Original link: https://ljf.com/2023/08/08/1295/
Preamble
The core of Zen theory is the truth that the Buddha thoroughly realized—dependence and emptiness. It is neither in the world nor out of the world.
For us ordinary people, work is the best practice place, where we can realize emptiness.
In my opinion, photography is an art of “injecting the heart”. It is not your hand that presses the shutter, but your heart. The level of the realm of photography lies in the ability of the photographer to “inject his heart”.
One Mind Makes Ten Thousand Dharmas, Jobs, Zen and Investment
What is Zen? Zen is the abbreviation of the Sanskrit word “Zhanna”, which originated in India and means meditation, that is, silent thinking, which refers to concentrating on a certain object, entering a state of silence, and conducting thinking and contemplation in this state.
The Sixth Patriarch Huineng believed that everyone has Buddha-nature in their hearts, and through meditation, once one sees one’s nature clearly, one can suddenly become a Buddha.
Mental Force Creates Reality Distortion Field
“I have a firm belief that ‘what you don’t desire in your heart can’t be close to you’. In other words, what you can achieve is only what you desire in your heart. If you don’t desire in your heart, even if you can achieve it Dreams can’t come true.”
Will is life.
Is life an illusion? After the Buddha attained enlightenment, he discovered that all phenomena in the human body and the world are the same, just the aggregation of some causes and conditions (conditions), which is very unstable. The fate of a person’s life is not what he thinks. The health, beauty, wealth, status, etc. that we currently have will change with the change of conditions, and even be seriously damaged. Life is ups and downs, turbulent. Therefore, a person’s life is like an illusion. This is indeed a very vivid metaphor, but it is only a metaphor.
The Buddha said that life is like an illusion, which reminds us to look at the existence of life with a dynamic and changing perspective. The concept of “reality” or “illusion” is indeed prone to ambiguity in words. I think it can be clearly summarized as this statement: the present is real, and the process is like an illusion.
What does “attachment” mean in Buddhism?
Buddhism says not to be attached. It doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with working hard and pursuing something, including the pursuit of success in the worldly sense. It means that if the situation changes, especially if the situation changes, we will not be wrong. Don’t cling to the previous state, but accept the reality and face it happily. If you are attached to the previous state and cannot accept changes, that is the attachment in Buddhism and the root of troubles.
I want to emphasize again: working hard and pursuing success have nothing to do with the persistence of Buddhism. The inability to accept changes is called “persistence” and is the root of troubles.
The best place for ordinary people to practice is their work and life.
Kazuo Inamori is the founder of DDI Telecom, and he can hold many shares, but his final choice is not to hold even one share, because he does not want to have any selfishness. Kazuo Inamori gave us a good example of how individuals can practice at work instead of in ancient temples in remote mountains.
What is your pursuit? How big is your wish? Think about it from another angle, what kind of person do you want to be?
Jobs’ advice: “Don’t let the loud voices of others drown out your inner voice… Most importantly, have the courage to follow your intuition and your heart—they somehow know what you want What it becomes, all other things are secondary.”
The foundation of a strong mind is a high degree of concentration.
The way to sit in meditation is to pay full attention to the slight rise and fall of the abdomen. Two situations may arise in the process. One situation is that the body may experience itching and pain. It is not necessary to scratch it immediately to get relief. Instead, one must turn the mind to the uncomfortable place and observe quietly. The itching and pain may be felt within 20 to 30 seconds. It disappears, and then the mind moves back to the abdomen. There is another situation that is more common, that is, your mind wanders, for example, you suddenly want to watch stocks, or think about where to eat at night, you need to train your mind to the point where you can immediately notice “I am wandering right now”, and then silently type One labeled “Delusion”. Don’t try to take your thoughts back immediately, but quietly observe this delusion. In a very short few seconds, this delusion may disappear with a “pop” like soap bubbles, and then you move your thoughts away. Back to belly. I had a lot of delusions at the beginning, but with continuous practice, it decreased significantly.
Meditation is also called “stopping and viewing”, and you can watch after stopping. After maintaining a high degree of concentration in the heart, we gradually enter the state of “stopping”, and then we begin to enter the stage of “contemplation”. What are you watching? As far as sitting meditation is concerned, “viewing” is to observe the subtle feelings of the body and the arising and passing away of various thoughts, so as to gain insight into the impermanent and selfless nature of all phenomena, and then open our wisdom. That is to say, sitting meditation is a very good way for us to realize enlightenment.
