When we pursue the western material civilization, every kind of malpractice appears, which reminds us of the value of our national traditional cultural civilization. Facing the life values of the ancients, such as self-denial, kindness, indifference and purity of mind, will reflect the bondage of our extreme utilitarianism to people today. Extreme utilitarianism has turned people's mind into a "black hole" of material desires. This insatiable "black hole" is a bottomless pit, which can not only pollute the social crowd, corrode a country, but also destroy the peace and harmony of human mind. Make people fidgety, resentful, annoyed and miserable, disheartened and so on.
When we are eager to pursue the beauty of peace and harmony in the human mind again. It is more important to study China's traditional life values and mentality. Inheriting and carrying forward the essence of traditional culture will help us maintain psychological harmony in the process of pursuing the value of modern life and satisfying our desire for life. So as to fully love and enjoy life. In other words, there are both material and spiritual civilizations.
(A) the principle of non-essential life
Confucius first put forward the personality criterion of "no necessity": "Viscount, no heart, no necessity, no solidity and no ego." "The Analects of Confucius Zi Han" means that one should not make subjective guesses and think that things must be like this, but be self-righteous. This kind of restraint and restraint of individual will not only contributes to people's intention and education, but also keeps people's psychology in a stable and harmonious state in complex social life. The realm of "don't be me" means that people don't insist when they are criticized by setbacks, and they can take the initiative to mediate themselves and maintain psychological balance. The idea of "unnecessary" is to make people actively adapt to social life through self-psychological adjustment. This idea is a positive attitude towards life in modern language.
Confucianism advocates restricting people's freedom, or he tells people that it is very valuable to restrict the needs of freedom (material desire, lust, desire and thirst for knowledge). Under the condition of respecting the objective world, one's duty is to "keep one's mind and cultivate one's nature, so one must die young in heaven and cultivate one's morality in order to achieve it, so one's destiny is also." Mencius wholeheartedly.
"Husband happy and comfortable, the heart is comfortable. Human feelings, want to live a long life and hate death, want to be safe and hate danger, want to be proud and hate shame, and want to escape and hate work. If you want four things, you will feel at ease if you remove four evils. " Four desires lie in winning reason. You win the reason to heal your body, you live a lifetime, you live a lifetime, and you live a long life. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals. The right sound
When we understand the idea of "few desires" in Confucian life values, we should understand it as a rational restriction on personal desires, not a denial of personal desires. The true value and freedom of self is to learn to adapt to it, adapt to it, transform it, and at the same time use it more for yourself and serve the society. So that they always maintain psychological harmony in social life.
"If you control your desires with Tao, you will be happy but not confused. If you want to forget Tao, you will be confused but not happy." music theory
Use rational methods to control people's desires and let people enjoy life without worry. People will be confused and unhappy if they only pursue the satisfaction of their desires and ignore the restrictions on their desires.
Self-realization of life value
Confucianism is to make people consciously abide by and practice benevolence, righteousness, propriety and righteousness. Benevolence refers to a friendly relationship between people. Confucius said, "The benevolent loves others". Rites are the moral norms and living standards of social life. "Rituals are called institutional festivals." They pursue social values as personal values. In the process of "self-denial", people's inherent initiative and creativity are realized, and people's self-worth is realized. This should be said to be positive and beneficial to people's social life.
Confucianism adapts to society and nature with propriety and righteousness. This is the highest level of self-worth unity. The norm given by Confucianism is to cultivate one's morality and cultivate one's nature in order to achieve benevolence. Realize self-worth in the "ceremony" of respecting and obeying society. In the form of self-worth, the self is not lost, but socialized. This socialized self-value enables people to intelligently exert their personal potential and make use of the environment in the process of realizing their self-value. This kind of application and utilization can give full play to people's initiative and enthusiasm, mobilize people's positive factors, and is conducive to social development and progress. However, he emphasized maintaining psychological balance while realizing himself.
Epicurus said: "Happiness can be considered as a person who has no desire and a person who has a desire and is realized." In Confucian values of life, it is not a denial of desire, nor is it a utilitarianism completely subordinate to desire. However, under the condition of accepting the objective fact of life desire, through the transformation of the object, we can create new life, give full play to our internal energy and enjoy ourselves. In the self's life value, there are both personal achievements and social values. As the transcendence and sublimation of the true self, its form is completed through the transformation of the object world.
In this way, self-worth contains all the energy of true self-worth, while maintaining harmony with the object world, realizing the highest realm of Confucian life value "harmony between man and nature" Here, the ego is not lost, but the subject's "man" and the object's "heaven" are highly unified, "accepting his ego, life, countless social life and natural objective reality as a philosopher". In the real life of Confucianism, Maslow: the conflicts, setbacks and threats between human potential and value have been solved. They feel that the seemingly irreconcilable struggle between "heaven" and "man" is not a struggle, but a pleasant cooperation. Compared with the mental health standards of modern society, the Confucian life value system is more completely personalized and has a deeper recognition of human society.
