2018-06-24

How to learn

We have mentioned that there is a lot of wisdom in the Analects. In fact, a very important method for how wisdom is brewed in people's hearts is to learn. However, everyone has the desire to learn, but the quality of learning varies. Who can truly learn efficiency? There is a lot of meaning in this.

In this world, there are many concepts that are just one word away. It is good for people to have ambitions, but it is not good to have ambitions. There is nothing wrong with people having ideals, but if they just stay in fantasy, That's just an empty dream. How can we achieve an ideal and feasible situation? That's what you need to learn. Therefore, Confucius once said: "It's difficult to live in a group all day long, but your words are not righteous, and you are good at doing small things!" He said: Sometimes a group of people are together, living in groups all day long, and everyone is bustling together. , you see it is quite lively, everyone may also learn something and chat, but you feel that what they say always fails to hit the point, and what they say does not make sense, and then these people are trying to be clever and call it "good deeds and small wisdom", that is Those little wisdoms, cleverness, and skills are not a big picture. If so, Confucius said, these people will be too difficult to teach. If you want to make their life realms higher and broader, they will be able to have At a very high level, it’s really difficult.

So if you don’t care what people say and just talk and discuss together all the time, does that mean you have great wisdom? Sometimes people, if they don't reflect, always talk, but sometimes what you talk about is a waste of useless information.

So everyone knows that Socrates was an orator and a philosopher. Some people went to him to learn public speaking skills. One student said: My foundation is very good. Socrates started talking non-stop from the moment he entered the door. He said, you see, the reason why I have the courage to come to you is because I am born with language skills. I am fluent in language and quick in thinking. What things can I know and how good my foundation is.

Socrates looked at him and said: You have to pay double tuition. He said, why? Socrates said, before I teach you how to use your tongue, I must first teach you how to control your tongue. So do you think that a person who talks incessantly means wisdom?

There is a story that goes well: There was a philosopher who was always silent. One day, a friend of his ran over to him with a cheerful face and said: I want to tell you a very big news, and I will tell you now.

He stopped him and said: Any news you say must go through three sieves before speaking out. First, are you sure this news is true? The friend was stunned and said, I didn't think so, not necessarily.

The philosopher smiled and said: Second sieve, are you sure this news is well-intentioned? The man thought again.

Then, the philosopher asked him a third question: Is this news really that important? The man thought about it and said, it doesn't seem to be too important.

The philosopher said: Once the three sieves have passed, you will not tell the news, and you will not be troubled by it.

When it comes to Confucius today, everyone says that he is the most holy teacher and a role model for all generations. Many people have asked me this question: How did Confucius' ideological system come into being when Confucius was so far away from us today and the material world was so poor? Where did he learn it?

This question was asked by people at his time. It’s not easy to ask him, ask his students. "Wei Gongsun asked Yu Zigong: 'How did Zhongni learn?'" Where did your teacher learn so many things? How did Zigong answer? "Zi Gong said: 'The way of civility and martial arts has not fallen to the ground, it lies in people. A wise person recognizes the great, and the unworthy recognizes the small. There is no way of civil and military. Master, why don't you learn? How can you always be a teacher? Yes? '"

How did Zigong answer? He said that the way of King Wen and King Wu, passed down by ancient sages and sages, from the principles of governing the country to the practical knowledge of the world, has not fallen to the ground, and has not been lost or lost today. Where is it? It’s all in people and in the inheritance of the human world.

In other words, the knowledge of the past and present is not only engraved on bamboo slips or written on paper.

Holding words in your hands is called knowledge, and people's behaviors, values, judgments, habits, and etiquette are all the inheritance of knowledge and tradition, so they are all in people, but people behave differently.

"The wise know their greatness." There are people who have a big life pattern and are wise and transparent. What they show is the greatness of the principles; there are also people who have a small pattern and poor understanding. You say Doesn’t he bear the truth? It's just the little things that show up. So you can learn from big things and small things, so people asked Zigong, where did your teacher learn it? How can Zhongni learn from it? Zigong's answer was, "If you don't learn, you can't learn anything. If a person opens his ears and eyes, there will be knowledge everywhere."

So you say, where does Confucius’ ideological system come from? He learned it from people. Is he simply learning? He synthesized his insights and finally formed his own system. Therefore, the true truth in this world is that there is no fixed law, and there may not always be a teacher.

In other words, if one person turns to Yiduo as my teacher, you can learn from different people. Confucius said that when three people walk together, they must have my teacher. It is nothing more than choosing the good one. If you are good, just learn from him. If you are bad, just warn yourself in your heart and encourage your behavior. Isn't he also a teacher?

