Chapter 18 Chapter 16 Faith, Ideals, Enthusiasm

What a strange world we live in!On the one hand there is great progress, on the other hand there is ruthless destruction; on the other hand seeking subtle knowledge, on the other hand committing brutal actions; on the one hand listening to moral terms, on the other hand seeing deceitful facts;The power of religion has declined, the barriers of morality have crumbled, and the influence of authority has declined.Old beliefs have also faded, and new beliefs have not yet been established.In this dilapidated age, there are grotesque phenomena.Therefore, ordinary people tend to hesitate, from hesitation to doubt, from doubt to denial, from denial to fully feel the emptiness of life.

This serious problem of life exists not only in China, but also in the West.A modern Spanish thinker, Ortega (Ortega, see his book "The Revolt of Masses") believes that after this kind of embankment burst, Westerners are also on a moral holiday.He said: But this kind of vacation cannot last long.Without the scope of creed we live under a certain shape, our existence is like being unemployed.In this terrible spiritual state, the best young people in the world are also in it.Feeling free from restraint, life feels its own emptiness.An unemployed existence, the negation of life, is worse than death.Because to be born is to have one thing to do and a mission to fulfill (a mission to fulfill).To avoid putting life in this business is to make life empty.

I quote Atga's words because he is a liberal thinker who does not support authority or religion, so his opinion is more objective.This state of confusion existed before the Second World War, and it may be even worse in the postwar West.Losing confidence in life is the most painful and dangerous thing. Religion is originally to solve the problem of living and living for life, and to find a destination for life.Religion arose out of fear and hope.Fear is the fear of being judged by the end, hope is the fulfillment of desires.Religion, broadly speaking, is belief in a surreal world.The religion of a nation reflects the will of the nation itself in the surreal world; in this surreal world, it realizes its deepest desire.This is a famous quote from the German philosopher Friedrich Paulson.

Religion and morality have the same origin, which is the desire of the will for perfection.But in morality it is a requirement, in religion it becomes a reality.This is also the assertion of the same philosopher. But he also has one of the most brilliant words on faith: He who has faith and action always believes that the future is on his side.Without faith, nothing truly great can be done in this world.All religions are based on faith.From faith, the patriarchs and disciples of these religions overcame the world.Because of the belief, the martyrs lived, fought, and suffered for that belief.They die because they believe that the highest good can have the final victory, so they are willing to sacrifice for them.Who would die for his proposition if he did not believe in its final and permanent success?If these facts were taken away, what would be left in the history of the world?

These words are extremely profound!This is not only a statement for the achievements of religion, but by extension, it is a statement for all the great achievements of the world. Yes, all religions are based on faith, but all the great achievements of human beings, political, social and cultural, are they not based on faith?If a person has no confidence in what he has learned and done, what is there to say?If you still don't believe in what you are doing, not only will your career not be successful, but your life will also be meaningless. Even the doubts in reading are just to teach you to set up a few more assumptions and open up a few more ideas, not to teach you to doubt the work itself.I think, therefore I am, this is Descartes' conclusion after doing all kinds of skeptical work.If you hold absolute skepticism, you will end up denying everything and destroying everything.

Religion is nothing but an expression of belief, though it is often a strong expression.But the so-called religion generally refers to formal religion with dogmas, rituals, and organization.People who believe in this religion have their own spiritual comfort; others don't have to oppose him, and he can't force others to be the same.As for faith (faith), everyone has it in their hearts. It can also be said to be a kind of religious heart, but it does not necessarily manifest itself in religion, but can be pinned on any career. People who believe in religion are inherently martyrs, but people who don't believe in religion also have many people who are righteous.For example, Socrates' reluctance to die is his belief in philosophy; Wen Tianxiang's calm and righteousness is his belief in the ethics of Confucius and Mencius.This shows that the pervasive power of belief is by no means limited to religion.

The purest belief is the belief in a noble ideal; it transcends the concept of personal misfortune and fortune.The interests and harms in life are not enough to worry about, and the rewards and punishments after life are not on the mind.As for the low-level consciousness of trying to excuse by confession and seeking reward by dedication, let alone his words! The purest belief is tempered by knowledge and washed by the clean water of wisdom; from a philosophical point of view, it is also loyal to the ideal.Man has progressed, and if he does not have intellectual conviction for his ideal, he will never be able to devote all his life to it.The modern philosopher J.Royce said: If you want to be loyal, you have to decide which one is worthy of your allegiance. (See "The Philosophy of Loyalty" by him).Here comes the judgment of knowledge.If the discovery of knowledge tells you that there are unreliable and unreliable elements in what you believe in, then your belief will be shaken.If the judgment of knowledge is more of a reaffirmation of what you believe, then your faith is strengthened.So knowledge does not destroy faith, but strengthens it.For example, after original sin, doomsday judgment and all miracles are eliminated, not only can Christians be relieved of many fears, so that they will not have impossible hope, but also make their philosophy more profound, covering some Western philosophers and philosophers. confidence of scientists.This is an example.Knowledge can wash away the blemishes and stains of faith, and then faith can be bright and bright.

