The word "forget" is often mentioned in Taoist works, especially in many chapters of Zhuangzi. How should we correctly understand this? What should I "forget" and what should I not? How to "forget" this means a lot. There is a conversation between Confucius and Yan Hui in the South China Classics, which talks about the problem of "forgetting to sit", which is quite enlightening to our later scholars. Among them, Yan went back to see Confucius and said that he had forgotten "benevolence and righteousness" and "rites and music" and thought that he had made progress, which Confucius thought was not enough; A few days later, Yan Hui went to see Confucius again and said that he had made progress because he had reached the state of "forgetting". Confucius was surprised and asked, "What do you mean by' forgetting'?" Yan Hui replied, "You will be smart if you fall on all fours. You will know if you leave a shape. This is the same as Datong. This is called sitting and forgetting. " That is to say, I didn't know the existence of limbs, but I gave up hearing and vision, separated my body, got rid of my wisdom and merged with Datong. This has reached the point where you forget me silently. Confucius had to admire this, so he said, "There is no goodness in the same, and it becomes impermanent." If it is benign! Qiu also asks you to come back later. "It means that harmony will not be paranoid about personal likes and dislikes, and hue will not stick to common sense. You have really become a saint! I, Kong Qiu, want to learn from you.

In our opinion, the essence of the wise saying "forget" lies in "knowing from the shape, sharing common ground". Only by truly getting rid of the fetters of "shape" (the shape of self) and "knowledge" (the so-called knowledge that confuses the truth and falsehood) can we reach Ming Dow. Confucius (in fact, Zhuangzi) praised "sitting and forgetting", which is also here. "The same can't be done", not paranoid about the likes and dislikes of ordinary people; "fickle", not constrained by common sense, can naturally be "similar." In "On Sitting and Forgetting", Sima Chengzhen made this interpretation: "You don't know the whole body inside, but you don't know the universe outside, and all your troubles are left behind." In other words, I can't feel all the shapes in it, and I don't know the existence of everything in the universe outside. I must be in harmony with the Tao and forget all my troubles.

But the problem is that with the existence of "form", there is naturally the material desire brought by "form", that is, the external demand and pursuit. In this regard, Sima Cheng adopted a more realistic and tolerant attitude. In the "view of truth" part of On Sitting Forgetting, he said: "But if you are a monk, you must have enough food and clothing. If you have something you can't give up, you should accept it with an open mind, keep your eyes open and don't worry about it ... food and clothing is illusory, but it's not enough. In order to get rid of the illusion, you need food and clothing. Although you have a career to pursue, if you don't lose heart, you have nothing to do and your heart will always be peaceful. Seeking common ground with things without greed, getting the same things without accumulation, not being greedy without worry, not accumulating without loss, and tracing back to everyone who is in the same way, the heart is often different. " The main idea is that monks should also have food and clothing. Some things must be done, and some things can't be given up, so he should accept them frankly and understand them. Don't think that this will hinder his mind and make him fidgety ... For Taoist priests, food and clothing are illusory things, which is really not enough for business, but in order to get rid of illusion, he went to camp for this. Even if you want something, you shouldn't have bitterness. Then, some things will become nothing, and the mentality is often calm and calm. The same is the demand for things, but not the same greed; The same thing is to get things, not to accumulate things. If you are not greedy, you will have no worries. If you don't accumulate, you will have no losses. Just look like ordinary people, but their mentality and customs are different. We deeply feel that this passage by Sima Chengzhen seems clear and simple, not profound, but it clearly divides the line between legitimate demand and greed. In another part of Simple Things, Sima Chengzhen also said: "A lady's life must be based on things and be worth the money. It is entrusted not only to a person ... but also to a person who practices Buddhism. It is necessary to cut the chaos, know its leisure, know its struggle, and know its taking. If