Concentration is closely related to what is often called “now” in Buddhism. “Present” refers to the state of the person at this moment. In Buddhism, it is said not to live in the past or the future, but to live in the “now”, because the past is irreversible and the future has not yet come. How to “live in the moment”? You need to pay attention to what “I” is doing at this moment
(1) The world of emptiness
The so-called innovation is to create something out of nothing, including ideas, products, art, etc. We call major innovations “subversion”.
What is “emptiness”? “Emptiness” means “emptiness of dependent origination”.
What is “dependent origination and emptiness”? “Dependent origination” means that all things in the world arise from the aggregation of some conditions (causes and conditions), and the nature of this arising is “empty”. “Empty” means that these conditions are not stable. Once some important conditions change, the nature of things will change accordingly. Therefore, all things cannot exist independently, nor are they permanent, but are constantly developing while changing.
“Diamond Sutra” said: “If you see all appearances and non-appearances, you will see the Tathagata.” The so-called “appearance” is the appearance of a thing. The so-called “non-appearance” means that we should not be satisfied with only understanding its appearance, but We need to penetrate its appearance and find out what conditions are gathered together in what way to generate this thing. If we do this, we will understand the essence of things, and wisdom awareness will arise ( “I see the Tathagata”).
Jobs said in an interview: “To design a product, you have to put 5,000 questions in your head. You have to sort it out carefully and try various combinations to get the desired result.”
What are the main characteristics of the cup? We could list several, one being that it has a flat base so it sits on a table top, can this feature be broken? Is it possible to produce a cup without a flat base? Someone really produced such a cup with a pointed bottom. The cup cannot be placed directly on the table, but it can be placed on a bracket with a hole. Why produce such a strange cup? Some bar owners like it. They hope that customers will drink more and not keep their glasses on the table for half a day without taking a sip. It is inconvenient for customers to hold the cup with a pointed bottom, and it is inconvenient to put it down, and they will drink again and again inadvertently, which stimulates the sales of wine.
(2) Inject your heart into
The MacBook laptop that Jobs asked to design has a sleep indicator light. How often does it blink? Have you noticed it? 12 breaths per minute, which is consistent with the normal breathing rate of adults. Since this notebook was “infused with heart” by Jobs and can “breathe together” with people, it has acquired a “soul” and is no longer a cold machine.
When the iPhone came out, its texture, lines, color, and the way you touched it seemed to have a mysterious magic that could not be expressed in words. Countless people all over the world liked it and even went crazy for it. Life is simple and elegant, with its own beauty. Jobs poured his heart into it, and conveyed the beauty of life he understood to the world through an iPhone. At that moment, you felt it, and you were deeply moved. What moved you? It is a heart of Jobs!
In 2010, Jobs talked about starting a business in an interview with Nippon TV. He said that starting a business just to make money may not succeed. The original intention of many successful entrepreneurs is not to make money, but they have some very different ideas about the world. , but no one listened, they had no choice but to start a company to “inject” these alternative ideas into their products and express them to the world.
A book that had a great influence on Jobs – Shunlong Suzuki wrote in his book “The Original Mind of a Zen Man”: “Everything we do is actually showing our inner nature. This is the only purpose of our existence.”
There is a famous verse in the “Diamond Sutra”, “You should give birth to your mind without abode.” After hearing this verse, Huineng, the sixth patriarch, became enlightened. What is “Sheng Qi Xin”? It is a thought that arises in our mind. What is “nowhere to live”? That is, we should not be constrained by various conditions in reality, because all these conditions and restrictions are temporary and fragile, and may change or even disappear at any time. If we think about “living” for a long time, we will not be able to “live”.
“Giving one’s heart without a place to live” means throwing away all prejudices and breaking all rules and regulations. That’s what innovation is all about.
In order to achieve “nowhere to live but a heart”, one must dare to question or even deny authority, and believe in one’s own inner judgment.
Jobs said: “Don’t be limited by dogma, don’t live in other people’s ideas. Don’t let other people’s opinions control your inner voice.”
In real life, people often say “use common sense to think about problems”, is this sentence correct? Both right and wrong. It is right because the development of most things is in line with common sense; it is wrong because all disruptive innovations must break common sense. Therefore, when one day you confidently judge that something is completely “uncommon sense”, or ridicule others for “having no common sense”, think about whether there is such a possibility that you have fallen into a stubborn I can’t extricate myself from the rules and regulations.
