But we are against scientism. Once science breaks through its own scope of meaning and assumes the interpretation of the meaning of life, the result must be human alienation and materialization. Today, scientism and the logic of capital have joined forces to play the ideological role in contemporary society. Together, they hold the power of interpretation of the purpose of life, and impose progressive compulsion on the whole society and every member of it. You have to make progress every day, the whole society, the whole nation, must move forward without pause, never stop pursuing efficiency. In order to control the natural and social worlds effectively and continuously on a larger scale. In fact, it is the real connotation of the contemporary so-called "progress". This principle of progress is endowed by capital to our times. "Capital" is such a thing that it must proliferate, and when it stops proliferating, it ceases to be capital but merely "consumption funds".

Constantly proliferate, and must maintain a certain rate of proliferation, this is the life activity of capital. The life activities of capital multiplication require the whole society to be highly effectively organized according to the needs of capital operation, and the effective goal of such social organization is directly regarded as the measure of social progress. One of the great results is that our cultural life has been involved in such a progressive compulsion. Today, we encounter consumer culture. We have leisure on the weekends or during the golden weeks. Marx had great hopes for "leisure time". One of the great civilizing effects of capitalist production, he argued, was to greatly increase labor productivity and thus shorten the working day. The shortening of the working day is of great significance because the acquisition of leisure time opens up space for everyone to develop themselves freely and comprehensively. However, the reality is that our leisure time has not become a space for the free development of personality. This "space" is still the object of capital. That is the cultural industry. In our leisure time, we are dominated by the capital of the cultural industry. Capital also produces our cultural needs and ways of cultural consumption.

For example, we travel to a certain place under a certain program. With a tour company, you arrive at a destination, stop briefly, take a few photos, and then move on to the next destination. In such a tour, we complete all the required actions, satisfied to go home. Today there are all kinds of new and fashionable cultural products for us to consume, we watch Formula One, enter the "carnival", and so on. Basketball or football games have also become a form of cultural consumption. All these things fill our leisure time. In the process of cultural industry's overall appropriation of contemporary leisure time, the despiritualization of human life feeling is further intensified, and our hearts are experiencing a process of desertification. Why is this the desertification of the mind? Is that a little alarmist? Aren't modern people, armed with modern scientific rationality, intelligent, skilled, and able to deal with all kinds of troubles? That's true. However, this is only the development of the brain function, not the richness and strength of the heart. The mind can deal with trouble, not pain. The pain is in the heart, not in the head. We have to distinguish between trouble and pain, between head and heart. Every pain involves fate. Love, for example, is a pain, not a general worry. If someone is lovelorn, but not painful, it is not lovelorn at all, because he was never really in love. If we walk carelessly and stumble over a stone, and then get up and walk on, this is not called "pain", but "trouble". This is not the case with broken hearts. You feel so sore in the breakup that you want to talk to someone, a close friend. A friend will try to console you and make you let it go. What did he suggest? It's hard. I don't know how to say it. Finally, he said this: You know, there are plenty of fish in the sea. After hearing this, your mind thinks it's perfectly true because it's logical. He appeals to your reason, and reason is perfectly capable of justifying it. So, you just decided to let it go. But this decision is made in your head, and as soon as you make this decision, a pang of sadness comes back to you. Just as Li Qingzhao said, "there is no way to eliminate this feeling. So, that friend's advice is really of no use to you. I give this example to show that science appeals to our heads, but it can never take care of our hearts. Science trains our minds, but leaves our hearts behind. However, the heart cannot be thrown away, when we encounter something related to fate, it is really present. The problems of the mind cannot be solved by mathematical formulas. The same is true of individuals and a nation, which inevitably leads us to the discussion of national cultural life. To discuss the cultural life of a nation is to discuss the cultural spirit of a nation and the foundation of its peace of mind.

When everything you've tried to put off and avoid is in front of you, when the dream you've been chasing is in your hand, when everything you've worked so hard for is a rose, open your eyes, though they're used to looking around; Let go of your mind, though it is always thinking; Open your heart, though it is stuck in the past. Gently, gently, open yourself up and look tenderly at the first thing you see. Poetry is always a sudden teacher, and this poem of mine is guided by an inner voice. This poem came out to show me that we need to let go of judgments and conclusions in order to experience the world directly again. Brain wisdom is always "clever" in teaching us to weave our past experiences together into a coat we call a conclusion. And so day after day, year after year, we end up weaving a set of what we call "principles," a wardrobe full of "history." In the end, however, all these insights, conclusions, principles, and histories become a heavy burden on our journey through life. Sooner or later, our assumptions and conclusions will form a solid screen between us and our immediate life experience. It is true that we need to gather wisdom -- it is one of the gifts of intelligence. But not all conclusions are worthy of a permanent collection. Often no matter how hard we try, our eyes are busy searching around for things we've already seen, until one day we lose sight of what's right in front of us. Our brains are busy planning, estimating, analyzing and judging, sorting things into good and bad categories, concluding that this is a blessing or a curse, a danger or an advantage. All of this prevents us from opening our minds to the world we live in. Our hearts are busy remembering how touched and cared for we once were, trying to do it again; Our hearts continue to dwell on how we were hurt, betrayed or shocked, and try to avoid that misfortune again. But getting stuck in so-called good memories or avoiding past hurts can prevent us from engaging in the present life experience. We all do. I'm no exception. Therefore, it is necessary to begin the practice of opening ourselves up and letting go of our baggage so that we can fully deal with everything we see at first sight. For if we can empty the veil before our eyes, remove the cloud of doubt from our minds, and lift the heavy weight from our hearts, the beauty and sanctity of living will be present in every moment of our lives.

