Chapter 424 (1/2)

Most of us are very common, and to a large extent, we are a combination of good and evil. Until some special circumstances arise, the dark side will prevail, and then deviant behavior is likely to occur, and we will become the villains in the eyes of normal people.

Turning the dark side into behavior is a kind of desire, and the ability to restrain this desire is the biggest difference between the wicked and the saints.

Therefore, the understanding of criminal behavior as a boundary essentially means that the difference between criminals and ordinary people is not a kind of difference at all, but a kind of difference in the degree of evil.

Zhuangzi once said that saints never die, and there are more than robbers. In Laozi's Tao Te Ching, there are also some things: to be absolutely holy, to abandon wisdom, and to benefit the people a hundred times; The people are filial and kind; No thieves have such content.

In fact, what Laozi and Zhuangzi oppose is not the morality and behavior of benevolence and righteousness itself, but the concept of advocating and flaunting saints and benevolence and righteousness.

In this way, once the concept itself is publicized, some people find that it is profitable to rely on the use of these concepts. In order to pursue money and fame, they will whitewash themselves and put on the face of saints. In fact, they are doing the business of thieves.

Chuang Tzu thinks that the immortality of saints does not necessarily mean that all saints should die out, but that even if they have the cultivation ability of saints, they should not easily show off.

On the other hand, what is the world where the sage is dead and the robbers are dead? It is Lao Tzu's ideal world: to eat sweetly, to dress well, to live peacefully, to enjoy the customs, to meet neighbors, to hear the sound of chickens and dogs, and not to communicate with people until they are old and dead.

When the whole society takes a standard ruler to measure the members of society, there will inevitably be a lot of deviant people. Many of these seemingly abnormal people are not heinous, they are just not accepted by the social standards at that time. These deviant people, do not like to be bound by rules, eager to pursue real freedom.

If we look at the immortality of saints and the number of robbers, we can better understand that if the saints' Dharma is still rigidly applied and still constrains the possibility of human beings, then the deviant will not disappear.

In the article ”skin trunk”, Chuang Tzu makes another analogy: if people want to keep their belongings, they must put them in the box, bind them tightly with ropes, and lock them firmly. However, this can only prevent ordinary thieves. If a big thief comes, he will move the whole box away for fear that your rope will not be tied tightly.

Chuang Tzu believed that the so-called sage was just like the man who locked his belongings in a box.

The sage made a perfect political system and bound the people with rules such as etiquette and law. He hoped that the people would be able to keep their peace and not do evil, just like tying a box tightly with a rope. But if there is a thief, he can use the rules and regulations made by the saints to rule the people.

For example, the system of Qi follows the example of the sage, but after Tian Chengzi killed the monarch of Qi, he directly occupied the whole Qi. What he stole was not only Qi, but also the system of Qi. He would use these systems to protect himself.

So although Tian Chengzi was a thief, his position was as stable as Yao and shun. Small countries dare not criticize him, big countries dare not crusade against him.

So, the so-called saints are just saving money for the thieves. Because it is the unscrupulous bandits who can win over others in the end, and those who have integrity and morality will not come to a good end. Therefore, the more perfect the system made by the sage, the more beneficial it will be to those thieves.

Saints refer to those who are selfless, because this person abandons all selfish desires, but has universal love and loves all kinds of life. To put it bluntly, this ancient sage is also a mortal, but he does not love himself, only selfless love for all living beings.

Maybe some people feel familiar. Yes, they abandon selfish desires, do not seek their own benefits in everything, and live for all living beings. In fact, such people are real saints.