Confucian Cultivator Under One Person

play me?

Fu Yuan smiled and said, "I'm not joking, but it's really hard to explain. If I have to say it...be sincere and respectful, and when you are respectful, you will do good."

The man in the white coat scratched his head and said, "Is Confucius's Confucianism really that mysterious?"

Fu Yuan raised his eyebrows and said, "Who told you that Confucianism belongs to Confucius?"

The white coat asked doubtfully, “Isn’t it?”

Fu Yuan shook his head and said, "If I must say, Confucianism has no creator. After the Yellow Emperor, people's hearts were no longer pure and honest. After Emperor Zhuanxu, the connection between the earth and the sky was severed, and people could no longer be in harmony with the heaven.

From that time on, all kinds of "falsehood" were added to human nature... What is "falsehood"? Anything that is man-made is false.

Confucianism is essentially a way out of all kinds of "falsehood" that naturally emerged after people's hearts became false. It is hard to say who created Confucianism.

It’s just that Confucius directed the hypocrisy of human nature towards “benevolence”, and Mencius directed this hypocrisy towards “righteousness”…that’s all.

Taoists often criticize Confucianism as "hypocritical", and in fact they are right to do so, because Confucianism is built on various "hypocrisies".

By being honest with all kinds of "falsehoods", one can "become self-sincerity", seek one's true nature, and awaken one's true heart.

The man in the white coat smiled and said, "Well said, please say more."

Fu Yuan looked at him and said, "There's nothing much to say. We want to leave now."

The man in the white coat was a little dissatisfied and said, "If you don't really want to leave, why do you keep mentioning leaving?"

Fu Yuan laughed and said, "You don't want to tell me either, but you're trying to find all kinds of topics to trick me into talking."

The man in the white coat slammed the table and said, "Okay, we're all sensible people, how about we be frank?"

Fu Yuan shook his head and said, "It's too late. I wanted to know a little bit just now, but now I really don't want to know at all."

"why?"

Fu Yuan sighed and said, "Everyone in the world praises love and thinks it is so beautiful... In essence, love is just a desire, no different from lust, greed, and the like.

The same goes for curiosity. I am curious and don’t mind doing things that are in line with my heart to satisfy my curiosity, just like “good is lustful, bad is smelly”.

But Confucianism attaches the most importance to "keeping to the middle", and the doctrine of the mean lies in "measure". I am curious, but I value propriety even more. It is impossible for me to ignore everything else for the sake of curiosity.

Your attitude is enough to show that if I want to satisfy my curiosity, the price I have to pay is probably too much for me to bear."

The white coat's expression turned grim: "Without curiosity, how can human civilization progress?"

Fu Yuan stood up and said seriously, "There's a saying that goes 'curiosity kills the cat'. We should be measured and measured in our actions, and the same applies to curiosity!"

The man in the white coat quickly stood up, grabbed Fu Yuan, and said, "You really don't want to reconsider it?"

Fu Yuan smiled and said, "No, I just want to satisfy my curiosity. I'm asking you for help, and as the one asking for help, I have to pay a price.

But if you want to ask me for help later, you will be begging me, and you will be the ones to pay the price... You should understand this principle, right?"

The white coat smiled bitterly and said, "Are you so sure that we will need your help?"

Fu Yuan pointed at himself and said, "I am the only Confucian cultivator in this world right now!"

Chapter 106: Spiritual Cultivation

Is it true that Fu Yuan is the only Confucian cultivator in the world today?

In fact, there is no answer to this question. The country has always liked to hide some things, and people who are not well-educated may not even know the existence of "aliens".

Who knows what else is hidden?

Apart from anything else, the company's attitude towards the Eight Great Techniques, which seemed to defy the heavens, was one of disdain, and they regarded them only as a means of causing chaos... and it only caused chaos in the alien world.

There is no threshold for Confucian cultivation, and with Fu Yuan as a ready-made example, is it really impossible to find a second one among 1.4 billion people?

But why did they finally find Fu Yuan to help? And why did the white coat even use various probing words?

The only explanation is that even if there are other Confucian practitioners, Fu Yuan is the most special one.

As expected, the man in the white coat sighed and said, "The material world is called instruments, and the metaphysical world is called the Tao. The Tao can be spoken of, but it is not the eternal Tao... It is rare in history for a Confucian scholar to achieve the level of yours."

How could a man in a white coat come to contact Fu Yuan without knowing about Confucianism in advance? If he knew about it in advance, he would not say things like "Confucius' Confucianism".

It is easy to learn Confucianism, but it is difficult to become a Confucian yourself and become a Confucian practitioner. It is like mathematics is easy to learn, but it is difficult to become a mathematician.

Confucianism has never belonged to anyone... It's like Lao Tzu gave a macro thing a name called "Tao", so does that mean "Tao" has become Lao Tzu's?

All we can say is that Lao Tzu has his own understanding of "Tao".

The same is true for Confucianism. Whether it is Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, or later Dong Zhongshu, Cheng Zhu, Wang Yangming, etc., they all have their own understanding of Confucianism.

We can talk about Confucius’ “benevolence” and Mencius’ “righteousness”, but we cannot talk about Confucius’ Confucianism... Confucius only founded a school of Confucianism!

The previous conversations were just tests, both sides were testing each other, and now the results of the tests are out.

The men in white coats wanted something from Fu Yuan, so Fu Yuan had the confidence to say "I'm not curious" because he would know sooner or later.

Seeing that the white coat had given up pretending, Fu Yuan also smiled and stopped talking about leaving. He said, "Language and writing have their limitations. Otherwise, the traditions left by our ancestors wouldn't be so ambiguous."

Confucius himself created the "Spring and Autumn style of writing". Didn't he know that his words would be misinterpreted by future generations?

