Wisdom & Independent Thought · Cognition & Learning

The key difference between a person and a personage is their energy.

Ordinary people consume energy; great achievers borrow energy.

Ordinary people’s energy cannot flow back; great achievers borrow the vitality of heaven and earth.

The secret behind borrowing energy is “being grounded”;

The secret behind being grounded is “transcending the mundane.”

What is “mundane”? The “stench of money”;

What is the stench of money? “Temperament, affection, fame, and gain.”

To be grounded, strive to transcend and free yourself on eight levels:

1. Free yourself from personality:

Ordinary people are trapped by personality. Great achievers have no fixed personality and are not swayed by it; they transcend and use personality, manifesting whatever personality the present requires.

2. Free yourself from personal loyalty:

Ordinary people are trapped by personal loyalty. Great achievers transcend petty affections and loyalties, seeing the whole and all beings, growing a “compassionate heart”: if I do not shoulder this, who will? They plead for all beings.

3. Free yourself from clinging:

Ordinary people are bound by past experience; great achievers pare back past experience and explore the unknown. Ordinary people look to the past to walk through today; great achievers look to the future and live now.

4. Free yourself from confinement:

Ordinary people are imprisoned by past education. Great achievers are not trapped by traditional ideas or moral culture; they transcend past knowledge and establish independent thought. Knowledge divides into surface and lifeline. Ordinary people learn the surface; great achievers enter and use the lifeline directly. Resolve one “point,” and all problems and confusion are readily resolved and vanish.

5. Free yourself from trivialities:

Anything unrelated to the present lifeline is trivial. Ordinary people’s thinking switches jobs over trivialities, their experience exploited; great achievers cut away trivialities and get things done. Ordinary people manage details; great achievers manage and focus on the core.

6. Free yourself from money:

Ordinary people are trapped by money and become its slaves. Great achievers use money as a tool to realize dreams. All resources serve me, and their use serves only all beings. Sacredness arises in the heart; transcend “goals,” realize “purpose,” and enter the root.

The secret behind liberation is “spending money.” Spend a million, be free of a million; spend ten million, be free of ten million; spend a hundred million, be free of a hundred million. In other words, if spending a million leaves you apprehensive, you have never spent a million before.

7. Free yourself from children:

Should parents leave children five million, or spend five million cultivating them into leaders?

Should parents give children skills in mathematics, language, physics… or the ability to lead people?

Do parents want children’s academic credentials, or their independence?

If children are capable, what use is leaving money? If children are incapable, what use is leaving money then?

The greatest wealth parents leave children is an “example.” Children inherit their parents’ spirit and use their own wisdom to create the brilliance of their era.

Ordinary people help children improve grades; great achievers help children build a strong self and gain fundamental wisdom.

8. Free yourself from life and death:

If you do not fear even death, where can fear come from?

You are almost dead—what damn use is money?

You are almost dead—how many regrets remain?

Freedom from death naturally frees you from fear; freedom from life and death naturally frees you from money; freedom from life and death naturally lets you shoulder responsibility.

Lesser beauty is beauty of appearance;

Middle beauty is beauty of bearing;

Great beauty is beauty that transcends the mundane.

Those who transcend the mundane stay grounded; those who stay grounded are neither born nor extinguished, borrowing the energy of heaven and earth

What is wisdom?

Intelligence is ability; insight is the root.

Simply put, it means having the ability to reach the root and put it to use! With energy to master difficulties, this very moment is bliss! With wisdom to solve difficulties, this very moment is heaven!

Lacking energy and wisdom and mastered by difficulties, this very moment is hell!

What is a wise person?

Intelligence is ability; insight is the root.

Simply put, it means having the ability to reach the root and put it to use! With energy to master difficulties, this very moment is bliss! With wisdom to solve difficulties, this very moment is heaven!

Lacking energy and wisdom and mastered by difficulties, this very moment is hell!

The things you believe and assume

Admitting limitations sounds humble. But if limitations remain merely those words, they hardly help the next judgment. The more important questions are: which material am I missing, which part have I not encountered, and which unconfirmed things have I treated as premises?

Experience helps us understand a category of problems quickly, but may also make us skip unfamiliar parts. Seeing clearly from one position does not mean having equal information from another. Height reveals structure; closeness to concrete situations may reveal exceptions and resistance within it.

Stating a gap clearly is often more useful than continuing to prove how much we know. It tells others what to add and tells us which advice must remain provisional. A judgment with explicit limits can still contribute to discussion; an unlimited judgment easily makes others think full confirmation has occurred.

I want to treat not knowing as a workable state. It neither requires abandoning experience nor permits experience to testify for blanks. First identify missing facts, then ask how to obtain them, and only then decide whether judgment should change. This order grounds confidence in something explainable.

Independent thought does not mean rejecting others; it means listening and then forming your own judgment.

Wisdom must reach the root, solve problems, and become actionable choices.