my expanding desire in the cruel competition, and kill time, body and life in endless vulgar entertainment. It was not until the end of my life that I suddenly realized that it was too late to regret.
Colorless and transparent liquid is flowing into the body drop by drop, and the deaf left ear is becoming clearer. Physical diseases are easy to treat, but heart diseases are difficult to treat. I can still hear my thoughts on my deathbed, but tomorrow I will walk out of the hospital and devote myself to repeated intense work. Facing the endless suffering of the world of mortals, can I leave Li Mo in the middle and reach the realm of Yan Hui's life?