To "open the door" means that when a person is alive, he will desperately consume his life and open all the loopholes in the nine apertures; to "help the people" means to be busy all day long and busy with worldly affairs throughout his life. In this way, this person will be "unsaved for life" and cannot be saved! Consume until it is gone.
"Seeing the small means being bright, keeping the soft means being strong." If a person really wants to restore his original self and develop his own life, he should not waste his energy on the worldly affairs of the day after tomorrow. The life of our body is like a dry battery. It does not charge much but is consumed very quickly. It dries up all of a sudden.
"Seeing the small" is how to reduce consumption, and "yueming" is how to maintain it well and slowly turn it into a big light. Only by being stingy and sparing can we maintain the long-term existence of this body. ......
"When governing people and nature, nothing should be done more than being stingy." Here I tell us that we should be frugal in doing things, and frugal in speaking, and talk less nonsense, or even say nothing at all. Don't do wasteful things and concentrate your will to do right things. This is saving your spirit and your life. If a person practices Taoism and wants to live forever, the method is very simple, that is, don’t waste your life, talk less nonsense, do less unnecessary things, and do things neatly, simply and clearly.
In this section, Lao Tzu said another very important saying, which is "use nothing without diligence". On the contrary, using it too frequently means using it frequently, frequently and for a long time. In this way, it will violate the magical effect of "continuous as if existing".
So, what is the principle of "use without diligence"? Let us borrow a verse from a poem by Zen Master Linji Yixuan as an in-depth explanation.
"How do you keep asking along the flow? The truth is boundless and you are like him. Li Xiangli is not a celebrity, and it takes a long time to brush his hair."
The so-called "following the flow" means that Our thoughts, emotions, perceptions and feelings have always been driven by the current, being pulled along by the external environment, and we cannot stop it ourselves.
If you can be open-minded and have no concern for the situation, you can only turn to yourself, look back at your own mind, and see where the fluctuations of your emotions arise and disappear, without increasing or decreasing, neither welcoming nor rejecting, without any resistance or resistance. The help seems innocent, then it is a little bit like the real light of the ethereal spirit.
In short, "Tao" is originally a thing separated from its name and form. It is wrong to use literal language to describe it in this way or that way. It is wrong to fix it, and it is wrong not to fix it.
However, in terms of the function of "continuous existence" and continuous flow, it must be used anytime and anywhere without any carelessness. It's like having an extremely sharp sword. If you take a vellus hair and blow on the edge, the vellus hair can be cut off immediately.
Although it is said that its blade is sharp and sharp, but no matter what, there will be some slight wear and tear once it is used, which is not its original appearance. Not to mention long-term, diligent, common and multi-purpose use, of course It turns a sharp sword into blunt iron.
Therefore, even a sharp sword that can be broken by blowing hair must be repaired after use. Only by maintaining it at any time can it remain new and "lasting as if it existed". This is the best explanation of "use without diligence".