Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1803
Cheng Qing wears suits and leather shoes, and wears an Apple Watch, sometimes on purpose—to break the stereotype of students in the general education course of Buddhism. But students are still full of misunderstandings about this course. He also observed that young people in society are keen on physical and spiritual consumption, seeking spiritual comfort from it, but they are also full of distortion and misunderstanding of Buddhism.
He believes that this general course on Buddhism is actually a “life education” course. In his class, Buddhism is a cognitive way to face real life. He will spend a lot of time talking about various epistemologies and values other than Buddhism, inspiring students to look at themselves and the world from more diverse perspectives.
“Without comparison, we have no reflection on our own values, and we don’t know whether another way of life is possible.” Cheng Qing said.
In the past two or three years, he has observed that the anxiety and depression among students have generally deepened, but the number of people who come to him for help is decreasing, and “some people are in a state of self-abandonment.” He found it more difficult than in the past to mobilize the classroom atmosphere, feeling that the students were “dispirited and spirited”. One student asked him what it meant to have a broken bracelet, which made him feel that “young people’s outlook on life has become very fragile”.
In the past, there were still people who came to him with psychiatric medical certificates to confide, but these two years have become less and less. When he rolls roll in class, he finds that more students are taking leave of absence. He felt the loneliness and “spiritual friction” among the students, partly due to the lack of real-life communication.
A student taught by Cheng Qing began to believe in metaphysics and studied Ziwei Doushu. He cautions against falling into pure fatalism, but understands why she does it.
“In the past, there was the idea that ‘man will conquer nature’, but when you can’t control your own destiny no matter how hard you try, you naturally want to find another paradigm for understanding the world.” Cheng Qing said.
Cheng Qing recently went to a small temple in Tiantai Mountain, and met a young man who lived in the temple for two months. This young man originally worked in Shenzhen, bought an unfinished building, and sought peace in a temple.
In the past 40 years of rapid economic development, people have been immersed in the pursuit of a single value of material growth, and the path from school to middle-class life is relatively certain. But after the growth slows down, if people still live with the inertia of thinking formed during the period of rapid growth, and encounter the uncertainty of reality, they will not be able to reconcile their hearts.
Cheng Qing sees that at this moment of economic structural transformation, “ultimate questions about people are coming up one by one”, and people from all walks of life are beginning to have psychological needs, need to reshape values, and find meaning.
This year, he began to update an introductory course on Buddhism for the public on the platform of “Looking at the Ideal”, explaining contemporary life from a Buddhist perspective. Explained from the perspective of Buddhism, the inertia of thinking is a kind of “attachment”, and the uncertainty we are talking about is “impermanence”. He will use drinking milk tea as an example to explain what is “all suffering in the world” in Buddhism: the pursuit of a moment of “happiness” is a restless restlessness that can never be satisfied, and it is also a kind of “bitterness”.
Cheng Qing believes that Buddhism has a practical side and has helped him overcome his spiritual crisis.
He was born in the 1970s, loved reading Nietzsche and Pascal when he was a teenager, and was eager to explore the ultimate question. After graduating from undergraduate, he worked in two jobs, and he quit quickly. He took the postgraduate entrance examination of the history department with an engineering background, hoping to take an academic path.
But he gradually discovered that academic education “either thinks that the accumulation of rational knowledge is enough to solve the problem of human truth, or it simply gives up the questioning of truth and the soul.” He is interested in academics, but he has doubts about the value of the path of “publishing papers, seeking teaching positions, and evaluating titles”. The “soul” issue he is eager to explore is considered too esoteric and subjective by the modern academic circle.
During his Ph.D., he visited the United States for a year. In order to relieve the emptiness and contradictions in his heart, he immersed himself in pure philosophy and artistic experience. He listened to 46 classical music concerts, “I almost vomited at the end.” After returning home, the depression became more severe. He understood now that it was just escapism.
“Buddhism allows you to face the real world instead,” Cheng Qing said. He started to practice meditation while writing his doctoral dissertation, and sometimes spent 7 or 8 hours a day sitting on the futon to observe the body and mind. One month later, he felt that his inner experience had become richer, “the whole heart is bright”.
His research direction also turned to the history of modern Buddhism and the history of Zen Buddhism in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The people around him asked him suspiciously why he chose a relatively marginal direction in historiography, “articles are not easy to publish.” He just smiled and didn’t respond.
