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Mao Zedong: When you are confused, how do you explore the meaning of life?
Text | Ran Xu

Release | Ran Xu said (ID:Xuan Shuo)

Many people have left me messages saying that they feel confused and don't know what to do.

When I came across such messages before, I would earnestly advise them not to do more, not to expect to get rich overnight, to be down-to-earth, not to stare at others, to learn to introspect, not to muddle along, and to learn to set goals. ...

After a long time, the effect is very general.

Because most people know a lot, but they still can't live a good life.

Then someone asked me: Ran Xu, I like reading your Mao Zedong very much. When I am confused, can I read the story of the chairman?

I don't think you should go.

It's not that I can't stand it, but that I will feel deeply ashamed!

Compared with the young chairman, all our conditions are much better now, and the problems and difficulties we face are far from as bad as they were then.

What we call confusion, in the view of Chairman and his generation, is more just the affectation of the young bourgeoisie.

If you really know the chairman, you will understand that all people are confused because they have no sense of mission.

In recent years, the words "Do not forget your initiative mind, remember the mission" are very popular.

Today, I want to have an in-depth exchange with you on the topic of life mission.

To some extent, I have to have a face-to-face talk with you about this number.

Speaking of the word "mission", I estimate that almost everyone has thought about some philosophical questions about life more or less:

Why do people live?

What is the value and significance of my life?

What am I going to do when I come to this world?

Especially when a person has satisfied the basic food and clothing, got rid of poverty and solved the basic problems of life, it is easy to fall into a boring cycle and a vacuum of meaning if he repeats his past life monotonously.

This state is not fatal, but it is easy to make people crazy, and people fall into anxiety about the passage of time and inexplicable confusion about the future.

At this time, people will enter a state of self-exploration, and will instinctively pursue a new height of life and the meaning of life. Until he finds his mission, he will find a sense of value in life and will no longer be confused about life.

There was once a post "Things you will regret before you die" which was madly reprinted on websites at home and abroad, and instantly awakened tens of thousands of people. This paper counts 25 things that people regret most when they come to the end of their lives, among which "regret not choosing the life they want" has the highest number of votes.

The life you want to live in this life is the mission.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, read an adage when he was 17 years old: "Treat every day as if it were your last, and you will relax."

This sentence has far-reaching influence. He asks himself every morning, "If today is the last day of my life, what will I do today?"

"Your work will occupy a large part of your life. The only way to get real satisfaction is to do what you think is great, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found these things, keep looking and don't stop. Do your best, you know you will find it. Moreover, as time goes on, things will only get better and better. So, before you find it, keep looking and don't stop. "

I have always thought that the word "mission" is very sacred. It is by no means the kind of thing that shouts slogans, pursues hot spots and sends friends. It is only hot for three minutes, and it will be boring after a long time.

Finding a mission for life is equivalent to finding a long-term goal for yourself that spans life.

Harvard University once made a famous survey about "goals and life". They selected a group of students with similar intelligence, education, environment and conditions, who are about to enter the society. Among them, 27% have no goals, 60% have vague goals, 65,438+00% have clear but relatively short-term goals, and 3% have clear long-term goals.

Twenty-five years later, Harvard University conducted a follow-up survey on this group of students again, and the result is this:

This survey fully illustrates the importance of long-term goals to life.

It is worth noting that before setting long-term goals for yourself, you must ask yourself what your life mission is. Otherwise, I'm sure this long-term goal is just a "fake goal", and you won't have sustained passion and can't stick to it.

However, for most people, the question of "life mission" is really difficult to answer. Some people just flash this idea in their minds and forget it after a long time; Some people give up their pursuit when they can't find the answer for a while. So, what should we do?

Next, we will take Chairman Mao's life story as an example to find some key factors, realize his life mission and explore our own life direction.

Key factor one: the question about the philosophy of life.

Why can't most people find a sense of mission in life and have no long-term goals? This is related to the way of thinking, and there are huge differences between people in the starting point of thinking.

The vast majority of people set goals from the perspective of "interests", that is, make a choice after weighing the pros and cons; The long-term goal set by a few people is to start from "philosophy", think about the relationship between man and the world and explore the meaning behind it.

Mr. Ji Xianlin, a famous master of Chinese studies, has also discussed the meaning of life and observed all kinds of people. In his prose collection, he wrote:

"According to my personal observation, for most people in the world, life is meaningless and valuable. They never consider such philosophical questions.

When I'm lucky, I'm full of money, I have two food cities during the day, and I have a trip to Kara 0K at night, playing a little politics, playing a little cleverness, even being arrogant and groggy, and so on. I didn't understand why I lived this life until I entered the urn.

Unfortunately, I am down and out, running for food and clothing all day, frowning and sighing. Even if the days are passable and I don't worry about food and clothing, I am busy all day, trapped in the reins of fame and tied to agility. I am also groggy and confused, and I don't know why I have lived this life.

How can such a large part of people talk about the meaning and value of life? "

All the noise in the world is for profit, and all the noise in the world is for profit. It seems fun to play this game, but from the perspective of the whole life, it is ridiculous to find that pursuit is only the existence of life and death, and it keeps turning in this strange circle.