In the process of realizing life, they value not only their own value, but also the lives and growth of others. What a human society! It will definitely lead people to become more perfect people. "Create a world that respects and praises all human nature." humanistic psychology
Physical and mental harmony
Body and mind are separated. On the one hand, it refers to the form, the desire and the need of interest are all derived from the form; On the other hand, it refers to the spirit, from which the needs of propriety and righteousness are derived. Confucianism emphasizes the unity of the relationship between body and mind in theory and pursues its integrity in practice.
"Desire only has air intake and no air outlet, while reason only has air outlet and no air inlet. Good scholars judge between advance and retreat. " "So, the reader must first know points, know points, often peaceful, often want to get it. What you want is self-sufficient and used in a safe place. " Lv Kun: Groans.
The characteristic of the harmony between body and mind pursued by Confucianism is that people achieve harmony between body and mind through self-improvement. This harmony between body and mind is the satisfaction of things and mind, spirit and flesh, form and spirit, desire and righteousness. The satisfaction of one's own body can only be obtained through labor and progress towards nature and society. However, people's ability to work, what nature and society can give someone is limited. Such infinite desires and limited rituals have produced psychological contradictions. Confucianism uses "rites" to resolve contradictions through self-reflection, which is an excellent way. "Where does the ceremony begin? They all say: people are born with desires, but they can't have desires, and they can't ask for nothing. If the boundaries are divided by quantity, they can't help but fight. Fighting is chaotic, and chaos is poor. The late king hated chaos, and made the ceremony and righteousness separate. In order to cultivate people's desires and give them what they want, their desires are not limited to things, and things will not yield to them. " It is a courtesy for two people to stick together for a long time. "The Book of Rites is a way for people to pursue physical and mental harmony. So that everyone in society, regardless of rank, age, wealth and poverty, has a proper place in social life. Everyone can achieve psychological balance and enjoy their happiness, happiness, personality and dignity according to their own conditions.
"... willing to eat, to be beautiful, to be safe, to be happy. "
This picture is a harmonious state of living and working in peace. Get down to business. What we want today. The self-cultivation education of the ancients in China also restricted people's hearts from the inside, making people consciously restrain their own behaviors and personal desires as a means to achieve inner peace and stability. Not without reason.
The understanding of personal desire is, "a scholar needs a prophet to raise his heart, and he who knows the points is always safe and wants to get it often." Important people are self-sufficient and used in safe places. "The harmony between body and mind pursued by Confucianism is the dialectical unity of desire catharsis and control. This perfect harmony of body and mind will make people's hearts satisfied, that is, they have psychological pride, self-confidence and physical happiness. Therefore, this kind of Confucian thought has its rationality.
Maslow, the representative of modern humanism, also thinks ". ..... Uncontrolled indulgence and satisfaction also have their own dangerous consequences ... We should control, delay, limit, give up our demands, endure setbacks and be self-disciplined. Only those who are responsible for self-discipline can we say: do whatever you want! It is quite possible that this is completely correct. Maslow: human potential and value
"Human nature is born with good interests and bad sex, and when it is suitable, it is born with fighting for thieves' fornication, so there must be a way to learn from others and be polite and righteous. Then, out of helplessness, it conforms to the arts and sciences. xunzi
It can be seen that the harmony between body and mind pursued by Confucianism. It is not only the suppression and denial of human instinctive desire to achieve psychological balance. But with the help of ethics, self-awareness is stimulated, and the body and mind are unified at the highest level of value self (the depth of personality) through the self of seeking knowledge, cultivating self-cultivation and socialization. Under the condition of observing social etiquette, people seek physical and mental harmony in their own practice.
The Confucian thought of mind cultivation is a whole value goal, which includes the harmony between man and nature, between man and man, and between body and mind. These harmonious thoughts are deeply rooted in the hearts of ancient people in China. In addition to the requirements of social stability and order stability, another factor is the understanding of the value of life. Harmony is the highest life value pursued by the ancients. As a practice, it is based on personal moral cultivation. Personal intention and accomplishment are always linked with personal moral accomplishment. As "The Doctrine of the Mean" said, "A gentleman must be physically fit, but think about self-cultivation, and he should not neglect his loved ones. He must know people when he thinks about things, and he must know the sky when he thinks about people. "
Therefore, the Confucian thought of mind and nature cultivation is mostly related to moral cultivation. In the pursuit of goodness and beauty, there must be the highest state of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and there must also be someone who is pure in heart and wants to share life experience with heaven. The improvement of morality is based on self-cultivation.
To sum up, the cultivation thought in Confucian moral cultivation has its dross, but it also has its positive side, many of which are worth learning from our current mental health education.