After his research turned to Buddhism, he no longer had a strong sense of resistance to things he was not used to. Instead, he felt that everything was interconnected, influenced and interacted with each other, and “fitted more closely with the world and with others.”
He began to use Buddhism as a method to examine issues such as consumerism, cyber violence, and excessive competition in contemporary life, but his thinking always fell back on the basic philosophical proposition of “how should people live”.
The following is the conversation between Cheng Qing and “LatePost”.
The current society has a great demand for value pursuit and spiritual healing, and many people are forced to complete the reconstruction of their outlook on life
“Later”: You started teaching Buddhism to the public this year because you “see the psychological needs of society”. what do you observe
Cheng Qing: The current society has a great demand for value pursuit and spiritual healing. In the past 40 years, everyone has a single value, as long as they study hard, work hard, make money, and live a middle-class life, they don’t have to think about anything else.
In the past few years, everyone has found that the upward channel is not as smooth as before, and the cost of switching fields is also particularly high.
In the past, I also told others to pay attention to spiritual life and know how to look inward. When the economy is growing at a high speed, everyone is not interested, at most it is used as a swap. Now it has become a relatively naked demand. If this demand is not met, it may not be possible to continue living.
“Later”: You have observed that the value shift is taking place, where is it reflected?
Cheng Qing: Many value choices are forced by reality. I have seen some people who have been fired from major Internet companies simply use the time of unemployment to reorganize their hearts. This is forced to complete the reconstruction of their outlook on life. This process is quite painful.
The industry cannot grow forever. From the Internet to new energy, there are cycles. If your growth period just coincides with the economic upswing period, it is easy to obtain professional income. But what if your growth cycle is misaligned with the era cycle? Ideas are very important.
“Later”: After the growth cycle and the time cycle are dislocated, how to seek a sense of value? Are there any examples for reference?
Cheng Qing: Japan has experienced a long period of economic depression, and it has also cultivated a large number of “craftsmen” who find satisfaction in their daily work. We say that they have “artisan spirit”. Under the background of this great cycle of the times, they can find their own significance.
Society is at a moment when values are shifting. Material goals are no longer the most important sort, and people may turn to things that make them happy.
If the younger generation ossifies prematurely, the sense of meaning in life will become thinner and thinner
“Later”: In the process of changing values, some young people began to seek comfort in Buddhist culture. For example, many people went to temples to ask for bracelets to protect their “energy”. What do you think of this phenomenon?
Cheng Qing: They may not be particularly interested in Buddhism, but they have to make a last choice to settle their hearts.
A very important motivation for metaphysicalizing Buddhism is that the paradigm for understanding the world has changed. In the past, the values that were mainly personal were very stable. Now you find that no matter how hard you try, you can’t escape the big restrictions, so you will naturally wonder if you can use another model to explain life.
Once, a student said that his bracelet was broken and asked me if it meant something. This way of thinking did not exist in the past. His outlook on life has become very fragile, and he seeks luck from the dark. This kind of thinking orientation is because everyone is not confident. In the past we believed that we could make money as long as we worked hard, but this is no longer the case.
“Later”: What are the reasons for the popularity of consumer culture such as begging bracelets and paid meditation camps?
Cheng Qing: Now there is no room for belief in our daily life. Back at home, there is nothing that can stabilize the base point of your life.
Religion used to comfort people in everyday ways. In traditional Chinese families, there is a Guanyin Bodhisattva and a memorial tablet. In the past, moving, building a house, and holding a funeral also had a set of rituals. In Hong Kong, you must pay homage to Guan Gong when doing business. Now in our urban life, these are gone, and they are all modernized and marketized for you.
“Later”: How is this type of consumption different from ordinary consumption?
Cheng Qing: This kind of consumption activity will create an environment where you can get certain comfort. But most of the organizers don’t have the quality of Buddhist education, and many of what they say is specious, and they don’t really explain the reason behind it, why people are distressed. If the participants have not been exposed to religious education, they cannot tell the difference and can only be at the mercy of others.
The Buddhists say that “the teacher saves you when you are lost, and you save yourself after enlightenment.” Commercial organizations are after “you’d better rely on me forever”, not that you can finally solve the problem yourself. The consumption of mind, body and soul may bring more problems to a person than help him.