necessary, it should be absolutely rejected. " Here, Sima Chengzhen made it very clear that if people want to live, they have to rely on things, and things are Qian Qian's, but not just for one person ... So people who practice should judge "things", understand their needs and don't need them, compare their weight, and know what to give up and what to get, not what is necessary and what to give up. This is similar to what Zhuangzi said in the article "South China Classic Sheng Da": "People who love life don't think about what they are doing; People who know the true meaning of life will not pursue things that are not beneficial to life. People who know the truth of fate will not pursue things that have nothing to do with wisdom. It can be said that it is the consistent proposition of Taoism to abandon material desires and achieve greatness. Laozi said in the twelfth chapter of Tao Te Ching: "Five colors make people blind, five tones make people deaf, five flavors make people cool, gallop hunting makes people crazy, and strange goods can hinder people." It means that because of the existence of "shape", it is easy to be tempted and harassed by foreign objects. Colorful and complex colors will make people see things in a blur, changeable tones will make people's hearing fail, delicious and rich food will eventually lead to people's taste variation, indulging in hunting will make people's mentality become wild and uncontrollable, and rare treasures will make people's behavior out of control. Indeed, improper or excessive carnal desires often ruin people's minds and confuse pure human nature. In ancient times, when productivity was low and material wealth was insufficient, it was true. Today, social development has greatly improved the material living conditions, and we must constantly meet people's material needs. But if you blindly covet excessive enjoyment and flashy lifestyle, you don't pay attention to spiritual cultivation and the seriousness of personality and morality; Then, personally, it will inevitably lead to moral decay and eventually go to the abyss of evil, and as far as the whole society is concerned, the consequences will of course be even more unimaginable! Take things outside the body lightly, and let the mind live more easily, even ordinary people. Therefore, in the "Broken Edge" section, Sima Chengzhen said: "Broken Edge means a common destiny. Abandoning things means not working hard, and inaction means peace of mind. It is simple and simple, the dust is thin, the traces are good, and the heart is close to the Tao. It is the most sacred. Why not? Sima Chengzhen believes that we should "stop" those worldly things and let ourselves live quietly and simply, so that our physical and mental fatigue will be reduced and we will be closer to the Tao, so that we can become saints. Isn't that what makes us? In the late Tang Dynasty, Shi Jian Wu further supplemented and developed this idea of Laozi and Zhuangzi in Xi Shan Hui Xian Lu. He said: "Selfishness and lust can nourish the heart, and abstinence can nourish the essence. "It means to reduce selfishness and suppress desires, so as to maintain a pure nature; By abstaining from lewdness and evil thoughts, you can protect your own essence. In short, we should consciously resist the temptation of all external desires and maintain the innocence of the body. -if you can really "stay in shape" or "get carried away"? Where do interference, temptation and pollution come from?

Now, let's look at the question of "to know". The so-called "to know", our understanding is to get rid of all the "knowledge" and all the stubbornness and prejudice in the world and reach the Tao. That is to keep your mind at peace and quiet all the time. Sima Chengzhen pointed out in the "Accepting the Heart" section of "On Sitting Forgetting" that "the heart is open-minded. The heart has not been driven out, which is called peace of mind. If you feel at ease, the road will end. " It means that the heart is not disturbed by the outside world, so it is called modesty. If the heart does not chase after foreign things, it is called peace of mind. If the mind is stable and quiet, then the Tao will naturally stop in your heart. Taoism has always believed that the key to the cultivation of truth and nature lies in "nourishing qi", "cultivating nature", "Xiu De" and "cultivating religion", which are actually inseparable from inner comfort and emptiness. People in the world are influenced, interfered and even tempted by the outside world from birth, with so-called subjective consciousness and various pursuits and desires, bound by common sense; And all this, if not all, at least a large part is against the "Tao", that