People always desire the state of perfection; however, the people who desire have different levels and concentrations of understanding of this state.The Greeks believed that the realm of the gods on Mount Alynpia was perfect; the Hebrews believed that heaven was perfect.The earliest ideas are the most naive and vague; the more knowledge advances, the more sublime and profound this understanding becomes.That's why I say that ideals are the bright lights on the journey of life. The further you go, the more you can illuminate a section of the future.There are only progressive ideals in the world, not stagnant ideals.It is this ideal of progress that interests us most upwards.

Faith requires strength to express, and ideals are not for people to play with and appreciate.To realize beliefs and ideals, we must rely on enthusiasm (zeal).Enthusiasm is the internal combustion force that has direction and devotion in life.If it is to be effective, it should be made to act according to accurate knowledge, so that it is not blind; if there is no wisdom to guide and regulate it, it will easily collapse and become excessive.Such as the so-called religious fanatic (religious fanatic), it is the expression of excessive enthusiasm to the point of collapse.This is the pathology of enthusiasm, not the normality of enthusiasm.

For one thing, one mission, he has the conviction of this kind of knowledge. If he thinks it is worth doing, he will concentrate on it and do it desperately. The crisis will not change, and life and death will not be easy. It must be done well. This is the performance. What I call true enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is often inspired by religion, not only because enthusiasm is related to faith, but also because religion inherently has an emotional component.Emotions are the source of enthusiasm; those who are indifferent will never have enthusiasm.But feelings are easy to overflow, easy to lose in all directions.It must be trained to make it single-minded and oriented before it can be turned into enthusiasm.

I often feel that we Chinese have too little enthusiasm.Now many things are not done well, precisely because many people who do things lack enthusiasm for what they do.He just felt that what he did was just a coping, not a mission.What is the reason for this?Some people say it is because our religious heart is too lacking.Yes.Our religious heart is very lacking, and our collective religious life is not enough.Our tolerance of religion, though it is our virtue, is also due to our lack of religious zeal.Some people say that our emotional life is not rich.also yes.I can't say that we Chinese have weak feelings, but we give normal stimuli to Tao Ronghe who doesn't pay attention to feelings, such as Western religious music, and specifically want to oppress and destroy feelings.Confucianism in the Song Dynasty rationalized the distinction between human desires, and seemed to think that emotions were in the aspect of human desires and were undesirable.So he advocated the theory of punishing anger and suffocating desire, which made people lifeless.Wang Chuanshan's opposition to this opinion is the most penetrating in the section on the loss of Zhouyi Waizhuan.He said: Sex dominates yang so that it can be used to be strong, brave and majestic, arrogant and princely rather than angry.Feelings are yin and sentimental, there is no shortage of joy, thoughts are tossed rather than desires.But make the best use of punishment, destroy its strength, even suffocate it, and finally lose its sense.One considers himself a horse, and the other considers himself an ox, and he loses his talent and falls into the trap.One is cold rock, and the other is dead wood. When emotions die out, life ceases.Those Buddhas and elders all entrust damage to repair, but they don't know the so-called damage.Wang Chuanshan's so-called great courage and arrogance, rather than anger, are just the vent of a sense of justice.His so-called endless joy, thoughts and turns instead of desires are the expression of beautiful emotions.And what he calls Buddhists and Laos refers to Song Confucianism mixed with Buddhists and Laos' thoughts.If everyone becomes cold rock and dead wood, there is no emotion at all.What's more, if the relationship is not well cultivated and guided, it will eventually collapse.Chinese people are prone to excitement (excitement) when encountering trivial matters, which is the result of not properly venting their emotions.Russell, a philosopher who loves China very much, said many good things for us; but when talking about the character of the Chinese, he said that we are an excitable nation, and that this is a dangerous phenomenon, easy to enter the big trouble.This is an admonition worthy of our reflection.There is another reason why the enthusiasm of the Chinese people is not developed, that is, the so-called over-seeing.Ironically, it could also be said to be too smart.What's the point of seeing everything too clearly?Even being a human being can be said to be meaningless, so what courage do you have to do things?This is a hedonistic attitude; it is really harmful and needs to be corrected. Royce said: Any loyal person, no matter what he advocates, is always single-minded, active in action, abandons private will, restrains himself, loves his opinions, and believes in his opinions.Our nation needs such loyal people! In this chaotic world, we can't always hesitate, hesitate for a long time, always hold a skeptical mentality and an attitude of pleasure; this will definitely make life empty, from denying life to destroying life.Although we have encountered bad people, we must not lose faith in human beings; although we have witnessed violence, we must not lose faith in justice; although we know that there is evil, we must not lose faith in good; although we see ugliness, we must not lose confidence in beauty. ;Although there are false cognitions, one cannot lose confidence in the truth.We must believe that human beings are going upward, can progress, our ideals can be achieved, and our efforts will not be in vain, because the universe is the essence of life and is real.Pure faith, lofty ideals, and full enthusiasm are the infinite power for us to transform the world and build a solid and brilliant life! (End of the book)