Zhuangzi: The Larger ‘Space’ of the Heart Leads to Less Life Suffering

Zhuangzi: The pain of human life comes from the fact that the heart is too 'small'.

Everything people are attached to becomes their shackles and burden.

Because you care about something, it enters your heart. If we consider the heart as a space, every thing you cling to adds objects to this space, and the 'area' of this space is formed by your experience and thinking.

When these objects accumulate and become more and more, the space becomes increasingly crowded. When the objects exceed the space, these things become a person's burden and make them feel noisy and painful.

Just like a person carrying a basket while climbing a mountain, adding stones to the basket as they walk, the more they add, the more tired they feel. The best answers to solve these problems are two: First: Clear the objects in the space, second: Change your thinking and vision, expand your space.

When your life's space becomes bigger, all things in your world will become smaller. This is a transformation from a frog in a well to a Peng bird in the North Sea.

Zhuangzi says:

If the North Sea says, 'It is not possible for a frog at the bottom of the sea to speak to a person in the sea, because it is limited by the narrow space of the bottom of the well; it cannot speak to a winter insect about winter, because the winter insect is limited by time; it cannot speak to a narrow-minded person about the Way, because it is limited by its education.'

A person's pain comes from their own limitations. They shape their lives according to their experiences and thinking, and all the noisy and painful things accumulate in this boundary, eventually becoming a burden.

Let's look at the world from a broader perspective, and we can see how ridiculous the things we used to care about.

Cai Gen Tan says: 'If you put your ambition and wealth under your heart, you can be above the common people; if you put the virtues of morality and righteousness under your heart, you can reach the realm of sages.'

The best state of life is to let go of all attachments.

Life's burden is not imposed by the outside world or pressured onto oneself, but it is the heart's grasping at the world.

Some people always complain that the external environment makes them feel painful, and their experiences and people make them feel the reality of human nature. But they never reflect on themselves. While feeling very painful, they just have a 'small' heart, and they don't want to discard these noisy burdens.

Don't make small bumps and setbacks into major events. In the end, everything may not be bad.

Therefore, Buddhism says: 'The sea of suffering is boundless; when you turn back, the shore is behind you.'

The 'sea of suffering' is your attachment; 'returning' is not based on what the outside world tells you to return, but on your own heart learning to be at ease, and understanding that you need to turn back.

In this world, skills and benefits can be taught by others, but the only thing you need to understand is 'forgiveness,' which requires self-understanding. The best answer to all these problems is to expand your 'space.'

Written by National Studies Workshop

Read Chinese classics, feel the culture of ancient people, and understand a different world, see a different life.

“”“”

“”“”

|