“Later”: How to examine consumerism from the perspective of Buddhism?
Cheng Qing: In the daily consumer society, our market behavior is based on one premise: to satisfy “I” is to satisfy the other party as well. We usually don’t criticize this business logic too much.
But from the perspective of Buddhism, any kind of thinking mode with exchange and gains and losses belongs to consumerism. The ideal temple economy adopts the model of support, not direct material exchange.
Buddhism talks about “non-self” and believes that the premise of “I” is a false cognition. Once we think about the problem with this premise, every time “I” provides benefits to others, there is a deep logic behind it, which is what “I” wants to get.
As long as you think that “I” is real and all kinds of behaviors are based on satisfying “I”, you will inevitably fall into consumerism, no matter how beautiful things you claim to provide to others.
“Later”: Why does consumerism penetrate into contemporary life so deeply?
Cheng Qing: In fact, from the perspective of human history, people cannot escape the life with “I” as the main body. As Western political philosophy says, “The emergence of private ownership is the beginning of human degeneration.” When we declare “This is my field”, people start this unstoppable trend.
But for modern people, there is a huge problem that the consciousness of “I” has become more and more narrow. In the past, we still thought about problems from the perspective of various human organizations and communities, but now people are starting from very small individuals.
From the perspective of public opinion expression, after the rise of the Internet, everyone feels that they have more voice. In fact, when everyone’s information is sent out on the public platform, you will find that because the individual experience is very fragmented, everyone is talking, but everyone has no energy to listen to others, that is, through layer upon layer Picking, eliminating, and finally reaching an intersection consensus.
The current way of communication has become that everyone wants to make themselves important, but the result is that everyone is not important, so everyone feels that they are very humble, and the loneliness of modern people is actually reflected here.
The unlimited expansion of human experience may be the fundamental reason for the strengthening of ego consciousness in modern society.
“Later”: Everyone wants to be seen, but feels humble because of it, so they may use more consumption to satisfy and comfort themselves.
Cheng Qing: Everyone has an impulse to prove the value of “I” by doing something, such as making money and being famous. I can prove the value of my existence without making much money, and consumption becomes a good export.
Young people now say, “I’m happy.” On the surface, it appears to be a personal oath with a strong ability to make independent decisions. But often when expressing it in this way, it has been coerced by the logic of consumerism that you can’t see clearly at all.
For example, some young people differentiate themselves from other groups in order to highlight their own taste. To dress themselves up, they have to receive a lot of information. People will be drawn by unlimited consumption and the information behind consumption. A person has to deal with so many things mentally, and to obtain happiness from these fragments, people are easily consumed, tired and even depressed.
In the past, the cage of consumerism was more crude and careless, but now consumerism is becoming more and more trivial and small, with more and more complicated patterns, and sometimes the packaging is very delicate and hidden. We are in it, it is more difficult to reflect.
“Later”: You once said that contemporary young people “are far from realizing how serious the domination of large-scale consumer society and materialism is.” In addition to the erosion of consumerism on daily life, this “domination” What are the deeper effects?
Cheng Qing: Consumerism has been internalized in our daily life and education. For example, we must go to a good university and find a good job. Behind it is a set of logic that treats ourselves as a commodity. Recently, Zhang Xuefeng gave advice on filling in volunteers, saying that rich families have no problem applying for any major, while ordinary families focus on those majors that are easy to find a job in the future.
I don’t object to this idea, but if it becomes a mainstream value creed in society, I think it should be volunteered in this way, and free exploration is the privilege of the rich, which is terrible.
“Later”: Young people and families who volunteer in this way are also out of practical considerations and want to seek more certainty in an era of high uncertainty.
Cheng Qing: That’s right, but life is always full of risks, and this awareness of seeking stability is now becoming more and more rigid. I worry that the younger generation will become rigid prematurely, and their sense of meaning in life will become thinner and thinner.
Now many college graduates, all the purpose of education is to get a job. The problem is that when this society cannot meet his expectations of work, his illusory sense of meaning in life is very strong. This general sense of meaninglessness can sometimes not be solved with a secure job. If he has been in college for a few years, he has not thought about the issue of meaning, nor has he had the opportunity to explore it by himself.
If people solidify their thinking from such a young age, do not reflect on and challenge the existing reality, and do not think about how to change it, this society will be suffocated.
