Hello everyone, today we will continue to talk about the "Tao Te Ching" and see what kind of wisdom Laozi has brought us.
Continuing from the previous talk today, Lao Tzu said, "Knowing the whiteness and keeping the blackness is the way of the world. It is the way of the world, and the constant virtue is not insatiable. The constant virtue is not inscrutable, and returns to the infinite." What does this mean? What I said in the previous days all rhymed, "Know the male, keep the female, be the stream of the world, never leave the virtue, and return to the baby". Then "know its glory, keep its humiliation", the sound of this humiliation, "for the valley of the world, constant virtue is sufficient, return to simplicity", you can see that they all rhyme. Today I don’t rhyme, but today I say “Knowing its whiteness and keeping its blackness is the way of the world. It is the style of the world, and the constant virtue is not insatiable. The constant virtue is not insatiable, and it returns to the infinite.” This “extreme” is different from the previous one, why is it so So what? Let's talk a little bit.
What does "know the white, keep the black" mean? "White" stands for light and light, and "white" is dark. What does Lao Tzu mean by this? It is to tell you that when you are in that special bright position, you should keep yourself in a dim state, don't make yourself too bright, and maintain a dim state, such people can do " world-style". What does "world style" mean? It is a model for the world, and "style" means normative, so it should be a model.
Why do we try to keep ourselves in a state of twilight when we are in the light? Why do you want to do this? Lao Tzu’s idea is the same as what I said before, that is, you must be sober at this time, you must lower your position, and know that you still have room for improvement. If you put it in a bright position, when you are particularly tall and bright, when the spotlights are all on you, if you feel that you are really so great, you will easily lose the motivation to improve, so I tell you to put Lower yourself, put it in a darker place, don't always make it very bright.
Is this useful in life? Is this really the case? We have said two passages of this kind of words from Lao Tzu before, and I have repeated the same thought, telling you that when you are in that holy state, you should lower your position and not set it too high up. Why does Lao Tzu emphasize this over and over again? In fact, Lao Tzu is correcting our human nature. What are the characteristics of our humanity? It is human nature to like being tall, to be respected, and to be in a high position. When we really have resources, you really have achievements, you are a leader, you are a company leader, your company is successful, etc. When you are really in such a high position, our This kind of humanity is easy to inflate.
Ordinary people are swollen, you say I do a good thing today and I am happy, no problem, we ordinary people will not swell much, but I am talking about the law of leaders. Lao Tzu believes that when you have resources and a platform, you are easy to expand. This is human nature. Lao Tzu specifically restricts the weaknesses and mistakes that leaders tend to make. When you have resources, the platform is high, and you are inflated. At this time, you will have many problems, such as self-willedness, high self-esteem, I think it is great, etc. There is very little room for you to improve, and you may not think about it. progress, so Laozi pointed directly at human nature.
This is indeed the case in life, when your position is elevated, you must pay attention to lowering yourself as much as possible at this time. Let me give you an example. Let me take myself as an example. I was originally a simple and ordinary doctor of Chinese medicine, and my level is not that high. I wrote some books, because of the communication effect of these media, I suddenly became famous. Fame is something that sometimes makes you think it is very good, but the result may not be good. Sometimes when you become famous, where do you go? Just say, "Hey, the teacher of "Hundred Schools Forum" is here, which Chinese medicine master is this?" Wait, you have to be sober yourself, are you a master? Where to go at this time, the local reception department will arrange important people to accompany you, take you to the local scenic tourist areas to have a look, and then write an inscription and tell everyone what to do. There are many such things. The TV station saw that you are eloquent and can speak well, we just need such a program, so all the TV stations came to you to shoot a program, let's shoot a program.