In the next two sections, I'm going to explore the nature of nothingness and how we can unlock the depth of nothingness. If birds could not spread their wings to the nothingness we call the sky, they would never fly. If we do not surrender to our courage and allow ourselves to feel the sweet pain of being alive, our wings will not open. Moment of introspection ● In your journal, describe a personal nothingness you experienced (a feeling of absence) and how that nothingness led you to experience the nothingness of the omnipresent universe (real existence).

Sometimes such channels form naturally as we experience life; Sometimes, our relatives or strangers help us to do it; But most of the time, it's up to us to dig, but often this is the only time we can really open up for our lives to reach our inner inner path, and this path, is the only way that life can blossom and bear fruit in our inner heart. No matter how hard we try, practice is never started to reach the end goal, but to immerse ourselves in life, to become life itself. If we achieve excellence as a result, it is only a by-product of total immersion in life, and the reward for practicing is the realization of a thorough existence. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a cruel man who was cunning and ruthless. As king of Corinth, in order to amass more money and make everyone afraid of him, he killed passers-by and took their money. He even betrayed Zeus, who sent him to the place of Thanatos, the god of death, and chained him to the dungeon of Hell. But Sisyphus is still fighting death Xanatos battle of wits and courage, in the end, the anti-Thanatos trapped in the dungeon. With death trapped, no one would die in the world, the old and the weak would have to endure endless suffering, and the sacrificial victims could not be killed. Seeing this, Zeus and the others did their best to subdue Sisyphus and make him wish he were dead. As a result, Sisyphus had to restore natural order in order to put an end to his suffering. As punishment, Sisyphus had to push a boulder up the hill every day, and every time the boulder was about to reach the top, it would roll down the hill, and Sisyphus would have to start all over again, day after day. This myth has since become a symbol of how meaningless a process it is to live without emotion and dignity. The story of Sisyphus tells us that greed and cruelty for a long time will lead to the breaking of the rules of nature, and that reckless cunning will make life itself pale and boring and worse than death. If we achieve excellence as a result, it is only a by-product of total immersion in life, and the reward of practice is the realization of a thorough existence. The existentialist philosopher Albert Camus wrote his most important work, "The Myth of Sisyphus," in 1942, when Europe was in the shadow of the Nazis. Camus uses the fate of Sisyphus to allude to the absurd and meaningless life at that time, but he can still find meaning in the struggle of life. The last sentence of his book states: "The struggle itself... Enough to fill our hearts. We have to imagine Sisyphus to be full and happy." If we were to recreate the myth as Camus did, we might imagine a very different fate for Sisyphus. We can imagine him as any kind of person, such as a man who is fully committed to self-actualization. Imagine a king Sisyphus enthusiastically welcoming arrivals, offering shelter to passers-by and encouraging them to pursue their dreams. We can also imagine that he was so respected that Tanatos, the God of death, came to ask, "How can I break through the iron chains of my life and achieve immortality?" We can also imagine him as a loving old man, diving into hell like a diver into the water, and accompanying Tanatos like a Bodhisattva in the stifling darkness until death himself can come to life again. We can also imagine that Zeus and the other gods were so moved by his act of love that they granted him eternal life. But Sisyphus bowed humbly and said, "I can't imagine the purpose of living so long if I can't give to others!" This sentence is straight to the immortal hearts of the gods, let once jealous of them melt. In return, the gods gave Sisyphus the simple task of pushing the orb of Light to the top of the mountain. Every time the orb advanced to the top, it would spread the seeds of compassion and generosity to the whole world. To ensure the operation continues, the orb of Light will return to the bottom of the mountain, so that the immortal Sisyphus will continue to spread light across the world with every step of his efforts. No matter which version of the story of Sisyphus you believe, you're just opening a human storybook. We don't have to deal with or deny the cruel and cunning Sisyphus' suffering fate in order to complete the story, because we ourselves live every day at the crossroads of choosing to be a "cruel king" or a "kind servant" and have to make hard choices every day. All our lives here on Earth, we carry heavy burdens and follow the light. When the pursuit of bright goals becomes a heavy burden, we feel like we are wrapped up in the weight of life. But for a moment when we turn the heavy into the light that guides us, life presents us with a picture of infinite surprise. How do you do this transformation? And what can make us go from a stone pusher to a follower of light? When we are in one state -- or in despair or in high spirits -- how can we remember the existence of another state? The pressures of life force us to bear the task at hand with the "love" of the bright future. But the deep practice of life is to learn how to "love" the task at hand while moving toward the light. This shift in mindset will change everything. When we love the task at hand, we no longer just climb the mountain alone, but begin to plant the seeds. When we were slaves pushing boulders, everything became meaningless in the endless, tedious repetition of going up and down, from the end to the beginning again. At this point, the passage of time becomes a dull and boring exercise: picking up the load, crossing off a few tasks on the to-do list, and writing new ones. But when we treat the present with love, we go with the light all the way, like a diligent farmer, sowing the hope of light and love in every field that he passes. In this way, the only way to turn the heavy into the light is if you love the task of the moment, but it is very difficult to stick to it. So, how can we not simply "endure" hardships, but achieve the "heavy to light" of the reverse, so as to completely transform ourselves? This twist also means moving from the secular to the spiritual, from pain to peace. This is a skill that no one can master, but we have to keep working on it. There is no end to practice, which means that we should continue to turn the heavy into the light, although no one can tell us how. The deep practice of life is to learn how to "love" the present task and move forward towards the light. This mindset will change everything. Now that we all face a choice -- cruelty or kindness, finesse or sincerity, wealth or generosity -- here are six practices to try. If you can internalize these practices into your own experience, it will help you create miracles. If you are also able to listen deeply, these practices will help you continue your transformation from stone pusher to light messenger.