Our survival logic is always competitive, always learning for career, not learning for life
“Later”: What do you observe is the most common misunderstanding of Buddhism at present?
Cheng Qing: Many people only accept the conclusion of Buddhism, “everything is impermanent” and “all is empty”, so they tell themselves or others directly, “it’s not important” and “it’s no big deal”. This is why many people think that Buddhism is self-hypnosis and PUA.
What is really important in Buddhism is how to derive it in the process of changing thinking. First let you admit that your “suffering” exists, and then rationally see what you are bound by. Buddhism is not just a word, practice is actually a painful process. There is nothing more painful than changing your mind.
“Later”: You emphasize that Buddhism is a way of cognition. What is at the heart of this way of knowing?
Cheng Qing: Buddhism believes that “every life is suffering”. This kind of suffering is intrinsic, not the usual understanding of suffering and happiness. We can only solve “suffering” through cognitive awareness. The core is to understand “all dharmas are empty”, or the idea of ”non-duality”. The popular explanation is non-dualism. Most people usually use dualism to understand the world.
“Later”: What cognitive blind spots will the dualistic way of thinking lead to?
Cheng Qing: We will look at the outside world with ego as the center, construct a “I”, and everything else is against the “I”.
Most people are obsessed with identity, labeling themselves and others with occupation, grade, and economic status, just to satisfy the subject of “I”. Moreover, they always label themselves with advantages and others with negative labels, which creates a strong sense of antagonism and mutual isolation in society.
Buddhism teaches that “I” does not really exist, and human labels are constantly switching as the environment changes. But most of us do not identify ourselves in this way. We will walk around with labels that we think are superior, and behave differently on any occasion. This is actually ridiculous. For example, when two cars collide, people often say “what am I doing?” In fact, in that scene, there are only two victims.
“Later”: The main purpose of removing labels is to liberate myself.
Cheng Qing: Yes, our logic is always competitive. You are better than me, and I want to be better. Where is the head?
“Later”: Can a non-dualist way of cognition allow us to gain peace in an “impermanent” life?
Cheng Qing: Most people feel suffering in “impermanence”, because there is a subconscious premise, that is, life can be controlled by me. We want to control, which means that in our cognition, we have constructed a real “I” and the object that “I” wants to control.
The reason why a person has a strong sense of frustration when he is suddenly fired is because he never thought that this kind of thing would happen. “Ego” means that I want the environment to match my subjective thinking: I can lose my job, but I have to lose my job at my own pace, for example, I can stop working after 10 years. You can’t accept a lower salary than in the past, and the job you do is not as good as it used to be. This is actually an attachment.
The lesson of Buddhism is to let us know that anything can happen, and only by accepting that it is normal can we deal with life crises with a stable psychological state.
“Later”: To give an example, if a young man can’t find a job after trying hard. How should he regulate himself?
Cheng Qing: We have no way to persuade these people to remain calm from the perspective of others, because in the final analysis, practice is to face your own ups and downs. Some people face relatively minor problems in life, and they may be able to solve them with a little knowledge of concepts. Some people face great challenges, and it is really not easy to solve them.
What we are sharing now is just to tell you that it is possible to change your cognition, and there may be some hope if you try it.
“Later”: If you were a young man in your twenties who couldn’t find a job, what would you do?
Cheng Qing: I was also unemployed in Shanghai when I was young, and it was very difficult to find a job. At the time when I was most embarrassed, I also felt that life was really hopeless. But when you find that you can solve the problem of eating with peace of mind, don’t aim too high, don’t think about being someone else, don’t think about quick success and quick financial freedom. Walk slowly step by step, and look back after ten years, and you will find that your life has changed so much.
But in the long run, you must be clear about what you want to do. Follow your own pace, go to the field of real enthusiasm, instead of looking at the real benefits and temporary gains and losses.
Everyone’s return is not simply reflected in income, but reflected in the person’s responsibility for his own life. The ultimate criterion for being responsible is that you are willing to invest in a life journey that you find meaningful.
“Later”: There are still some people who are “unemployed after graduation”, and the first step into society is stuck. The only way for them to feel at ease is to lower their expectations? Would this be too passive?
Cheng Qing: Let me give you an example. A student I taught went to Suzhou to deliver food after graduation, but he was very cheerful when communicating with me, even more cheerful than when he was in school. He sometimes shares in the group how many people are in their courier station and where he ranks.
