So, what kind of mental state is healthy and good? How can we achieve this state?
The simplest criterion for judging whether a person's mental state is healthy is a sentence often quoted by Wang Yangming in The Doctrine of the Mean: "Being rich means being rich; Poverty is poverty; Su Yi emperor, walking in the Yi emperor; There's always trouble, always trouble. A gentleman is not complacent. " No matter what kind of circumstances (wealth, poverty, prosperity, adversity), one can maintain a comfortable and peaceful mind. To put it bluntly, no matter how well you mix, you always keep your heart strong. If you do this, you can be called a "gentleman", that is, a mentally healthy person. To achieve such a state of mind and spiritual realm, we must pass two words-practice.
The world usually has a misunderstanding of "practice", thinking that only by seeing through the world of mortals and escaping into an empty door is practice, or at least by staying away from the hubbub and meditation is practice. In fact, the correct definition of practice should be: correcting one's wrong mentality and behavior. In this case, being in the world of mortals is more conducive to practice than hiding in the deep mountains and forests, and you can also see the kung fu of practice. The reason is simple: if the external environment is simple, how can you have the opportunity to test whether your mentality and behavior are correct? Only when a person is in a complex environment and constantly interacts with others and society can he more easily find out all kinds of problems in his mentality and behavior and correct them.
In addition, many people think that "practice" is the exclusive product of religious people or belongs to the category of religious belief, which is also a big misunderstanding. Unless you think your personality is perfect enough and your life is perfect, you must practice. This truth is also very simple: even the house we live in should be maintained, and the car we drive should be maintained regularly. What makes you think your mind doesn't need practice?
In today's China, the main reason why many people live unhappily is that most people in China don't know what practice is, so they neglect to look after their souls. The mind is the "receiver" of happiness, and health and a good attitude are the direct sources of happiness. Therefore, if we don't know anything about the operating mechanism of the mind and the relationship between the mind and life, and let our spiritual home be abandoned all the year round, it is tantamount to cutting off our natural connection with happiness.
So, what standards should practice follow?
In this respect, Wang Yangming, like all Neo-Confucians in Song and Ming Dynasties, has only six principles: observing righteousness and rejecting human desires.
These are the six words that Confucian culture has been severely criticized in China since modern times, and it is also the place where Neo-Confucianism, including Yangming's theory of mind, has been misunderstood and even misinterpreted most seriously. The reason for this is that "justice" is usually interpreted as feudal ethics, while "human desire" is often understood as the basic desire of human beings. If this is the case, of course, it is a misconception that "keeping justice and rejecting human desires" seriously stifles human nature. It is based on this understanding that countless people in China have criticized Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties in the past century.
In fact, ""is by no means feudal ethics-in Zhu's view, ""refers to the laws of the universe; In Wang Yangming's view, "justice" refers to the law of the universe and mind. At the same time, "human desire" never refers to people's basic desires (such as food, clothing, housing and transportation), but refers to those unreasonable and improper desires that go beyond the boundaries between law and morality. Therefore, the correct explanation of Yangming's mind theory should be: on the one hand, we should know more about the law of communication between the universe and the mind, and keep more conscious photos of the mind; On the other hand, we should constantly get rid of those unreasonable and improper desires in our inner world. This is the practical guide provided by Yangming's mind, the only way for us to get mental health and live a happy life.
In fact, the above ideas are not the personal patents of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties or Wang Yangming. In modern economics, there is a simple but far-reaching "happiness formula": happiness = utility/desire. "Utility" is an abstract word, which can be roughly understood as "income": for example, if you get a steamed bread, it will have the function of filling your stomach; Getting a car will save time and be convenient; After listening to a concert, there will be a pleasant effect, and so on. In this formula, happiness is directly proportional to utility-the more you get under a given desire, the stronger your happiness will be. At the same time, happiness and desire are inversely proportional-the smaller your desire, the stronger your happiness.