This slight tear will make people feel sore but not hurt. After rest and nutrition supplement, the muscle will start to repair and become stronger after repair. It's pushing us out of our comfort zone and into our stretch zone. The same is true for other sports, for example, many people want to lose weight by running, but some people are very hard and rush up, thinking that the pain is evidence of hard work, but it is not, the method given by professional coaches looks more like a lazy practice. For example, the instructor will advise you to jog first, then change to brisk walking when you are slightly out of breath, and then change to jogging when the breath is even, and so on for half an hour. As far as weight loss is concerned, the first 20 minutes of aerobic exercise is dominated by the body's sugar consumption, and the percentage of fat consumption increases significantly after 30 minutes. So we just have to stick to the edge of our comfort zone each time, go back to the edge of our comfort zone, stay there, adjust and then go back to the edge of our comfort zone... And so on. For the next 10 to 15 minutes, try to run as fast as you can or at least a little more intensely than you did in the first 30 minutes to burn more fat because your body is used to the intensity and can move further away from the edge of your comfort zone. And reading. Many people like to ask a talented person for a book list, thinking that the books that people can recommend must be good. They rush home from the list, and when they read the books, they find that they are not as good as they are cracked up to be. Some of the books are obscure, difficult and unreadable. After a few days, their interest dies. This is because everyone's knowledge background is different.

The same book may be just in the stretching zone for people to read, but we read it in the difficult zone. So, at this time, might as well put the book to read those who are interested in, and just can read the book, so that the interest, difficulty, needs at the same time to match the edge of the comfort zone, such books will certainly let you read with relish. Let's talk about learning. When students with poor grades want to catch up, the first thing they think of is to try hard to compete, so they also do those difficult problems like their classmates with good grades. As a result, others learn very easily, but they learn very painful, and the gap is widening. Because of the same content, students with good grades may be in the stretching zone, but they may be in the difficult zone. At this point, the correct approach should be calm first, take the initiative to reduce the difficulty of learning.

The key word "matching" is probably overlooked by the public, but a little research shows that once we have mastered the matching principle, we can master a methodology that applies to everything. That's not an exaggeration, because the matching principle applies to a wide range of things. While I was writing this section, reader "Amy Cao" happened to share some of her experiences with me. I immediately smiled because her experience is the key word "match", so let's start with her story. The first thing she said was running. "Before, I asked myself to run for an hour every day. By sheer willpower, I kept going for quite a long time, but finally I stopped. I recently adjusted my running time to 30 minutes, preferably no less than four times a week. After adjustment, I found that I could do it without relying too much on my willpower, and I would take the initiative to stick to it. Besides, I would be very relaxed after running, unlike before, which would be very tired and uncomfortable if I ran continuously for 1 hour. I can really feel the difference between doing it voluntarily and doing it will-power." The second thing about learning English, she said: "I used to study for 1 hour every day I would be upset, but now I study for 30 minutes every day, when the time is up, I will not study. In this way, I can keep learning every day and not get bored." In the end, she concluded, "It's more important to find a way to do it that you can do it consistently, rather than just doing it in a standardized time and manner. I used to think that it takes more time to learn well and achieve results. In fact, it is because I am eager to achieve results and want to achieve quick results. It is not easy to insist. Now that I have lowered the level of difficulty and standards, my motivation will continue to increase. It may take longer to reach my goals, but I believe that persistence will eventually compound."

How do you feel after reading the story of Amy Cao? In my opinion, the most valuable thing about her is that she can take the initiative to reduce the intensity and difficulty of learning and make herself in the best range of endurance, which not only retains the sense of achievement in learning, but also ensures the challenge of learning. But for most of us, this is counter-intuitive, because when we want to get something done, we often tell ourselves we have to work hard, work hard, set high standards for ourselves, and often give ourselves a "kick in the backside" by telling ourselves that persistence is victory. This is our default mode of thinking, just because it's default doesn't mean it's scientific. So what is the scientific model? The best learning zone is in the stretch zone, the edge of our comfort zone, where we have both achieved and challenged and made the most progress. In fact, it is difficult to match the meaning: neither too hard, nor too easy, easy to moderate the zone is the heart of learning. "Amy Cho" was in the rough zone from the start. Because she wanted to see change quickly, she made a study and training plan far beyond her level, only to give up halfway because the experience was too painful. This is very much like our common motivation model. Many inexperienced young people are like this. They always want to achieve too many, too big goals at the same time, and hope to achieve them in a short time, so they unconsciously push themselves into the difficult zone. They start off in a rush, work hard for a few days, and then quickly run out of steam -- that's why things fall by the wayside. Of course, the matching principle doesn't just apply to learning. It applies to almost every field I can observe. For example, in exercise, every time we push the force, it is actually the process of muscle tearing. This slight tear will make people feel sore but not hurt. After rest and nutrition supplement, the muscle will start to repair and become stronger after repair. It's pushing us out of our comfort zone and into our stretch zone. The same is true for other sports, for example, many people want to lose weight by running, but some people are very hard and rush up, thinking that the pain is evidence of hard work, but it is not, the method given by professional coaches looks more like a lazy practice. For example, the instructor will advise you to jog first, then change to brisk walking when you are slightly out of breath, and then change to jogging when the breath is even, and so on for half an hour. As far as weight loss is concerned, the first 20 minutes of aerobic exercise is dominated by the body's sugar consumption, and the percentage of fat consumption increases significantly after 30 minutes. So we just have to stick to the edge of our comfort zone each time, go back to the edge of our comfort zone, stay there, adjust and then go back to the edge of our comfort zone... And so on. For the next 10 to 15 minutes, try to run as fast as you can or at least a little more intensely than you did in the first 30 minutes to burn more fat because your body is used to the intensity and can move further away from the edge of your comfort zone.

