When I read this book, I found a lot of doubts about life and death when I was a child (junior high school, high school), and problems that I couldn't figure out. It's all discussed in this book, and it's really too late to meet.
Tolstoy fervently advocated the viewpoints of "no violence against evil", "moral self-improvement" and "fraternity", which are called Tolstoyism. In his view, moral self-improvement is to abandon self-interest and devote yourself to altruism. If you sacrifice others for yourself, you are an immoral person who has not found the true meaning of life.
What is the truth of life other than the illusion of life and happiness and the inevitable death?
I lived mediocrely and went around in circles. After walking a long road of life, I inadvertently came to the edge of an abyss, and I clearly saw that there was nothing ahead of life except death! I couldn't stop, I couldn't step back, I couldn't close my eyes and look at the inevitable. Apart from the illusion of a happy life, apart from real suffering and death, there is nothing ahead.
If death eventually takes away everything from life, what can transcend death and give life eternal meaning?
This is the straightforward answer that Human Truth gives in answering the question of life:
Socrates said "The life of the flesh is sin and lies, and the removal of the life of the flesh is happiness, so we should expect it"
Schopenhauer said, "Life is evil, it is nothing, and transformation into nothingness is the only happiness."
Solomon said, "Whether it is wise or stupid, poor or rich, joy or sorrow, it is all vanity. When a person dies, everything is taken away, so it is absurd."
Shakyamuni said, "Life is unavoidable pain, weakness, old age, and death. You should free yourself from life, free yourself from life and death."
Tolstoy said, "Ignorance, pleasure, destruction, or lingering, these are the four methods that human beings use to get rid of the bondage of life."
An oriental parable that reveals the truth of life:
A long time ago, there was an oriental fable. A traveler encounters a roaring beast on the prairie. Out of fear of the beast, the traveler was about to jump into a dry well, but he saw a huge dragon with a huge mouth of blood waiting to swallow him. This unfortunate fellow, if he climbs out, he will be bitten to death by wild animals; if he jumps down, he will undoubtedly be swallowed by the dragon again. He could only hold on to the bushes growing in the dry well and hang them on it. The strength in his hands was about to run out, he thought, and he should be at the mercy of the two gods of death soon, but he still persisted. At this moment, he looked around and saw two mice, one white and one black, circling on the branch he was holding, and were still gnawing on the branches. Seeing that the branch is about to be bitten off, he will also fall into the mouth of the dragon. The traveler looked at the scene in front of him and realized that he was already dying. While he was still hanging in the air, he found a few drops of honey on the leaves of the bush, and he stuck out his tongue to lick it.
I was so precariously hanging from the tree branches of life. I knew that falling into the mouth of the dragon (death) was inevitable, and it was waiting to tear me apart. But what I don't understand is, why did I fall into such a field of suffering? I tried to lick the honey that used to comfort me, but now the honey is no longer sweet to me, and the white and black mice, day and night, are still gnawing at the branches of life that I hold fast to . The dragon is clearly visible in front of my eyes, and I can no longer feel the sweetness of honey. All I saw was the inescapable dragon and mouse, and I couldn't take my eyes off them. It's not a fable, it's a real, undisputed, easy-to-understand fact for everyone.Even if someone said to me, "You won't understand the meaning of life, don't think about it, just make do with it!" I won't do it anymore, because I've been like this for too long. Now, I can no longer turn a blind eye to the days and nights that kept me leading me to death. It's the only thing I can see, only it's true, everything else is a lie.
There is a type of knowledge that does not recognize the meaning of life, but can only accurately answer the questions in its own field. This is experimental science, and its extreme is mathematics; another type of knowledge recognizes this problem, but has been unable to answer it so far. This is speculation. Science, at its extreme, is metaphysics.
No matter how reliable our intelligence is, it cannot give our life meaning. The entire human race, thousands of people, are still busy with their livelihoods without ever doubting the meaning of life.
The billions of human beings living in the world, what meaning did they give to life in the past, and what meaning will they give to life in the future? Rational cognition does not give meaning to life, but rejects it. The meaning of life is to be found in all human beings.
On the road of rational cognition, I can find nothing but the denial of the meaning of life. And in faith, I find nothing like that except that faith denies reason, and I find that denying reason is harder to do than denying life.
The contradiction between rational cognition and belief: According to rational cognition, human life is sinful, and people also know this, life and death are up to oneself. But they were and are still alive, just like myself, even though they knew the emptiness and sin of life long ago, but still survive to this day.
According to belief, in order to live the meaning of life, I should enter into belief and give up reason completely. However, it is my reason that needs to understand the meaning of life. This is a contradiction.Life is short and fleeting, what can give finite life the meaning of eternal existence? And this meaning will not be destroyed by poverty, pain, death?
Regarding the meaning of life, in addition to my mistaken belief that there is only rational cognition, I have to admit that there is another kind of irrational cognition among human beings living today, that is belief, which gives meaning to life and provides possibility of survival.
What is faith?
No matter what kind of answer any belief provides to what kind of people, any one of its answers can endow human beings with infinite meanings that cannot yet be destroyed by suffering, poverty, and death. Faith is a kind of cognition of human beings on the meaning of life. Because of this kind of belief, human beings can give themselves a way of life and survive. Faith is the driving force of life. If a man lives, he must believe in something.
Finally, I gradually realized that the answers given by faith contain the deepest wisdom of human beings, and I have no right to deny these answers based on reason. Most importantly, only these answers can answer the question of the meaning of life.
I think the work of working people to create life is the real cause. I understood that the life of labor is the truth of the eternal meaning of life , so I embraced it.
I see, my question about what life is and my answer to "sin" is exactly right. What's wrong is that this answer only applies to me, and I use it to verify all beings. I asked myself, "What is my life?" and the answer was "sinful and meaningless."
I understand that in order to obtain the true meaning of life, one should first live upright and down-to-earth, and then understand life rationally. I understand why I have been wandering around such simple truths for so long. If you want to think about human life, if you want to talk about life, think and talk about human life, not about parasite life. The truth is eternal, it's as simple as 2x2=4, but I don't admit it, if I admit 2x2=4, then I have to admit my sin, for me, being a good person is better than 2x2=4 more important and necessary. Then I fell in love with good people, hated myself, and confessed the truth.
What should one do?
- Man should make a living like an animal, the only difference is that it is not easy for man to survive alone, he should make a living for everyone, not just for himself.
Epiphany:
- Everything around me went back to the beginning, back to my childhood, my youth. I went back to the old days: I began to believe in the will that gave birth to me and demanded me to do something; I believed again that the main and only purpose of my life was to improve myself, that is, to live according to this will; In ancient times, which I did not know, human beings made some rules for themselves, and I was able to find the expression of this will in these rules, that is, I began to believe in God again (understanding that God is like life, God is life) , belief in moral self-improvement, belief in old rules that convey meaning to life.