Therefore, if interest is the most important criterion, it will be lost because of short-term gains and losses, and it is difficult to set long-term goals, and it is even more difficult to find the mission of life. Next, Mr. Ji Xianlin also thought deeply and wrote in his prose collection:

"In the long river of human social development, each generation of us has its own tasks, which is by no means dispensable. If life is meaningful and valuable, it is here.

However, this truth can only be understood by a few people of insight in human society.

If life is really meaningful and valuable, then its significance and value lies in the sense of responsibility for human development. "

According to the Chronicle of Mao Zedong, in 19 17, when Mao Zedong was 24 years old, he seriously studied the Principles of Ethics recommended by Yang Changji.

This is a philosophy book, others find it boring, but Mao Zedong forgets to eat and sleep, and writes a note of more than 12000 words.

Influenced by ethical principles, Mao Zedong then wrote an article entitled "The Power of the Mind", which showed his philosophical thoughts and explored the truth and mission of life from the philosophical heights of the universe, the world, evolution, mankind, the world, China, nationality and culture.

This is a magnificent article swallowing mountains and rivers. After reading it, Teacher Yang Jichang of Hunan No.1 Normal University was amazed and gave 105 directly-adding 5 points to the perfect score of 100.

Unfortunately, this article was later lost, and the version circulating on the Internet has not been officially confirmed.

19 17 On August 23rd, Mao Zedong wrote a long letter to li jinxi, discussing the "big source" of saving the country and the people ... The so-called source is "the truth of the universe" ... The letter emphasized "taking the big source as the call" and reforming the national ideology by reforming and popularizing philosophy and ethics, which is the foundation of saving the country and the people.

In Chairman Mao's other historical materials, there have been a lot of philosophical thoughts about the world, the universe and life, and it is impossible to list them one by one due to space limitations. From this point of view, his way of thinking and decision-making is indeed fundamentally different from most people.

For a long time, the reason why I resisted some people's nonsense about Chairman Mao was because these people only evaluated his behavior from the perspective of "interests". Of course, how can a person who takes interest as the criterion say something beyond cognition?

I have quoted a lot of historical materials in the past, which shows that he once gave up the opportunity of being a high official and generous, and chose a road that ordinary people think is the most difficult and risky. This value of "interests first" seems incomprehensible.

In fact, the starting point of many things done by Chairman Mao is not profit, but people-oriented. The root behind it lies in his persistent pursuit of philosophy, value and meaning.

Of course, Chairman Mao is not a special case. In almost all biographies of celebrities, we can find their deep thinking and exploration of life philosophy. It can be said that all successful people are people with philosophical thinking.

Calculator, which calculates the maximization of short-term benefits, can only get short-term returns; Philosophers seek the truth of life, the world and even the universe, so they can achieve long-term results. Time will tell.

Especially for those of us who have no worries about food and clothing, we should pay less attention to trivial interests in life and think more about philosophical issues about life, so that you can enter a deeper dimension of life and get closer to your mission in life.

Key factor 2: listen to your inner voice.

The mission of life cannot be learned directly from books, nor can it be directly spoken by others. Can only come from your own heart.

Books and noble people are catalysts to accelerate us to find and complete our mission in life, but they are irreplaceable.

Finally, you should listen to and trust your inner voice, which will tell you the answer. This voice of "sense of mission" is sometimes weak, but it will never disappear.

Just like Chairman Mao's metaphor that "a single spark can start a prairie fire", a single spark, even if it is weak at first, will never go out, and one day it will become a prairie fire. This "single spark" did not appear in the outside world at first, but in his heart.

The so-called "sense of mission" is a feeling, a very important sense of peak, a very meaningful sense of existence, not a little sweetness in the mouth, a little warmth in the body, a little tenderness in the palm of your hand, but an experience far beyond material feelings.

I believe that almost everyone has experienced this experience beyond material feelings, but the difference is:

Most people have it occasionally, and very few people have been in this state for a long time; The vast majority will be influenced by the secular world and choose the road that conforms to universal values, while a few people will listen to their inner voices and walk out of the road that ordinary people can't understand.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, said that "to live is to change the world" and "I want to leave a mark on the universe". Bezos, the founder of Amazon, once completed the first human space tourism by rocket, and Musk, the founder of Space X, plans to immigrate 6.5438+million people to Mars by 2050. ......

These words and actions are difficult for ordinary people to understand, and even consider them deviant, but these people just listen to their inner voices.

As the saying goes, the simple road leads to great achievements. In fact, life is very simple, just listen to and follow the inner voice, which will lead us to find the mission of life.

1936, 43-year-old Mao Zedong once stood in Yuanjiagou, Qingjian County, Shaanxi Province to enjoy the snow scene, and then wrote a well-known poem-"Qinyuanchun Snow", which described the great rivers and mountains of the motherland from an extremely grand perspective and looked back on the historical figures of China for thousands of years from an extremely long-term perspective.

Among them, the words "I want to compete with the weather" and "Count the romantic figures and look at the present" are shocking just to read!

