The Origin and Process of My Unconventional Thinking

Xuefeng

To explain the origins of my unconventional thinking and to provide insight into the scientific approach to unconventional thinking, let me briefly outline the process through which I began to think unconventionally. "The first person to recognize my unconventional thinking was my wife. She always said I was peculiar, different from others, and later she even labeled me as a monster. Because of this, we often couldn't reach a consensus on many family matters due to our different ways of thinking. But because I insisted on my own views and was unwilling to change my mindset, she had no choice. I said to her, "You may be right, but give me a chance. As long as you do as I say, our lives will undergo a significant change every five years. If there's no major change in the first five years, I'll always listen to you." Of course, practice proved that my thinking conforms to objective laws. In fact, in my opinion, normality is abnormal, and abnormality is normal. The thinking of ordinary people is confused by dazzling surface phenomena, focusing only on immediate interests and the present time and space, without understanding what emptiness is, what reality is, what existence is, and what non-existence is, so they cannot understand unconventional thinking. Some people are purely blinded by their own arrogance, selfishness, and jealousy. Their conventional thinking confines their minds. Some people are blocked from wisdom by inferiority, poverty, stubbornness, illness, and prejudice. In my view, the vast majority of people are covered by layers of nets and can never break free without external force. Some may ask, "Am I not doing fine? Where should I break free from? Aren’t you just like me, living on the earth?" Indeed, I am just like you, living on this earth. The difference is that I know why I'm alive, while you are living in confusion. When I die, I know where I'm going, while you may end up in hell.

Now, let's get back to the point. In the first issue of the "Reader's Digest" in Gansu, China, in 1987, there was a question in a reader survey: "What are your hobbies?" My answer was, "Self-anesthesia." This statement appeared in another issue under the "Report on the 'Reader's Survey Form'" section, with a comment: "A reader pessimistically wrote: 'Self-anesthesia.' He made very pertinent comments on our publication while sharply criticizing certain social phenomena. He did not sign his name. 'Self-anesthesia' is probably just self-deprecation. He is actively contemplating and feeling the responsibility on his shoulders."

Why did I choose self-anesthesia? Because I found that this world is upside down. People live upside down, and everything they see is inverted. The opportunity that triggered such thinking for me was in 1982 when I was generating electricity in the Qilian Mountains at an altitude of nearly four thousand meters. I had altitude sickness, with my heart beating 120 times per minute. I often had headaches, felt weak all over, and had to stop and catch my breath after walking a few steps. I choked while eating, and two months later, my nails started to indent. I raised my difficulties to the leadership, hoping to be transferred to the temporary workshop below the mountain. At that time, Dr. Li (who later committed suicide) from the team also helped me plead with the leadership, but the answer I got was, "This is the arrangement of the organization, and the revolutionary work needs it. Other places are already full, and you only have this position." At that time, the leader who had previously worked as a laborer and later became a political instructor stabbed me, saying, "You have no sense to appreciate favors." Helpless, I thought of running away, but to my surprise, all the drivers entering the mountain didn't let me hitchhike. It turned out that there was a rule that drivers were not allowed to take people out of the mountain without the permission of the leadership. I thought about walking out, but it was not easy. Trucks from Yumen City, where "Iron Man" Wang Jinxi had worked, would take nearly seven hours of bumpy driving to reach our work site. Along the way, except for occasional tents of Tibetan herdsmen, there were almost no signs of human habitation. Could I walk out? I realized that I must have incurred this ordeal because I had offended the brigade leader. Understanding this, I felt relieved. My first thought at the time was: to save myself. I thought, if grass can grow on the mountain, it must have the ability to withstand the cold. So, I began to look for edible grass. Fortunately, there was a wild onion on the mountain that looked like garlic and tasted like onions. I started to eat it in large quantities, firmly believing that eating this onion would relieve my altitude sickness. Whether it was a psychological effect or the effect of wild onions, I gradually adapted physiologically.