The competition in large enterprises is too fierce, and it is difficult to control the risk of doing business... There's always a way out. I found a way out. It's better to lecture at home than to hustle and bustle! My daily work is to teach foreign students from all over the world at home computer, teaching them Chinese and improving their English level at the same time. The working time is flexible and the working place is free. I work four or five hours a day, and the monthly income is 15,000 ~ 20,000 yuan. This is my current job -- online Chinese teacher. I'm Wendy, who has been an online Chinese teacher for six and a half years. I still remember one morning more than six years ago. I opened my computer to check my email as usual. To my surprise, I finally received a notice from italki (one of the world's largest and earliest online language teaching websites). At the time, I had no idea that I would get the job because I was not an education major and my English was quite limited at the time. With my love for language and my exploration and learning in the teaching process, I have continued to do this little-known job until today. My students are all over the world. I don't have to leave my home, but I can learn and be friends with them here. While spreading the beauty and broadness of Chinese, my English level is also increasing day by day. In May 2021, I added a slash to my career list -- Little Red Book blogger. I began to share my work and life on this platform, so that people like me could have a free lifestyle choice. At first, I had no experience at all. I found a lot of free language exchange partners on the Internet to practice oral English and accumulate teaching experience. I remember my first student was an American whose Chinese was as bad as my English. I was nervous, my mind was blank, and I didn't know how to start.

Who knows, he greeted me in Chinese at the beginning, giving me an illusion that "his Chinese is not bad", and I responded happily. But after a few words, he gave me a blank stare and said awkwardly, "Sorry, I don't understand what you've said." For the next few minutes, we were in a "I don't understand what you're saying, you don't understand what I'm saying" tension, scrambling to class. After class, I broke out in a sweat. At that time, my younger sister Rachel, who had been teaching Chinese online for three years, said that she rarely spoke English in class and that many of the teachers who taught Chinese online did not speak English as well as I expected. I'm curious, how do you communicate with foreign students? "It doesn't matter if your English grammar is perfect, it doesn't matter if your English pronunciation is standard, what matters is that you can use the tools and prepare well for your class in advance, which is extremely important." 'she said. "The other thing is mentality. Most of the students who want to learn Chinese online do not approach learning with the attitude of "I will pay the class fee and leave all my success or failure to the teacher". Many of them have the experience of learning a foreign language by themselves, and they know that learning a language is based on their own accumulation, and finding a Chinese teacher to practice oral English is just a small part of it. Let's just say you're a language partner, so don't be so nervous and relax." It was as if Rachel's words had opened up a connection between my responsibilities, and the tension and panic had subsided. With a more clear self-positioning, we can correct the attitude and make a positive response. Therefore, I sorted out my emotions and began to prepare for the teaching of my next student. I collected student information, understood the student's learning purpose and the way he likes to attend classes, and made full course preparation. When everything was ready, my Chinese class with my American student went well. He likes my class very much and is willing to keep learning from me. Although I did not explain the English clearly and had some problems with pronunciation, my student fully understood and told me that my English was good and he was willing to practice oral English with me.

I still need to go forward step by step in the future, and I hope I can keep Up all the time -- keep an upward and infinite attitude, step by step bravely towards the future I want. I have always felt very lucky that my passion happened to be my career. Only by truly loving from the bottom of your heart can you improve and innovate in every way. I also hope that I can keep this love and continue to shine for the cause I love. I hope that retired athletes in China can get more attention and support from more people. As mentioned above, although some universities in China have a single-admission policy for high-level athletes, the enrollment quota of each university is very few, and the number of retired athletes is very large. That is to say, a large number of athletes cannot go to college. Some people say that an athlete can become a sports star, but it needs a very high profile and excellent performance. Most of the world is only known by the Olympic champions such as world champions, there are a large number of people unknown, they are also athletes, they have been engaged in this project for more than 10 years, but not as long as the effort, can be rewarded, after all, not everyone can become a world champion. Due to long-term professional training, athletes have few opportunities to contact the society and relatively weak cultural foundation. If they fail to achieve success, when they enter the social employment, they will seem a little confused. So in the end of this article, I hope you can pay attention to the retired athletes in the society, although they are not necessarily Olympic champions, not necessarily world champions, but they did fight hard for the development of our sports

Since ancient times, we have lived in a world of judgment. Every war and conflict stems from the inability of human beings to accept each other's characteristics, including their unique differences, shortcomings and strengths. Whether it is the conflict between faiths, beliefs, nations or races, or the outbreak of disease, strife, infertility, all the problems facing humanity stem from our sense of separation, our inability to connect with our true self (higher consciousness). We defy nature and think of ourselves as separate from the Earth and its inhabitants.