is, the laws of nature. It is precisely because of the existence of these things that are contrary to the spirit of "Tao" that people's psychological distortion is often formed and endless troubles are brought. Yan Hui (in fact, Zhuangzi himself) said "forget to sit", and he put forward "knowing from the shape", asking us to forget the "I" including body and mind, integrate into the "I" of Tao (natural law), get rid of the psychological obstacles caused by body and mind, and really enter the "Tao". What attitude should we take towards "mind" (that is, "knowledge")? Zhuangzi put forward that "it is a failure to be cautious about women (especially) and refuse women (especially) outside the door, under the guise of advertising the Yellow Emperor." It means to get rid of all delusions and distractions in your heart, keep your mind, don't travel abroad, and be loyal to one; Close external senses and resist all external temptations; Too much originality will lead to destruction. Indeed, seemingly true and false "knowledge" can be seen everywhere in society. If we accept everything without discrimination or screening, it will be "knowing more will lose." In the same chapter, Zhuangzi also said in the name of HarmonyOS system: "You are smart, you forget things, you are in harmony with others, you are free, and Mo Ran has no soul." It means to despise one's body, abandon one's intelligence, even forget those ethics and things outside one's body, confuse them with the boundless chaotic weather, get rid of all the knots, release one's spirit, and make oneself completely unaware of where one's soul is. In fact, the meaning of this passage is completely consistent with the interpretation of "forgetting to sit" by Yan Hui (actually Zhuangzi himself). Laozi's Tao Te Ching also expressed the same meaning. "It is said that Xuan Tong has blocked its contacts, closed its doors, frustrated its sharpness, resolved its disputes, and melted its dust." (Chapter 56 of the Tao Te Ching) It means to block one's desire, close one's heart, get rid of the spirit of being competitive, get rid of delusional distractions, and confuse people with the light of wisdom. This is the so-called "Xuan Tong" (that is, the same as "Tao"). On this basis, the relationship between "heaven" and "ambition" is further emphasized. In the "too fixed" part of "On Sitting Forgetting", he made this statement: "Ancient monks practice their wisdom by meditation. Wisdom is born without knowledge. Wisdom and harmony, mutual support and harmony, clarify their essence. Wisdom is wisdom, and reason is virtue. " Sima Cheng Zhen believed that ancient monks cultivated wisdom with a calm heart. Having wisdom but not doing anything is called cultivating a quiet heart with wisdom. When wisdom and tranquility are combined, they nourish each other and maintain peace, reason will come from nature. Quiet and wise is the real great wisdom, and peaceful and rational is in line with moral requirements. It should be said that it is very innovative to combine "heaven" and "ambition" organically, integrate them and complement each other.

Now, let's look at "sitting and forgetting", specifically what should be forgotten in meditation. In Zhuangzi's South China Classic, "forgetting" is mentioned many times. For example, in the chapter "Let the King", it is said: "Those who cultivate records forget their shapes, those who cultivate shapes forget their profits, and those who teach Taoism forget their hearts." Here, Zhuangzi clearly pointed out that we should pay attention to the word "forget" when preserving our mind, body and pursuit of Tao. We should not only forget the pursuit of fame and fortune, but even forget the existence of our own bodies and all our inner delusions, and enter an ethereal and forgetful trance. The appearance has its shape, and it has its shape without its shape; Seen from a distance, there is nothing in it. "The realm of quietness is the ultimate way. Zhuangzi once said in the article "Heaven and Earth": "Forgetting things and days is called forgetting yourself. People who forget themselves are called to heaven. "The general idea is that people who forget everything except themselves and their own world (that is, nature), that is, people who forget themselves and can forget their own existence, can be called truly entering nature. In this regard, we make such an understanding that the so-called "forgetting me" is what Zhuangzi put forward in "Happy Travel": "For those who have no self, God is useless and saints are nameless." "There is no self in the book. Of course, it is difficult to ask people to be "selfless" and "selfless" But at the same time, it is also the highest realm of Tao, and it is