Try not to try and do nothing.

From Wan Wei iron and steel day shift; Canadian: Edward Slingeland, Chinese name Singlin

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Inaction is first and foremost a personal state. Doing nothing means "not working hard". Without deliberate pursuit and conscious control, doing something seems particularly relaxing and the result is natural. (I am a skilled worker)

Doing things to the point of inaction requires hard practice! The highest goal of Confucianism in cultivating people is inaction.

People's thinking can be roughly divided into two systems-a fast and automatic "system 1" that can run without subjective efforts, also called thermal cognition; And a slow, deliberate and laborious "system 2" called "cold cognition". The thermal cognitive system is largely unconscious. For example, our daily movements, such as walking and driving, can be completed automatically without thinking about the essentials of the movements first. Cold cognitive system needs to make judgments at any time, which is time-consuming and laborious, but its advantage is that it can be adjusted at any time in the face of new information and set new priorities for different tasks.

"Deliberately" means that ACC and lateral PFC are turned on at the same time. The task is mainly completed by the slow cold cognitive system, and the whole action is conscious.

"Skilled" means that ACC and lateral PFC are closed at the same time. The task is mainly completed by the rapid thermal cognitive system, and the whole action is unconscious.

"Inaction" is the perfect combination of consciousness and subconscious, cold cognition and hot cognition. Consciousness lets go of the body, allowing the body to do something spontaneously and naturally, while maintaining a high degree of awareness.

There is a little difference between inaction and mastery, inaction and deliberate. This little bit is worth a master's life.

Inaction and mobility

The so-called flow is that you enter such an immersion state at work:

You don't need to use any self-control, you automatically focus on it, and the outside world can't interfere with you at all;

Feel effortless, but work efficiency is particularly high;

I was so attracted by what I did that I forgot myself;

And ignore the passage of time;

And intense pleasure.

But there are actually many selfless experiences in our life, such as watching TV dramas immersed in the plot, chatting with friends, playing cards, playing simple games, playing mobile phones and surfing the Internet. Are these experiences fluid? To this end, psychologists have deliberately added two conditions to flow: first, the activities you are engaged in must be a challenge to you; Secondly, this activity must involve complex skills.

To distinguish a good selfless experience from a bad selfless experience, we should use another criterion: do you feel satisfied or empty after doing this?

If divided by this standard, then a good selfless experience is not flow, but inaction!

Doing nothing is doing things in line with the Tao. More precisely, you relax yourself and give yourself to "heaven"-something that you think really exists and is greater than yourself.

If what you do conforms to your value system and enters a state of selflessness, it is inaction.

What is happiness? Happiness is "being a part of something bigger than you"-being a part of something much bigger than you. We see that entrepreneurs love to say that a good enterprise must have "goals", "missions" and "values", all of which mean this.

Inaction is a particularly natural and spontaneous exertion, and this nature cannot be disguised. When you are in a state of inaction, you are really full of charm, and people will trust you and get close to you.

But everyone knows that inaction is often difficult to achieve.

There is a paradox in inaction: the more you pursue inaction, the less you can achieve inaction.

These ancient sages in China, whether Taoist or Confucian, are actually pursuing inaction, and their difference lies in how to do inaction. Confucius and Xunzi school believe that to achieve the realm of inaction, it needs hard training. Laozi, on the other hand, thinks that inaction is human nature. As long as people explore their own nature and live in harmony with nature, they can achieve inaction.

Flow is inner ecstasy; Inaction is the emotional peace of sharing weal and woe. Inaction is greater than flow pattern.

Inaction is a state in which consciousness has let go of the body and is dominated by automatic thermal cognition. Behavior is spontaneous, action is particularly natural, I feel particularly comfortable. In this state, I can not only do things effortlessly, but also get the social blessing of "morality", which can influence others and even govern the country.

No matter how you practice, you are pursuing inaction.

Let's talk about Confucianism first

Confucius believes that human nature dominated by hot cognition, like wild horses and floods, must not be allowed to drift, but must be controlled by cold cognition. In fact, Plato in the west, including Freud in modern times, also thought so.

Western thinkers are pessimistic and Confucius is optimistic. Plato thought that people must always control this wild horse very hard. Freud said that in order to live in peace with others in society, people have to restrain their own nature. They can't do it when they see beautiful women, and they can't take it away when they see delicious food. So self-discipline all day, the whole state is uncomfortable, it is simply a tragedy.

In fact, we also know that willpower may be a limited resource. If we want to use willpower to control ourselves at any time, it is very laborious and may not be successful.