All our misconceptions and judgments come from this illusion of separation. Ayurveda [illustration] (" Science of life ") -- the oldest and most complete system of healing ever devised by man -- offers a succinct explanation of suffering and confusion in almost every field of life. According to the ancient records of Ayurveda dating back 6,000 years, everything that has ever happened to us as human beings has been caused by a single cause, "false knowledge" (which Ayurveda called Pragya Bharat). In other words, we think of the world as something separate from us, which is a fundamental cognitive error. The irony is that although this error stems from our misunderstanding of the nature of life, we are unable to eliminate it by creating the correct knowledge on the mental level. Otherwise, we can easily correct this mistake by reading a few classic books and save ourselves from the agony of ignorance and the danger of self-destruction. However, realization does not occur at the level of the mind or the mind, but begins at the level of the smallest sense. Of course, perhaps we can overcome this mental fallacy only if we first experience what it feels like to judge and be judged. Arguments come in many forms and degrees, but whatever they are, they all come from our separate consciousness. For example, if you're tempted to wear a red shirt instead of a blue shirt today, you think red is more appropriate and attractive than blue at the moment. You think the red shirt is the "right" choice and the blue shirt is the "wrong" choice. These two choices create a separation, which occurs at the sensory level. Now, if you think rationally, you might even get into a conflict of ideas. For example, if a red shirt doesn't match your pants, you might even get angry because it doesn't match your pants. When you see someone at a party dressed as incongruously as you, your old anger comes back and you start talking about how that person doesn't know how to dress. However, if everyone in the world messed up, maybe we wouldn't think it was "wrong".

The truth in your eyes is that there is no way out of the meaning of life that you create, because you give it all. Make a conscious choice about the life you want, and you will have it. Instead of trying to find meaning for your life or something, take the initiative to give it meaning. You do it all the time, you just don't realize it. So if you want something to have a new, different impact on you, take the initiative to give it the new meaning you want. Instead of believing that cancer is here to take your life (which was the old belief), believing that cancer is here to help you will make you appreciate life more and force you to set new goals and give yourself the love and care you deserve (which is the new definition). Where the old beliefs were narrow and destructive, the new definitions were liberating and fulfilling. What kind of faith you put your energy into will determine the course of your illness. There is no point in judging people or things. We can't see everything as either good or bad, right or wrong. Being a doctor is good for some people and bad for others. The same experience can be terrifying for some and liberating for others. During World War II, many frontline soldiers were wounded by shrapnel or bullets, but they were not upset because it meant they could leave the battlefield and be sent home. But if someone is injured on their own doorstep, then they must be very painful, because it means they may have to leave their home and go to hospital. Pain and suffering are interpretations and therefore subjective. When we are in different states of consciousness, we have different information and insights. Our higher consciousness takes no information from the outside world, while our separate consciousness [illustration] relies on our senses and brain to gather information and ideas. Our higher consciousness always sees itself reflected in everything and always seeks the unity of opposites, while our separate consciousness sees itself as an individual distinct from everything else, dividing everything into isolated individuals in time and space.

However, these two kinds of consciousness are not right or wrong or good or bad. They both have their own value, the latter allowing us to be aware of the binary opposition consciousness, the former helping us to control the binary consciousness. You are learning to take control. This mastery does not mean mastery of the outside world, but mastery of the creative consciousness that you truly desire [illustration]. No matter what you do, you are always creating your own reality. This book aims to help you become aware of this power that you have and that you are exercising. Once you become aware of your creativity, you can harness it. Even as the words of this book enter your mind, every aspect of your being is already changing, and this is changing to allow you to exercise this creativity at any time. As this process unfolds, you will understand the following: 1. The only meaning a thing has is the one you give it. 2. Your experience is up to you, and no external person, thing, or object can define it for you. 3. You are who you say you are, and you have the right to change your life anytime, anywhere. The impulse to judge is your unconscious attempt to add meaning to things, so we are called "dualistic consciousness" practitioners. The ultimate goal of life is to be free from judgment and to be a practitioner of oneness. And the process of achieving that freedom is to peel away all the layers of meaning (our beliefs) that we have always added to everything. When the external meaning of all things is gone, when we see all things as one, we have passed the barrier of ignorance and gained power. So, let's start the process of peeling the skin off.

We're looking for a group of horses. Mark asked his Amish friends in Pennsylvania for advice, and they told us what we needed was a certain kind of horse, a quiet, easy-going kind of horse, good with all kinds of farm machinery, who had seen a lot of farm work but could still do it for years. All things being equal, the gelding is better than the mare. The trouble with finding such a group of horses is twofold. The first is scarcity. The market for service horses is small and unique, not as rich as that for light horses. The situations in which the horse is used are for the purpose of showing off, such as the harness horses you see in parades or country fairs, or the giant horses you see in the short haul races. Horse breeders breed only what they can sell, so most of the working horses on the market fit both types. The former had long legs, swaggered, shone, and was full of energy; The latter are muscular and explosive in energy, but most are physically impaired and not always well treated, a combination that makes them unpredictable and potentially dangerous.

Calm, experienced and fit working horses are scarce and almost never for sale. An Amish or actual horse farmer who wants to "use a horse" for work will breed his own horses, not buy them from the market, and if he breeds a good horse, he will keep it with him for as long as he can. If a horse like this was for sale, there was something wrong, either a temper or a health problem. After dozens of phone calls, one promising lead was a horse dealer across the lake. We took the ferry to Vermont and drove to the Coopers' farm. They ran a large dairy farm, but were also often involved in the horse trade, and had a reputation for honesty, a trait rare among horse dealers. It was snowing when we stopped at the Coopers' farm, a low bungalow on the dirt road in the shadow of a rectangular red barn next to it. Jim Cooper came out to meet us, plainly dressed, with a flat cap and an interesting Mennonite beard. He led us into the barn, which was full of the biggest horses I'd ever seen, their burly hips protruding from the corrals into the aisles, black, brown, variety-colored, each one taller than me. Tied to the beam was a small horse, a stout Pershi with a shiny black coat like new boots. He wore a halter, tied to a bridle, with the rope fastened to the bit, and the belt wrapped around his body. The horse was holding the bit in his mouth, chewing it up and down, his ears stretched back, untaut but not completely relaxed. Jim's early twenty-something son unbuckled the crossbar and led the pony past us to the small pasture outside where a few horses were lounging. Jim explained that this was his way of treating his young horses, putting a bit on them and letting them get used to it on their own in the comfort of their fellow horses.

