Beyond the Ordinary Duality

Author: Ye Meng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Please read the excerpt: To make an ordinary life extraordinary, one must actually play dual roles in life. A duality requires one to divide themselves into the material self and the spiritual self. To sustain the material life, we have no choice but to plunge into the ordinary daily routine. A living being must first solve the problem of survival. The problem of survival has almost become the most time-consuming project in a person's life. Some people hope for a higher quality of life. Thus, their overly high demands for survival quality and their ever-unfathomable desires become the sole driving force of their lives. For survival, they must endure a job they dislike. For houses, cars, and money, they even have to partially sacrifice their spiritual personality. Perhaps, they have already achieved superior living conditions, but their insatiable desires lead them to endlessly pursue a higher quality of life. Some have already achieved great prominence in both the official and business worlds. By today's standards, they are already highly successful. However, spiritual mediocrity cannot turn this sense of achievement into eternal joy. Everything for survival becomes the ultimate goal, and naturally, they fall into mediocrity and can never extricate themselves. Another group hopes for a spiritual life beyond materialism. The material life that sustains them becomes a burden. To meet the bare minimum requirements for survival, they must work to survive and must do all the trivial, meaningless things that hold no significance for their spiritual lives. On the surface, they live in a highly mediocre state of existence. In reality, beneath this superficial mediocrity, their purpose in life is to pursue a spiritual existence. All of this gives their pursuit a religious undertone. They are like a duality, separating the spiritual and material lives. They transcend mediocrity. They are the aristocrats of the spirit. Cao Xueqin, the great master in the history of Chinese literature, whose achievements no one has surpassed, wrote Dream of the Red Chamber while living in the "family eating porridge and often borrowing wine" survival conditions. In terms of his living conditions at the time, Cao Xueqin was leading a mediocre life. Yet, even in such a mediocre state, he wrote immortal works. He transcended material mediocrity and achieved a form of eternal life. However, according to the values now cherished by people, the ascetic life of Cao Xueqin is utterly unacceptable. They value the present and material enjoyment. So to speak, this brings up the issue of the orientation of life's value. Although the definition of mediocrity in life may have different interpretations. But I believe: All life for survival, no matter how glorious, is mediocre. All life for the spirit, no matter how humble, I believe, is extraordinary. I believe that transcending mediocrity in a mundane state is the pursuit of the spirit. When we cannot abandon the basic material life, we begin to pursue the spirit, and this allows us to transcend mediocrity. In the nooks and crannies of survival, we hold onto our pursuit of the spirit and freedom. We live like a duality, and in a way, we have also transcended mediocrity.