Simple, Economical, Firm ——The Three Character Primer for the Second Home

Xuefeng

Aug. 4, 2011

The first character is "simple", the meaning of which can summarized in master strategist Zhu Geliang's saying, "With a simple life you can retain a clear consciousness of your goal, with a calm mind you can reach a far destination". A simple life takes an indifferent attitude to fame and fortune. Ghandi regards "simplicity is the essence of the universe". The most perfect things all take simplicity as their nature.

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The greater the simplicity, the better the order; the greater the simplicity, the higher the efficiency; the greater the simplicity, the larger the happiness. The life of the Second Home is simple in the following eight aspects.

1. The home does not make any rules, regulations, and commandments, everyone does everything voluntarily according to his or her own free will.

2. Except for the meeting of home life on Friday, all other meetings will be cancelled.

3. The home does not assign tasks to people and does not require that they should accomplish such tasks, it does not enforce supervision or check, each one decides for himself what to do and how to do it and how well it is done.

4. The home only advocates civility, education and culture, and does not stipulate other requirements, leaving the individuals deciding for themselves all the other matters.

5. The home adopts holographic management. It has no system of leadership, no accountants and tellers. With the exception of people in charge of purchase, no one needs to make application for or report about allowances. The allowances will be placed in a public place and people can get the money as long as he has use for it.

6. The home does not celebrate birthday for anyone, does not observe any festivals, Chanyuan celestials do not present each other gifts and souvenirs, Chanyuan celestials do not owe each other anything, Chanyuan celestials do not form mutual-aid relations in terms of profit and interests.

7. No collective ceremonies and activities will be held unless on occasions when collective participation is needed, for example, entertainment, learning, and special production activities.

8. Everyone has a bedroom, a bed, a desk, a chair, a cabinet, three pairs of shoes, and three suites of clothes. Then they will share everything else. They have meals in the dining hall, and surf the net in the net bar.

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The second character is economical, the meaning of which is reflected in Lao Tze's saying, "One is love, the second is not too much, the third is not be the first in the world". "Not too much" or economy is one of the three treasures of life.

"To get rid of the habit of extravagance one must practice economy, the best way to get over indifference is a sincere and honest attitude." Si Maguang's code of ethics is, “The others take pride in extravagance, but I regard economy and simplicity as a virtue.”, “Economy leads to success, extravagance leads to failure".

The Second Home strictly practices economy in everything, and never engages in extravagance, luxury and wasteful behaviors. It will never buy any luxury item, it embraces the principle of practical use for everything. "One should think at each meal how difficult it has been to obtain the food, and reflect, at each time of dressing, on the hard work involved in each inch of silk". "If the tableware is clean and of good quality, even pottery will be better than gold and jade utensils, if the food is simple and delicate, even garden vegetable will be better and more delicious than dainty food."

The third character firm means solid. “Serene and profound and resourceful, and firm in will, one will never give in.” When the root is consolidated, the way will emerge. To consolidate the root, a solid foundation is needed.

The home will consolidate “firmness” from three aspects:

1. Build firm belief, solid cultivation, profound skills, and firm sense of integrity;

2. Whenever you set your mind on something, you should strive for the best. You should make a good job of anything that you have started doing.

You should not give up half way and should not let others have a negative opinion of what you did. You should not be perfunctory in your work.

1. Be practical and down-to-earth, don’t be flaunty. Don’t engage in lipservice.

Be honest and sincere and practical in every word, action, move, knitting of the brows, smile and thinking.

As long as we are simple, economical and firm, we will “have no concern and worry”, without concern and worry, we will ” have no fear“, and we will be “far away from terrible dreams”, and “eventually achieve nirvana”. ..from Heart Sutra..