Therefore, it is better to learn from books than from the world. If you have such a learning understanding, you can learn from everywhere.

How to learn? From whom should I learn? Confucius once said something like this, which is called not being ashamed to ask. Actually, what is next? Today, sometimes we change the starting point of logic, which does not necessarily mean superiority or inferiority. It is just a change of perspective and a way of thinking. We do not talk about knowledge, status, or class. The simple difference between high and low is age. Adults must be qualified. Do they have the right to discipline children? Can't the child's perspective provide us with another coordinate?

In 1978, there were more than 70 Nobel Prize winners. Everyone gathered together and had a grand party in Paris. Because there were so many Nobel Prize winners, one It was a grand event, so many media asked them the same question, saying which university and which laboratory did you outstanding elites learn the most important things in life?

Later, everyone thought, what is the most valuable answer? Their answer was kindergarten. A scientist said, I learned in kindergarten that everything must be shared with others, people must abide by the system and rules, wash hands before eating, go to bed at noon, be humble and courteous to others, if you accidentally do something wrong, Things need to learn to apologize. He said these principles were all learned by me in kindergarten. In fact, if we think about it, in today's era, we have a lot to learn. If we were to go back to kindergarten, many of the truths would be very simple. It is just the simplest way of thinking.

A child ran home and happily said to his father: Did you know that there are stars hidden in apples? You can have as many as you want. His father thought this was another fairy tale, so he hesitated and said, "I know, I know." The child said, no, I must let you see it. He just took an apple and cut it into half. If we think about it, the apple is really like a star in its cross section. The child cut it sideways piece by piece, and his father was dumbfounded, seeing stars one after another popping out of the apple in front of his eyes.

As for us adults, when we eat apples, we always cut them open vertically. We are not used to cross-sections. Therefore, adults will not think that there are stars hidden in apples. It is not a fairy tale. A fact.

What does it mean to ask without shame? Sometimes we teach the past, sometimes we teach the future, and sometimes children's thinking is the teacher of the adult world. So we are not ashamed to ask our subordinates. It does not necessarily mean that we should seek advice from those with less education and lower status than ourselves. Many times, by changing the way we think, we may learn more.

If you have a humble attitude towards learning and a pair of eyes that are good at discovery, you will find that knowledge is everywhere.

The representative figure of Taoism, Zhuangzi, once said: "Tao is drowned in shit", that is to say, even the most humble things contain truth. So how should we learn these principles? Is there a hard-and-fast way? ?

So, after learning so much, we still have to ask a question, that is, how do we learn? When learning this thing, you are not afraid of association and drawing inferences from one example. Moreover, Confucius's educational method is to teach students in accordance with their aptitude. Therefore, he got different answers to the same questions. Zilu asked: "Have you heard this and acted like this?" Confucius said: How can I hear this and do it when my father and brother are here? It was Zilu who came to ask the teacher: When I hear something, should I do it immediately? The teacher said: Do you dare to act rashly when your father and brother are here? You still have parents, your father and brothers are here, why don’t you ask them for advice? Are you overthinking it? Don't you want to discuss it? Are you going to do it as soon as you come up? It seems inappropriate. Zilu went back.

At this time, Ran You came again, and Ran You asked: What did you hear and do? Confucius said: Hear this and do it! Say: When you hear something, do you have to do it? Still the same question: Is it true that what you hear is what you do? The teacher said categorically: If you hear something, do it. If you hear it, do it!

The third student, Gong Xihua, heard this and said, these two people have exactly the same problem. Why did one tell him that he could not do this because his father and brother were here; the other said that you should do it immediately. Said: The more I listen, the more confused I become. Teacher, why?

The teacher's answer, Confucius said, seeking is also retreating, so it is advanced, and due to others, it is retreated. He said, Ran You is a person who is timid and withdrawn by nature. He is hesitant in everything he does and always steps back. So if he wants to hear something, you have to encourage him and say , just do it and encourage him to do it quickly. This is called advancement, giving him the power to move forward and make determination. He said, Zilu is a man who has always been brave and brave, and a man who can do everything better than others. As for such a person, you should always ask him to be cautious, think, and consider everything before doing it. So you must Give him the strength to move downward. You see, this is the education of Confucius. Different people in this world can get different answers to the same question. This is because of the different human subjects.

So we often encounter some ultimate questions, such as: What is the ultimate value of life? Why do people want to live? What kind of life is called success? What kind of life is called beautiful? In fact, in a sense, these ultimate questions will always be pseudo-questions if they are not integrated with personal life. Because in this world, a thousand people have a thousand kinds of happiness, and everyone's attitude is different.

