Recently, I read an article called "Adding and Subtracting Life", which I found very meaningful and enlightening. It would be better if we analyze our lives according to the principles described in the wise saying "What you gain is lucky, but you lose your life". In this way, you will not always want to have more proud things in your life, and be ordinary and ordinary. , calm, peaceful, just be sincere and have no regrets.
When many people are approaching the end of their lives, they always regret that they have wasted their lives and always assume what will happen if they are given another life. I feel that I shouldn't lose a lot, and I feel that there is still potential in life, but I just haven't done enough. But life is a one-way journey with no return, and there is no regret medicine!
The "addition" of life is the pursuit of knowledge, success, wealth, fame and fortune. Life seems to be a container, and we always want to put many things in it to enrich our lives. There is nothing wrong with this. The key is what you want to put in it and how you want to put it. There is an article called "Big Stones in Life" that talks about this principle:
First put a bunch of fist-sized stones into a jar until no more stones can fit. In fact, you can also put gravel to fill the gaps between the stones; you can also pour sand to fill the gaps between the gravel; you can even pour water into the glass bottle...
It can be seen that time is squeezed out, and Human potential is also tapped, so life requires addition. As long as you work hard, don't be complacent, don't feel inferior, and set a higher goal for yourself, you can achieve it by jumping up and down. Faith, knowledge, skills, and career are all big stones in life. Put them into your own bottle early while you are young and strong, and then enjoy, play and entertain yourself calmly. If this order is reversed, it will be too late to pretend to be a big stone, and you will only be "sorrowful".
But if you think about it carefully, you will spend your whole life just doing "addition". When you have money, you want beautiful women; How can we not be tired when others are few and endless? The result may be a disordered life and a nervous breakdown. Not happy. An essay "The Basket of Life" talks about: A man with a heavy life went to see a wise man. The wise man gave him a basket to carry on his shoulders and asked him to take a step forward and pick up a stone and put it in to see how he felt. When the person reaches the end, he lies down tiredly. Wise men say this is why life feels heavy to you.
When we come to this world, everyone carries an empty basket, and a person’s life is the process of constantly putting things into his own basket. If you have it, you will want more, be greedy, and have insatiable desires. Just doing addition is sad. The wise choice is to live a "subtractive" life.
Staying away from fame and fortune, looking down on success or failure, and settling for indifference are subtractions. Lao Tzu said, "No disaster is greater than not being satisfied, and no blame is greater than desire." Contentment, moderation, gratitude, cherishing blessings, and avoiding misfortune are what he means. Life requires subtraction.
Zhang Liang went through all kinds of hardships to help Liu Bang conquer the world and made great achievements. However, he resolutely resigned from his post and retired to the mountains and forests to enjoy the indifferent joys of life and spend his old age peacefully. Han Xin also made great achievements in battle, but he had high expectations of life and fought hard in officialdom, but in the end he lost his life. It can be seen that subtraction can help people eliminate disasters.
Life is an arithmetic problem. There are only thirty thousand days in a person's life, and one day will be reduced by one day. Fame and wealth are adding up over time. But one day when these two curves intersect, zero will appear on the display screen of life. 0 multiplied by any number equals 0. No amount of it can be taken away. This is the arithmetic formula of life. Brutal and true.
The addition of life gives us the light of wisdom, the power of character, the accumulation of wealth, and the warmth of family affection, making life more abundant. The subtraction of life allows us to subtract excess material, subtract extravagant desires, subtract the burden on the soul, subtract environmental disturbances, rationally arrange the trade-offs in life, and make life healthier.
Therefore, addition is a kind of growth, and subtraction is a kind of maturity.
Addition and subtraction are the two wheels of life and are indispensable. One is the historical mission and social responsibility of Confucius and Mencius to "help the world", and the other is the inner cultivation and self-improvement of Zhuangzi and Laozi "following nature". Use addition and subtraction at the same time, and the two wheels will turn together, and the journey of life will be infinitely beautiful.