So for a while I filmed a lot of programs, but finally found a problem, what is the problem? This is the detour I have gone through. I found a problem, that is, every time you shoot a TV program, although you can popularize Chinese medicine, you have to talk too much, and your knowledge is so great, so you repeat it back and forth, which is boring. At this time, you have to prepare for this program, fly a lot of distance, prepare to communicate with the director, and prepare for a long time to finish recording. After recording, your program will be repeated, because you are not that knowledgeable. In this case, it will start I wasted my energy.
At this time, I would like to ask everyone, do you think you can still sit there and study? Let me be honest, I see many scholars appearing frequently on camera, sitting on this review and that review every day. I think there should be very few when they are really learning. I can guarantee that because I have this experience, basically You are exhausted after coming home, and you still have to relax and take a walk. How can you have time to study? How to really do learning? It should be sitting at home, digging through these ancient books word by word, constantly flipping through the literature to find out what mysteries are here, and keep reading, many mysteries are hidden in it, and you can figure it out with a little bit of thinking. To learn, we will continue to do this knowledge seriously for everyone. If you run around every day and come back exhausted, I believe you have no time and energy to do this kind of learning. You are a scholar, so I often ask myself. Later, I seldom appear on TV, why? I think this is really a waste of time. I earn more by speaking, so I should improve my knowledge.
So don’t underestimate this matter, just talk about the "Tao Te Ching". You see, I will talk to you about the "Tao Te Ching" for 10 minutes every day. I have to read it over, how everyone interprets it, how to say this word, why the first and second silk books are written in this way, etc. I have to study carefully, and I really have to think about it for a long time. This is why learning must be rigorous. You can’t just talk for 10 minutes at random, with as few mistakes as possible in it, and no mistakes, try to discover these ideas that previous people have not thought about, and inspire everyone. This is to do some learning. But in my 10 minutes, if you really want to achieve results, it is much more effort than this. You are running around every day, how can you have time? So now I try not to appear on camera, try not to record some programs, and reduce the activities outside, so I am basically very simple now. I give lectures at school for a week. Outside of school lectures, I try to read books as much as possible. I think this is called "knowing the white and keeping the black".
Although I didn't do well enough, I think I had this kind of problem before. You felt that it was very honorable at that time, and everyone praised you and said, "Oh, that's great. You see, what you said is really good. That's very good." They all said yes. But let me tell you, in fact, I am very clear in my heart. I actually ask myself every night, whether it is right or not, and whether there is any problem. Soon I feel that there is a problem. Study new content, so fortunately we learn the wisdom of Lao Tzu and reflect on ourselves in time, otherwise you will drift down like this, you will have no future, what can you grow?
So everyone, remember what Lao Tzu said, I think it really points to our human nature. If you don’t understand this truth, your grades will rise a little bit, just like Xiao Yueyue, the first brother of Deyun, “I’m swollen, I’m It’s Deyun’s first brother, I’m swollen.” Of course, I’m joking, I’m constantly learning. If you are in this state, you will never improve. Because you have done so many glorious things, you can’t finish it all your life, and you can’t improve as a result, and you can’t see the good points of others, so what I said is very reasonable.
For those who are company leaders, I said that ordinary people will be like this. We are ordinary people. For us ordinary people, these words have given us such a great inspiration, so the inspiration for being a leader is even greater. Because the leader is in a high position, when you are in this position, the white light comes, you really "know it", all the spotlights come, the company grows bigger, the reporter interviews, and this cover magazine comes to make an appointment You, do you want to put on a cover, do you want to sponsor some money for us to shoot a feature film for you, to promote it for you, I will write you a book, write a biography for you, etc., so that you can lift yourself up up. At this time, if you really don’t know your own weight, you think “I’m really an entrepreneur with a Ph. progress. Because risks are always there, and the economic situation is changing at any time, you must not be proud, you must take care of your business at any time, and a little carelessness will lead to big mistakes, so some entrepreneurs feel smug after their business is completed. Participating in various leadership summit forums all day long, some entrepreneurs even feel that running a business is easy, so I can leave the company and go play.