There is absolutely no way. His "metaphysical" thoughts are difficult to explain, so both Confucius and Zhuangzi repeatedly emphasized that no one could understand them.

The man in the white coat nodded, looked at Fu Yuan deeply, then bent his fingers and tapped on the table.

"Boom-thump-thump-"

There was a rhythmic, crisp knocking sound, accompanied by a faint call. Immediately afterwards, Fu Yuan inexplicably felt a pulling...

It was a strange feeling, as if someone was calling his name from behind, and he would turn around involuntarily. This "involuntary" feeling that came from instinct was the pulling feeling that Fu Yuan felt at this moment!

Most people cannot restrain themselves and cannot resist this pull for various reasons, such as when their parents call them, they respond voluntarily, when their leader calls them, they dare not not respond... and so on. These reasons seem trivial but are actually irresistible, which lead to their inability to restrain themselves and resist this pull.

But Fu Yuan always cultivated himself and restrained himself, sticking to his mind. He resisted in an instant and looked at the white coat in surprise.

The white coat smiled and said, "Go ahead."

Fu Yuan frowned, thinking that he had a clear conscience, was always virtuous, righteous and trustworthy, and had nothing to fear, so he immediately obeyed the call.

Chen Duo, who was standing by, saw Fu Yuan inexplicably lying on the table, falling asleep in an instant, and then standing up again... It was not Fu Yuan's physical body, but an ethereal, soul-like Fu Yuan.

Fu Yuan's soul separated from his body, stood up, and then disappeared without a trace right under the eyes of the two.

Chen Duo's face changed, and black energy suddenly burst out from his body, covering the entire room in an instant.

The white coat was startled and said quickly: "Don't do it... He's fine, I promise!"

Chen Duo looked at him warily, his expression cold, and the black energy around him was ready to move.

The white coat smiled bitterly and said, "He'll wake up in a while. Don't worry, he went there voluntarily."

Chen Duo hesitated for a moment, retracted the black energy, moved to Fu Yuan's side, leaned close to him, his whole body tense, and waited vigilantly.

……

"Fu Yuan... Fu Yuan..."

The faint calling voice gradually became clearer.

Only then did Fu Yuan realize that he had inexplicably appeared on a street.

There are people and cars coming and going on the streets, and high-rise buildings on both sides of the streets. The city composed of these high-rise buildings is like an alternative forest, or an ant nest, and each person is like an ant in the ant nest.

Fu Yuan stood on the street and looked around. He always felt that something was wrong, and his mind moved slightly.

In that instant, the crowd seemed to have become illusory, a background, and the hazy scenes in the movie.

fake?

Fantasy?

At this moment, a passerby suddenly stopped, showing a strange smile, and said to Fu Yuan: "Do you think this place is fake?"

Fu Yuan looked at him, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that other pedestrians seemed to be unable to see or hear him, and were just walking on their own way.

Even the companion who had just been walking side by side with this pedestrian tilted his head and continued to whisper to the space beside him.

"Where is this place?" Fu Yuan couldn't help but ask.

The passerby said: "Everyone here has his own joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness, his own thoughts, his most sincere wishes and persistence, his own loves, hates, and beliefs... his own world!

Each person has his own world. My countless thoughts have transformed into them, and they constitute this world."

Fu Yuan vaguely understood what he meant and couldn't help but feel surprised: "One thought can transform all living beings?"

The passerby smiled and said, "Welcome to my world. I call this the Spirit World. Have you read Journey to the West?"

Fu Yuan nodded and said, "Lingtai Fangcun Mountain."

The pedestrian spread out his hands and said, "This is my Lingtai Fangcun Mountain... Can you find my Xieyue Sanxing Cave?"

Fu Yuan raised his head and glanced at the roof of a tall building.

"Amazing!" Passersby couldn't help but praise him, "As expected of a Confucian cultivator cultivating the 'Intention of Heaven and Earth'!"

"The will of heaven and earth?"

The passerby gestured for Fu Yuan to follow him as they walked towards the tall building, saying, "Everyone has their own ambitions. Some are after power, some after wealth, others after beauty, some after delicious food... and so on.

But ordinary people’s minds are unstable, like wild horses galloping, without a stable goal. They like too many things and want too many things. When will they reach their destination?

Fu Yuan understood and said, "So you must set your goals, maintain your goals to nourish your mind, and only by setting a constant goal can you achieve something."

The passerby said with a smile, "Confucian cultivation is the cultivation of 'intention'. The drunkard's intention is not in the wine, but in the mountains and rivers. And your intention is to establish a mind for heaven and earth, so your intention is 'the intention of heaven and earth'!"

At this point, the pedestrian paused and said, "I am different from you in cultivating the mind. I cultivate the spirit."

Fu Yuan asked curiously, "What is a spirit?"

The pedestrian said: "The spirit is the source of all ideologies. It is not the soul, nor the body, but it is the thing that combines the two into one... It is difficult to explain in words.

It's like someone who practices Qigong, can they explain what Qi is? Someone who practices Shengong, can they clearly say what Shen is? And you who practice Yigong, can you clearly say what Yi is?

Fu Yuan thought about it and shook his head.

Those who have never practiced Qi will only rely on their own guesses and say that Qi is a kind of energy... However, only after practicing Qi will they understand that Qi is a state, a cycle, a transformation, and a process... The more they talk about it, the more confused they become.

Words cannot express the truth, that’s how it is, once you say it, it’s wrong.

What comes from the heart is intention, but what exactly is intention? The deeper you practice, the more difficult it is to explain.

The pedestrian took Fu Yuan into the high-rise building and took the elevator up. He said, "Ancient people couldn't understand telephones. If someone used it to cheat people and said it was magic, many people would definitely believe it... Then this is not a scam, but a spiritual method!"