Sincerity and Humility Prevent Having Eyes but No Pearls

2008/6/13 16:11:04

First, the broader market. Actually, everything that needed to be said was said in the past few days. The only supplement: 2524 is the 3600-point level counting from the 6124 top. There should be strong mid-term support nearby. If the first leg down from 6124 equals this final leg in magnitude, then the calculated low is approximately 2430. Therefore, the strong mid-term support is around the 2500 zone. Whether it ultimately falls to this level is not important. The key is the decline rhythm mentioned yesterday. Next week's top priority is to form the second hub of this decline wave — otherwise, everything else is moot.

Trading is a precision craft. Those who swallow things whole without chewing will certainly fail. Even today, there are still people coming here self-importantly, wielding their own version of so-called "trend completion" to embarrass themselves. Please go thoroughly study the lessons first and see what this ID actually means. There are several lessons specifically addressing this issue, but unfortunately, what those lessons discuss has nothing to do with what these people understand.

People often say the Chinese lack a scientific spirit. This is actually somewhat accurate — at least after the post-Qin-Han degradation of Confucian culture gradually eroded things, for the vast majority of Chinese people, scientific spirit is exceedingly rare. A major aspect of scientific spirit is the thorough recognition that knowledge belongs universally to all humankind. Knowledge is objective and universally belongs to all of humanity — this is the most basic scientific baseline. But in China, under the tradition of secret oral transmission from master to disciple, this baseline does not exist. Who knows how many good things have been lost because of this. Yet those who created these disasters probably feel no shame about it — this is one of the greatest tragedies of the Chinese people.

In truth, the scientific spirit necessarily demands a broad mind and universal respect for knowledge. It absolutely will not, because a piece of knowledge is one's own, look down upon the alternative knowledge held by others. But a common failing of Chinese people is: even if they don't think they're the greatest in the world, they probably secretly think what they've mastered is the greatest in the world, and everyone else's stuff is no good. The moment someone else's stuff starts to show results and gain prominence, they resort to every means to suppress, create incidents, and even eliminate it. This happens all too often in reality.

For example, meeting that extraordinary person this time — the one holding secrets lost since the Qin Dynasty. He came from out of town, invited specifically for this ID by a dean at Tsinghua. The dean wasn't entirely sure of the man's level either; he just said to give it a try, that this person's knowledge was all ancestrally inherited and might be useful.

Anyone meeting this person would be disappointed. He had absolutely nothing about his appearance that inspired confidence. On the contrary, his demeanor was rather off-putting. He came in without greeting anyone, sat down on his own, and kept looking this ID up and down, then scribbling something on paper.

Probably no doctor has ever examined a patient this way. He later said he actually didn't need to come at all — just mail a half-body photo or do a video call online and it would suffice. Note: this person has no special powers whatsoever. He absolutely does not do so-called telepathy, clairvoyance, or any of that. As for why this alone suffices — that is an enormous secret that this ID cannot reveal for now.

Later we went out for lunch. My brother has considerable knowledge of Chinese medicine himself, and his pride apparently kicked in. While walking, he privately disparaged this person fiercely, calling him a fraud. This ID, on the other hand, had no such notion. Just before entering the restaurant, this ID asked the man a single question and instantly knew that this person's level was at minimum higher than my brother's — at minimum qualified to discuss Chinese medicine with this ID.

This ID's question was very simple: how do you view the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine)? The man said straight out it was a forged text — which happened to be exactly this ID's view. Then I asked him how he came to this conclusion. He said it was a view passed down through his ancestral line, because the authentic ancient medical texts were essentially all lost during the Qin Dynasty. His ancestor happened to have escaped Xianyang and survived that great catastrophe.

This ID then told him that the reason I consider the Huangdi Neijing a forgery started with analysis of its prose style — the parallel four-six sentence structure is too prevalent, clearly a Tang Dynasty literary style. He immediately cited his ancestral records about who in the Tang Dynasty had produced it, and then further tales about who did what afterward. On the question of dynasty, we reached agreement again.

Note: for identifying ancient texts, here is a simple method for everyone — start by examining the prose style. However, this requires very solid classical Chinese literacy; otherwise, forget it.

Later, chatting over the meal, we increasingly felt the mutual affinity of people who met too late in life, because no one had ever been able to communicate with him at this level — and the same was true on this ID's side. His weakness is still a slightly narrow perspective — mostly confined within the scope of Chinese medicine. So by the end of our conversation, this ID had basically identified what to learn from this person. Once that one thing is learned, his entire knowledge structure will have been digested and absorbed by this ID.

The study of knowledge is actually very simple. First, you must have sincerity and humility to avoid having eyes but no pearls. If everyone were like my brother with his great pride, then even if the true Buddha descended to earth, you would miss the opportunity. Second, you must have the corresponding ability to digest and recognize — otherwise, you cannot pick out what truly needs to be learned from the welter of information. Life is short; one cannot waste time on useless work.

The saddest thing about learning in life is this: missing truly good things due to ignorant arrogance, and wasting one's life on fake things due to ignorant greed.

Afterward, we agreed to definitely find an extremely long period of time in the future — N consecutive days of extended discussion. Then I saw the man off. That evening, back home, this ID used the diagnostic results he had pointed out, applied a small zazen method, and after a few hours a great miracle occurred. This miracle finally convinced my brother that we had indeed encountered a genuinely extraordinary person that day.

Note: his treatment recommendation did not mention using zazen methods. But once you understand the respective principles, it is all a matter of natural course. And it must be pointed out that because this ID's current zazen level is quite low, it is insufficient to completely cure this illness through zazen alone. But the channel has been opened. With enough rest, the body would slowly recover on its own.

Of course, to speed things up and avoid complications from further delay, a master of one particular school of Chinese medicine must now be found — approximately two or three treatment sessions should achieve complete cure. But masters of this school are not so easy to find. The techniques of this school total nineteen methods. Typically, practitioners know only two or three. And those who even know there are nineteen in total can probably be counted on one hand. This ID only needs to ask how many methods someone knows, and the answer is always disappointing. This ID has no interest in letting someone with fewer than ten methods experiment. So the only option is to wait patiently. All connections have been fully activated. This time the entire country is being turned upside down to see if there's anyone who knows fifteen or more methods.

Right now, this ID's illness has become secondary. Through treatment, getting to know the last remaining extraordinary practitioners of Chinese medicine, then learning their knowledge that is about to be lost — this has instead become this ID's primary concern. We shall see what karmic connections bring. Nothing can be forced.

It's the weekend. Everyone rest well. At the very end, let your heart be thoroughly cleansed.