Some entrepreneurs like to gamble. I won’t say who they are. Originally, the business is very good, but I like to gamble. I have been gambling in Macau casinos for many years. It is said that middle-level leaders report to work, and they have to go to Macau casinos in a few months. Go report. You think this is because you feel that you have already floated up, "I am amazing, no one can compare to me, I run the business, I can run your business well with one hand and half of my head", you really Don't think so, once the economy goes down, your company will encounter a crisis immediately, and you will be out of the game indifferently in the end, so "know what's right and keep what's wrong" is always our principle of life. That's why Lao Tzu said why it is called "for the world style". This is the norm of the world, and the model of the world should do this. This is a standard.
Especially for leaders, you often maintain this mentality. This is a very important quality training process. If you leave this state, crises will appear at any time. Where did this crisis come from? There are external crises at any time, but the real crisis is inside of you, because there is something wrong with your heart or your state. If you know it's for nothing and keep it for nothing, the crisis will immediately take advantage of it. If you "know what's right and keep what's black" and pay close attention to every bit of progress of the company, external crises will not appear or invade. It is the same as the principle of traditional Chinese medicine, which is called "righteousness exists within, and evil cannot be done." All external evil invasions are related to your weakness of righteousness. Therefore, everyone looks at Chinese classical philosophy, and our ancient people's thoughts are the same. Communicating.
Then I will tell you this question, why doesn’t it rhyme in this paragraph? Many people even wondered whether some words were spelled wrong in this paragraph. In fact, the sound in ancient times is different from today's sound. "Knowing the white and keeping the black is the style of the world." In fact, the "style" is similar to the "pole" and "vessel" behind it. Guangdong retains a lot of ancient Chinese sounds. In Guangdong, "shi" is read as "xi", and "shi" in "Wei Tian Shi" can be read as "xi", the "i" and the following "device" and "ji" , the sound actually rhymes. I can’t speak Cantonese well. I learned Cantonese songs for this reason. I want to know how the sound is pronounced, but let me tell you that the sound must be like this, which is roughly the sound of “xi”. It rhymes with the following "device" and "ji". A friend asked, can this father speak Cantonese? In fact, many ancient Chinese sounds have been preserved in the Cantonese of Guangdong. Our study of Cantonese is helpful to study this ancient pronunciation, especially the Chaoshan dialect. I don’t know Chaoshan dialect. This Chaoshan dialect actually retains many ancient sounds.
"For the world style" means a model, and the "啦" in "Hengdebu啦" was also written as a loan in ancient times. This loan should be read as "te", because "复" should be pronounced incorrectly. The word is also written as loan of loan. For example, in the ancient "Book of Rites", there is a saying called "no or poor loan". , It is called "no or poor loan" (te), so there should be no mistake. So Laozi said that if you maintain this state, there will be no mistakes in virtue. "Return to Wuji", "Wuji" is the origin of all things, and here refers to "Tao". If you maintain this state, you will be close to the "Tao" and return to the path of the "Tao". This is a piece of wisdom that Lao Tzu emphasized to everyone.
Today we reviewed Lao Tzu’s thoughts again. In today’s chapter of Lao Tzu, in fact, Chapter 28 is basically repeating. Lao Tzu is talking about this state back and forth, which is why you want to enter the state. This kind of low profile, but really enters a state of Tao in the heart, that is, the kind of perfect unity, without distinction between form and name, seeing the essence of everything clearly, not paying much attention to it, and insisting on being yourself. What Lao Tzu said is definitely not to tell you anything, I don’t care about anything, I don’t do anything, it’s not like this, Lao Tzu is telling you how to do things better. When you maintain a low profile, you can see the advantages of more people, and you have more room for improvement. If you insist on being yourself, you will gradually become better and better. This is what I mean, so this It is the wisdom that Lao Tzu taught you.
Friends, we have talked so far today, and tomorrow we will continue to talk about what kind of wisdom Lao Tzu has brought us.
