no worries

(one)

The disciple Sima Niu left us some famous sayings, such as: All brothers are brothers in the four seas.

Of course, this was not what he said, but what Zixia answered.

But Sima Niu is really good at asking questions.

The Analects also recorded such a dialogue. He asked Confucius what a "gentleman" is.

A gentleman is an excellent personality valued by Confucius, and he transformed this ancient concept into a human standard.

Confucius answered Sima Niu's question and said:

"A gentleman is not worried or afraid."

Sima Niu, like every student, still has doubts about some answers when he has not experienced such psychological training.

Sima Niu continued to ask for advice: "Do not worry or fear, do you call yourself a gentleman?"

Can you become a gentleman by doing this?

Sima Niu's doubts stemmed from his respectful view of the "gentleman" taught by Confucius on a daily basis, and this concept of "gentleman" was related to his own situation, and he had to ask him questions.

Is it ok to do this?

Without worrying, without fear, can you become the gentleman you call me?

The subtext in his heart is very rich, and there are many words that cannot be said directly.

But Confucius understood his students very well. He understood the anxiety in Sima Niu's heart. He also understood that he asked the question again, not because he didn't understand his first answer, but because he needed someone to rest his heart for him.

Therefore, Confucius said, "Introspection is not guilty, so why should you worry or be afraid?"

Ask your own heart, look at the past you have experienced, and have those confidants who are struggling with choices ever feel guilty for these choices? Give up family affection, money, fame, fortune and all the foreign things like clouds, do you feel that you have done something wrong in your heart? Do you feel ashamed of the choices you made?

Please put aside all the worldly customs for the time being, and only measure the values that you hold in your heart one by one.

Are you doing something wrong? Are you still ashamed? Do you feel that you are wrong because you stand on the side of the few people for yourself?

This concludes the conversation, and the person who recorded it apparently thought that was enough.

(two)

When I first read the "Analects of Confucius", I just turned it over. In addition to the difficulty of the words, the greater confusion may lie in the life experience contained in those short words. Those who have not experienced similar confusion cannot truly appreciate the most tortuous and deepest human heart under those words.

Mr. Qian Mu attaches great importance to this pre-Qin Confucian classic.

He said: "Reading the Analects can be divided into chapters, and a chapter can be used for one chapter. If you don't understand something, skip it temporarily. After you read it once and then read it a second time, you can gradually understand what you didn't understand before. If you read it repeatedly After ten or eight times, an ordinary person should be able to pass six or seven tenths of it. That’s enough.”

And he also quoted the words of Cheng Zi recorded by Zhu Zi:

"When reading the Analects, there are those who read it completely without incident, and there are those who don't know how to dance with hands and feet after reading it."

This is the difference between Mr. Qian Mu and others who provide the so-called compulsory reading of Sinology.

His students once asked him to sign, and he would often write something like this: People today can't read. For example, when reading the Analects of Confucius, when you have not read it, you are this type of person, and after reading it, you are only this type of person, that is, you have never read it.

This is also what Cheng Zi said. The significance of this is that reading is not just to know more, much less to become an expert, or to show off how much you read to others.

Books are not simple black and white words, but what a person says to us across time and space.

Philosophers are dead. In this era when the Dharma can be used as a guardian, the people we can ask for advice are no longer there, but the words they left are still recorded in books.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, there were frequent wars, internal worries and external turmoil, people were in a panic, and sons murdered their fathers and ministers murdered their monarchs... In this era, people heard that there was a gentleman in the state of Lu named Confucius. Now he is old and at home, he is willing to teach all Students who come to teach. Therefore, young people from all over the world, as long as there is still a kind of incomprehensible perplexity in their hearts, they will always travel a long time to come to this forest and seek advice from it.

There is love in life, how can there be no problems.

With a teacher, how can one not feel a kind of dependence.

Later, people often discussed why Yan Yuan did not go to office, and the explanations given were often based on the views of later generations. This is like Mahayana Buddhism, which always thinks that in Theravada Buddhism, even if you get an Arhat, you are just a self-made Han. It was originally the original thought that gradually became a faction, and as it developed, it had to explain the original text from the theories of the latecomers.

Maybe Yan Yuan just likes to stay at home, maybe Yan Yuan just feels that he can feel great satisfaction around Confucius. Naturally, there may also be more spiritual and subtle reasons for the choice, as later scholars said. But I prefer to imagine Yan Yuan, like ordinary people, with happiness, but also sadness, and this sadness and fear are all resolved by Confucius.

Introspection without guilt.

Do not worry or be afraid.

I think that Yan Yuan's story came to an abrupt end in his life, but Yan Yuan must have received the greatest comfort.

Confucius was saddened by the passing of his outstanding disciple.

And those who read the "Analects" from generation to generation will also feel endless regret and yearning for the opportunity to ask and answer face-to-face when they were not in the era of Confucius.

(three)

Now, when I hear some music, I always feel a sense of loss and fascination, which is the sound of ancient times. It once flowed out of a person's heart, and was recorded by characters one by one, waiting to be discovered by future generations, and then everything disappeared, that is, a certain kind of love was expressed.

Sima Niu's question has the answer of Confucius.

Do you have a similar problem?

I have.

So, day by day, I was in a certain unease, confused, scared.

But what Confucius said did not completely comfort me.

When I opened a book of The Analects, it seemed as if I was standing beside it, seeing, hearing, and feeling the dialogue between the two people, as if the disciple who wrote down these dialogues seemed to have also learned a lesson.

But that doesn't comfort me after all.

Because these experiences washed away my life time and time again, but the rubble has not been exhausted, and those hearts that should have been sincere and pure are still dark and unclear.

I know that this will take time, and like Sima Niu's question, it needs to be asked once, and it needs to be asked again.

Our reading is not a time period from here to there, but a journey that always accompanies our life.

If you are still worried and afraid, then keep reading, keep persevering, keep telling yourself to search within:

Do you still feel remorse?

In life, what exactly should you do?

Forget the past, the comers are still visible.

Each of us should think about our past in this way, and then face our future calmly.

I remember a brave man in "Les Miserables" once said: true bravery is calm.

How many incomparably important things happened in a person's heart, which were never known to others, but brought peace to life.

Let me hear it again.

Sima Niu: "What is a gentleman?"

Confucius: "Do not worry or be afraid."

Sima Niu: "Is this really okay? Why can't I calm down in my heart?"

Confucius: "What I have done, I have never had any bad intentions, and I have never done evil behind the scenes, and I will never deliberately seek any benefits that should not be obtained. It is enough to be frank and innocent. This is enough. If you do this, you can No guilt to others, no shame to yourself, at this point in life, why are you still worried about the right and wrong like clouds and rain?”