Throughout history, the sigh of time is the sigh that we see the most, this sigh in the Analects of Confucius is no exception, Zi in the Sichuan said: "The dead are like Sif", this is a familiar sentence, this sentence is very subtle, but how many vicissitudes in it? That is to say, "The world has been saddened by the past a few times, but the mountains are still pillowed by the river." That is to say, Mount Cangshan does not age, but there is a lot of pathos in people's hearts that flows endlessly throughout the ages. This is like the famous "Spring River and Moonlit Night" issued by the groundless to the "river, who first saw the moon, the river and the moon in the beginning of the illumination of the people, the life of endless generations, the river and the moon year after year is only similar to the river and the moon, do not know the river and the moon to wait for the who, but the Yangtze River to send flowing water." In such a heaven and earth leisurely, rivers and mountains have feelings, such a kind of thing storage flow, each person, a small person, a fleeting life, we have what kind of life planning? Many times is pale, some once planning, will feel give up a lot, will leave a lot of regret.
Just as Confucius looked at the flowing water marveled at the same time, he and to himself, to his students, to thousands of generations of descendants put forward such a description, he said he "I fifteen and ruled in the study, thirty and standing, forty and not confused, fifty and know the fate of heaven, sixty and ears, seventy from the heart, not over the rule." This is a crude life coordinate, in such a coordinate there will be several stages of things to do will be particularly emphasized. Today, let's go through it from the beginning and see how valuable this way of life depicted by the sages is to us. In fact, human life is but a period of time borrowed from the light of day, and as the years pass, what this period of our own life is engraved into, what becomes our immortality, what becomes our epitaph, everyone has reasons to describe an ideal, but everything begins with the process of socialization, from a natural person to a person governed by social rules, and this is the starting point of learning. Confucius' "fifteen years of study" can be said to be a starting point for himself and a requirement for his students. Confucius himself often said, "I was not born to know, but to know the past, and to be keen to seek it." No one is born knowing many things, but I am just very interested in all the things that the ancients have experienced, and I am able to diligently pursue them and study them carefully. So Confucius said what about people like me, there is no shortage of people like me who are benevolent and righteous, but people who are good learners like me are rare. This is how he felt when he started school at fifteen.
Today we know that we are a learning society, and there is a common international standard for learning that says, "What kind of learning is good learning? It is learning that leads to behavioral change. In fact, this subverts our past standards, everyone used to think that leads to a change in thinking is good learning. For example, a point of view, a theory, even a hearsay, "into the ear, out of the mouth" can be told to others, is a kind of learning. But today, only when it leads to the reshaping of a person's entire value system, and when the way of behavior becomes more efficient, more convenient, and more in line with the requirements of society, is it a good learning. Therefore, Confucius' learning requirement, as early as more than 2000 millennia ago, was a simple criterion, "Learning to apply". In fact, in today's information age, there are so many things to learn. Nowadays, children are no longer attending school at the age of fifteen, they have started learning long before they are five years old, but what have they learned? There are many children who can memorize pi and many, many bits, and there are many children who can recite long ancient poems in front of guests, but is memorizing pi really useful for him in this life? Today's schooling and how much is the kind of Confucius said for their own learning to be able to learn to use, so in an information age, we are faced with the sadness of the information "too little too late", "too little too late" this four words from the "Analects", "Analects" in fact, think that all the good things have its degree, rather than chewing too much not rotten, his brain copy into a computer memory, but also better to put the limited knowledge of the integration, dissolve into their own. and dissolve it into one's life. We can now say that college education has a standardized length, but the length is certain, the width is uncertain, what everyone learns in the limited time, perhaps Confucius such a combination of learning and thinking will give us a very good inspiration, only after walking through such a period of time, such an experience, and gradually and gradually improve, have some understanding, in order to arrive at what he said thirty and stand up.
What is it?
Outside the voice: "Thirty years old" is a familiar phrase, and almost every young man will ask himself, "Have I stood up? So what is considered to be established, is it necessary to have a car, a house, or what kind of position is considered to be established? What are the important changes in a person's life at the age of majority?