And when you're driving the horse, all communication -- all conversation with the horse -- is just through a few inches of leash in the palm of your hand, which is your connection to the horse's mouth. The two horses looked only at the road ahead and ignored everything else. Each horse weighs a ton, and you're tied to them from behind, and your fates are bound together. I used to think of service horses as the kind of horses I loved to ride -- hot, wild, throbbing, drag-racer horses, but that day I realized how wrong I had been. Sam and Silver came to the farm two weeks later. All week Mark and I had been busy hammering out a narrow stall for them in the west barn, the biting cold hitting our elbows with every swing of the hammer. We laid a thick layer of straw in the stable, filled the new manger with hay, and we were ready. They stepped out of the trailer, like Kings. I was very moved by the existence of this creature. They work for us, willingly and wholeheartedly, which is quite a wonderful thing.

They are Belgian geldings with chestnut fur and a flaxen-colored mane and tail. Their past was murky, but they must have been fourteen years old. They had been used for farming, marching and hauling. They had been bought at auction, and Jim Cooper had paired them up. Silver was the handsome of the two horses. Most stallions castrate at a young age, avoiding unplanned breeding and making the stallion easier to handle. Silver was a stallion until he was ten years old, Gary told us, and still has the typical stallion neck, thick, arched and muscular. He looked custom-made for hauling heavy objects, with a broad chest, bulging ribs, and a short back. His expression, if not clever, was always powerful and confident. Sam, on the other hand, was thin and smart. His movements were sharp, like those of a conscript soldier, upright but nervous. Sam's ears stick back when you talk to him. There's something about him that takes care of you the best he can, even if you do something stupid, and some horses are like that. They were six or seven feet tall, and I had to stand on a bucket and brush their backs.

The weather became very cold, the snow creaked, the ferry on the lake was still open, and thick steam rose from above every morning. In our cold house, the frost line in the basement is getting lower every day. We put thermal tape around the hose to keep the fire burning in the fireplace, but it was only warm in a surprisingly small area in front of it. The thermometer outside the house had been hovering below zero for a week. On the farm, the hens' combs are blackened by frost, and the so-called "frost-free" fire hydrants are frozen hard. We pilled water from the pump house, being careful not to get our hands wet. I learned the weight of water, a little more than eight pounds per gallon, forty pounds for a bucket, and eighty pounds for water to be full and balanced. Even though I was wearing thick gloves, the handle of the bucket dug deep into my palm, and my shoulders thickened and grew new muscles. The farm was sealed off because of the cold. It's been a few years since I've had a real winter, and no matter what I'm wearing, I can't feel warm.

My feet were numb with cold and my hands ached. Between milking and chores, we went back to our house in the town, took off our frozen clothes at the door, and hastily lit a fire in the fireplace. The bed was nowhere near as warm as the fireplace, and in the morning I would jump out from under the covers and run to the fireplace, clothes in my hands, shuddering at every step as I touched the cold floor. Mark read "East of Eden" to me at night before we fell asleep, under three blankets and thick hats and woolen socks. There's a lot of work to do indoors. We need to tap into local farmer networks, because while their independence is widely admired, farmers still need to connect and exchange labor, machinery, expertise, products and information. With the exception of his tools and tractors, Mark also left behind all the friendly networks he had built with neighboring farmers in Pennsylvania. This network is crucial when you need welding parts at harvest time, or when you run out of hay in late winter and need to buy it at a good price to get you through the winter. Like everything else, we're going back to the drawing board. Mark spent a lot of time on the phone, connecting with people and arranging meetings.

Conventional user growth is all along the first curve, trying to keep the business growing and ALTV improving. But this growth cannot go on forever and sooner or later it will stall and eventually decline. Therefore, enterprises need to find the second curve of business, can achieve sustained growth after the original business decline. With the second curve, the growth center has to continue to do what it's good at, and continue to grow along the second curve. But how do you grow without a second curve? In order to do user growth without the second curve, it is necessary to build a qualified growth platform, must not sit and wait for the arrival of the second curve, but to actively explore the second curve. In fact, this is not only true for growth managers. As Christensen argues in The Innovator Gene, innovation should be the responsibility of everyone in an enterprise, and there should be many well-organized innovation teams. Although the CEO, strategic planning team, strategic investment team or specific business team of an enterprise may participate in the exploration of the second curve, but the growth platform is particularly suitable for the exploration of the second curve. Because the exploration of the second curve is not without thresholds, it requires the exploration team to have strong discovery skills. User growth teams tend to have higher discovery skills than other teams.

