What is “internal growth”?

What is “internal growth”?
…………………………………………Leechard
(Quest No.8242e 　　　　2011 0920 Tuesday)

Actually these are two very unfamiliar ideas here. One is “ internal”, and the other is “growth”.*

What is “internal”?

I have explained “internal” and “external” in my book: “Zhuang Zi Original and Zhuang Zi Theory”, but this is an idea so important that I expect it will be the most popular subject in the near future, that more discussions are always needed.

And I shall refrain from defining “internal”, as it is not in the definable field. What is “internal”? We need to use the mind to communicate with this term.

And I would use the term “communicate” instead of “cognition”. When human beings are born into the world, we communicate with every thing around us. When we tried to understand something, we are communicating with them, not only “searching”, “reading”, “measuring” or using any kind of “cognitive skill” to approach. We communicate.

Communicate is very different from cognition.

Cognition is mainly external. And Communication is external plus internal plus multi-dimensional.

How do we come to know someone?

We use our mind to communicate with the one. We use internal method more than external method. The external method, like espionage or investigation, is useful but limited. The more you investigate, the less you communicate. And you will be excluded from knowing. You and your object, no matter that is a rock, a book, an issue or your spouse, do not know each other via external investigation. You are excluded from each other.

To communicate is to communicate internally more than externally.

What is “internal” then?

“ Internal” is something coming together with “communication”. There must be two or more parties if you really wanted to find out what “internal” is. And the same applied to “external”. You will see, if there is no other party present, then the so called “external’ is meaningless.

And the wonderful point is here: the parties are connected. The parties are actually not parties.
They are one. So, they can communicate with each other. And this is the principle of Zhuang Zi. We are all one, then we could find out the internal interests of every thing.

Bearing this in mind, you can communicate with any one on earth. A girl you like, a boy you appreciate, a scholar you admire, or even a rock, is no strange to you.

How do I communicate with a rock?

At least, I can give you two examples in communicating with a rock.

One is Bian Huo(卞和) He had communicated with a rock , and found the most beautiful jade inside, and used his life to add the jade and its spirit into the Chinese culture. And I can not make a long story short here.

The other is the unknown writer of the book: “The dream of the red chamber” (The story of a stone).
The writer had communicated with the rock, and to the complete universe behind the rock.


And more important issues are coming

How do we communicate with the earth? Then we would know when is the next earthquake? How do we communicate with the economy? Then we would know when is the next depression?

It’s simply too many issues here. If we can communicate with the issues internally, we will be happier.

(*I would use “idea” instead of “concept”, as concept is coming from our left brain and is easier to define and idea is always not clear and can hardly be defined. )




Next time: What is “growth”




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