[Guoxue Culture] Wang Yangming's Three Methods of Cultivating the Mind: Cultivating the Mind, Gaining in Alms, and Practicing in Things

It is stated in the "Dharma Hua Sutra": "If there is a Bodhisattva who practices worldly tolerance. It will not cure the wicked. Let him grow evil and corrupt the Dhamma. This Bodhisattva is neither a demon nor a Bodhisattva. It is no longer famous. Why is that? Ask for worldly tolerance. I cannot protect the Dharma. Although it seems to be forbearing outside, it is pure demon karma."

If the Bodhisattva does not punish the wicked and make the wicked corrupt the Dharma, then even the Bodhisattva has become a demon. Justice can be done and the devil can rectify the law, which is the greatest mercy. Do not show the vajra's anger, nor see the Bodhisattva's compassion.

As Mr. Yangming said: “Knowing the good and knowing the evil is the conscience, and removing the evil for the good is the object.” Nourishing the heart with the bodhisattva's heart and using the vajra means to do things are the highest level of spiritual practice for a person.

1 Be a man with a bodhisattva heart, and have good thoughts

Wang Yangming said: "The more difficult the place, the more time to cultivate the heart."

The worse the environment you face, the more you must keep your heart. , The state of mind does not change, this is the way to refine the mind.

When Wang Yangming was 24 years old, he took part in the test and failed again. Other candidates found out that they hadn't passed the exam and began to cry, only Wang Yangming was expressionless. Everyone thought he was too sad, so they all came to comfort him and help him open the knot.

But Wang Yangming smiled slightly and said: "You think it is a shame to fail the rankings, but I think that it is the most shameful to fail the rankings."

Life will encounter a lot of hardships and difficulties, and the more people at this time, the more they can reflect people. The cultivation of the character. Ordinary people just cried and wailed, but truly cultivated people can be calm and calm.

So how can we achieve such a "indifferent"? Wang Yangming once said: "A person has to work hard to stand up; to be static and definite, and dynamic and definite.

Difficulties are the best tempering of the character. Seek concentration inward, and be alone. In order to be truly strong.

2 Acting with the vajra method, perseverance and courage

Being kind is the original intention, but it does not mean that there is no principle to obey and indulge everyone. True goodness must be sharp.Kindness leads to the edge, and you must have the King Kong method. When you encounter the wicked, you don't compromise and don't give in, and you have a bottom line and strength against evil.

Only by acting with King Kong means can we protect kindness from injury. There is a story in " Zuo Zhuan ": The prime minister of Zheng Guo was seriously ill and died soon. At the end of his life, Zi Chan said to his successor Tai Uncle: “Only people with good morals can use lenient governance methods to convince the people; those who are inferior are best to use strict methods.”

Tai Uncle He was kind in heart and couldn't bear to be strict, so he always used lenient methods to govern. As a result, Zheng has more and more thieves, and they frequently commit evil. Uncle Tai said regretfully: "If I listened to Zichan, this would not happen." So, he sent troops to encircle the thieves and annihilate them all, thus alleviating the danger of thieves.

From this Confucius summed up: "Government is broad, the people are slow, slow is rectifying it fiercely; if the people are severely disabled, the disabled will be lenient. Tolerance is strong, and fierce is lenient. Harmony." Use generosity to adjust severity, and severity to adjust generosity. Only by combining leniency and strictness can the country be harmonious and stable.

Mr. Yang Ming gave an example of this when he eliminated the Nangan Mountain gangsters: "For example, one parent has ten children, eight are good, and two are rebellious, and they hurt eight people. The heart of parents must go to two. People, and then eight people can live in peace. All of them are sons, the heart of the parents, why do you want to kill the two sons? As a last resort." Parents love their sons equally, and kill the rebellious son (the bandit) only to protect the good son (good people) . If blindly generous, it is not only a connivance to Nizi, but also a harm to the other eight children.

For people, kindness is the nature. But kindness alone is not enough. Only by relying on lion-like ferocity, sternness and deterrence, kindness can truly exert its power.

3 Good is also a way, with a degree of practice

Michelangelo once said: "Doing good to a good person will make him better; doing good to a bad person will make him worse." This tells us that we must divide people when we do good, we must talk about methods, and we must not blindly practice foolishness.

Mr. Yang Ming said in "Reporting to the Thieves of the Head and Nest": "Do you know the heart of my master,Killing a chicken or dog for no reason is still unbearable, and since life is a matter of life, if it is easy to kill... I always miss this for you, and even if you can't sleep at night, I want to find a life for you. "

Mr. Yangming is committed to good, never want to hurt the bandits. Before the bandits were killed, he was thinking about finding a way out for the bandits. But in the end, he also expressed his determination: "If your habit has been established, it is difficult to change your actions. You can do it arbitrarily. I transferred the wolf of Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, and the native soldiers of the lake and Hunan to the west. "

The determination to suppress the bandits, the fruit of the means dared to be on paper. Because he knows that the Bodhisattva's heart must be protected by the vajra means, and the blind woman's benevolence will only make the wicked get an inch. Mr. Yang Ming gave the bandits two. A choice, if the bandits abandon the evil and do good, he will no longer pursue the bandits’ past crimes and treat them as good people. If the bandit’s habits are hard to change, he will definitely treat the bandits with an iron fist.

Mr. Yang Ming is well aware of the complexity He is willing to treat others with a bodhisattva heart, and is more courageous to act with vajra methods. It is also a good inspiration for us to behave and act: facing sentient beings with kind thoughts, facing villains with vajra methods, this is to protect himself , It is the protection of kindness.

I hope we can always remember kindness, treat people with the heart of a Bodhisattva, and eliminate the evil of people and the goodness of the whole person! We can also act with the vajra method, be broad-minded, firm and bold!