Through continuous learning, Confucius gradually condensed these skills into the thermal cognitive system, which became "muscle memory" and could run automatically. When Confucius was seventy years old, he reached the state of "doing what he wants without overstepping the bounds".

Xunzi said: the essence of etiquette is how to distribute limited resources to the people in an orderly manner. Setting the level of "gift" is only the first step. The more crucial means of sages is the second step: through etiquette training, temper people's desires and let people accept this distribution willingly!

Confucianism, as a means of cultural cultivation and education, is a very good set of technology. Now scientific experiments fully support these training methods. Immersion training can play a psychological suggestive role. Even people who are not harmonious will be very harmonious as long as they follow the etiquette. Singing and dancing together can strengthen people's collective identity and mutual cooperation.

There is a loophole in Confucius' martial arts: for every gentleman he cultivates, he may cultivate ten hypocrites at the same time. That is, homesickness refers to a person who completely conforms to Confucius' Tao in appearance, but is a hypocrite in heart.

Tell me about Laozi.

Equivalent to those hippies in the United States in the 1960 s.

People of Laozi school believe that the most basic nature of human beings is goodness. They vividly say that these natures are "bellies", that is, the natures in bellies-what they want is to eat and drink enough. What really goes wrong and brings bad desires is not the abdomen, but the eyes-"Five colors make people blind ..." That is to say, when the eyes see something far away from their lives, they have bad desires.

Laozi school thinks that Confucius labeled human behavior as good, beautiful and bad, which actually damaged the experience of these behaviors.

There are two martial arts sent by Laozi. One is to use humorous words to explain that Confucius' theory of good and evil is unreliable, such as "Tao can be extraordinary, name can be extraordinary"-the "case-solving" teaching method of Zen in later generations, which also means this. Another way may be to create some specific rules of action, such as "commit to softness, can you be a baby?" Some people suspect that this may be a breathing method.

It is similar to the "runner's height"-that is, through a lot of physical exertion, the cold cognition is temporarily closed, and an unconscious-led pleasure state is achieved. But this state can also be achieved by drinking, taking drugs and having sex.

In a word, Confucius did not need to use cold cognition, and Lao Tzu used some means to turn off cold cognition.

Laozi's inaction seems to be doing nothing, but actually he just wants to do something big. For example, Lao Tzu said, "After a saint, he is in the first place and exists outside." . Not because of its selflessness and evil! So you can be private "-like this, it sounds like a mysterious and elegant philosophical wisdom, but when you think about it, isn't this a political means to retreat? Just like Taiji Chuan, on the surface, it advocates weakness and slowness, but in fact, it wants to be faster and stronger than strength!

So if you want to be a big official when you live in seclusion, you want to win a stronger opponent when you play Tai Chi Chuan. Are you really doing nothing, or are you pretending to be doing nothing?

Confucius and Laozi finally encountered the same contradiction: motivation. This is exactly what we said before, a paradox of inaction: if you really want inaction, you can't achieve inaction. If you really want to achieve inaction, you must first want inaction. ...

Later, Mencius and Zhuangzi proposed different solutions. But as we will see, all solutions can't solve this contradiction. Maybe we should live in contradiction.

Confucius was revered, while Mencius was ... lovely.

Confucius' approach is to take cold cognition as the leading factor, study hard and practice hard, and integrate the etiquette culture set by the king at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty into the hot cognition system. The process is difficult and many people are afraid. Mencius said that there is no need to rebuild a set of "good" hot cognition. Everyone is born with a good seed of thermal cognition, you just need to cultivate it a little!

Mencius made an analogy. For example, there is a garden now, some of which are good seedlings, representing people's innate "good" and hot cognition. But there are weeds in the garden, which means that people are not good by nature.

Mencius said that in the face of this garden, you may make two kinds of mistakes. One is to let nature take its course, and then this person may not learn well. The other is to encourage others, that is, to try to replace hot cognition with cold cognition.

The extreme example of pulling out the seedlings is Mozi school. Mozi's thought is equivalent to the "utilitarianism" school in the west today. He believes that the criterion for judging whether something is right or wrong should not be whether it is immoral, but what the result is. Mozi's standard is "three haves":

Is it conducive to increasing social wealth?

Is it conducive to increasing the population?

Is it conducive to strengthening the order of the country

In Mencius' view, this is against human nature. You can't live in rational calculation all the time! Mencius said that if people want to do good, they should start from their kind nature and cultivate and guide them.

For example, "everyone has compassion", which means that Mencius believes that empathy is innate.

Empathy comes from "mirror neurons" in the human brain. Because of the existence of mirror neurons, we watch others suffer and feel that we are suffering, which is why we are likely to cry when watching TV dramas, which is natural.