According to Feng Youlan, a famous contemporary philosopher, the Chinese nation has a strong philosophical complex but lacks a religious complex. Confucianism is the mainstream, and people’s behavior is mainly restricted by morality rather than religion. There are too many constraints, so since the reform and opening up, the Chinese people have dared to think, act and innovate, and have created too many economic miracles. In recent years, mobile Internet companies represented by Alibaba and Tencent have risen in an all-round way, creating many new business models. Facts have proved that the Chinese nation is indeed naturally very suitable for innovation, which is determined by its cultural genes. The success or failure of a country is closely related to innovation. In this sense, I am very optimistic about China’s future.
When Jobs was 19 years old, he went to India to seek spiritual enlightenment. Years later, he reflected on the impact of that trip on him: “When I came back to the United States, the culture shock was stronger than when I went to India. People in rural India are not like us, we use our minds, they use intuition, and their intuition is much more developed than people in other parts of the world. Intuition is very powerful, even more powerful than thought in my opinion. Intuition is very important to My work has a big impact.”
Zen believes that when thinking about problems, don’t be confused by the appearance of things, but think deeply about the various causes (conditions) for the establishment of things, and maintain great confidence in your own independent thinking.
An important characteristic of Zen is that it pays special attention to intuition.
The Zen method of Zen is “do not establish words, teach outsiders, point directly to people’s hearts, and become a Buddha by seeing one’s nature.”
The so-called intuitive thinking actually did not fall from the sky. It has a very important relationship with a good knowledge structure obtained through long-term and careful knowledge accumulation.
Insight into the essence requires the cooperation of intuition and logic.
Sitting meditation is an important method of meditation. Jobs introduced his meditation experience: “If you sit down and observe quietly, you will find how restless your mind is. If you try to calm down, it will only make things worse, but after a long time, it will always calm down. There will be space in your heart for you to listen to the subtler things – this is when your intuition begins to develop, you see things more clearly, and you feel more in touch with the reality of your surroundings. Your mind gradually calms down and your field of vision expands. The land extends. You can see things you couldn’t see before.”
For practitioners, sitting meditation is equivalent to “restarting” the computer once, as if reborn. After the rebirth of the mind, as Jobs said, the intuition will be significantly enhanced.
(2) No two, affliction is Bodhi
“Budu” means equality without distinction
“No Two” means that some relatively important concepts that seem to be very opposite are actually consistent in a higher dimension.
Take life and death as an example, the two are very opposite, but in a higher dimension, because of death, we will cherish life and think about the meaning of life. Without death, life is meaningless. At the same time, the death of old things creates opportunities for the birth of new things. Death is the opportunity of life, and life is the continuation of death.
Jobs told everyone that what is your dream and what is the most important thing in your life, you can only know when you face life and death.
Strong and weak are naturally opposed, but in a higher dimension, strength and weakness are essentially just the status quo at a certain point in time when the forces of opposing parties are constantly ebbing and flowing. The side that is temporarily dominant is called strong, and the side that is temporarily at a disadvantage is called weak. Strength and weakness can also be divided into whole and part. The strong side is not all parts are strong, in some parts it may be weaker than the opponent; the weak side is not all parts are weak, in some parts it may be stronger than the opponent. Strength and weakness can be transformed into each other. The so-called “extreme prosperity and decline, or extreme prosperity” means that when the strength reaches a certain limit, the weak will gradually become stronger, and the strong will gradually become weaker.
Buddhism believes that everything in the world is not constant, but impermanent. So in “impermanence”, can there be “permanence”? The answer is yes, this “constant” is generally called a law. However, all laws are subject to strict conditions. If conditions change, this law must be adjusted, or even no longer applicable. “Constant”, from discovery, to adjustment, to final extinction, perfectly confirms that the nature of the world is “impermanent”, which is “constant and impermanent are inseparable”.
It is not enough to understand the impermanence of the world. Anxiety still follows us everywhere. We have to work hard to find the law in the impermanent world, so that we can truly have confidence in the future and be free from anxiety. Excessive emphasis on the impermanence of worldly affairs, without paying attention to the exploration of periodic laws to guide practice, will lead to “agnosticism” and “effortlessness”. Many people use impermanence as an excuse for their pessimism, laziness, incompetence, and lack of progress.
How to find the law in impermanence? I think it can be divided into the following two steps:
· The first step is to “grow a heart without a place to live”. Ordinary people’s minds are constrained by many prejudices, rules, customs, authoritative opinions, etc., and they only “live” their hearts in some limited conditions, which greatly restricts imagination and creativity. What we need to do is to break all kinds of rules in our minds.
