慈心
My favorite blogger recommended a book 观呼吸 and he said the most important line (he underlined it among the first of all readers in Wexin Read) was to give 慈心 to everyone.
I like the ideas of that book because I believe the ideas in the book gave that author strength/confidence. Unfortunately I am not reading the books as carefully as he would like.. so theoretically speaking I should not even write anything. That's a disclaimer.
On the other hand, if someone can swallow an AI-translated book in a short time, that does not sound much different when a regular reader skim a book, either. And that regular reader, would not hesitate to write anything comes to his mind, because that is what he owns, he is speaking himself. It does not matter if the reader reads at all, even if one sentence is received. That's another disclaimer. It would be for all the books I read.
In another word, the writer would not care about anything others say, he is giving what he has, that is his own moral instinct to give out ideas. Especially when writing on one's own blog space.
I was not able to sleep well last night. Waking up at 2:47am and I was on my belly, pressing my chest against the bed, heart beating fast, and I dreamed of black colors, the black silky dress, some obscure place, and some familiar people. That might be what I worry most at the time, since I have nothing else to worry about. My son is doing well, my wife is recovering, and September is a new semester for everyone. Usually this happens when one is very excited and tired at the same time on the previous day, which was true - I was excited because of the recognition in work, the team's love to each other, and I spent 1h riding my inline wheels home - it was not that tiresome considering it was only 7mi in 1.5h - the best I had so far and the safest. The sudden waking up at night does not occur often, it had been a long while since I had the last period. It might be related to BP, but more likely to how excited and tired occur at the same time - maybe how much more I ate for dinner, too. When you are excited and tired, it is natural to stuff your mouth with whatever you can find.
I was awake and thought about that line. It is a difficult line! You cannot understand the meaning unless you read the book. By reading that one sentence alone, each word is giving vague meanings so it can be interpreted one way or another. What is 慈心, who is everyone, and how do you give? After you give, do you have to confirm it is received? What do you respond when others received it? I skimmed the book today (found that the author was writing in English, named "Mindfulness in Plain English", and there is a 3-book collection edition. But of course I can only skim a Chinese PDF version.. It would be two or three months' effort to go through a 600+ pages book.) And recommended to LZ and discussed a little bit. Does it matter if the "everyone" means nearby people (that we can perceive physically, and that they can receive physically?) One big issue is if some evil mind is going to use atomic weapon, should anyone give 慈心 to such a person? It is so remote, and I don't doubt the evil mind is OK with deploying it because killing happened before and to the evil mind it removed hurdles, thus more feel like a convenience to kill; then mass extinction would not be an issue at all. For such an evil person and such a remote idea that probably for your lifetime you would not get in touch with such a evil mind, you would never have any impact to either parties. What would you even need to care about?
I believe the book is one that both practical and theoretical. Using the methodology in "How to read a book", if the book wants you to do something, it is a practical one. Of course the book would you like to do something. On the other hand, the thing to do is purely theoretical. It is a book of moral just the same as Plato's work, where there is a moral standard, sets by the author. I suppose the 慈心 is but one approach to reach that moral standard. And it is important to realize the author would like everyone to hold the same moral standard. What is not explicitly said is whether the moral standard is absolute rules or can it be used to find relative right or wrong. By pointing your enemy (or the evil mind) to the right way of living, that's how to "give", yet if the other party cannot receive it, then the "give" is reduced to "wishful thinking".
And it takes time. The "wishful thinking" helped the author to clear misunderstanding and make friends. That's all well, except that if the author had reached out more, to clear the misunderstanding, the friendship might come earlier.
In the English translation, "Mindfulness in Plain English"，“禅修” corresponds to "Meditation", “正念” corresponds to "Mindfulness", “慈心” corresponds to "Loving friendliness".