Return to the Fields, Keep Simplicity, Shun Cunning, Attain Central Harmony
This is a very dangerous age, with natural and man-made disasters following one after another. Viewed from the perspective of grand history, this is an age in which population, resource, environmental, economic, and political crises erupt together. In such an age, it is inevitable that people's hearts are restless and the times are turbulent; describing today's world as riddled with peril is no exaggeration.
There is an old Chinese saying: "Better to be a dog in times of peace than a person in times of chaos." But whether one is a person in chaotic times is not up to oneself; the trend of the times is such that no one can resist the torrent of the age. When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact; when great disaster comes, no one can stay aloof.
That humanity has been able to multiply and survive on Earth is due not only to luck but also to wisdom. Laozi says: "He who does not know the constant recklessly acts and meets misfortune." Knowing the constant and adapting to change is humanity's magic weapon for surviving harsh natural and social environments. Our Chinese nation advocates a survival wisdom that sees through worldly affairs, is adept in human relations, keeps simplicity and returns to truth, strives unceasingly, carries things with abundant virtue, rises above external things, and follows nature. Personally, I believe this survival wisdom is still not outdated even today.
People all live within society; the so-called "leaving the world" is merely a state of mind, not a true departure from the world. We resonate and reverberate with society, which is complex and ever-changing; with storms never ceasing outside, for the heart to find peace it must keep a safe distance from society.
The world bustles, all for profit; the world crowds, all for gain. We no longer know clearly what the remotest antiquity was like; the present world is indeed bound together by interest. For people to survive, seeking wealth and profit is understandable. But for one thing, the profit needed to settle down and make a living is not much; with few desires and little demand, there is no need to toil so busily. For another, the noble person loves wealth but takes it in the right way; in seeking profit, one keeps the principle of "do not do to others what you would not have them do to you," and pursuing a reasonable livelihood can minimize interpersonal strife.
I hope to go one step further on the road of few desires and little demand, while achieving as much self-sufficiency as possible. I seek little, but what I have is already enough; henceforth I hope to give more and take less. This is not because of nobility, but because I fear the way of heaven. He who is content is always happy; he whose desires are never satisfied lives a shorter life.
My love of the countryside and closeness to nature is because, compared with the clamor of the human world, the earth is at peace. In the endless cycle of sowing and harvest, listening quietly to the years flow by, the heart too grows calm.
The earth is also plain and unadorned. Zhuangzi says: "Profit, utility, and cleverness will surely make one lose one's heart." People scheme and show off their cleverness, but cleverness is often outwitted by cleverness; it is better to learn from the earth in keeping simplicity and putting aside wisdom.
The great Way of heaven and earth is not cunning but natural law. People think themselves wise animals who can surely conquer heaven, and so they lose themselves and act recklessly; in the end they cannot escape the natural law the Creator has set for us. Arrogant and defiant, violating the way of heaven, punishment is only a matter of time.
The way of heaven is the way of central harmony: "Before the feelings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy are stirred, it is called the mean; when they are stirred and all attain their due measure, it is called harmony. The mean is the great root of the world; harmony is the universal path of the world. Attain central harmony, and heaven and earth are in their places, and all things are nourished." But the way of central harmony is hard! It is no easy thing for human conduct to accord with central harmony; only those who "study it broadly, inquire into it earnestly, reflect on it carefully, discriminate it clearly, and practice it sincerely" can gradually achieve "attaining central harmony."
Living humbly and truthfully, and sincerely doing good to others, can to the greatest extent avoid disaster and misfortune. Thus the mind is unperturbed, eating and sleeping are at peace, and the body and mind are strengthened to the greatest extent.