And let's talk about the age of thirty. The age of thirty, in today's city, in the heart of the weaning period greatly delayed era, thirty years old is still many people called boy, girl, so can people in this world what kind of and stand? What kind of responsibility is a "standing"? In fact, we all know that in philosophy, Hegel once put forward a "positive, negative, together" three stages, the earliest education received by people, people's beliefs are positive, we just read in elementary school, even before elementary school, read a lot of fairy tales, believe that the sun is bright, flowers are delicate red, the hearts of the people are kind, the world is full of light, the prince and the princess can ultimately be together, there is no sadness in this world. world has no sorrow. This is actually the positive stage. But grow to the teenage time will appear we often say small cynicism, twenty-something years old just stepped into society, will feel that all the society is not satisfactory, will feel that the adult world on their own deception, the world is full of ugly, trivial, full of a lot of meanness and fraud, the growth of the youth at this time has its own unique bleakness, the person to this time, people will inevitably show a kind of backlash, is what we Often referred to as the reverse psychology. Then go to the age of thirty, thirty should be life "together" stage, that is, do not feel like a teenager when all the light, not like the twenties when all the bleak. At the age of thirty, this kind of standing is first of all the inner standing, and then it is a symbol given to oneself by the external social coordinates. In terms of inner independence of mind, what is good learning? It is the use of all learning for the self, which is a kind of learning required by Chinese culture. How does a person reach such a state of integration? There are two ways of learning for Chinese people, one is that I note the Six Sutras, and the other is that the Six Sutras note me.
I note "six scriptures" way of reading is very bitter, need to white head and poor scriptures it, the hair are read white, read all the books, can go to annotate, understand all this. But a higher realm is called the "six scriptures" note me, really good learning is to integrate all the canonical books, and then use it to interpret their own lives. That is to say, the age of thirty, really in the cultural coordinates of the ancient Chinese, he is a mind to build confidence in the age. It does not lie in the formation of many external things in opposition, but the formation of a fusion and enhancement, like a couplet on Mount Tai, "the sea to the end of the sky as the shore, the mountain to the top of the peak I am the peak" This is the Chinese people for the mountains and rivers of a kind of feeling, it is never about the conquest, but the mountains and rivers of the self-improvement, like the sea to the end of the day, the sky for the shore, there is no border, the life of the mountain to the top of the mountain ranges, is not a kind of hyperbole to say that I put the mountains under my feet, but the mountains, the mountains and the mountains, the mountains are not the only ones. It is not an exaggeration to say that I have trampled the mountains under my feet, but rather that I have become a peak on top of a mountain. In fact, this is a kind of interpretation of the "Six Classics". So thirty and standing should be said that Confucius has been teaching students is a simple, simple way of life, a lot of things should not worry about should not worry about, to do a good job in front of us. We know that Confucius actually did not talk much about gods and ghosts, and this is called "the son does not speak of strange powers that confuse the gods", and when students asked him about these things, he adopted a kind of evasive attitude. One of his students once asked about ghosts and gods, "Teacher, are there really ghosts and gods? What is the matter with those ghosts and gods?"" You haven't done well on earth, so don't think about ghosts and gods." Then the Teacher told him lightly, "If you fail to serve people, how can you serve ghosts?" Have you served the affairs of men well? It's better for you to be plain for this kind of study, to start with the immediate, to learn human relations, and not to think about ghosts and gods. Then came a very esoteric question, (outside the words) "Teacher, people will always die, so what is the matter with the dead?"" You haven't understood the matter of life yet, Kai? Go and mention death again?" The teacher again told him faintly, "How can you know death without knowing life?" The teacher also told him lightly, "How do you know death when you don't know life? In fact, "How can you know death when you don't know life?" These six words are an inspiration to all of us, that is, in your initial learning, first of all, we can grasp the things in life as much as possible to learn and establish, do not have to go beyond the age to consider those unattainable or esoteric things. Only by learning little by little in this way can we truly establish ourselves when we reach the age when we should establish ourselves. Therefore, my understanding of the so-called "30 years old" is not an external social coordinate to measure how successful you have been, but an internal spiritual standard to measure whether your life has begun to have a spiritual introspection and calmness, and whether you have begun to have a kind of self-confidence and a kind of firmness in what you are doing. I know a lot of Chinese literati do things without utilitarian purposes, Liu Zongyuan's poem is well said, called "fishing alone in the cold river snow", we think about it, in such a cold winter, our vision of the lonely Demoiselle Weng, what is he fishing? No one can catch fish in winter, but he was fishing for snow. This is what the people of Wei and Jin said, you go to visit friends and ask for friends, you can cross the meal streams in one night, over the mountains and across the water to the friend's door without knocking on the door to return. Why? I missed this friend, I came here on a pleasure trip, and when I arrived, I returned as happy as I could be. In other words, to do something that is truly determined in one's heart, beyond utilitarianism, is probably a kind of standard, that is, one recognizes what kind of guideline I have for what I do in my life. When this kind of guideline is lost again in the past, another ten years, forty and not confused.
