Zhuangzi: All things in the world do not enter the heart, only then can one transcend suffering by surpassing the 'Dao heart'.

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Fanden said: 'No one in this world can harm you, unless you choose to.'

For the worldly person, what may harm you is not the things themselves, but your 'heart.'

When your heart moves, external words and actions can inflict harm upon you. If your heart remains unmoved, external praise and blame, gain and loss, success and failure will not affect you.

For example, for a worldly person, what causes him pain are external voices of praise and blame, misunderstanding, and criticism. How many people suffer from others' slander and accusations, and are troubled by being misunderstood?

However, this pain is formed within our hearts not because of these voices themselves, but because our hearts are concerned, and therefore we suffer.

This is precisely what Zhuangzi said:No one in this world can harm you, unless you choose to

Zen master Wu Huiheng was visiting Lawu Temple when he overheard two monks arguing over a folding screen.

One monk said, 'Look, the wind is blowing.'

The other monk argued, 'No, it's not the wind, it's the screen that's moving.'

He continued, 'It's the wind, if there's no wind, the screen won't move. The screen moves because of the wind, the wind is the cause, it's the wind.'

The other monk continued to argue, 'It's not the screen moving, if there's no screen, how can we know there's wind? The screen is the cause, the screen is the cause.'

Wu Huiheng saw the two monks arguing and walked over and said, 'It's not the wind, it's not the screen, it's the moving of the mind.'

The two monks realized something and the presiding monk, Jinzong, was astonished and became his disciple.

Amidst the worldly busyness, our hearts will fluctuate with external objects. When our hearts move, we experience the suffering of the sea. All matters are best when they enter the heart, and life has a clear path.

As the saying goes: 'The Bodhi tree has no trunk, the mirror has no base. Originally nothing, where does the dust come from.'

Zhuangzi told a story about a man named Shi Chengqi, who said to Laozi, 'I heard that you are a sage, you came here from afar, hoping to see you. On the journey, I walked for a long distance, my feet were full of calluses, but I didn't stop until I saw you. However, after seeing you, I realized that you are not a sage, wasting grain, discarding it, is not benevolent, having food to spare, and still hoarding it, this is not benevolent.'

Laozi remained silent.

Shi Chengqi came to see Laozi the next day and said, 'Yesterday, I injured you, now I have realized something, what is this?'

Laozi said, 'A clever and righteous person, I thought I had already left this kind of person behind. When you called me 'cow,' I was a cow; when you called me 'horse,' I was a horse. If there exists such a form, people would call it 'unbenevolent,' and he would not accept it, and he would suffer a second time from the guilt of being wronged. I followed external things naturally, I was not intentionally following, I was not wronged.'

Shi Chengqi asked again, 'How should one cultivate oneself?'

Laozi said, 'Your appearance is arrogant, your eyes are protruding, your forehead is high and wide, your mouth is slack, your body is tall and running like a horse. You are tied with a rope and temporarily stopped, you move quickly like a sword, but you are too discerning, you use cleverness and trickery, you display arrogance. All of these are inconsistent with the nature of things. If someone like this exists at the border, that's stealing.'

This story comes from Zhuangzi's 'Heaven' chapter, and the wisdom is that 'those who have attained enlightenment should face the world with an unconcerned heart.'

On the first day, Shi Chengqi criticized Laozi, but the next day he personally apologized, because Shi Chengqi realized the difference between 'those who have attained enlightenment' and 'those who have not.'

'Those who have attained enlightenment face criticism with an unconcerned heart, but those who have not, are restless and arrogant, use their cleverness to satisfy their arrogance, so Shi Chengqi went to ask Laozi the next day.

This is the principle of 'entering the heart,' the truly enlightened person does not care about external praise and blame, even if he is slandered and insulted, he does not argue or become angry.

We have all heard the saying 'silence is golden,' but 'silence is golden' is for accepting praise and blame. Zhuangzi's 'entering the heart' is for disregarding external voices.

Human suffering comes from the noise of the world, in the world, many people are moved by the words of others.For example, if someone praises you, you will be happy for a long time, if someone criticizes you, you will be annoyed for a long time. But when a person can transcend these external noises with an enlightened heart, all fear disappears.National Book Bureau, Culture and Art Press.

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