So, what is real learning? There is a secret, which is to first reveal your own subject and use your own subject to learn the most lacking experience in your life.

If we do medical measurements now, the doctor will not prescribe a bottle of vitamins to everyone, because some people lack this element, some people lack that element, and everyone depends on themselves. The balance of life is to supplement it organically if it is lacking. A person's mind and thoughts need such a balance. You must first see who you are. Maybe we don’t have a teacher like Confucius, but how can there be a regular teacher in this world? If we have such a consideration in our own hearts, we will achieve such a balance.

There is a good story about a family with two completely different children: one is endlessly optimistic and the other is endlessly pessimistic. The father was very worried and decided to use the environment to change them. He locked the extremely optimistic child in the stable and locked the door; then he put the extremely pessimistic child in the house and bought a lot of new toys to surround him.

Half a day passed and it was getting dark. Dad first came to see if the pessimistic child was happy. When I saw the child sitting among the toys, his face was full of tears and he didn't open any of the toys. His father asked him: Why don't you play? The child said: The more I thought about it this afternoon, the more sad I became. Any toy will break if you play with it, so I don’t know which one to open first.

Then his father went to the stable and saw that the optimistic child was covered in horse manure and was digging happily in the horse manure pile.

His father said, what are you looking for? He said, Dad, I have always felt that there would be a little pony hidden in this horse manure pile. I have been looking for it all afternoon.

If you think about it, these are two attitudes. In this world, it is not necessarily the external things that a person possesses that determine the quality of his life, but his inner orientation.

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Different students and different individuals, when learning from the world, are making use of their strengths and avoiding weaknesses. In a sense, we have no shortcomings that can be completely overcome. What we have accomplished is the matching and balance of long and short.

"The Analects of Confucius" is a collection of quotation-style prose in the Spring and Autumn Period, referred to as "The Analects", "Yu", "Zhuan" and "Ji". It mainly records the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples. It is a classic of the Confucian school and later became a classic of the literati of all dynasties. A must-read textbook.

So in such a learning process, I learned too much, deep and shallow knowledge and insights. Why study? Why do people learn so many things in this life?

Confucius has a saying: Recite "Poems" three hundred times and teach them how to govern, but it is not effective; What does this mean? In the past, everyone knew that the Book of Songs was used as a textbook, because it could recognize the names of birds, animals, and plants, serve the father who is near, and serve the king who is far away. You can learn a lot of principles from this. After you finish learning, you can also go out to deal with the princes. Confucius said, if there is a person who has recited "The Book of Songs" three hundred times and knows the entire "Book of Songs" by heart, but if you give him a political task today and ask him to do it, it is not enough to teach him how to govern. Let him handle some things. He is stumbling and cannot be thorough in his heart. He can't accomplish anything. But let him go and do things in all directions? When he goes out to do diplomatic negotiations, he can't be specific and can't follow him fluently. They answered the questions and finally completed the negotiation. Confucius said, "Although there are many, even if he has memorized all the "Book of Songs", he has so much knowledge. How can he be ridiculed? What's the use?

In fact, this passage shows an attitude of Confucius, which is to "apply what you have learned." In other words, our world is constantly changing. What is the mission of intellectuals in this world? It is to commit some responsibilities in this change. Is there anything you can do?

Zhang Zai from the Song Dynasty put it well. He said: Establish a heart for the heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, carry forward the unique knowledge for the saints, and create peace for all generations. That is to say, your heart is between heaven and earth, and it must be vast and strong. "Establish a destiny for the livelihood of the people." The people's livelihood has given you a mission. "Inherit the unique learning to the saints." He exerts his inheritance, and then pave the way and do things to "create peace for all generations." In fact, this is the attitude of applying what you have learned. So, can everything you learn really be used in this way? There is so much knowledge in the "Book of Songs", but it was just a textbook of that era. With so much knowledge from the past to the present, in Confucius' view, how can it be called truly useful? That is if you can put him in place.

In fact, there are many students who may have learned a lot and obtained very high diplomas. If these students have no life experience, sometimes their knowledge cannot be activated.

In Edison's laboratory, there once was an assistant of his. This assistant graduated from a prestigious university with a good diploma and academic qualifications. In an era where concepts are very strong, holding a diploma from a prestigious university is something to show off.

Then, when Edison was doing experiments and was too busy, he took a small pear-shaped bubble-shaped container and gave it to him and said: Give me the volume of this pear-shaped glass bubble quickly. Calculate it. Then his assistant is really in trouble. Because he thought, how can this pear shape be calculated? The lower half is round and the upper half is long. There is no theorem for a circle or a theorem for a long shape, but there is no theorem. Where to divide it?

