Why is "soft" more vital? Day 76 of reading "Tao Te Ching"

Chapter 76 of "Tao Te Ching"

Interpretation

Personal insights

People are weak when they are alive. It is stiff. The vegetation and creatures in the world are in a weak state when they are growing, but when they die, they become withered and stiff.

From this point of view, anything that becomes more and more rigid is a sign that it is about to lose its vitality.

If you think about it carefully, this principle can indeed trigger our thinking in many places in our lives.

"I envy you for knowing so much knowledge."

"You can do it too! You will learn a lot if you read more books."

" No, I can’t let myself read quietly!”

“I’m so envious of how creative you are.”

“You can try more, too!” If you think in the same way, you will slowly come up with new ideas. "

"No, we can't do it like you do. This method is already very mature and we are too lazy to change it. !”

“I envy how energetic your team is.”

“You can do it too! Do more team building activities, do more training, and build your own company. Culture! "

"I have no energy, how can I have so much time to think about so much?"

How many people are in this kind of self-denial? Toward rigidity.

When people become accustomed to living in a fixed pattern, they are unwilling to change. While they envy the passionate innovation of others, they find all kinds of reasonable excuses for their own complacency.

Life will either complete various beautiful life leaps through constant attempts at change, or it will become rigid and decline through unchanging habits.

Whatever is true of the mind, so is the body.

I participated in a body shaping course. During the training of this course, I deeply felt the horror of the degradation of a person's body functions.

When I was studying, I was thin and flexible, good at various sports. Except for class, I hung on various sports equipment almost all day long. In addition to girls’ games such as rope skipping, shuttlecock kicking, and rubber band jumping, In addition to having fun, I can run long-distance, short-distance, and marathon. I can do front flips, back flips, and sit-ups at any time, and the teacher can give me the numbers. I can not only roll up on the boom for several hours, but also put it on The hula hoop can be moved from the neck to the feet, and then back and forth from the feet to the neck at will; table tennis is played every day, aerobics and dance are often performed, and there is no problem with horse racing. At that time, I was full of energy. In my father's words, I was like a naughty monkey.

As the years go by, more and more heavy study work fills my life, and I can no longer exercise so carefreely. Gradually, the only exercise I can maintain is walking. But I always feel that I have a good foundation and am in good physical condition.

Last year, I stayed in a hotel on a business trip. There were mirrors everywhere in the hotel bathroom. I could see my body from all angles, so that I could really see the fat on the back and sides of my body. At that moment I suddenly realized how much my body was letting me down.

From then on, I suddenly felt waves of inexplicable panic.

Before the New Year, one day when I went for a walk in the park, I suddenly wanted to run. After a few minutes, I felt that my physical endurance was low.

When I paid more attention to my body, I gradually found that my body was no longer as flexible as before, and I could no longer control even slightly difficult dance moves. As the body becomes thicker and heavier, and the limb movements become less and less flexible, the result is that my physical fitness is getting worse and worse, and my body shape gradually becomes less upright.

Is this telling me that aging is coming?

After the Chinese New Year, I saw an advertisement for a friend’s gym. I signed up without hesitation. However, on the first day I went to the gym, I realized the seriousness of my regression.

I also practiced yoga two years ago. At that time, many yoga postures could be completed easily, but now they are extremely difficult, and the toughness of the ligaments has deteriorated horribly. The stretching movements seemed to tear my body apart, and my heart was torn apart until it hurt.

Is this aging? Is this the result of self-abandonment? I began to realize that my grandparents used to say that my old arms and legs could no longer bear the torment.

When I was training in the gym, I would scream in pain all the time. However, after a period of training, I slowly found that my physical fitness was improved, my skin fat was reduced, and my body became softer. I have improved a lot, and I have stepped up to a higher level compared to my previous self.

In this training, I understood that human beings may not be able to completely resist the power of nature and gradually age, but we can slow down the rate of rigidity as much as possible through continuous practice.

If we want to maintain the "softness" of our body, we need to keep training. If we want to keep our mind "soft," we also need to keep trying.

Once you start to give up on yourself, deny yourself, and make excuses for your own invariance, your life will begin to become rigid, and what is waiting for you is slow degeneration and aging.

As long as we can maintain this "softness" that makes our lives full of vitality, we can always live a passionate life.

When people are young, they are weak and indifferent, and they grow up with great vitality. However, when they grow up and become strong, they begin to age due to various competitions in life.

The weak grass sways with the wind when the typhoon comes but does not hurt at all, while the tall and strong trees are often broken in the strong wind against the force of nature.

In my previous article, I also gave many examples to illustrate this principle of weakness defeating strength.

Through so many cases, it seems that the stronger something is, the easier it is to be damaged when encountering strong force confrontation.

A person with a too strong temper will easily get into an extreme state due to stubbornness and conceitedness when dealing with differences.

If a country's power is too strong, it can easily lead to the country becoming strong and arrogant, thinking that it is invincible.

This is precisely the state in which you are most likely to fail, because if you feel good about yourself, you will lose your respect for others on the one hand, and on the other hand, you will easily lose your guard, and you will face failure instead.

Lao Tzu here warns each of us not to dominate others. The better you feel about yourself, the easier it is to make mistakes.

After reading this chapter, I briefly reviewed the references to "softness" in the previous chapters.

In Chapter 36, Lao Tzu mentioned for the first time that "the weak prevails over the strong", telling people that things must turn against each other when they reach their extremes, and that when they flourish, they will decline.

In Chapter 40, Lao Tzu said again that "the weak are the ones using the Tao".

Weakness itself is the initial state of development of all things, and it can also become an attitude that is pursued and maintained in the end. Showing weakness can be an attitude or a way of dealing with the world. Even the greatest wisdom in the world.

In Chapter 43, Laozi once again talked about "the most soft in the world rides on the strongest in the world", and talked about the benefits of weakness. Tenderness in thoughts can produce powerful power and can exert great influence. To promote driving effect.

The saying "To be soft means to be strong" in Chapter 52 also profoundly discusses that a soul that can always remain soft is a truly strong soul.

In this chapter, Lao Tzu has listed some common contrasting states of things in nature between "softness" and "strongness", trying to let people know in the most understandable way the difference between staying weak and pursuing strength. the difference between.

The last sentence "Therefore the strong is at the bottom and the weak at the top" expresses Laozi's admiration for the posture of softness.

In the "Tao Te Ching", there are so many discussions on "softness", whether it is based on the survival and death of life, the law of the development of things, or the attitude and mentality of dealing with the world. The various benefits of "softness" are thoroughly analyzed from the aspects of "Tao", "Dharma", "Technology", "Qi" and "Shi".

Ultimately, Lao Tzu just wants to tell the rulers to be gentle and kind in governing the country and making friendly relations with each other, so that the world can be harmonious and the people can live and work in peace and contentment. At the same time, it also tells people all over the world that maintaining a gentle and kind attitude is beneficial to the peace and happiness of life.

The painstaking efforts are really worthy of the sun and the moon.

Why is "soft" more vital?

A "soft" body can keep us active, a "soft" mind can keep us accepting, a "soft" attitude can make us kind to others, and a "soft" heart can keep us Face all kinds of difficulties in the world and be tolerant.

The natural "softness" is an instinct of life and has the most primitive vitality; the "softness" cultivated is a tough choice and also has strong vitality.

This vitality will give us the ability to control life and control life.

May you keep it in your life as much as possible!