Can the Tao Te Ching guide the lives of ordinary people?

The wisdom in the Tao Te Ching is unfathomable and appreciated by both the elegant and the vulgar. As long as you can understand classical Chinese, you will be able to understand the truth from it; But no matter how deep your knowledge is, you can't see through it. Whether you want to cultivate the Tao, maintain health, govern the country, use soldiers, scheming, cultivate the mind, or simply learn some wisdom about getting along with others, you can read a lot of useful things.

And read it again and again. Some people say that China's roots lie in Taoism. Nan Huaijin also said that when Taoist things are cleared, political struggle is trivial.

I will give a few examples to see if the Tao Te Ching also has a deep guiding effect on ordinary people. The following is a quote from the Mawangdui version of the Tao Te Ching.

Knowing its male, guarding its female, is the world's stream. 〗

Ordinary people call you low-key, and the benefits of low-key can't be said. But Taishang Laojun told you that low-key is to have non-low-key capital first, and only when you know the male can you keep the female. If you want to have no ability, you want to have no status, and no matter how respectful you are when you see people, people will take it for granted, and they don't think you are low-key.

Only if you can get a certain amount of capital (Zhixiong), and then you are low-key (Shou Female), others will think that you are approachable, willing to approach you, and support you (for Tianxiaxi).

What is the value of the ancients? It is not to ask for it, but to avoid sin. 〗

If a person has a noble status, others are willing to respect him and listen to his orders, why? Or why does a person have power and others are willing to listen to him? As long as you can do two things: one is to "seek to get", and the other is to "avoid guilt".

That is, what others want to achieve, such as getting promoted, making a fortune, contracting a project, going to school, and you can solve it when they find you; Whatever you do, you can settle it when you find you; People will definitely want to mess with you and listen to you. As for the rest, what kind of personality charm, enveloping people's hearts, and pulling common aspirations, are all virtual, and only these two things are real. <>

Everyone is very familiar with the eternity, but we don't necessarily know why the world lasts for a long time?

The reason why heaven and earth can last for a long time is that the behavior of heaven and earth in nurturing and nurturing all things is selfless, not to satisfy heaven and earth themselves.

Knowing this, the eternity we yearn for in life may be realized.

Example 2: "The good is like water, and the water is good for all things without fighting" - Chapter 8 of the Tao Te Ching.

Benefiting all things without fighting, this is the essence of goodness like water, understand this, and can restrain oneself according to this, then you must be able to have "goodness" in life and work.

Example 3: "Retirement after fame, the way of heaven" - Chapter 9 of the Tao Te Ching.

Lao Tzu defines the way of heaven when he sees a good thing, and those who know this way are god-level figures, and for us ordinary people, taking this point well in life can also make us a little happier.

Example 4: "See plain and simple, less selfish and few desires" - Chapter 19 of the Tao Te Ching.

"Pu" and "few desires" are one of the core ideas of the Tao Te Ching.

Between "Park" and "Kill Matt", it must be "Park" that is more acceptable and closer.

"Lack of desire" will also help us reduce many troubles in life.

Example 5: "The wind does not end, and the rain does not end" — Chapter 23 of the Tao Te Ching.

Hurricanes and hurricanes usually don't last for a day, and so do torrential rains, which rain very violently, but certainly not for long. This is Lao Tzu's observation and reflection on natural phenomena, so as to warn the world to recognize which social phenomena are hurricanes and showers?

Example 6: "Heavy is light root, quiet is restless" - Chapter 26 of the Tao Te Ching.

Frivolity loses the foundation, and heaviness is the foundation; Restlessness loses its roots, and stillness is the foundation.

These seemingly shallow, but actually very thick wisdom, are the baseline of words and deeds for any ordinary person or the gods of all parties.

Example 7: "Those who know others are wise, and those who know themselves are clear." The winner is powerful, and the self-winner is strong. —Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33.

Self-knowledge has always been a problem, knowing oneself, and overcoming oneself, is the real strong.

Example 8: "Where misfortune and blessing depend, where blessing and misfortune lurk", from Chapter 58 of the Tao Te Ching.