Discovery skills can be divided into five specific skills: connecting, asking, observing, communicating, and experimenting. To connect is to connect things that seem to be separate. As mentioned earlier, LTV enhancement across lines of business naturally requires the user growth team to connect individual businesses and find some innovative combinations. A lot of great ideas come particularly easily at the intersection of technology and art, and as I mentioned earlier, user growth is itself a mix of technology and art. Asking questions is the process of seeking answers. An important part of the user growth team is to analyze large amounts of data and find the reasons behind the data appearance, business scenarios, user psychology, etc. In my team, I generally advocate that BI staff should adopt the 5 why working method invented by Taichi Ohno of Toyota when facing data [illustration]. On more than one occasion I have heard the head of the BI team tell me how much the 5 why approach has helped him. Christensen in The Innovator Gene also mentions using the 5 why method to ask questions. To observe is to pay attention to the world around you, to see how things work, to find things that you can optimize or patterns that you can learn from. In the process of user growth, we should carefully observe the interaction process between users and products, immerse the user experience, and find the links that can be optimized. The user's perception is always right, and the reason they perceive things we didn't expect is because we didn't do a good job. Having an immersive view of the user experience can help the user growth team gain inspiration for growth. Networking is about being exposed to ideas from different disciplines and fields. As I'll discuss later in the section on "User Growth Team Member Capability Model,"

the ideal user growth talent is interdisciplinary and requires experience or knowledge in multiple areas. At the same time, to do a good job of user growth, the user growth team should also communicate with the relevant teams in different industries or other companies. Experimentation is to validate an idea by creating a product prototype or testing environment. This is consistent with the nature of doing user growth, which is to trade the redundancy of testing (experimentation) for the certainty of growth. The whole user growth team works on a lot of testing. We should use the humanistic way of thinking to discover the test points, and use the rigorous analysis of science and technology to verify the test results. To sum up, an important mission of the growth platform is to explore the second curve. Because of the nature of their work and the ability of their people, growth platforms are best suited for this type of disruptive innovation exploration.

If there are several different business lines on a platform, under the KPI guidance, each business line will only pay attention to the LTV contributed by users on its own business, and will not pay attention to the contribution of users on other business lines. In some cases, lines of business may even want users to stay within their business instead of using other businesses on the platform, for fear that their budget or time will be "diverted" by other businesses on the platform. This seemingly naive idea of produce is also have certain reason: each business line has its own separate KPI, and a lot of successful business leaders are strong goal oriented, so at the time of focus on goals, they will not deformation, eyes also like with filters, for some of the more important things will turn a blind eye. From the perspective of growing the middle platform, it is important to increase the LTV contribution of users to the entire platform. This requires the growth center to think deeply and analyze the logical relationship between each business line, and sometimes it is necessary to link each business line to carry out some comprehensive projects. Here's an imaginative example of a business scenario that doesn't necessarily exist in real life. For example, we found that users often go to Sichuan restaurants and Hunan restaurants to eat spicy dishes during work hours, but they only order light food when they order takeout at home.

Does this mean that he may have younger children at home who can't eat spicy food, so the takeout has to be lighter food? If the user's family income is relatively high from the perspective of catering consumption level and home address, does this indicate that he still has the demand for high-quality children's products and extracurricular training and education at home? If our platform happens to offer similar services, and this user hasn't experienced them yet, how do we get him to experience these services? This requires us to initiate some cross-line testing projects to verify this, which may involve both cross-referencing of data and cross-promotion of business experience. It doesn't matter if the scenario described in the imaginative example above exists, what matters is that the growth platform as a support platform has a global perspective, is complementary to the line of business, is always looking for opportunities to improve the LTV of platform users, and forms joint projects across lines to test.

In 1828, a young woman must be firm in mind to resist all the temptations of coldness, criticism and even great prizes. Unless she has the courage to kill and set fire to others, she can say to herself: Oh, but they can't even buy literature. Literature is open to everyone. I won't let you drive me out of this lawn, even if you are a supervisor. If you love to lock the library, just lock it, but don't try to shut my free mind into the door, insert the latch and lock it. However, no matter how much the impact of frustration and criticism on their creation - and I believe that this impact is very great - it is not worth mentioning when compared with another difficulty they (I think, it is still those novelists at the beginning of the nineteenth century) faced when they put their thoughts on the pen. Another difficulty is that when they pick up the pen, there is no tradition to follow behind them. Even if there is, it is useless because it is too short and incomplete. Because if we are women, we can only think about the past through our mothers. No matter how much fun we get from the great male writers, it is useless to ask them for help. Lamb, Brown, Thackeray, Newman, Stern, Dickens, De Quincy - whoever he is - have not yet helped women, although she may have learned a few tricks from them and put them to use in her books. The lightness, heaviness, slowness and urgency in a man's heart are quite different from those in her heart, so she can hardly learn anything from them. It is a long way from drawing a tiger according to a dog.

The first thing she discovered when writing was that there was probably no ready-made words for her to use. All the great novelists, such as Thackeray, Dickens and Balzac, wrote naturally, fluently without carelessness, expressive without affectation, distinctive and shared by the public. Their novels use sentences that are popular today. The popular sentence at the beginning of the 19th century sounded like this: "The greatness of their works lies in that their arguments never give up halfway, but are bound to go on to the end. There is nothing more exciting and satisfying for them than to practice art and constantly create truth and beauty. Success urges people to make progress, while habits help people to succeed." This is a man's sentence. Behind it, we saw Johnson, Gibbon and others. This kind of sentence is not suitable for women. Charlotte Bronte, despite her excellent prose talent, with such a clumsy weapon in her hand, would stumble and fall. George Eliot committed atrocities with it, always with words. Jane Austen could not help laughing when she saw such sentences, so she designed sentences that were smooth, natural, beautiful and symmetrical to meet her needs. Therefore, although Charlotte Bronte is not as talented as Charlotte Bronte, she has said more from afar. Indeed, since free and full expression is the essence of this art, when it comes to women's writing, the lack of tradition, the absence of tools, and the inadequacy of tools clearly illustrate many problems.

