Who can take inaction as the head, life as the spine and death as the end; Who knows the difference between life and death, he and I are friends! (Grand Master)
When I died, my friend Qin lost his condolences and cried three times. The student asked, "aren't you Mr. Wang's friend?" Qin Shi replied: "Yes." "But, since we are friends, is it okay to mourn like this?" Qin Shi said, "Yes. At first, I regarded him as an ordinary person, but now I don't see him that way. I came in to express my condolences just now. An old man cries for him as if he were crying for his son. A young man weeps for him just as he weeps for his mother. When they cry here, there are bound to be people who don't want to mourn and people who don't want to cry. This is against heaven and forgets human nature. The ancients called this punishment for nature. When it's time to come, Mr. Wang is coming at the right time; Sir, go when it's time to go. The ancients called it the release of natural bondage to follow the times (naturally) without feeling sad or happy in their chests.
Who can take inaction as the head, life as the back and death as the hip; Who knows that life and death are one, I will be friends with him. Life and death are the ultimate of life. The so-called ultimate is the ultimate meaning. For people, there will be no other problems except life and death, so life and death are the ultimate problems.
People usually prefer life to death. Zhuangzi, on the other hand, put forward different views, arguing that life and death are natural phenomena, and people can live without happiness and die with sadness.
The value of life, death is inevitable. Death is not avoided or postponed because of worry, so why worry? If you know life and death, then there is no fear of any hardship in the world. Then let's see how Zhuangzi understands life and death.
Zhuangzi believes that worrying about death is meaningless, because in a sense, life and death are things that have nothing to do with themselves. Why do you say it has nothing to do with yourself? Because life and death are not decided by ourselves, it is time for a person to come and go, and we can't decide when to come and die. Therefore, Zhuangzi said: "Life and death remain the same, but love is at a critical juncture!" Since life and death have nothing to do with you, you should put life and death aside and don't be sad because of the change of life and death; Get rid of the concern about life and death, return to nature, and look at life and death from a natural perspective. This does not mean self-anesthesia, escape from life and death, but to understand life and death and treat life and death positively. If so, you can calmly deal with everything, and Taishan collapses in front of you without changing color, not to mention the benefits. Fame and fortune are nothing compared with life and death.
Life and death are one, and death is an inseparable part of life. From the time point of view, man does not exist originally, so it can be said that he is "nothing", and "nothing" is his earliest state of existence, so Zhuangzi said that "nothing" is the head of his existence. "Nothing" means "non-existence", which is an inseparable part of its existence. "Life" is the backbone of this existence, and death is the ass of this existence. Without a head and a butt, the spine cannot exist alone. It can be seen that life and death are different stages of the same process.
From the perspective of the process of avenue transformation, man is only the embodiment of heaven and earth, and the metaplasia of yin and yang is only a form in the endless transformation process, which has no special significance. When people die, they become other forms and things. Will they become the liver of a mouse or the arm of an insect? That depends on the nature of the avenue and yin and yang. The death of man is the birth of other forms of things.
Death is irresistible, because death is the product of yin and yang changes, and yin and yang changes are unstoppable. It makes our bodies load the earth, makes us tired when we are alive, comfortable when we are old, and rest in peace after death. "So, be good at my life and be good at my death." Therefore, if life is a lucky thing, then death should also be a lucky thing.
Heaven and earth are a melting pot, and man is just one of the ten thousand things in Qian Qian. Even if he becomes a man, there is nothing particularly gratifying. In fact, in the melting pot of heaven and earth, where can I not go? What can't be? People's starting point can't be chosen, and it is also irresistible. Only by accepting the facts and taking a good road of future development can we spend our lives peacefully and smoothly.
Therefore, we don't know whether the present state of existence is really life or death. "If you are a husband, you know where life and death are!" In this way, we don't know the order of life and death. The "life" we are talking about now may be the death of other creatures, and the so-called death is just the life of other life. Man is only a form in the process of natural creation. What is there to be proud of?
However, Zhuangzi's views are not always consistent. When he taught people not to be afraid of death, he often showed a tendency to deny life. For example, the story of singing in drums and pots goes like this: Zhuangzi's wife died, at first it was sad, and at last it was happy. After a lifetime of husband and wife, who has no feelings! Zhuangzi is no exception: "Why can't I be generous!" But after he figured it out, he not only stopped crying, but sang a song: Originally, there was no wife, no life, and she vaguely existed in the avenue. Later, because of the change of the avenue, she came to life and took shape with the change of life, giving her life; Now death is actually back, back to the state of ignorance. This kind of change is just like the change in spring, summer, autumn and winter, which is perfectly normal. Now she is lying quietly in the huge grave of heaven and earth, and I am crying loudly. Is it too ignorant of destiny? So Zhuangzi stopped crying. The wife returned to the embrace of eternal peace and harmony. Not only should she not be sad, but she should be happy for it, so she sang. Visible, Zhuangzi himself is not "sorrow and joy".
Zhuangzi's truth is true, but people can't be so rational, and they can't do it as long as they figure it out. There is indeed a gap between human reason and emotion, and contradictions often occur, especially for death. Rationally speaking, most people also know that birth and death are natural phenomena, and death is helpless, so sadness is useless; However, when you really face death, you can't help being sad. Some people say that Zhuangzi's thought is irrational, but it seems that Zhuangzi's view is only valid from a rational perspective.
There should be no fear of death, but there is no need to rejoice. As Zhuangzi has always advocated, "I don't know what to do, I don't know how to die." (Great Master) This is the realm of enlightenment, that is, the realm of indifference. Since birth, aging, illness and death are natural phenomena, there is no need to be happy and painful; Similarly, life need not be painful, and death need not be happy. At this point, Zhuangzi is not consistent: according to his basic point of view, the death of his wife should be neither sad nor painful, but he sings with a drum; He also regards life as a pustule that grows on his body, and death as the festering of pustules and the liberation of life, which makes something that should be denied. Life seems sad, but death is a happy thing.
This goes to the other extreme: I would rather die than live. Admittedly, we should deny that we live happily and die bitterly. But it is equally wrong to die rather than live. It is advisable to treat the two equally, neither happy nor sad. If life is regarded as a carbuncle on the human body and death is regarded as the liberation of life, then life is worse than death. But since living is meaningless, isn't it even more meaningless to die? After I die, I don't exist. What's the point?
From a natural point of view, Zhuangzi's point of view is understandable, but not from a human point of view. Life is really just a form in the process of endless changes, but I am me after all, which is essentially different from other forms, otherwise there would be no me. Although I am the manifestation of Tao, I don't exist before and after the appearance of Me. Although those things that make me exist still exist, they are not me; Man and everything are one, but I am not everything. Although we don't need special joy to get life, life is really worth cherishing; Therefore, not letting death drag down life should be the root of Zhuangzi Thought.