Edison was busy doing experiments and walking around. I saw him still fiddling there, calculating there, and calculating there with all the instruments.

Edison finally couldn't help it anymore, took it over, filled the pear-shaped bubble with water, poured the water into a measuring cup, and said, this is its volume.

In fact, what is applying what you have learned? It is often in the simplest places. ?

(Narration) If you have a lot of knowledge and can't even do a small thing, then what's the use of having so much knowledge? In today's era, not only academic qualifications are needed, but also the ability to work. So, how can we avoid becoming nerds? How can you make your learning useful? ?

The real application in today's era is not only testing your IQ, but also testing your emotional intelligence and how you can adapt.

? There is a recruitment story that is very interesting. Let's say a general manager wants to recruit an assistant. There are three applicants: one has a very high degree and is a Ph.D.; the other has more than ten years of work experience; and the third person is obviously not as good as the first two in terms of academic qualifications. He is not tall enough and has not enough work experience. He is just an ordinary college student who has just graduated. He said in his office: Call them all in. The secretary said: Where do you want them to sit? The front was empty. He said: That's it.

The first doctor came in, and the general manager smiled and said to him: Please sit down. The doctor was particularly embarrassed. He looked around and saw that there was no chair, and said, "Then I will stand." The general manager said again: Please sit down. Then he said: I have no place to sit. The general manager looked at him, smiled, asked a few questions, and then he left.

The second person had a lot of work experience. When he came in, the general manager asked him to sit down again. He looked flattering and flattering, and said humbly: No, no, I will stand. I'm used to it, oops, there's no need to sit down at all, let's just talk. The general manager chatted for a few words and then left again.

? The third student came in, and the general manager said, please sit down. He looked around and said, "Can you allow me to go outside and move a chair?" The general manager said, "Okay." He went out and moved a chair, sat down and chatted with the general manager. The third student was left behind.

Actually, what does this mean? The first person may have a lot of knowledge, but he is not sensible. The second person may have a lot of experience, but he is limited by experience. As for this third person, he is somewhere between knowledge and experience. He knows how to do it and it is appropriate at the moment.

So here we talk about another concept of knowledge, that is, when applying what you learn, there is no precise way to use it. There must be flexibility in it. In Confucius' view, flexibility is a very high level. He said: You can learn from others, but you can't learn from them; you can learn from them, but you can't establish them; you can establish them with them, but you can't establish them with them.

You see, there are different levels here: the first level is called learning with others. There are some people you can learn with. This is almost zero threshold. Many people want to learn, so let’s learn together. If you go to the next level, you may not be able to find the right way, you may not necessarily be able to find the most suitable way to understand the truth, and you may not always be able to find the only way. Once you have learned the method and found the path, you may not be able to stand up to it if you go to a higher level. It may not be possible to stand up, persist, and be established after learning this method.

Everyone thinks that this level is high enough to be able to stand upright? Is this already the third level? Confucius said, even if this person can establish his knowledge, understand the principles, and achieve it, if he is at a higher level than him, he may not be able to gain power. Which right? It is the power of contingency. When it comes to whatever happens at the moment, when we say expediency, we mean to make changes. It is easy for a person to persist but difficult to adapt. You can still gain clarity after perseverance. This level is difficult, but you have learned a very high level. So how can you learn such a state? Complete your realization in the modification!

There was once a story about two businessmen who took a boatload of extremely beautifully fired ceramic jars to a big city and a high-end market to sell their handmade pottery.

Then the two brothers had a bumpy and hard journey. Just when the ship was about to dock, they encountered a big storm. After a stormy sea, the two men were exhausted, but their lives were saved. As soon as the ship docked, I saw that among the hundreds of porcelain jars on this ship, not a single one was intact and all were broken.

This brother sat on the bow of the boat and cried loudly, saying that each of these jars was carefully prepared and fired, and the textures and patterns on them were so beautiful that all of us All the hard work was in vain. What to do with broken cans in a big city, a place with high consumption? We can’t sell them even if we repair and paste them.

While he was crying, his brother came ashore. He walked around the nearest market and found that in this big city, people have very high tastes in aesthetics and art, so whether it is cafes, shopping malls, or people's homes, they pay special attention to decoration. So he came back with an axe, and when he came back, he smashed all the broken jars into pieces even more. His brother was particularly surprised and said: What are you doing? His brother smiled and said, we have switched to selling mosaics.

? So I sold all the pieces to a decoration material store. Because his jar is so exquisitely designed, it looks particularly artistic when made into pieces. At first glance, everyone looks irregular and beautiful. As a result, it was sold for a large sum of money as decoration material.