But these are difficult questions to answer, still obscure in the distant twilight. I must put them aside so as not to miss the topic. Under their temptation, I walked into a wild forest, lost my way, and probably fell into the mouth of wild animals. This is what I do not want, and I also believe that you do not want to hear me talk about such a sad topic, that is, the future of the novel. So I just stay here for a while. Please note that as far as women are concerned, material conditions are crucial to the future of the novel. Books should be more or less suitable to the body, that is to say, compared with men, women's books should be shorter and more compact, and there is no need to concentrate on their work for a long time and worry about other people's interference. Because interruptions are unavoidable. Moreover, it seems that men and women have different structures of nerves used to nourish their minds. If they want to exert their full efforts and play an outstanding role, they must adjust to the circumstances. For example, it is said that such a long lecture, which lasts for several hours, was developed by monks hundreds of years ago. Is it suitable for them? For them, how should they relax and relax when working and resting? However, don't treat rest as idleness, Rest is also doing things, just changing something different. So what's the difference? This is exactly the question that needs to be discussed and answered. This is exactly what women and novels mean. However, when I walked to the bookshelf again, I thought, where can I go to find an in-depth analysis of women's psychology, and what's more, it should be written by women?

For modern novels, any investigation, even if it is a casual glance without a thorough study, will inevitably assume that this art has made some progress in modern times. It can be said that the novels of Fieldingare excellent only with simple tools and original materials, while Jane Austen is even better, but how can their opportunities compare with ours! It is natural that their masterpieces are surprisingly simple in style. Literature, for example, is comparable to the process of automobile manufacturing. Although it can not stand scrutiny, at first glance, it looks inferior. It is doubtful that, over the centuries, although we have had a great understanding of manufacturing machines, whether we have learned a little bit about creating literature. We did not write better works; It can only be said that we continued to move a little in this direction and that direction, but if we stood at the top of the mountain high enough to observe the whole track, we would find that it was basically a circle. In fact, we have never stood on such a favorable height, even for a moment. We just stood on the flat ground, submerged in the crowded crowd, let the flying dust get lost in our eyes, and looked back on those soldiers who were far happier than us with envy.

They have returned triumphantly, and their booty silently speaks of their glory. How can we not sigh that their battle is far from as fierce as ours. It is up to the literary historian to decide whether we are opening or ending, or standing in the middle of a great era of prose novels, because we are in the mountains and plains with limited horizons. We only know that there are some good intentions and some enmities that inspire us; Know that some roads seem to lead to rich land, while others lead to dust and desert. And it may be worth a try to make a discussion about it. Then, we don't have to point our finger at classical writers. If we fight against Mr. Wells, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Galsworthy, to some extent, it is just because they are still alive, and their works still show their shortcomings, so we can't help but take the liberty to say something.

The Lantern Festival in my hometown is not very lively. There are no lions, dragon lanterns, no stilts, no dry boats, no "big head monk playing with Liu Cui", no flower burdens or tea burdens. These are only available during the "Welcome" - Sai Chenghuang, on July 15th, but not during the Lantern Festival. In many places, "Lantern Festival" is celebrated, but our Lantern Festival is quiet. For a few years, there were unicorns. In the morning, three men from the countryside, one holding a unicorn, a long bench, and a unicorn tied with paper outside, one hit a small gong, the other hit a cymbal, and sang some auspicious songs in unison. The beginning of each paragraph is "grid fried fried": grid fried fried, grid fried fried, Kirin sent to your house... I am very impressed with this "grid fried fried". What does it mean? Is this an adjective? What's the sound like? The one who sent the unicorn has no performance, no action, and the tune is very simple. The one who sent the unicorn is not exciting at all, only a series of "grid bang bang" can be heard. After the "grid fry", the grandmother gave them a little money. There was no one in the street where the dice "catch the old sheep" gambling stalls were played. The six dice lay quietly at the bottom of the big bowl. The man who set up the gambling booth sat on the small bench and hugged his knees in a daze. The New Year is almost over, and the money that you are going to lose for the New Year is almost lost. There is still something to do tomorrow, and everyone is not interested in gambling. There is a sugar blower at the entrance of Caoxiang. Sun Monkey dances with a big knife and a mouse steals oil. There are noodle kneaders in Beishikou. Green snake, white snake, old fisherman. The old fisherman's mink clothing is made of Prunella vulgaris bought from the pharmacy.

The day is almost over. However, the Lantern Festival will not be counted until the evening when the lights are on. It's Lantern Festival. We don't usually call it Lantern Festival there, it's called the Lantern Festival. The festival of lights will be a few days away, 13 lights on, 17 lights off. The "right day" is fifteen. The lights in all the houses were turned on. There are four square glass lamps in the house of the aunt (aunt). In the second mother's house are Bai Mingjiao colored glass lamps with red birthday characters painted on, and a bead lamp. My stepmother's house ordered red glazed bubbles. A room of lights, bright and gentle, looks very auspicious. Go to the street to see the lanterns. Lian Wanshun's house has a big revolving lantern. "Country people don't know the revolving lantern - here it is again." The revolving lantern is just the shadow of the chariots, horses, and people (soldiers) turning back and forth, but it can also be seen turning a few times. Later, I made one myself, lit a candle, and watched as the paper wheel inside was spinning, and the shadows were also reflected on the paper screen outside, and I was very happy. Qianlonghe's revolving lantern did not "walk", it was just a rectangular cardboard box. There were some colorful little figures on the white paper on the front. The little people were attached to a strand of hair. will move up and down. Although it doesn't "walk", we still call it a revolving lantern. Otherwise, what is the lamp called? The villains outside are Tang Seng, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Monk Sha. The whole picture shows the Tang monk taking scriptures from "Journey to the West".