Damo took a piece of grass and threw it into the Yangtze River. Of course, this had a bit of mythological color. He crossed the Yangtze River and came to Mount Song in Luoyang, but he did not live in Shaolin Temple. He found a cave facing the wall for nine years, but later met someone who was said to have the demeanor of a famous scholar and had a very abundant material life. However, he always felt that his spiritual life was not good, just like Li Shutong (Master Hongyi). Master Hongyi's secular life was also diverse and colorful, and he could perform plays, calligraphy, and art, which had the demeanor of a famous scholar.
But suddenly one day, he gave up his family and career and went alone to become a monk in the deep mountains. It was all this reality that made him feel noisy, without finding a spiritual home or a sense of home. So when he came to this place, he found a sense of home, and this is precisely a problem for us modern people. When Master Huike went to see Bodhidharma, he asked a question and knelt outside for a long time, but Bodhidharma ignored him. Later, he couldn't cut off his own arm with a knife to offer. You said this teacher is really amazing. Confucius only asked everyone to buy some cured meat or something, which requires one arm to be given as a gift. This is such a big gift.
That's a question that needs to be asked. The problem with my second ancestor is like this: I feel uneasy because I drink like this in this city and look for a young lady there, but I still can't feel at ease. Or like Bill Gates, I have a lot of assets, but my heart still can't feel at ease. If my heart keeps sleeping, he will have nightmares. Or in real life, he always feels like he can't find a sense of belonging. I feel uneasy, and Bodhidharma solved this problem for him, so he became his disciple of Dharma transmission.
The unique aspect of Chinese philosophy is precisely that it aims to solve this problem. That is to say, how to settle our lives and how to reconcile them. In this way, he has developed a characteristic of Chinese philosophy called the "inner sage and outer king" philosophy.
So in such a cultural system, it is the unity of benevolence and wisdom, seeking peace of mind, so Chinese learning is a kind of moral metaphysics. This moral metaphysics starts from the moral life of human beings, enabling you to achieve an ultimate, ultimate metaphysics. Therefore, Chinese philosophy cares about life, unlike medical, biological, zoological, and naturalist scholars who love to care about life from the perspective of nature. It starts from the perspective of morality.
So, in this way, it's not a matter of knowledge, but a matter of practice. So you immediately saw how Bodhidharma answered his sentence. Look, I've already given you an arm. The gift is heavy enough. When I asked a question, I felt uneasy. How did this master Bodhidharma solve this problem for him?
Damo widened his eyes. Damo is a Hu person with a different race from us. He glared and shouted, taking your heart.
This teacher was already very authoritative. After finishing, he shouted again and brought your heart. As a result, the Second Patriarch began to search for your heart outside. Later, there was a Buddhist scripture called "Lengyan Jing", and the main question was still to find your heart. Is the heart inside or outside, here or there? To distinguish this question, the Second Patriarch searched for a long time but couldn't find it. "If you search for your heart, you can't get it," Bodhidharma said, "Lord, calm your heart." He calmed your heart, but there were no knowledge issues in it, such as my heart being uneasy. Then the teacher said to bring your heart, "I can't find it," and then he gave you peace. Okay, that's it.
There is no problem with knowledge here. The epistemology is about "what is the heart, how to be calm, the first, second, third, and fourth steps", without these steps. It is directly a practice that presents you with a pure heart right now. It is not a problem of knowledge, it is a problem of practice. Therefore, his concern for life is not from a knowledge perspective. For example, from a medical perspective, there may be several problems with your uneasiness. Firstly, if your liver fire is too strong, your temper may be bad, your spirit may be easily agitated, leading to liver yang hyperactivity, and you may not be able to sleep in the end. Therefore, your spirit may be uneasy.
Regarding the differences between Chinese and Western philosophy, Mr. Zong San believes that Chinese philosophy places special emphasis on life and virtue, which is different from the Western logic of epistemology. This is because he believes that there are differences between Chinese and Western philosophy. So he also made a specific analysis of the differences between Chinese and Western philosophical cultures, which can be divided into several aspects.
Firstly, he believes that Chinese culture is a cultural system under the spirit of "comprehensive rationality", while Western culture is a cultural system under the spirit of "decomposed rationality".
One is synthesis, and the other is decomposition. So what is the difference between Chinese and Western philosophy, synthesis based reasoning and decomposition based reasoning?