Once I found that my life was no longer in danger, I felt that the world was vast. Apart from the time for sleep each day, I remained silent and reserved, no longer seeking approval from others. I concentrated all my time on sitting on the top of the mountain, starting a few months of intense contemplation of life from the simple and practical slogan "organization arrangement, revolutionary work needs" commonly used by leaders. Although I didn't realize the true meaning of life at that time, I already knew many mysteries of life. The mystery is to look at the world and life in reverse, using reversed thinking to understand the connotations and extensions of things and phenomena. For example, "organization arrangement, revolutionary work needs" can be understood as "personal arrangement, leadership needs"; "labor is most glorious" is interpreted as "being an official is most glorious"; "model worker" is seen as "ignorant model"; "Three Goods" becomes "Three Bads"; "advanced individual" transforms into "brainless individual"; "moving closer to the organization" signifies "moving closer to the leadership"; "revolution" equates to "deprivation"; "obeying the organization's arrangement" implies "suppressing one's own personality"; "reactionary individual" may represent "thoughtful individual"; "good comrade" might signify "someone who doesn't adhere to principles"; and "mischievous person" could indicate "someone with some talent," and so on. Outwardly, I went with the flow, following nature, trying to maintain harmony with people and leaders as much as possible. Sometimes, I also showed off and competed for excellence or the "Three Goods," but inwardly, I didn't care about the people and things around me at all. But all this couldn't be discussed with people. Everyone was busy chasing colorful bubbles, and they didn't understand what I was talking about. I thought it was better to "self-anesthetize" first.

Four years before going abroad, when I was still a middle school teacher, Mr. Li Zhengrui, the director of the Lanzhou Information Office, asked me to contract his office. I wrote to him, telling him that I wanted to go abroad first. Because my thoughts at the time were out of sync with the times and the surrounding environment, and I was afraid of becoming a frog at the bottom of the well, I could only leave my homeland, go to a foreign country, and breathe different air to verify the correctness and universality of my thinking.

Today, my ability to write "Lifechanyuan" abroad is the result of unconventional thinking. Some may perceive it as mere good fortune, but in truth, it was a deliberate plan on my part. However, don't mistake it for scheming; I'm simply employing unconventional thinking and the principle of non-action (wuwei). Who can predict what will happen to themselves four or five years from now? Probably ninety percent of people can't do it.

After descending the mountain, I set aside orthodox works like Marxist-Leninist writings and Mao Zedong's selected works, and instead delved into the thoughts of Sakyamuni and Laozi to experience their thinking. Then I studied the Yi Jing (Book of Changes), Bagua (Eight Trigrams), Qimen Dunjia (the art of becoming invisible-Taoist magic), Palmistry, chiromancy, Astrology, Feng Shui, Eight Characters Divination, Solar Term Picking, Yin and Yang Five Elements, Name Mysteries, Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon), and basic traditional Chinese medicine, among others, which are considered by some to be superstitious or unorthodox. I also scrutinized Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, Freud's psychoanalytic theory, and Nietzsche's philosophy of the Übermensch.

None of the above fully answered my questions. After that, I worked as a translator, a truck driver, a salesperson, a street vendor, a shopkeeper, a nightclub manager, a restaurant owner, a fast-food operator, and a bartender in a foreign country, using real-life experiences to verify my insights and experience the ups and downs of life. Apart to my experiences abroad, I worked as a farmer, a construction worker, a cargo handler, a clerk, an accountant, a party branch secretary, a cultural propaganda team instructor in a commune, a fitter, a welder, a car mechanic, an electrician, a high school teacher, a department clerk in an office, and an office director after going into business. In my childhood, I herded sheep for several years. I picked wild vegetables and cleaned up dung. I scavenged for scrap and sold fruit in a county town. I visited villages and households to sell vinegar. Additionally, I caught pigeons and smashed bird nests. I raised squirrels and used a bamboo basket to catch fish by the Yellow River. Furthermore, I picked wild vegetables and flowers in the mountains for cooking. "I participated in various forms of gambling, including "Five Dragons," "Ten and a Half," coin flipping, dice throwing, Drawing the Nine Tiles, Mahjong, blackjack, and roulette. I also smoked, drank (to the point of causing stomach bleeding), and used opium (for pain relief). I started dating at the age of thirteen and was publicly criticized and warned by the school principal at a school-wide assembly, ridiculed, mocked by classmates, almost dropped out of school, and served as a Red Guard platoon leader during the Cultural Revolution, where I was beaten (resulting in a nosebleed), betrayed by colleagues, deceived by respected individuals, and cheated and extorted by international criminal organization. In 1960, I almost starved to death, nearly drowned while swimming in the Yellow River, almost got bitten to death by a snake on the mountains of Bindura District in Zimbabwe, and narrowly avoided rolling down a hill in Mutare District in Zimbabwe due to a car accident.