I have seen from him that when today’s young people encounter this kind of embarrassment in life, he naturally accepts it. If you can’t let go of your expectations forever, your heart will be very tormented.
“Later”: He is really in a good state of mind. However, what cannot be ignored is the systemic dilemma of the job of a delivery rider.
Cheng Qing: That young man likes to play the guitar. One of his motivations for making money is to learn music. Ordinary people may think that this life is not in line with common sense, and they still have to learn music without money. But I sometimes feel that this is the possibility of life.
He knows that the purpose of being a rider is to support himself, and it is also a transition, and he will do other things in the future. The system will become his tool.
Systemic problems are limited in what we can change. Never forget the most important thing in your heart, which is already a good inner construction for a person.
“Later”: You mentioned in the ideal course that the sixth patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Huineng, said that “seeking Bodhi after leaving the world is like seeking the horns of a rabbit”, which means that you can’t talk about enlightenment without leaving real life. Many of our readers are Internet practitioners who are always dealing with data, focusing on scale, growth, and retention. I am also managed by sophisticated performance appraisals and influenced by the organization’s goal thinking. In such a job, how to “practice”?
Cheng Qing: People who are already in the vortex are always eager for a quick solution to their troubles. This is also the attraction of physical and spiritual consumption, which can immediately relieve people.
But real change doesn’t happen overnight. After listening to the concepts of Buddhism, you have to go through continuous trials, experiences, and verifications to gradually increase your confidence in this logic and practice.
“Later”: Is it too difficult for a person who is already running at high speed in a bad system to undergo cognitive changes at the same time?
Cheng Qing: I need to give myself a breathing room to complete the reconstruction process. Properly maintain a sense of distance from this system.
Why do monks have to properly isolate themselves from society when they first start their practice, because your values are isomorphic with society, and it is difficult for you to complete the conversion at this time, so you must first make a temporary cut.
We always want to solve the current problem at once. A person should build his values simultaneously as soon as he chooses his own career and major. Life education should start even from kindergarten.
But we start “rolling” now from kindergarten. Especially middle-class families are afraid that their children will slip away. From the time when the children are very anxious until they enter the society, and finally find that the children are not developing well, they just say forget it, I will raise you, and the children will become “full-time children”. It’s absurd to start with high expectations and end up with such low expectations.
I think the correct life construction should be that you should assume that your child can become any kind of person, and start educating him from this level.
“Later”: Is there any specific method to “maintain a proper distance from the system”?
Cheng Qing: In your spare time and fragmented time, don’t just stay in entertainment in the general sense, leave a little more time to understand other ideas and concepts, and treat life as a problem to re-understand and re-learn, and it will generate strength if it lasts for a long time up.
In the past, in school, everyone always studied for career, not for life. You can never change now without social life learning.
Systemic oppression is heavy enough, comfort each other in the gap between people
“Later”: There is another way for young people to keep a distance from the system. It can be seen from the changes in popular language, from the “Buddhist system” in the past few years to the current “lay flat” and “rotten”. How do you understand “lay flat”?
In the past, you wrote an article commenting on the “Buddhism” and believed that this kind of borrowing and acceptance of traditional Buddhist symbols “comes from a certain hidden balance mechanism in our own culture, that is, the constant tension between strong secularism and seclusion. Convert”.
Cheng Qing: “Lie flat” is a kind of resistance, the purpose is to break away from the values that bound you in the past, in this sense I agree. But it is impossible to solve the problem by “laying flat”. Just like the otaku in Japanese society, who parasitize in the family dependently, we now have “full-time children”. Individuals are attached to their parents. Although the quality of life is not bad, it is actually impossible to find their own unique life value.
“Lie flat” The next step is for the younger generation to think about what to do and where to find the value of life.
Now young people go to the countryside to run B&Bs, and go to Jingdezhen to burn porcelain. Although many people end up failing. But I think it’s a process of experimentation. Any social change depends on various attempts to gradually form a consensus.
I don’t think there are enough “jingpiao” now. Look at how many people in Japan make pottery in their lifetime. Many people are not famous and have no commercial value. But this kind of life is meaningful and self-consistent.
“Later”: What is the biggest problem with the lifestyle of “full-time children”?