Decomposing everything in a logical way, he adopts an epistemological approach, which is to do a decomposition. We often say that we cannot see only the trees and not the forest. However, this statement can also be reversed. If you want to see the forest, you must first see the trees. This is a way of thinking in Western philosophy. He needs to have an understanding of the human body, he needs to dissect it, and analyze it organ by organ. In Western medicine, it looks at your disease, such as the heart. When you look at CT angiography, if the coronary artery is blocked and the blood vessels are narrowed, what should you do? For example, implanting a stent, allowing it to pass through a vascular malformation in this area, and then using another stent to spread it open, once the stent is spread open, the blood will flow, and your heart disease will be cured.
This is the viewpoint of Western philosophy or Western medicine, which represents Western philosophy. It is decomposed, and if your heart has a problem, it is your heart. In terms of Chinese philosophy, it may not necessarily be the case. If you have heart problems, it may cause other problems. He said that the heart, for example, has poor circulation. The reason for poor circulation is due to dampness in the body. Rheumatism condenses in this area, and its qi and blood circulation is not good. If luck is not good, it will inevitably cause this kind of blockage. In order to maintain good qi and blood circulation, it is necessary to remove dampness. To remove dampness, it is necessary to strengthen the spleen, because the spleen is responsible for regulating circulation. By strengthening the spleen and removing dampness, you can finally achieve the condition of qi and blood stasis, relieve it, and finally make your heart smooth.
Did you notice?
Traditional Chinese Medicine regards the human body as a whole. When it comes to heart problems, it analyzes the obstruction of qi circulation, dampness, phlegm dampness, and ultimately the strengthening of the spleen. It considers the whole body as a whole. But for Western medicine heart problems, if your area is blocked, I will get you a stent to support it. As for other parts of you, I don't care.
This reflects two cultures, Chinese culture is comprehensive and viewed as a whole. Western culture is not seen as a whole. When it comes to understanding something, it is necessary to break it down into individual parts, which creates differences between them.
Of course, it's not about superiority or inferiority here, but rather each has its own benefits. The approach of Western medicine can solve coronary heart disease quickly and relieve it within a few hours. After getting it in, it will immediately open up and you won't have chest tightness or any chest pain. Of course, on the contrary, traditional Chinese medicine may still have a long time to go, adjusting it one way or another, but it is a holistic view, while Western medicine is a decomposition view. I just look at your heart.
So in Western medicine, there is a situation where he is an expert in cardiovascular diseases, but he may not be familiar with other diseases because it is not within his professional scope. It is a decomposed thinking. Therefore, in Western culture, you can see that it is a science, and the more detailed it is, the more detailed it is. In Chinese culture, it is a general and comprehensive approach.
The second point is that the political logic of Chinese culture is the expression of "rational application", while Western culture is the expression of "rational structure".
Chinese culture is very flexible and values the use of rationality. The boy went back for the Chinese New Year and bought two bottles of wine and two pots of tea for his father. According to Chinese culture, this kind of filial piety can be demonstrated in many ways, which is called the application of rationality. Girl, she's not buying alcohol anymore. She's likely buying a beautiful woolen sweater for her mother, and when she buys it back, one is buying alcohol, and the other is buying a woolen sweater. Although the forms are different, they both show filial piety. Therefore, Chinese culture values the application of this rationality.
But Western culture is not. It pays attention to the structure of rationality, and there must be a structure. For example, Chinese cooking, McDonald's around the world is a taste. You eat in China, eat in Hong Kong, and even eat in the United States. Basically, as long as you order this, it is a taste. Now it is better, and then it is worse. In the past, it was not only a taste, but also a price. Now it may have changed, which means the price in the United States is the same, and it will still be the same in China.
This made us suffer a lot. In the 1980s, our salary was only about 80 yuan. For this McDonald's meal, one month's salary was not enough. But for Americans, it doesn't matter because they don't only have the same taste, but also have the same price. So when I arrived in Hong Kong, I had no choice but to go to McDonald's because it was the cheapest. There were two pieces of vegetables and a little rice on top of a large steak, and this bowl was equivalent to over 70 yuan in Chinese currency. We also eat McDonald's, which costs only sixteen or seventeen yuan per meal. If we can't do anything, we can only go to McDonald's. So why is it so expensive in mainland China?
It's just that his taste is the same, but his price is the same, which reflects a certain problem. If you go abroad to study, you will find something. It's the weekend, I stir fry two dishes and invite friends to have a meal together. Then some foreign friends may ask you, how do you make this fish flavored shredded meat?
