76 The third reflection on "Walden Pond" - starting from "avoiding the act of weaving baskets and then selling them"

Text/Ribuchi Shiko

“I have woven baskets before, and they looked very delicate, but I didn’t make them so that people would think they were worth buying. In my opinion, I I don’t feel that I wasted my time weaving them. Instead of thinking about how to weave them so that people would feel the purchase is more worthwhile, I was thinking about how to avoid the act of weaving the baskets and then selling them.”

Thoreau's words in "Walden" made me immediately annotate and read them repeatedly to understand his meaning. He is really an unusual person, a person who thinks about how to sell the basket while weaving it. Even how to make the buyer feel more worthwhile and a person who does not think weaving baskets is a waste of time and avoids selling the baskets, the essential difference is that the purpose of the behavior is different and the form of life is different.

And "The so-called successful lives that people praise are just a form of life. Why should we praise this kind of life and belittle another kind of life?" I often hope that above My son in elementary school can read more and play less games that I think only kindergarten children like to play. Isn't it essentially using a so-called "elegant" lifestyle to kidnap the lifestyle he really loves? I hope students love reading classics and poetry as much as I do, but not everyone will like it. Can I label those children who don’t like reading classics and poetry as unmotivated and not passionate about learning?

Thinking about the possibility of another form of life can make our thinking broader and our life purer. "People are dominated by a specious destiny called 'inevitability', and they continue to accumulate wealth. In the end, they are swallowed by moths, corroded by rust and mildew, and may even attract dirty thieves." In a huge Among the mistakes, people think that they live a purposeful life as workers, but in fact they live blindly.

Just like my mother told me today, a child from a very wealthy family said to his mother: "My classmate's family is even wealthier. Their family has a pond and fields. There are ducks and fish in the pond. In the fields, "There are rice and pheasants." If you try to laugh at this child's understanding of "wealth", you must be one of the people who live blindly. You think that life has only one way in your heart, but you can draw it from the center of the circle. There are countless radii, and the lifestyles are diverse.

Only when you clearly distinguish what is the real need of life and what is the means of life, can people understand what you are actually worried about - "The endless anxiety of some people has almost become a kind of anxiety." Diseases that are difficult to treat”.

The fact is that "for the human body, the greatest necessity is to keep warm, maintain our body temperature, and maintain the life-critical heat in our bodies." For a person who loves learning, a lamp and some stationery , plus a few books, these are secondary necessities.

This reminds me of the monks I saw in Putuo Mountain in Ningbo in 2008. They walked to the ends of the earth in a cloth bag while kneeling in worship. And when I need to go on a business trip for about a week, I have to prepare things a few days in advance, write a list of items, and a shopping list. One suitcase is not enough. I feel like I can’t go out without a facial cleanser. I don’t need the same toothpaste. Habit.

Modern people have unknowingly become slaves to a comfortable life. They cannot get rid of material constraints. How can they talk about freedom of thought and soul? "Kings and queens wear every piece of clothing only once. They are reduced to hangers for clean clothes." Not to mention how vivid this example is. In fact, a few years ago, when I realized that I would no longer grow taller. When I was young, I rarely bought new clothes. I really felt very comfortable wearing old clothes, and I didn’t have much money or time to buy them. Although this made people around me feel that I was different, I still continued my principles. I never thought that I would be able to stand in the same trench as Thoreau today and judge people by their clothes as others say (also euphemistically called "clothes"). "), how can I have time to interfere with other people's freedom of speech.

"Let those who work remember the purpose of wearing clothes, first to maintain life's body temperature, and secondly to cover the naked body in the current society; then he can weigh it How many necessary or important tasks can be done without adding clothes to the wardrobe? "If a person thinks that their life prospects will be ruined if they wear patched clothes, then they must think that winning the respect of others is the dress of their appearance. , living and traveling lavishly. At this time, he has entered the strange cognitive circle of "We are now a civilized country, and civilized countries evaluate people based on their clothing."

There is really no need to wear new clothes to make yourself and others feel good. I remember that one summer when I was a child, my aunt passed away and my mother wanted to take me to her funeral. My mother wants me to wear a new dress that she thinks looks better. I can’t explain it. I think the clothes on the hanger are the most suitable for whatever I wear that day (in summer, I change clothes in two sets), and the clothes on the hanger are the most suitable. The clothes seem to be still plain. I think what I was fighting for back then was not just about vanity.

In fact, my current life is so simple. I like to change between two sets of clothes in one season and one temperature difference. I don’t like to think too much about what to wear and waste too much time. Pay attention to what others think of me.

Fortunately, the person I am now has not changed much from the person I was when I was a child, although there were twists and turns in the process.

Fortunately, in "Walden", I continue to understand the difference between the real needs of life and the means of life, and I am also further thinking about the purpose of life. The purpose of life should not be replaced by the means of life or the means of life. The transition needs to be buried. The clearer you are about the purpose of life, the simpler and clearer your life will be.