Outside the voice: Prof. Yu Dan believes that not everyone is able to be unconfused at the age of forty, modern society is full of variables, people in their forties have old people and young people, and the pressure of work is very great, in such an environment, how can we not be confused in our hearts?
In fact, the concept of confusion is something we have seen articulated on different occasions in the Analects of Confucius, where the so-called "benevolent man is not worried, the wise man is not confused, and the brave man is not afraid". How can you really not be afraid of confusion this requires great wisdom. From the time we stand up to the time we are not confused, this is the best time of our life, in fact, before the age of thirty, we are using the method of addition to live, that is, constantly collecting his qualifications from the world, his learning experience, wealth, emotion, reputation, which are all using the method of addition, in fact, the more material things, the more easily confused people are. How can we get to forty and not be confused? That is, after thirty years of age, you start to use subtraction to live, is not your mind really need to learn to give up things. In fact, our heart is like a new house, people just moved in when they want to put all the furniture and decorations in it, when the last home set up like a hutong, found that there is no place to put their own, which is enslaved to something, and learn to subtract, that is, those who do not want to make friends to give up, do not want to do things can be refused, and even do not want to earn the money not to be subjected to that aggrieved when the dare to give up! When dare to give up, people close to the real state of not confused. What is called not confused? That is, people face a lot of injustice in the world to you ah, blow ah, shortcomings ah, no longer assiduously ask why unfair, but in such a coordinate quickly establish their own rightful position. Mr. Feng Youlan, a modern philosopher, has this sentence: "Explaining the old state to assist the new life, very bright and the road to mediocrity," in fact, the road to mediocrity is extremely bright, that is, the ancient Chinese said that the splendor of the extreme and return to the plain, really have had a very bright, in your twenties, thirty years old, had to strive for Yang Li, then walked through the "not confused" when the time to show for such a calm and relaxed. In fact, people in their thirties and forties, it is just to be used in the social use of the time, and then next to the age of fifty, there is a meaningful word called know the fate of the world.
Talking outside: What does Confucius mean by knowing the fate of heaven? It is people often say fate, destiny, destiny sometimes need to have, destiny is not the time do not force. Does Confucius think that when you reach fifty, you should listen to the fate of God? According to Prof. Yu Dan, to know the fate of heaven at fifty never means to listen to the fate of heaven, so what exactly does Confucius mean by the fate of heaven?
What is fate? Confucius himself did once say, he said that life to a certain time, to your own learning, learning to a certain time so a realm, people should be "down to learn and up to", that is to say, to be able to understand what is their destiny. As we have just said, in Confucius' classical thought, he always did not advocate talking about "strange power and disordering God", so how did he look at the destiny of Heaven? I never complain to Heaven, I never criticize others, I learn from below and reach upwards, and I know that I am a man of Heaven." He said that I never complained to Heaven or others, i.e., I did not complain that Heaven's fate had made me this way, nor did I shift the blame to others, saying that others had caused me to be this way, and that what I wanted to learn was to reach up to the heavens, to reach the heavenly truths, and that the "heavenly truths of the one who knows me" referred to the rules of Heaven and Earth's great road, so that I could be in line with the great road. In fact, "not complaining to Heaven, not criticizing others" is what we often say today, is it easy to use just six words? If a person to do so, that is hard to a lot of you can vent out the complaints, harshness are pressed in their own hearts, if you no longer to others to shirk their responsibilities, it means that they have a lot fewer excuses, then Confucius said why can do so? It is the perfection of one's heart, the interpretation of the self, the pursuit of conformity to the Great Way, is much more important than you in society with the requirements of others, the harshness of others. Confucius said: "The gentleman reaches up, the villain reaches down", only the villain will constantly gossip in interpersonal disputes, only the villain is always thinking about how to say others are unfavorable to himself, while the gentleman would rather establish a great way within himself, so this great way is what he called "heavenly destiny". It is not necessary to do a lot of skills, this is what Confucius said, "do not know the fate, no thought of a gentleman; do not know the ritual, no thought of standing; do not know the words, no way to know the people also. Here said "know life, know manners, know words" three realms, in fact, the growth of life is backwards, we are the first to know is "know words" in the words with people and reading to understand the society, which can do to know people, know how others. But knowing people can not guarantee that you do not want to complain about others, you will also complain about others, because everyone "foot has its shortcomings, inch has a long" between the length of the bumps and bruises will occur. The next level is "know the ritual", after knowing the ritual, people can do "stand", that is to say, people self established, this kind of complaint will be much less; a higher level is "know the life", this know the life is what Confucius said, as a gentleman established a self-circulating system, he has a kind of calm power to fight against the outside world, this is the knowledge of the life.