Lao Tzu emphasized that everything is changing, and there is no eternal thing in this world, so as to teach the world to look at everything dialectically and be good at grasping opportunities in change.

Example 9: "To govern a big country, if you cook a small fresh" - Chapter 60 of the Tao Te Ching.

Everyone understands this, small fish and shrimp are broken and rotten after a few stir-fries in the pot, and Lao Tzu emphasizes inaction.

The so-called inaction refers to: conforming to the laws of nature, following the avenue, doing it under the framework of virtue, not forced, not rebellious.

Example 10: "The difficult things in the world must be done in the easy, and the big things in the world must be done in the details, so that the saints will not be great in the end, so they can become great" - Chapter 63 of the Tao Te Ching.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - Chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching.

Lao Tzu emphasized: Any great or ordinary behavior has an inconspicuous initial stage, which requires action, action, and a lot of action.

The Tao naturally reminds people that seeking truth from facts and doing things according to the laws and theorems, such as mathematics, physics and chemistry, cannot be violated and cannot be violated, and (non-action) conforms to the use of the law theorem in order to violate everything.

When you use the mystical theorems of mathematics, physics and chemistry to destroy the sustainable development of the green and healthy virtuous cycle, the natural ecology and the social ecology between people will become a vicious circle, and human beings will die, just like the grass, trees and grass people will die, and the upper class will also perish. (Nature has its own inherent morality).

Laws and theorems are the way, and respect and act are virtues.

When you still need to understand what the Tao Jing says, the Tao Jing can't give you anything, it's just a mystery that everyone is "blowing". When your consciousness level suddenly realizes that the Tao Te Ching says this, the Tao Te Ching is like a glass of boiled water, which is tasteless to you.

If you really want to get on the path, then learn from it and meet all the needs of all sentient beings. When your compassion and justice are like it, aren't you the Word itself? Since you can't do it, since you still have preferences in your eyes, right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, then how can you understand a thing that has no personality to shape all personality.

It's that you are far away from the Tao, you don't see the source of the universe and the essence of your own existence, please stop being blind and trying to find some great truth and wisdom in the Tao Sutra, really, in my eyes, your interpretation is nothing. <>

"The Tao is the law of nature!" The Tao Te Ching says that human development should also follow the laws of nature.

Every family talks about morality, everyone talks about morality, and you say that it doesn't affect people's lives.

Nowadays, more and more people want to read the Tao Te Ching, and I often hear people ask what are the good suggestions for beginners?

The Tao Te Ching is generally a book that talks about both birth and entry. If you have thoroughly learned the wisdom hidden in it and can use it freely, you can enter the world and become a general, and you can be born into the Tao and live forever. We ordinary people can start from the basics when learning the Tao Te Ching.

First, first have a general understanding of China's traditional culture, first read the classic works of Confucianism, such as "Book of Changes" and "Analects", and then read the Buddhist classics "Diamond Sutra" and "Altar Sutra", etc., and have a basic impression of traditional values such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and then learn "Tao Te Ching" to understand much better.

The second is to cultivate a certain level of writing and language skills, and have a certain ability to understand ancient Chinese. If you encounter words and allusions that you don't understand, you should check the information and expand your knowledge. It is difficult to learn the Tao Te Ching without profound knowledge, and now the Internet is very developed, whether it is self-study, it is okay to listen to and watch other people's explanations on the Internet.

The third is to have the perseverance to read repeatedly for many years, for the ancient classic of "Tao Te Ching", no matter how the descendants interpret it, they may not be able to say the author's original meaning, only read more and understand more. The so-called "read a book a hundred times, its meaning is self-seeing"! That's what I'm talking about.

Fourth, we should always learn and remember, and the purpose of remembering is to use it every day. Only by doing and doing according to the wisdom in the book can it be called true reading. Otherwise, if you don't use it or do the opposite, you will be reading in vain. It's better not to read it in vain.

Many people think that the Tao Te Ching is the emperor's way of governing the world and the people, and there is no need for ordinary people to read it.