What is this? This is a contingency. In other words, when the wholeness no longer exists, isn't it another way of thinking to let the brokenness reach the extreme?

In other words, you may have bought a large mirror and used it to decorate a palace. , but what if the mirror unfortunately breaks? Then if you break it into more pieces, maybe you will use a different idea of ??diamonds to decorate this palace.

So sometimes, the change of thinking is the wisdom that can only be obtained after reaching the ultimate level of knowledge. This is a kind of contingency.

(Narration) Only by adapting can people flexibly apply knowledge according to different environments, thereby adapting to changes in society and becoming a truly useful person. However, learning is not only about learning knowledge, but also about learning wisdom and moral character. So, how to learn moral character? What is his measure? If you don't study hard, what consequences will it bring?

Confucius also put forward a particularly valuable point of view, that is, some good moral qualities in the world can also be improved through learning, and there must be checks and balances. Can we say benevolence? Is charity boundless? Wisdom, okay? Does wisdom not require learning? Xinyi, okay? Integrity, okay? Be brave, okay? Be strong, okay? These six morals are all very good, do you need to learn more?

Confucius once asked Zilu this way, saying that there are six words and six concealments. Have you ever heard of it? Zilu said, no. Confucius said: Habitat! I speak female. Sit down and listen to me tell you slowly. Then Confucius said, let’s talk about benevolence first. To love benevolence but not to be a scholar is to be ignorant. A particularly benevolent person can be benevolent to the world and be kind to others, but if he does not learn and think, there will be a drawback. He is stupid, which means he is easily fooled. For example, if you always do this kind of thing of repaying evil with kindness, you will be fooled by others. Can you say that this person is unkind? But he had no sense of proportion.

Wisdom, okay? Confucius said that if you like to know but not learn, you will be blind. He said that a person is smart and wise, but if he does not learn, the final disadvantage is that this person will live too erratically and have no foundation. If he keeps practicing his cleverness in fantasy, he will always be hanging in the air and unable to sink.

Does it have a good reputation? A person who is sincere and trustworthy, like Wei Sheng holding a pillar, who refuses to leave when the water comes up, will inevitably become stupid. If it is not easy to learn, then the believer will not learn, and his concealment is also a thief. A thief is someone who is framed. We know that people who are too honest and not adaptable are sometimes easily framed.

Integrity, okay? We all like upright people, but upright people sometimes speak poorly. They are called straight people and not good scholars, which is also convoluted. In other words, when you say something, it is so sharp that it pierces people's hearts. Sometimes It makes people feel heartbroken. This is too upright. If you don't pay attention to your words, your words will hurt people.

Just like Mr. Lu Xun wrote, when a child is given a full moon, some people say, oh, this child can be an official when he grows up. Some people say that this child can make money when he grows up. Some people come in and say that this child will definitely die when he grows old. . This person is telling the truth. Can you say that he is not upright? But it doesn't sound good.

Let’s talk about moral character, be brave, okay? Then Confucius said, what is the ultimate disadvantage of being brave but not good at being a scholar? Its cover is also chaotic. You can easily be used to cause trouble. Because he is brave, he doesn't think twice about things, he doesn't ask questions, and sometimes he takes action directly when he is in a misunderstanding. One after another troubles originate from this kind of foolhardy person.

Finally, is it not good for a person to be strong? He who likes to be strong but not eager to learn is also crazy in his concealment. This person will be extremely arrogant, because he is self-willed, so it is inevitable to have this kind of arrogance in his heart.

So we see that many things in this world are too much or too little. Life does not mean that if you find a good foundation, it will continue to be good.

All our beautiful qualities, he said that the Six Characters talk about these six kinds of beautiful qualities. Why does it bring about the six disadvantages? Because in the use environment, we have to withstand social challenges and tests, and we have to debug and adapt in interpersonal interactions. Therefore, people need to understand themselves through continuous learning and establish effective relationships with the world. Therefore, even if it is "benevolence" ","wisdom","faithfulness","straightforwardness","courage","strength"such beautiful qualities must complete your own positioning and checks and balances in learning.

Learning is never a rigid thing. Since there is no regular teacher, since learning is everywhere, the knowledge learned cannot be like that. The four directions cannot be specific. The realm of knowledge has been abandoned by Confucius. True learning today, if each of us ordinary people uses his own heart to complete a kind of activation, we all stand in a kind of understanding. In terms of great wisdom, I believe that all knowledge from ancient times to the present will live in our experience system, and the wisdom of all sages is nothing more than a torch to ignite ourselves.