That's why we can know the fate of heaven, that is to say, by this time, we can basically do "not complain to heaven, not to others", and reach the state of Confucius, which is a kind of inner strength. In fact, in Zhuang Zi "free travel", there is also such an expression, "free travel" said, to achieve "and lifting the world and the reputation of the world without persuasion, lifting the world and the wrong without discouragement, set inside and outside of the division, the defense of glory and shame of the realm, S has been enough." This is enough. What does it mean? When the whole world is praising you and advising you to take a step forward, he does not encourage you to do so, but he says, "I won't". When the whole world is criticizing you, when the whole world is criticizing you, when the whole world is saying that you are doing wrong, you can keep your heart without frustration, without discouragement, and this is what is called the distinction between inside and outside of the household.
In fact, when we come to the destiny of heaven, it reminds us of Jin Yong who wrote about the realm of Dokuroku in his martial arts novels. That is to say, in the expression of Chinese martial arts novels, often we will be able to see, a young warrior, the first time out of the world, with a world's unparalleled, sharp and incomparable Qingfeng sword, at this time, all that kind of Xiaoxiao sword Qi, that kind of flamboyant luster, is a person's splendor of the extreme. By the time he has advanced in his martial arts, and is in his thirties, and has really settled down to become a sect, a master, or a famous knight-errant in the rivers and lakes, this person may use a blunt sword without an open edge, because sharpness is now unimportant to him, and his inner strength begins to become macro-expansive and thick. By the time this person is in his forties, and has become a great warrior who has shaken the rivers and lakes, and has transcended one school after another, and has become the embodiment of a kind of moral righteousness, this person may only use a wooden stick, that is to say, that kind of sharpness of the metal, that kind of texture is no longer important to him, and there is such a thing as an external thing. And wait until he really go to the highest realm, what is the realm of the lone wolf, but seek a defeat and can not, because at this time there is no weapon in the hands of the person, this time all eighteen martial arts materialized, that is to say, his hands may be able to whistling out of the sword, the two full of a swing may be able to become a copper hammer, all the martial arts in the inner heart of the person, all in his limbs, so why the enemy can not receive! So why can't the enemy catch this kind of move, can't break it? It is because you do not know how much he dissolved into the martial arts, so the realm of integration has been the highest state of Chinese culture revered. The so-called know the fate of heaven in fact is to put the world, the truth of earthly learning, and finally reached a dissolution of the elevation. After reaching this realm, Confucius said, sixty years old and smooth ears.
The word "smooth" means what kind of words can be listened to? But in real life, people often may encounter things that do not go well, hear bad words, and even see the compulsion, even among sixty-year-olds there will inevitably be disputes, so how can we really be obedient to the ear?
Confucius said: sixty and obedient ears, and then listen to what kind of words, listen to what people say that people have a reason, this must be on their own destiny to understand, under this premise, in order to achieve the greatest respect for others. What is "obedience"? It means that for any matter, you will feel that there is a reason for its existence; when you listen to any kind of words, you will stand at his starting point to understand why he said so. In fact, the realm of "obedience to ear", expressed in a word of Chinese culture, is a kind of compassion, a kind of compassionate heart, that is to say, you can really understand and comprehend the starting point and interests of all people, this is a kind of tolerance, this is a kind of experience. That is to say, when you meet so many people, when each person appears with his life presentation, we have reason to be surprised, but if your system can sympathize with his system, if you know what kind of life journey he has brought to this day, maybe there will be more understanding. How is it that Confucius was able to teach according to his ability in the face of so many students? It's actually a height.
There is a proverb that says, two clouds can only generate rain if they meet at the same height. Higher is not good, lower is not good, in fact, the "ear" of the person, is whether the cloud in 5,000 meters or 500 meters, he can always sympathize with his height, his position and his thoughts.
In fact, if a person wants to be obedient to the ear, he must first realize that he is immensely broad and can meet different heights, instead of being a boatman and waiting for a rabbit, letting his own standards stick to a certain place. In fact, it may be more appropriate to explain "mediocrity" from this point of view. Mediocrity" is actually the inner cultivation and melting after learning all the external knowledge. This kind of cultivation and melting is like the physics experiments we often do in elementary school or middle school, the teacher gave us a pencil, a circle divided into seven equal parts, painted with seven colors, poked at the pen and turned, appeared to be white. This white color is gorgeous after the extreme, in fact, this is a kind of external reason of heaven and earth in their own internal integration, to achieve such a realm, in order to achieve what Confucius said, the year to seventy from the heart without exceeding the rules.