Cheng Qing: Relying on blood relationship as the core to care for each other, my creativity is limited to the family. It is very difficult for a person to live in this kind of space, mentally. The object of his entrustment is very small. Now there are a large number of elderly people in Japan who die, and their children conceal and do not report them in order to continue to receive their pensions.
If a person lives in a social relationship, his ability to survive is not the same as his mental health.
I saw that some housewives also returned to family life, but they also did many other things, such as doing handicrafts and opening Xiaohongshu, which at least showed a strong part of interacting with society.
“Later”: This sounds like “exchange produces value” from an economic perspective.
Cheng Qing: You can start from economics, but I say from the perspective of Buddhism, there is a very important point called “dependent origination”. Buddhism believes that human beings are definitely not a single individual, and that human beings influence each other. People need to confirm their roles and values in the huge network of relationships.
Some people don’t want to deal with society, but you find that the biggest problem with “social terror” is that they can’t cut it. On the contrary, if you integrate into this network of relationships, talents will be liberated even more.
“Later”: But when we are in the huge network of the Internet, we will also feel the ubiquitous pressure, even violence.
Cheng Qing: Internet violence is still a kind of dominance of the “ego”. He insists on others agreeing with him. He is too obsessed with self-awareness, so it is difficult to have a sense of empathy for the fate of others, and he cannot feel the same with others. internal connections.
I often feel that online violence cannot be completely solved, this is part of human nature. But if you really want to alleviate, you need to ease or rebuild the relationship between people in real life, because when a person does not get care in real life and suppresses his emotions, he will definitely find another way to vent.
“Later”: How should a person connect with others and the world? Are you yourself a good practitioner in real life?
Cheng Qing: As long as possible, I will communicate with all the people around me, and feel the lives of different people and different groups, instead of falling into self-isolation.
I used to meet the courier in the elevator, and I also felt that he had nothing to do with me and had nothing to talk about. But then I discovered that the relationship between people is determined by your cognition. If you think this is an unexpected encounter between you and him, it’s quite predestined. As soon as you talk to him, you immediately feel that the atmosphere has changed. Because the courier is sometimes bored and anxious, he had to be locked in a closed space with another person for those 20 seconds.
I think that re-cognition between people in all spatial fields is an important part of establishing interpersonal relationships.
Now we all look at people by profession, he is a food delivery person, he is a cleaner, and they are treated differently according to grades, which will form a vicious circle in society.
Only by reducing people to simple people, not market people, tool people, and profit people, can it be possible to treat others equally.
Don’t alienate people into “bad guys”. People will show different faces on different occasions. For example, when I take a taxi home from Hongqiao Airport, sometimes the driver I meet will keep muttering “I only earned more than 40 yuan after waiting for 3 hours”, and will complain about you. I don’t hate them, because it’s not a personal problem, this reaction is molded in that situation or structure.
When I get off the bus, I will pay double the fare. He will be very surprised, and his mood seems to be relieved all of a sudden. This is what I can do. I don’t like the mechanized communication between people. The systematic oppression of society is already heavy enough. We should give each other some comfort in the gaps between people and people.
“Later”: Will this kind of good interaction only stop at the surface, a kind of superficial harmony? Will this change the deep-seated antagonisms in society?
Cheng Qing: I don’t have that kind of naive optimism. The social structure will not develop as we imagined.
I just think that in the limited time or space of everyone’s life, some small bubble-like spaces can be created, so that I can relax and not be completely dominated by professional labels. I want more people to understand that instead of waiting to rely on changes in the environment and systems, they can start to restructure interpersonal communication from around them.
In fact, Shanghai’s public policy is also paying more and more attention to the construction of public space, intensively building communities, and opening up the channels of Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek. In such a mixed public space, people of different classes meet, which is a prerequisite for us to communicate on an equal footing. As long as they meet, it is possible to break the distinction between people. Once there is such a space, it becomes a matter of the active will of the participants.
Once “meaning” is conceptualized, it becomes something external to you
“Later”: You generalize that “Buddhism is wisdom and compassion”. People want to have wisdom. But is “compassion” necessary?
Cheng Qing: When you realize that there is an impossible relationship between people, a kind of compassion will naturally arise, because people influence each other and reflect each other.
In Buddhism, the path of liberation and the path of Bodhisattva are separated, and the path of liberation tends to only solve one’s own problems. Bodhisattva way is to solve not only one’s own problems, but also the world’s problems.