· The second step is to live with your heart. According to a certain methodology, after various attempts, select some very important and key conditions, and then “live” in these conditions, build a system and finally verify it with practice.
Buffett believes that low risk and high return are inseparable, because only inseparable can the accumulation of wealth be sustainable. If the continuous acquisition of wealth depends on high risks, then wealth may be lost in a certain unpredictable large fluctuation. There are too many such examples. His method is: study companies with strong moat advantages, wait patiently for the opportunity, buy and hold for a long time when they are undervalued by the market, and achieve both low risk and high return at the same time.
The “non-discrimination mind” mentioned in Buddhism is probably the most misunderstood sentence. The meaning of this sentence is not to be attached to the distinction, but not to deny the distinction.
Some people say that as long as there is a difference in the heart, there will be comparisons and troubles. In fact, the reason why you have troubles is not because of this distinction, but because you are very attached to this distinction. If you are not attached, you will not be troubled by it. For example, there is an actor known as handsome man who is more handsome than me, I realize it, but I don’t care, why am I bothered? Someone who invests better than you and has more money than you, such as Buffett, if you don’t care, what trouble do you have?
Having troubles is not all a bad thing. I overemphasize not to be different, and I don’t want to have any troubles. I think this is the only way to feel at ease. Many times it is just an excuse made by some people who are not enterprising.
It is often heard that “people must have a normal mind”. What is a normal mind? We have to understand it on two levels. At the primary level, it means keeping the mind quiet and focused, not restless. For a more advanced level, Ma Zudao, a famous Zen master in the Tang Dynasty, gave a discourse early in the morning. He said: “What is an ordinary mind? No artificiality, no right and wrong, no choice, no interruption, no ordinary and no sage.” That is to say, to realize No two.
Concentration is the foundation of a person’s mentality. It can be understood as the energy storage battery of the heart. Innovation or insight into the essence is very difficult. It requires continuous and powerful energy from the heart to make breakthroughs. If a person lacks concentration, his innovation It is almost impossible to have strong power or insight; conversely, when our insight and innovation become stronger and stronger, the concentration of our mind will also be improved due to this high-intensity thinking.
Revisit the definition I gave to “realize emptiness” in the section “Innovation, break the rules, and think differently”: “All things cannot exist independently, and they are not permanent and unchanging, but are changing. The so-called ‘enlightenment of emptiness’ refers to not only understanding this point in theory, but also proving this point in practice through practice.”
In daily practice, wherever it is necessary to gain insight into the essence, summarize laws and innovate, there is no place where one can realize emptiness.
Mind power Zen, Zen in the world
In my opinion, “Buddhism” is the truth of the Buddha’s enlightenment, and the essence is “dependent origin and emptiness”; while “Buddhism” is a religious organization system that promotes Buddhism, the core is Buddhism, and the appearance includes many unique rituals, legends, etc. .
When a person’s heart becomes more and more powerful, the mental outlook and temperament of the whole person will change, not only for himself, but also for his relatives and friends around him.
When I invest, I like to buy companies that the founder is still directly managing. The company is actually created out of nothing, created by the founder with his strong mental strength.
When I went to the company for research, I paid special attention to the communication with the founder. I asked the founder about his values and vision, and felt his willingness and concentration; learned about the company’s new product planning, and felt his innovation; Big problems, feel his insight; also talk to employees at all levels, and feel whether the founder’s mentality is strong enough to strongly affect their values and lifestyle.
Work is the best place for ordinary people to practice. We must have the courage to realize emptiness at work.
Realizing emptiness in the world is a spiraling, never-ending, self-improving process.
Whatever you are attracted to, or where you put your focus, you will see something. In other words, the so-called “objective world” you think you see is very objective, but in fact it is just a subjective projection in your heart due to concentration .
What you focus on in your heart is what your eyes see. What everyone sees is right. As long as the relevant research is done to the extreme, every different investment philosophy can bring success.
When we argue at work, we will say: “You don’t have an objective understanding of this issue.” The implication is that you are very subjective about this issue, but I am objective. In fact, this world does not depend on our heart, so we say it is objective, but the picture formed in everyone’s mind after seeing this objective world is actually the subjective projection of our heart , that is, our subjective knowledge, there is nothing objective at all.
