Half Fireworks, Half Serenity
True tranquility isn't about escaping the hustle and bustle of traffic, but about cultivating a serene garden within your heart.
Today I read a passage from 'Walden' by Thoreau, which was particularly interesting:
He bought a box for just a dollar, drilled several holes in it, and used it to let the air circulate. On rainy days and at night, he could live in it, allowing him to love what he loved, and his soul could be free and untamed.
The meaning is roughly that people should be unconcerned and without desires, maintaining inner peace, even to the point of not needing a house. Such a person would only need a box with holes for air, and his soul would be happy.
While pursuing a simple and tranquil life is undoubtedly a great aspiration, excessive demands can undermine one's capabilities.
A life with blood and flesh deserves half Zen and half worldly concerns.
Life has poetry, and it needs earthiness too.
Author Thoreau believed that we should live a plain and quiet life, excessive pursuit of material things reducing us to impoverished 'civilized' people.
He proposed that the best life is to withdraw from society and immerse oneself in nature, cultivating one's own food and supporting oneself, freeing oneself from the burdens of life and living carefree. He even did this himself, so he left the city and came to Walden Pond, almost completely isolated from the world.
He still believed that being a 'wild man' would be far happier and more fulfilling than modern people.
Indeed, pure nature can purify the human soul and a quiet life away from the hustle and bustle is comfortable and pleasant.
However, withdrawing from civilization really means being carefree? Can anyone escape civilization?
Solitude and poetic life are undoubtedly a feast for the soul, but they are destined to be only an ideal.
Humans are social animals, needing social interaction, needing work, needing emotional exchange, needing a sense of value and belonging. Therefore, we can never achieve the pure spiritual ideal described by Thoreau.
Furthermore, a life too full of Zen can be bland and monotonous, lacking warmth and vitality.
In fact, noisy, joyful, and chaotic lives are warmer and more lively, like preferring to be with a warm but unlovely person rather than a cold and beautiful one,
Just as Bai Lai Mei said, the truly wise person isn't about escaping the hustle and bustle, but about finding poetic residences within the noisy life, the quiet of the mind.
Real life is half-fireworks and half-serenity,
The world has no true paradise, paradise is in the heart,
The truly wise person is able to find poetry within the noisy life, and maintain their inner peace,
The truly accomplished person remains uncorrupted and grounded in the mud, rather than merely observing it from a distance,
If your heart is at peace, there is no place that is not a paradise,
The best life is not to isolate oneself, but to use a clear heart and live a mundane life,
The most transparent person isn't innocent and simple, but understands the world without being caught up in it,
True possession is letting go,
Both 'both pure land and clear mind' – Fuzhi Kai,
We can all use a Walden heart to live our mundane lives,
Zen allows us to have a clear mind and a peaceful state of being,
Mundane life gives it flavor and joy,