What's more, when we reach the age of seventy, is it possible for us to do what we want to do without overstepping the boundaries? Do we have to wait until we are seventy years old to reach the highest state pursued by such a special system of life? According to Prof. Yu Dan, life is too short to wait until seventy, so what can we do to reach the highest state of life as soon as possible?
I once read such a story, said in a Buddhist temple, so for a granite carving of a very exquisite statue of Buddha, every day there are a lot of people to worship here, but the steps leading to this statue of Buddha is with it from the same mountain stone a lot of granite, and finally one day, these steps become disobedient, they protested to the statue of Buddha, said look at us this is a brother, we come from the same mountain, how can we be the same as a brother? We come from the same mountain, why should people step on me to worship you? What's so great about you? That statue of Buddha then lightly said to these steps, because you only went through four cuts to walk on this post today, while I am a thousand cuts finally become Buddha.
So the realm of life we see described by Confucius, the later the more emphasis on the inner, the later the more calm and gentle, before this calm, in fact, how many thousands of hammering, even to the death of a thousand cuts to go through, only to understand one of such an external process, to be able to steadily build their own inner.
Confucius said the description of such a life course, perhaps for us today is also a mirror on different milestones, take a look at their own hearts, whether it has been up, whether less meditation, whether it has been through the heaven and earth Avenue, whether it has been tolerant compassion to sympathize with others, whether it has been finally done from the heart. This kind of care is not enough, because life is short, and in such an accelerated society, it is too late for us to wait for seventy years. In fact, life has a physical age, a psychological age, a social age, we have multiple latitudes of age, the real efficiency of life is that we may be in our twenties, or perhaps in our thirties, to be able to realize the realm of the forties and fifties ahead of time, perhaps when we are forty years old, we can already do what we want to do with the same kind of composure and calmness. Today's society puts too much pressure on everyone, but a person who effectively builds an inner value system can turn this pressure into a kind of anti-tension in life.
British scientists announced an experiment, which is not a fable, is a real experiment, they tried to try a pumpkin such a common cheap plant vitality can have a strong experiment in a lot of many at the same time the growth of small pumpkin on the weights, plus the premise of it is the maximum limit of his tolerance, neither to crush it, and do not put it pressure not in the growth of the In order to ensure that it can grow under the premise of pressing the most weights, then different pumpkin pressure different weights, only one pumpkin pressure the most, from a few grams a day, a day dozens of grams, hundreds of grams a day, to a day a few kilograms, until this pumpkin and other pumpkins without the quality of the growth of the mature time, this pumpkin has been pressed on top of the hundreds of pounds of the weights. The final experiment is to put this pumpkin and other pumpkins together, we try to use a knife to plow down what kind of texture? When other pumpkins are hand up the knife down the poof smash open, this pumpkin knife down the pop open, axe down the pop open, and finally this pumpkin is bared with the electric theater to saw, the strength of the pumpkin flesh is equivalent to an adult tree trunk. What kind of experiment is this? This is an experiment in life today. This is the best portrayal of the external environment and internal counter-tension that we modern people live in. Is there any reason why we should not mature earlier under such pressure? In fact, the phrase "striving only for a day and a half" couldn't be more appropriate today. 10,000 years is too long, and 70 years is too long, too. Studying the Analects, studying the classics, and all the experiences of the ancient sages and sages ultimately have only one true meaning, that is, to make our lives, illuminated by the rays of these wisdoms, enhance our efficiency and shorten our journey, so that we can build up a gentlemanly, benevolent and loving heart, able to conform to the standards of social morality and righteousness, no matter whether it is for our own hearts or for social positions, make the best use of our time. for our own hearts, and for the posts of society, to give a blameless account of ourselves, so that the sooner we can realize that highest state of life in advance, the better. I say that the significance of the sages lies in the fact that they used their simple language to show the way of life thousands of years ago, and viewed the descendants of the future generations, either ignorantly, consciously, painfully or joyfully, to realize it one by one, to build up their own efficiency, and to correct and harmonize the souls of the nation, so that our classical spiritual power can be rounded and fused into a kind of effective ingredient under the rules of modernity and then let each one of us really build up a useful life. The Analects of Confucius gives us the inspiration to build up a useful life.