From this formula, it is not difficult to deduce two paths to happiness: one is to keep the desire unchanged and increase income at the same time; Second, keep the income unchanged, while constantly reducing the desire. Obviously, no matter which way you want to get happiness, one thing is the same-you can't let your desires expand unchecked and endlessly. Because no matter how your income increases, as long as your desires keep expanding, your happiness will only get smaller and smaller. On the contrary, no matter whether your income increases or not, as long as your desire is decreasing, there is no doubt that your happiness will only increase day by day.
This simple economic principle is actually a "happiness theory" that China's Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism (including Yangming's Mind) have been telling us. Unfortunately, today, people in China often regard this truth as a cliche, or dismiss it as pedantic winter baking, thus forgetting it. So in today's China, many people will encounter such confusion: I have been working hard and my income is increasing year by year, but why has my sense of happiness not been improved accordingly?
The answer is simple: you neglect your own practice and thus lose control of your inner desires. In other words, when your desire expands much faster than your income, you will miss or even run counter to your immediate happiness. Of course, Yangming's theory of mind teaches us to control our desires instead of giving up everything. It just tells us that in order to get happiness, you can add "utility" (income), but at the same time you must subtract "desire". If so, your happiness index will definitely increase steadily. Theoretically, even if your income does not increase, as long as you minimize your bad desires through practice, your happiness will tend to infinity.
So, regarding the second question raised above: What is the use of psychology for us in today's times? The answer is: the study of the mind can help you understand the operating mechanism of the mind and the law of communication between the universe and the mind, so as to maintain a sense of the mind, and then find the meaning of life and get the happiness you deserve.
In this book, I use a lot of knowledge and thoughts that seem to have nothing to do with the theory of mind, such as Zen, western philosophy, psychology and quantum mechanics, to analyze Yangming's theory of mind. The purpose is not to show off my erudition, but to provide readers with more reference systems, hoping to understand the theory of mind and nature more deeply through the comparison and mutual confirmation of different wisdom at home and abroad. If this can arouse your interest in human wisdom other than Yangming's theory of mind, then the significance of writing this little book is even greater, and I will feel particularly happy.
In addition, I use "dialogue style" in many places in the book, which means that Wang Yangming and his students have a dialogue around many issues. The reason for doing this is, first, to make writing easier and increase the fun of reading, and second, to enhance logic through repeated questions and answers, so as to make the thinking on related issues more rigorous and in-depth. It should be pointed out that most of these conversations were not made by Wang Yangming, but my thoughts and discussions on many practical problems of contemporary China people on the basis of fully understanding and absorbing psychological spirit and combining with other knowledge (such as Buddhism, Zen, western philosophy, etc.). I did this to solve the current problems, rather than simply translating and annotating Yangming's mind. Strictly speaking, many things discussed in the book have gone beyond the scope of Yangming's mind, and some places seem less serious (such as occasionally letting Yangming "cross" and discuss some contemporary topics), but my original intention is not to misinterpret the eyes of the ancients or readers, nor to tamper with Wang Yangming's mind or disrespect him, but to provide readers with a broader reading horizon. Let you put aside your own views (such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, psychology and Zen, eastern culture and western science, etc.) ) and get a harmonious and transparent way of thinking, so as to solve the problems you face more effectively and directly cut into the troubles, pains, entanglements and puzzles you face every day.
In a word, I wrote this book not only to make it clear to the ancients (the century-old feud between Neo-Confucianism and Yangming's mind should be rehabilitated), but also to let China people live happily under the enlightenment of more wisdom today.
If readers want to study the original works of Wang Yangming's mind, then I suggest you read Wang Yangming's representative work Biography, and even study the complete works of Wang Yangming. However, if you don't have the time and conditions to do in-depth research and want to guide your life with your heart, then this book should be able to help you-it can let you use as little time and energy as possible to appreciate a great scholar's powerful inner and spiritual realm and understand many life wisdom similar to Yangming's mind at all times and in all countries.