In ancient times, those who wanted to show virtue to the world first governed their country. If you want to govern your country, you must first regulate your family. If you want to regulate your family, you must first cultivate your body. If you want to cultivate your body, you must first rectify your mind. If you want to correct your heart, you must first be sincere. If you want to be sincere, you must first know it. Knowledge lies in investigating things. After observing things, one will know, and after knowing one's thoughts, one will be sincere, one's mind will be sincere, then one's heart will be upright, one's heart will be right, then one will cultivate the body, if one cultivates one's body, then the family will be in order, if the family is in order, the country will be governed, and if the country is governed, then the world will be peaceful. "In a nutshell, they are: investigating things, seeking knowledge, sincerity, righteousness, self-cultivation, ordering the family, governing the country, and bringing peace to the world. The eight items show strong logic, and they proceed from small to large, from shallow to deep, in an orderly manner. Of course, because It was produced during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and was greatly influenced by the patriarchal system, but now its positive part is the main connotation that people understand.
The sages have said that people are good and evil. There are two opinions, one is that nature is good, the other is that nature is evil. Who is right and who is wrong is just a matter of personal understanding!
People are born to be evil, so we need to constantly cultivate our moral character! Make fewer mistakes yourself. From another perspective, it is inevitable for people to make mistakes, so there is no need to be harsh.
When you are young, you need to do two things, one is to cultivate your character, and the other is to be restrained! Ruling your family and country depends on your destiny in the future!
The ancients' way of cultivating one's moral character - "quietness" and "forbearance". . For example, Zhuge Liang said that "no learning can be achieved without tranquility", and Zeng Guofan highly praised the "forbearance" skill.
There is a certain truth to this. "Cultivation of one's moral character" is actually a way to achieve self-improvement through self-cultivation, which is to turn the virtues and talents learned by the sages into one's own habits and skills. To "cultivate" and "cultivate", one must first be able to "quiet". "Patience", otherwise, if the mind is restless and angry, how can it be cultivated and cultivated?
So, the ancients said: "Having a restless mind and being shallow and narrow-minded is a big taboo for those who want to be virtuous." Instead of these eight characters, only one character is used, which is "mainly quiet". "Tolerance is the best in all things" and so on. This shows the importance of "quietness" and "tolerance".
For young people, cultivating one's moral character is not an easy task. If done properly, then Maybe he has lost his vitality, but cultivating one's moral character is a very important state in a person's life.