We used to think that I could just take care of myself. But you will eventually find that personal problems are never just personal problems. Many times, you must solve the problems of all sentient beings before you can solve your problems. By truly benefiting others, you can eventually gain true enlightenment.
“Later”: “How should people live” This question is the starting point of moral philosophy. How does Buddhism view this issue?
Cheng Qing: Buddhism will balance the excessive consumerism and materialistic desires in our lives, so that we will not be so attached.
One is not to depend on external things. On the other hand, we see too much information in modern society, subconsciously you want to live the lives of others, and want to experience all the good lives.
The Buddhist Association says that everyone’s life is conditionally limited. We need to look at the individual’s position from the perspective of the conditions of the era, which will remind you to shrink and overexpand your greed.
“Later”: Does this “non-attachment” attitude also have a negative side? For example, if a person does not strive to pursue the meaning of life, will he feel a sense of emptiness in his life?
Cheng Qing: There is a term in Buddhism called “will power”, which interprets this pursuit as a wish.
“Later”: What is the difference between “will” and “persistence”?
Cheng Qing: The difference is that you should not form the expectation of “it must be so”. If the results do not achieve the goals you envisioned, you should not be troubled. The trouble of gains and losses is where the “ego” lies.
“Later”: Even if your wish is not fulfilled, you must be able to accept it calmly?
Cheng Qing: There is a saying in the “Diamond Sutra”, to the effect that you take a boat to the other side of wisdom, and when you arrive, you have to forget about the boat. Just do it naturally according to the various causes and conditions in the world, and the meaning will naturally appear.
Just like when I see a neighbor who needs help, I don’t think about the meaning of helping her. It’s just that when I see her, I naturally have the idea of helping her, so I do my best to help her.
Once “meaning” is conceptualized, it becomes something external to you. Life itself is meaningful, but people always have to dig out an artificial meaning. From a Buddhist point of view, this is redundant.
“Later”: Do you have any critical views on Buddhism?
Cheng Qing: I think the theory of Buddhism is relatively complete, but the distance between the Buddhist cosmology and the natural science cosmology of modern society is too far.
Buddhism itself is self-consistent, so I can’t say it is wrong, but it is difficult to reconcile the two when it faces the real society.
Therefore, the possibility of it being understood has also become very weak, and the difficulty of cultivating Buddhist talents is very high.
“Later”: After studying Buddhism for so many years, have you completely resolved your confusion now?
Cheng Qing: I have already thought clearly about the major issues in my own life. I am more confused about how to better educate.
Today’s students are not very interested in a lot of serious content that requires in-depth thinking, and they have not received training in deep thinking. When my educational methods and my intentions cannot achieve the desired effect, I will also feel frustrated.
In the end, I told myself to “do my best” and share with students what I think is valuable and can help grow. While they don’t accept it now, I feel like they’ll need these things someday.
I regard education as very important, because all problems are created by human nature. Education can change concepts and human nature, and can form a longer-term sustainable force.大家都有被系统控制、被主宰的感觉。但我始终会想，设计系统的人也是人，如果我们不能软化制度的话，我们要软化人性。
题图：阿尔贝托·贾科梅蒂的雕塑作品《行走的人》
文内首图：安岳石刻茗山寺文殊师利像佛窟
题图及文内配图来源：视觉中国。
成庆主讲的音频课程《人生解忧：佛学入门40 讲》 正在“看理想” 平台更新，欢迎留言讨论“如何寻找人生的意义”，我们将抽选2 条优质评论，各送出1 个课程兑换码。截止时间：8 月18 日17 点。
《晚点LatePost》推出周末版，希望把视线扩展到各种各样的创造者。简单来说，我们想知道谁在创造，并以之影响周边；我们既注视当下，也回顾过去，寻找形塑今日世界的源头；我们关注技术、商业，也关注历史、人文，打量这些领域的交汇处的涌现。
让我们关注的可能是一款产品、一家店铺、一种包装的设计思路，也可能是某种工作哲学、产品理念、管理方法，可能是一种有趣新颖的生活方式，甚至是在今天仍然焕发光彩的古老思想。
“已经创造出来的东西相比有待创造出来的东西，是微不足道的。” 这是维克多·雨果的话——我们希望《晚点》周末印证这句话。
本文转自： https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1803
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