The highest-ranking person I ever came into contact with was Prime Minister Zhu Rongji. Our interaction was limited to a handshake, and he simply said, "Hello," to which I replied, "Hello," and that was it. Next was the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of Zimbabwe, who also served as the chairman of an international organization. I rented his villa for three years. During my time abroad, I worked with an American, two Botswana nationals, several Zimbabweans for over six months, and had extensive business dealings with many Indians, Pakistanis, and a few South Koreans, British, and Portuguese. I spent a considerable amount of time studying, chatting, dining, and going on outings with British and Portuguese individuals. I also established a good friendship with a Brazilian family in Mozambique. The least privileged people I encountered were the blacks living in the remote Panka area of Zimbabwe, where I stayed for over two months and gained a deep understanding of poverty, destitution, kindness, friendliness, and optimism. My education primarily consisted of three years of study at Zhangjiakou Geological Technical School after graduating from high school, where I learned mechanical drawing, engineering mechanics, metallurgy, drilling, and the repair and installation of various machine tools. I later studied Chinese literature at Lanzhou Education College, where I memorized the Book of Songs, Qu Yuan's "Li Sao," and Tang and Song poetry. I also studied English at Jiuquan Education College and International Trade at Beijing University of International Business and Economics, focusing on import and export business, foreign trade telegrams, trade negotiations, marketing, and business management. I spent six months reading through Mao Zedong's Selected Works volumes 1-5 at the Party School, and also studied popular science literature volumes 1-4.

My wide-ranging and colorful experiences, extensive learning, and social engagements did not lead me to fully grasp the essence of life. It was the opportunity of delving into the study of the Bible for a span of four years and continuous contemplation that truly brought me enlightenment. I first tackled the question of the origin of LIFE. I had earnestly explored Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," intending to use Darwin's theory of evolution to refute the theory of God creating humanity. However, the results of my investigation, comprising tens of thousands of staggering facts, led me to completely overturn Darwin's theory. I came to a profound realization that Darwin merely scratched the surface on the question of the origin of life and fundamentally failed to grasp the essence of LIFE. Richard Dawkins' theory regarding the origin of LIFE from water was pure nonsense. Fortunately, Darwin and Richard were individuals with scientific acumen and self-awareness. Darwin admitted that the initial forms of LIFE may have been created by God, while Richard advised people to regard their theories as hypotheses or scientific fantasies. Unfortunately, most people mistake conjecture for certainty, using the ambiguous theories of Darwin and Richard to deny the indisputable fact of God creating LIFE. In doing so, they close the door to wisdom, leaving generations to wander outside the treasury of true understanding.

The treasury of wisdom refers to entering a higher level of thinking, which is the state of mind described by Buddha Shakyamuni as "abiding nowhere and generating the mind." It is also the kind of thinking advocated by us Communists as "seeking truth from facts" (of course, many Communists say one thing and do another, which is another matter). It is to enter the universe's way of thinking scientifically, devoutly, selflessly, and non-actionably, entering the way of thinking of Jesus, Buddha Shakyamuni, and Laozi, entering the thinking of the Greatest Creator, and in this way, to understand the universe, life, and the things that are invisible to the naked eye, inaudible to the ear, and imperceptible to the body, but still affect the material world.

To validate that one has entered this advanced thinking state, there is a very obvious change that everyone can try. Our usual dreams are mainly in black and white, and the scenes, emotions, and people we encounter in dreams are closely related to our real life and the world. However, when we enter an advanced thinking state, our dreams are different from before. The majority of our dreams become colorful, and the people encountered in dreams are ones we have never thought of or seen before. The environments in dreams are unimaginable, some are horrifying, and some are incredibly beautiful. As our thinking delves deeper, the mysteries of the universe will unfold one by one before us, and the 36-dimensional spaces will appear clearly. We will discover that we possess many extraordinary abilities: soaring through the clouds, walking on water, passing through walls, becoming invisible, flying, and more. Here, I raise the issue of time once again. We typically think that a matter of seconds is just a snap of the fingers, but within this mere instant, we can experience intricate events in our dreams, and even enjoy a long passage of time. We transcend time that cannot be measured and space that is infinite. The original title of my book is "Trip of Transcending Time and Space," and I hope everyone can grasp the mysteries within it.

Well, that's the journey of my unconventional thinking. Whether you believe it or not, it's up to you to ponder.

Unconventional thinking is the best way to explore the mysteries of the universe and find the true meaning of life. As long as we proceed step by step, we will eventually enter a vast world. At that time, we will be amazed to discover the essence of the universe and the mysteries of life. We will be excited about the beautiful celestial realm of the afterlife and will love LIFE and humanity even more, cherishing the present life more than ever.

The purpose of unconventional thinking is to explore the mysteries of the universe, the role and value of time and space. Let's now move on to the second chapter of "Life Chanyuan," the "Universe, Time and Space Chapter," to explore its mysteries.