A big heart makes everything small; a small heart makes everything big. As Sima Qian wrote in Records of the Grand Historian: "The hustle and bustle of the world are all for profit."
Living all day long in the midst of gains and losses, in fact, everyone has a small abacus in their heart.
Sponsored by isok.coShorten the links behind every storyUse isok.co to create clean URLs, QR codes and real-time source analytics for campaigns.Create tracked links And heaven only has one big abacus. It’s better to be a little foolish and not calculate too much. 01Everyone wants to be smart, and the smarter, the better. Unknowingly, there are big and small differences in intelligence, and there are also true and false differences in foolishness. People who play small abacus often calculate everything and are petty and scheming. They get caught up in the details and become obsessed with profit, losing the long-term perspective. Even if they appear generous on the surface, they lose their inner peace. Constantly thinking about calculating others, being suspicious everywhere, and always on guard, leading to exhaustion and anxiety. The time and depth of their pain and anxiety are much greater than ordinary people. Book of Changes: The earth is, and the gentleman carries the world with virtue. Heaven and earth are quiet, deep, and silent, and can accommodate everything, have they ever calculated or schemed? As the saying goes, calculating and calculating is actually calculating oneself. Constantly fighting and scheming, breaking up friendships, narrowing one’s path, and making life harder. It’s better to be a little foolish and not calculate too much. A life without calculations is so good! The gentleman loves wealth and takes it with virtue.
02As the saying goes, birds that fly high die of gluttony; fish in deep ponds die of temptation. If you only focus on your own small abacus, you’re likely to fall into a trap. How many people have fallen into danger because of their desires and temptations. Book of Changes: ‘Profit is the harmony of virtue.’ True profit is based on morality and mutual benefit, benefiting both parties. There was a story about Mencius receiving a gift from the State of Qi. Mencius refused 100 taels of gold from Qi, but accepted 50 taels from the State of Shu, because he had never helped Shu, but Shu had genuinely helped him. A downcast businessman found Hu Xueyan and sold him all his assets at a very low price. Facing tempting profits, Hu Xueyan lent him money at a very low interest rate. He said, ‘Everyone has a time when they’re caught in the rain and need an umbrella. If we can help others, let’s help them.’ Later, the businessman recovered and became one of Hu Xueyan’s most loyal partners. Man has his own schemes, but heaven has its own plans. The big abacus at the entrance of Wuzhen Xuanxian Temple has nine beads, number nine and number five, which means the ninth and fifth level. 03The couplet at the entrance of Xuanxian Temple reads: ‘Man has his own schemes, but heaven has its own plans.’ The first ‘plan’ character was deliberately written incorrectly. Man has his own schemes, and heaven has its own plans. What does heaven calculate? It calculates all the people, each person’s ‘virtue’. The big abacus hanging in the Temple of Yongding in Beijing. Most Cheng Miao in Taiwan have a big abacus hanging. The abacus symbolizes meticulousness. These big abacuses symbolize discerning good and evil, and distinguish between true and false. Book of Changes says: ‘Families that practice good deeds will have surplus blessings, while families that indulge in bad deeds will have surplus disasters.’ If you do things honestly and sincerely with a kind heart, heaven will never treat you badly. A big heart makes everything small; a small heart makes everything big.
Happiness is not about how much you have, but how much you calculate.