Come and experience it. What powerful feeling did he have in his heart when he wrote this poem? It seems that I am integrated with the history of heaven and earth. I can't write such a poem without that kind of experience beyond material feelings!

This seamless experience is called "flow", which is understood by those who have experienced it, but not by those who have not experienced it, because it is not learned from books, but the process of real experience.

Once people enter this "flow" state, they will think day and night, concentrate on dreams, forget all about eating and sleeping, and even forget things around them until they reach a wonderful result that even surprises them.

1938 in may, Mao Zedong shut himself in a humble cave in Yan' an, stayed indoors for nine days in a row, and wrote "on protracted war" without sleep. Mao Zedong Biography published by Renmin University of China Press also recorded this process:

"Mao Zedong sitting in front of the desk in the cave, faint candlelight on his pale face. He didn't sleep for two days and only ate a little food. ......

Five days later, Mao Zedong's wild grass was written on the desk. However, Mao Zedong lost weight and his eyes were bloodshot. ......

On the seventh day, Mao Zedong suddenly jumped up in pain. The shoes on his right foot were burned by charcoal in the brazier, and he was meditating. ......

On the eighth day, he suddenly felt a headache and fainted. After the doctor came to diagnose, he continued to write.

On the 9th day, I finally finished this 80-page paper. "

Great works come from the concentration of sleepless nights, from the inner voice, and the inner voice comes from the mission of life.

Listen to your inner voice, it will guide you to find your mission, and your life will become extraordinary from now on.

Key factor three: self-suggestion-I am qualified!

There is a term in psychology called "self-suggestion". Everyone will subtly hint at themselves and think of themselves as what kind of people. It is worth mentioning that many people unconsciously imply that they feel "disqualified" and then set limits for themselves.

Most people think that the word "mission" is very high, and only those big people deserve it, while they are just ordinary people and are not qualified to have it.

For example, the example mentioned above: Jobs said "leave a trace in the universe", Bezos wanted to travel in space, and Musk wanted to immigrate to Mars. These "bold" plans are beyond many people's imagination, not to mention their own realization.

So, is it "what comes first" or "what comes first"?

We can also learn from Chairman Mao's experience. Published by the Central Literature Publishing House and written by Mr. Zhang Jinli, the article Reading Young Mao Zedong has such a record:

"People always love to trace back to the source and look for genealogy. It seems that there must be innate factors behind great things. But if we use this kind of thinking to explore Mao Zedong, we will find that the Shi Mao family is really unremarkable and has nothing to explore.

From the genealogical point of view, this branch of Mao Zedong has been promoted for five generations, and there are neither court officials nor scholars as juren. For generations, it has been a conscientious farmer living in the field. "

Nowadays, when we mention the word "Chairman Mao", we always think that he has a mission in life to change China, which is a matter of course. But after careful study, it is found that he was not born in a noble family, Shaoshanchong was just an ordinary ravine, and he was just the son of an ordinary farmer.

According to secular values, he is "not qualified" to be a leader of the times anyway.

What matters is not what the outside world thinks of him, but what he thinks of himself. Self-suggestion is the most important thing 19 19 In July, 26-year-old Mao Zedong wrote in Xiangjiang Review:

"This world, our world. Country, our country. Socialism, our society. If we don't talk, who will? If we don't do it, who will? "

Although we can't list them one by one, in many other literary works of Chairman Mao, we can feel the momentum of Chairman Mao's "Dare to be the first in the world" and "Who else". When most people think that transforming society is "someone else's business", he subconsciously tells himself: This is my business!

There is a phenomenon of "self-testifying prophecy" in psychology, which means that people will unconsciously act according to the known prophecy and eventually make it happen. In other words, no matter what you think of yourself, you are right-

If you think you are not qualified, the final facts will prove that you are right; If you think you are qualified, the final facts will prove you right.

In the end, you will find that the only thing that binds you is the limitations in your brain, not your own positioning. When you remove these restrictions and reposition yourself, you will open your eyes and find a whole new world, where you will have the life you really want!

So, seeing this, you should understand.

The title of my article is actually "satire".

In order to give you some pain, it is better for you to refute me after reading the title.

My real point is: when you are confused, read more biographies of great men. These books will show you a magnificent world and even find your mission in life.

No one can give you the answer directly, but there is a way to the answer. As long as you stick to this road, you will find the answer.

When Chairman Mao was young, he also had a confused stage in his life. When he was confused, his teacher Yang Changji asked him to read Hu Linyi's books. He was deeply impressed by one sentence:

"What's going on in the world depends only on human resources. There is a way to do it, as long as it is done. Unswerving exploration and pursuit can only be traced back to the source and know its essence after hardships. "

Later, what was said in the course manual was true, and he found his own mission in life.

Don't think this is "empty", don't think you are not qualified, your heart will tell you the answer.

Because you deserve it!

—— END ——

Hello, I'm Ran Xu. Thank you for reading and commenting. Want to see more articles with attitude and depth in the first time, please pay attention to WeChat official account: Ran Xu Shuo (ID: xuranshuo), and grow together with 1 10,000 fans!