Chapter 7: The person with wings on his legs

The person with wings on his legs

62 chapters

The person with wings on his legs

Liu Guozong

The Bible says: "Those who run fast do not necessarily win; those who fight bravely do not necessarily triumph; the wise do not necessarily obtain food; the clever do not necessarily gain wealth. What befalls people is the opportunity they care about at that moment."

So how do we seize opportunity? Here is a little story from ancient Greece that may enlighten you:

The story says: one day, a young man on the street saw a strange old man—his appearance was very odd, he wore a long braid on his forehead, while the back of his head was bald, not a single hair in sight. His two legs were even stranger, each bearing a pair of wings; when he walked, he was as swift as an arrow, like a flying bird.

The young man, who had never seen such a strange person before, stepped forward and asked for his name.

The strange-looking old man replied to the youth: "My name is Guangyin, and my alias is Jihui."

"Why is your appearance so strange?"

The strange-looking old man answered the youth: "The braid on my forehead is called Jihui; when you meet me, you can seize me right away and use me; after I've passed, if you want to use me, you can no longer catch me; because the back of my head is empty, with not a single hair."

The youth again asked, puzzled: "Then why do your two legs have wings growing on them?"

The strange-looking old man replied: "I am naturally swift; with wings I am even swifter—this is 'Guangyin like an arrow, sun and moon like flying, opportunity hard to come by.' Therefore you must cherish time well, seize opportunity, and make good use of it; otherwise you will accomplish nothing and have nothing."

62 chapters

How could Shun attain the throne?

Liu Guozong

The Classic of Documents says: When Emperor Yao was selecting a successor and gathering opinions, everyone chose Shun from among the common people. When Yao asked about Shun's virtue and talent, those who had recommended Shun said: Shun's family situation was terrible—his father was blind, with a very odd temperament and improper motives; his mother liked to speak of ghosts and tell lies; his younger brother was extremely arrogant, constantly causing trouble and creating chaos. Yet even in such a household, Shun got along harmoniously with his whole family, enabling them to turn from evil to good.

Because Shun possessed the virtue and ability to govern a household well, Yao yielded the throne to him.

Thus, whether in ancient or modern times, if one wishes to love one's country, love all people, or govern the world, one must first love one's own household and first govern one's own household. "There is no one who cannot teach his own family yet can teach others." If you cannot educate your own family, how can you educate others? If you do not love your own family, how can you love all people? If you cannot govern your own household, how can you govern the state?

63 chapters

There was a wise old man who personally said to me…….

Liu Guozong

I tread forward tremblingly in the mortal world; I step on thorns along the rugged path, and my footsteps are my painful groans. Apart from vanity and day‑dreaming, sorrow and worry, I have nothing else. Why is the road of life so hard to walk?

A wise old man told me: "Poor child, the more you seek in life, the more suffering you will have. If you constantly demand that others give you things, you will only invite endless troubles and pain for yourself."

So how can we rid ourselves of anxiety and pain? "The most important thing is to cultivate oneself, strive to overcome, correct the mind, stay away from greed, and let the heart be pure like the bright moon."

"Wise old man, I don't understand your words—how does one cultivate oneself? What does it mean to correct the mind?"

"Child, cultivating oneself means correcting the mind. When the body feels anger, it cannot be correct; when it feels fear, it cannot be correct; when it feels pleasure, it cannot be correct; when it feels worry, it cannot be correct. The mind absent, one sees without seeing, hears without hearing, eats without knowing the flavor. This is cultivating oneself—correcting the mind."

"Oh dear, wise old man, are you being senile, or am I just too naive? Why can't I understand your words? Why are they so convoluted and hard to grasp? Can't you explain things clearly?"

"Child, it's not that you're naive; perhaps I'm being senile. I'm telling you the ancients' original words. The ancients said plainly: the emphasis of self‑cultivation is to improve one's moral character; to improve one's moral character, one must certainly rectify one's heart and mind."

"What principle is this?"

"If your heart harbors anger, it cannot be upright—just as you just said, with pain and anxiety in your heart, how could your heart be upright?"

"The temptations of this world are far too many; when these temptations cannot be satisfied, how can my heart be free of pain and anxiety?"

"Child, it's not that the world's temptations are too many, but that your greed is too great. When your greed is great, your pain and anxiety increase as well. The sea of the world can be filled, but human greed can never be filled. Someone says: for a lifetime, one with strong greed must expend great effort to meet needs, while one with mild greed has few desires and few worries, and in life's journey has little pain or anxiety." "However, in a world of myriad desires rampant, who can achieve this? Faced with a colorful world, who can 'be absent‑minded, see nothing, hear nothing, taste nothing'?"

"Therefore we say 'cultivating oneself means correcting the mind.' This is the question of 'root' and 'branch.'"

"Wise old man, hearing you say this, I seem to understand a lot more. But you still cannot relieve my heart's anxiety and pain. Then how can we eliminate these anxieties and pains?"

"If you want to dispel the pain and anxiety in your heart, you must clear away the miscellaneous thoughts in your mind."

"How then can we clear away the miscellaneous thoughts in the heart?"

"Do not regret the past, do not crave the future, do not invite trouble for yourself, and firmly grasp the present. Can you do that?"

"Do not regret the past, do not crave the future, do not invite trouble for yourself, and firmly grasp the present." "Who among us living in the real world can do that?"

"So those pains and anxieties will forever follow you."

64 chapters

My ancestors are human; yours are……

Liu Guozong

The Creator, when making heaven and earth, created humans and beasts separately. Humans are humans, beasts are beasts; humans and beasts are different kinds of species, two types. Later, a man named Darwin appeared in the world, who, to express a new idea, biasedly claimed that humans evolved from some beast—this is utterly absurd.

Humans are humans, beasts are beasts. How could a beast turn into **? Corn is corn, rice is rice; how could corn evolve into rice?

If we follow Darwin's theory of evolution, the different skin‑colored people in this world would be monkeys of different colors that evolved—white people would be white monkeys, yellow people would be monkeys, black people would be black monkeys? This is not science; it's sheer nonsense.

Who would have thought that Darwin's nonsense would become the so‑called scientific basis for the claim that humans evolved from apes, thereby misleading countless people under heaven? Some even wrote the idea that humans evolved from apes into textbooks. Why do they do this? They themselves don't know; it's because celebrities say it, and authorities say it. Whatever celebrities say is correct; whatever authorities say must be followed. How could a celebrity be wrong? How could an authority's word not be obeyed? If you have talent and ability, you also want to become a celebrity or an authority—haven't you heard that even a celebrity's fart is fragrant? Since ancient times, this has been the case; it's an unchangeable rule.

Alas, alas! This is human nature: to curse someone one has never met, and even to insult the ancestors of that unseen person, and then to say, 'Cursing is good, cursing is right: "My ancestors are apes transformed; I am not a descendant of humans, but of apes, of beasts."'

Some people, to prove that their ancestors are descended from beasts, gather much evidence to argue that it must be so, that it is certainly so, that their ancestors are beast‑descended. He says this to his children, who think it is what their parents said, and thus they believe it confusedly. If it were said that humans are descended from apes, and if their ancestors truly had spirit in heaven, they would surely scold this utterly unfilial descendant, who, in order to curry favor with celebrities or authorities, dares to curse his own ancestors eight generations back.

I was really being sentimental—how others curse their ancestors, saying their own ancestors turned from monkeys or from beasts, that is their ancestors, while my ancestors are truly human. Even if I were more base, I could not, for the sake of currying favor with celebrities or authorities, curse my own ancestors eight generations back by saying, 'They are beasts.'