The stock prices that we see constantly fluctuating on the screen are actually just an illusion, and nothing more than a staged consensus formed by countless market participants after fierce games. The formation of this consensus contains a series of very fragile assumptions , including fundamental, macro, and financial assumptions, etc. These assumptions may change at any time, thereby continuously forming new prices.
The four connotations of mind-generated ten thousand dharmas Everyone has his own world (tianxia), which is formed by the perception of his own heart. Everyone’s world is different in size. The reason why we want to “read thousands of books , Traveling thousands of miles” is to increase the perception of the heart through reading and walking, so as to expand our world. This is the first connotation of “heart produces ten thousand things”.
■ The so-called “objective world” you think you see is very objective, but in fact it is just a subjective projection produced by your inner concentration, which is the second connotation of “everything comes from mind”.
■ Different people look at the same objective world. Due to the difference in concentration and insight, the mind has a very different understanding of the world, which is mainly reflected in different depths. This is the third connotation of “the mind generates all dharmas”.
■ The heart can also analyze the changes of many causes and conditions that arise things, and use its innovative power to create new things, thereby transforming the existing world. This is the fourth connotation of “heart-generated ten thousand dharmas”.
The “Tao” of Zen can be understood as some unstable and periodic laws.
As long as we use our heart to penetrate into the essence, summarize the laws and make innovations, and pour our hearts into it, we can also create our own way.
To become a great artist, skills and techniques are not important, but what is more important is the unique concept or philosophy that he puts his heart into his works. Art has always been “injecting the heart”, but modern art has pushed “injecting the heart” to its peak. Understand how to create your own way by “injecting your heart”, and you understand the essence of the way of modern art.
The meaning of life lies in the meaning we give it with our heart, your heart is the chief designer of the meaning of your life!
Don’t be confused about “what is the meaning of my life, I want to find it”, but think about “what meaning should I inject into my life”.
In the system of Buddhism, matter or spirit are not the most basic, they are all formed by the combination of causes (conditions), and, as these conditions change, both are constantly changing.
Traditionally, if we think that matter determines spirit, we call it materialism; if we think that spirit determines matter, we call it idealism. In this sense, Zen is neither materialism nor idealism.
The body of the mind is emptiness itself, and the function of the mind is to generate all dharmas.
Mind power refers to the ability of the mind to generate all dharmas.
Another cognitive angle of “emptiness” is “freedom”. The so-called realization of emptiness is to break through the frame and gain freedom.
Many people fail to grasp this opportunity because they have many deep-rooted prejudices in their minds, and they fail to be keenly aware of new trends when they appear. Zen emphasizes returning to the “original heart”, which means that we should let go of our prejudices and accept all changes with the mentality of beginners. Jobs said “stay hungry, stay foolish”, that is, “stay hungry and stupid”, which vividly presents the state of insatiable, open-minded, and active exploration when people return to their original aspirations.
If someone asked me if I was a value investor, I would say no, I don’t even consider myself a Zen believer. Because, once you label yourself, you will set up a cage for yourself and strengthen yourself.
Buffett said that if you don’t want to hold a stock for 10 years, don’t hold it for 10 minutes. However, according to statistics, from the 1960s to 2008, he has invested in more than 200 stocks in total. Only 22 have been held for more than 3 years. When Buffett bought it, he really wanted to hold it for 10 years, but the situation is stronger than others. Once he finds that the company’s situation is not as expected, he must deal with it. We can’t invest with the idea that if we buy a stock, we will stay together for a lifetime. Investment is volatile and risky. We must be alert to all kinds of obsessions, and we must have the courage to break all kinds of obsessions at any time.
The so-called level of life realm actually refers to what kind of cage you are in. The ultimate pursuit of life is to break all the cages, step into a vast and boundless space, and gain complete freedom.
The heart is the world, the world is the heart
Is this world beautiful or ugly? In fact, it is also determined by our hearts. If your inner world is beautiful, then it will be dazzling; if your inner world is ugly, then it will be hideous.
What is the state of this world? If your mind is at peace, it is filled with joy; if your mind is restless, it is like boiling oil.
capture the moment
Under the interpretation of your heart, ruthless things can become sentient – flowers can splash tears, birds can startle, candles can weep for people until dawn. This interpretation, Zen said, is “injecting the heart”.
Four The Beauty of Life, Winter Swimming
Facing our fears instead of avoiding them, being prepared and open to possible changes, our inner strength will grow, and our fears can transform into bodhisattvas. Life is full of uncertainties. Because of this, it is also full of countless opportunities. It depends on whether you have the courage to overcome your fear and give it a try.
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