In fact, scientists have now basically determined that the human brain has a "moral module" since birth, so it can be said that the moral system is innate. I read a book before, Jonathan? This is the meaning of Hite's heart of justice.

So we already have good prospects in our hearts. How to cultivate these good seedlings? Mencius said that you only need to start from your own nature, then expand your nature, use your imagination and apply your feelings in this place to other places-that is, "old people and old people, young people and young people."

Therefore, the biggest difference between Mencius and Confucius is that Confucius used reason to adjust sensibility, while Mencius started from sensibility and cultivated sensibility. In the past, western scholars thought that cold cognition should be used to suppress hot cognition, but today's scientists understand that the most basic way of thinking of human beings is completely simulated and visualized, so what Mencius said really makes sense.

Mencius' approach is to find a bright spot in anyone, and then from here, encourage him to carry forward this bright spot.

The last great god, Zhuangzi.

Laozi school advocates that cold cognition is closed and hot cognition is dominant. However, the Laozi school divides the thermal cognitive system into two categories: "abdomen" and "eye", saying that the abdomen wants to be good and the eye wants to be evil. In order to return to goodness, Laozi school must adopt the method of seclusion.

Zhuangzi believes that there is no need to distinguish between "abdomen" and "eye" thermal cognition! You choose seclusion, which is equivalent to making a value judgment in advance. What's the difference between this and Confucius labeling various behaviors?

Therefore, Zhuangzi's approach is not to presuppose right or wrong at all, but to "follow our feelings", and we will go wherever hot cognition takes us.

Modern psychological experiments have indeed found that if people turn off the cold cognitive system through drunkenness and think with hot cognition as the leading factor, they may get more divergent thinking and bring creativity.

This is probably the most attractive part of Zhuangzi's "inaction"-it can not only bring "virtue", but also bring creativity to our work!

How to achieve this state? Zhuangzi's practice is to "forget". We see that once the characters in Zhuangzi want to do something important, it always takes several days to "forget". This kind of kung fu is divided into three steps:

Normal state, can hear the voice of the outside world, consider the evaluation of the outside world.

Don't listen to the outside world, just pay attention to your cold cognition and right and wrong judgment.

Forget yourself, don't listen to the judgment of cold cognition, and let hot cognition take over.

This set of kung fu is especially suitable for athletes and actors. For example, swimming, Zhuangzi specifically mentioned that if this person can forget himself and his fears, he can swim well. If a person always thinks about "himself" when swimming, he may not even be able to do movements.

Zhuangzi also has loopholes. If no value judgment should be presupposed, why does Zhuangzi think that cold cognition is not as good as hot cognition? If all truth is labeled, then why do you Zhuangzi say so much to Keiko?

What exactly is "nature"? Is there a "right or wrong"?

Confucius, Laozi, Mencius and Zhuangzi, their highest goal is to make cold cognition and hot cognition perfectly unified, and to achieve a state of inaction, that is, not trying. But their routes are very different.

Confucius advocated taking cold cognition as the leading factor, and condensing the wisdom of the former king into people's hot cognition through diligent study and hard practice, which is an attempt; ;

Laozi advocates directly closing the cold cognition and only retaining the "good" hot cognition, that is, stopping trying; ;

Mencius advocates that people are born with good thermal cognition, and these good thermal cognition should be cultivated and strengthened, instead of forcibly constructing a new thermal cognition system with cold cognition. This is an attempt, but not too hard; ;

Zhuangzi followed his feelings and didn't make any distinction between right and wrong beforehand. This is about trying/not trying.

So how should a learned modern person achieve the realm of inaction?

Everyone should choose different methods according to their own personality preferences, and they can also use different methods at different stages of life.

In the early stage of learning any skill, we should use the method of Confucius, study hard, practice hard, engage in immersive educational experience, and strive to make habits become nature.

When doing specific things, especially those important things that can affect others, we should refer to Laozi's thoughts and don't interfere with complex systems easily.

To cultivate artistic taste and improve moral standards, we can use Mencius' method to find out the bright spots in ourselves as seeds and cultivate them slowly.

If we are faced with a very stressful and particularly important job, we should learn from Zhuangzi, forget ourselves and let our thermal cognition guide us to play our best.

These means are indeed contradictory, but the world is full of contradictions. Inaction is a paradox: the more you want to get inaction, the less you can get inaction.

The biggest difference between China culture and western culture is that China culture doesn't like the truth in theory, but especially advocates practice!

The same is true of inaction. The four sects, it is useless for us to talk on paper here. Only when you practice will you know what a state is.

As the so-called wonderful operation, there is a single heart.