Lao Tzu, the author of the Tao Te Ching, was born in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the ruler of the country with etiquette, had lost its strong control over the vassal states, so that the princes competed for hegemony, wars continued, and the people were displaced. Lao Tzu, who was the director of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty's Tibetan Office at the time, saw that the dynasty was gone and was ready to go into hiding. On the way, he wrote two works, which are divided into the meaning of "virtue" and "Tao", which are mainly a series of propositions for governing the country and the people, which is now the "Tao Te Ching".

Since the Tao Te Ching is indeed based on the way to govern the country and secure the people, why should we ordinary readers read it? The so-called know what it is, but also know why it is so. The Tao Te Ching will give various examples to explain the reasons before giving an assertion.

We can analyse and think about it, and learn valuable lessons from it. So as to compare the background environment of the current times, to see if we can take the dross, to extract the essence, and do better.

2. From what perspective should we read the Tao Te Ching?

As we said earlier, the Tao Te Ching is the way of governing the world and the people written by Lao Tzu to the emperor, so we usually read the Tao Te Ching to understand every sentence in the book from the perspective of rulers and managers, so that we can more accurately understand the essence of Lao Tzu's thoughts. Otherwise, there will be a situation in which the opposite direction will occur.

3. When should I start reading the Tao Te Ching?

Some people say that the Tao Te Ching cannot be read without a certain life experience, and it cannot be read too early.

The Tao is the way, the very way; The name is famous, and the name is not very famous". I believe that many people have heard this sentence when they were very young. I was the same, starting in elementary school and continuing until I graduated from university.

I often hear all kinds of smooth and beautiful sentences, and I thought that these should be in the "Analects" and "Three Hundred Tang Poems".

Until one day after graduation, I accidentally saw a copy of the Tao Te Ching on the stall. Since then, it has been out of control, and it has been more than 20 years since I studied the Tao Te Ching, including various versions found from the Internet. And because there are too many versions, the meaning is too mixed, and I have been confused and questioned in the middle.

In retrospect, these were valuable experiences. Therefore, I personally think that reading a good book should be done as soon as possible, not to ask you to read it to understand, but to have a different harvest every time you read it. Ten or twenty years later, you may laugh at your previous ideas for being naïve, but you will be amazed at your own growth.

Many people learn to interpret the Tao Te Ching, and they will be entangled in the issue of versions. Because of the archaeology of different periods, it is found that the versions of the Tao Te Ching will be different. The problem is that there are discrepancies in the versions, some of the words in it have changed, or the order, the incompleteness, etc., then these problems will definitely affect our understanding of the Tao Te Ching.

But in fact, the truth of the Tao Te Ching is the truth of all things in the universe, the truth of heaven, earth and man, as long as the relationship between the earth and the sun has not changed, then the truth of the Tao Te Ching is valid. This requires us to understand the truth to be told in the Tao Te Ching from the height of righteousness.

Rather than struggling with the question of what version to use at the beginning of learning. Some versions may say that the word of an emperor should be avoided, so that the word should be replaced when copying. Some versions may have been copied incorrectly at the time of copying, and some versions may have been buried under the soil because they are old, rotten, and the order of the bamboo slips is out of order.

Probably only Lao Tzu can really confirm what the original version is. In that case, why would you even bother with versioning?

Do you want to learn the truth and then apply it to your life to improve the quality of life, or do you want to be an "archaeological debater" and tell people how many versions of the Tao Te Ching there are? This version is wrong, that version is right, and besides, why do you say this is wrong and that is right?

Dwelling on the issue of version is tantamount to struggling with what kind of clothes a person wears every day, and forgetting that there is such a person. After changing his clothes today, he felt that there was something wrong with this person, but in fact, the person with the problem was himself. Brainless people always make a fuss about the problem of clothes.

We can see why those authoritative publishing houses, those influential people, they annotate the Tao Te Ching, almost all of them use the popular version? Didn't they think about the excavation of this version? If the version is uncertain, it will not be published, and it will not be interpreted?

At the end of the day, the version that makes sense prevails. As an ordinary person, the version is not the primary issue you have to consider, start with the popular version, learn the righteousness of the Tao Te Ching, learn through, you have more time, you can study other versions, horizontal comparison, in order to gain, make up or correct your own ideological cognition.