the fundamental problem that those of us who are interested in Tao must solve through our own understanding. Imagine, if you can forget your existence, how can there be something you can't keep? What can I care about the ego existing between heaven and earth? Naturally, we will not be tired of the world's "right and wrong", "merits and demerits", "good and evil" and "honor and disgrace", and we can fly freely between heaven and earth without any restrictions and travel leisurely. In the chapter "Geng Sang Chu", Zhuangzi talked about it more concretely and insightful. He said this: "We must have the determination to solve the inner fallacy, get rid of moral fatigue, and get stuck in the Tao. Noble, rich, eye-catching, strict, famous and profitable, Zhi Bo also; Endure, move, color, reason, meaning, and anger are also wrong; Evil, lust, joy, anger, sorrow and joy are also tired; Go, just, take, and, know, can be six, also. "It means insight into the changes of the mind, eliminating the fallacy of the mind and eliminating the burden of virtue. Clear the blockage of the road. Noble status, wealth, popularity, dignity, reputation and interests will all lead to changes in mentality; Voice and ability, restlessness, lust, rhetoric, emotion and mood all make the mentality fallacious; Hate, lust, joy, anger, sadness and joy will all become the burden of virtue; Leaving, returning, gaining, giving, brains and cleverness often block the road to the Tao. In Zhuangzi's view, the above 24 related mentalities all affect the understanding, pursuit, yearning and practice of Tao, and those who sincerely seek Tao should put them behind them, that is, they all belong to the category of "forgetting". Sima Chengzhen said in the "Accepting Mind" section of On Sitting Forgetting: "At the beginning of learning Tao, you must sit still and cultivate your mind first. When you leave this country, you will live with nothing, you will enter nothingness and your heart will be a harmonious road. "That is to say, for beginners, the key is to meditate, get rid of the secular, enter the realm of inaction, and let yourself naturally enter the realm of nothingness and meaningless, so that the mentality can be consistent with the Tao. Obviously, the words "cultivating the mind", "nothing" and "nothing" mentioned here are actually "forgetting", forgetting the twenty-four related desires and mentality mentioned by Zhuangzi in "More Sangchu". Zhuangzi also used Chang Wuzi as an excuse to say in The Theory of Everything: "Forgetting the year and forgetting the righteousness is a shock to nothing (that is, the realm), so it does not contain nothing (the realm). "It means that if you forget the passage of time and the ceremony, you can travel in the endless realm, so you can stay in the endless realm. As for The Great Sage, it is more clear in the form of fable. He described such a thing: Zi Sangchan, Meng Ziyou and Zi Zhang Qin became friends, and said, "Who can be in the absence of phase and be in the absence of phase?" "Who can swim in the fog, scratch the infinite, forget to live with each other, and there is no end?" Who can meet in unintentional communication and make a difference in unintentional behavior? Who can ascend to the sky, wander in the misty clouds, climb around in the boundless space, forget the existence of life, have no end and no fatigue? Say that finish, smile at each other, because the heart has been close to each other, became bosom friends. It is not difficult to see that in Zhuangzi's ideological system, "forgetting" and "traveling" are closely related. Without "forgetting" and abandoning many delusions, it is impossible to get rid of secular fetters, to have spiritual freedom and detachment, and to do "carefree travel"! In this sense, "forgetting" is the only way to enter the realm of "freedom", and it can also be said to be a necessary ideological premise.

To sum up, we come to the conclusion that the deep connotation of "sitting and forgetting" lies in the meditation of "sitting", so as to "forget" and achieve the ultimate goal of "freeing the mind, releasing the spirit" and "guiding the way". The so-called "release the mind, release the spirit", our understanding is to ask the world to consciously free itself from many mental troubles that have nothing to do with natural nature; The so-called "Tao" is to seek moral sublimation with a clear and thorough heart and finally reach the highest state of "freedom".

Sima Chengzhen said in the last part of "On Sitting Forgetting": "If you are one with the Tao, you will never exist; If the heart is the same as the Tao, it is not possible. " Let our "body", "heart" and "Tao" be together, so as to encourage colleagues.