Time brings a great change to the world. With technology’s daily fast development, substance brings forth the fresh at every single moment. A richly decorated crystal and jade palace today will all flutter away like a passing cloud one day. Only the eternal history and culture, passed down by hundreds of generations through the precipitation of words and characters. Over those countless springs and autumns, classics emerged with wisdom were invisibly carved into fabulous Chinese characters, long and new.
At this new noisy age, let’s walk on a new road to talk about “静-Stillness and quietness” today.
Over the long history of Character development, there was not a big change of “静”, remaining with a left part of “青-cyan” and a right half of “争-strive, compete, fight”. There was an interesting saying that the two-characters word “清净-the cleanness and clearness of water” will be “静” when the water part is removed from each of them. Calm like water, it could be a mirror reflecting all things on the planet. What a heartsease and harmony with the rest of the world it describes! But, why this “静-Stillness and quietness” is of half of “争-strive, compete, fight”?
“青-cyan” implying a meaning of the east and spring, is the color of new growing plants. An old version of “争” vividly draws an image of two hands dragging one thing toward two opposite directions, implying strive, compete and fight against each other. Profoundly, ancestors borrowed the nascent vitality of vegetation into a metaphor of how to steadily eliminate distractions, following the original intentional heart, getting the desired ending through this “静”. Putting simple characters of “青” and “争” together reflects profound philosophy: Dynamic and static are two states of things. Stillness gets birth out of the dynamic state and they transform mutually into each other.
Without dynamic reference, there can be no static existence.
As here we are talking about the dynamic and static states, it relates to one point connecting to Einstein’s theory of “Relativity”: the speed of light is the limit speed of the three-dimensional world. The Scale Reduction and Clock Slowness effects show that as long as anything reaches the speed of light, it slows down the time to a speed of 0. It can be assumed that things moving at the speed of light are relatively static for all surrounding objects that also move at the speed of light.
Stillness and quietness in the static state are relative.
- When a bus runs on the street, we feel it is too fast to catch. But if we are on the bus, we cannot feel it’s moving at a steady speed if we do not look outside.
- When a flower blooms quietly, the time of a universe of flowers is used up.
- When seeds germinate, it is in quietness without anyone’s notice.
- In our body, all cells and organs are changing and replacing at every moment, quietly and inevitably.
We live on the earth, although our Mother Earth rotates at a speed of four hundred and sixty-six meters per second at the equator, we cannot feel it, neither talk about the orbital speed of the earth around the sun of approximately 107,000 kilometers per hour.
All important processes of life happen slowly in a quiet static status. Humans come into this world, bringing their own spirit to combine with the fertilized egg, and then returning back to the universe, it is all in the same quietness. All the processes of human growth happen slowly and silently. No one can go from one year old to twenty years old quickly and soundly…
But, life develops in quietness and statics.
- In the quiet blooming, flowers flow out the gorgeous colors and the intoxicating fragrance.
- In the quiet germinating, seeds burst out the unstoppable breaking-ground rising force.
- With all the quiet metabolisms, the human body grows taller and stronger, while the human thoughts and spirits are growing wider, deeper, higher, and thicker.
The earth absorbs and emits light and heat in her rotation and revolution between the sun and moon, among the universe, so as to sustain her own living system and provide the energy and material base on which everything depends. The earth, like a loving mother, nourishes the development of human beings, and what dominates this motherly love is her active beating heart with big love, under her quiet and calm appearance.
The “争-fight, strive, contend” in “静-Stillness and quietness” is actually telling that there is a big movement and change undergoing in the quietness and calmness. It is reminding us to experience the power in the quietness and calmness, and the power of life from the things that constantly move and change us.
When we are sincere and calm with peace and love in heart, we will always discover the beauty of life.
When we can always discover the beauty of life, we can peacefully handle businesses, corporations, organizations, societies, and even global economic and political matters.
沧海桑田，科技日新月异，物质推陈出新。今日琼楼玉宇，他日不过过眼云烟。唯有永恒的历史和文化，通过文字的沉淀而流传万代。不知经历了多少个春秋岁月，经典和着智慧被毫无痕迹地雕刻在一个个精彩绝伦的汉字里，弥久还新。
在今天这个喧嚣的时代，我们来独辟蹊径地聊一聊“静”。
在漫长的文字演变过程中，“静”没有多大的变化，一直保留了一半的“青”，一半的“争”的字形结构和基本意义。也有说“清净”如水的两个字，去了水，不就是一个“静”。静如流水，好一番心静则明，水止能照万物的心平气和、与世无争。那么为什么“静”的一半得是“争”呢？
青，寓意东方和春天，是初生的自然之物草木的颜色。争的说文解字版形象地表示出上下两只手分别向两个方向拉扯一物，寓意运动，变化和斗争，代表世事多变，人心波动。古人借用草木初生的一片生机盎然里的生命力，排除干扰，秉持初心，方得始终的向上发展；用浅显的故事反映了深刻的哲理：动静代表事物的两种状态。静，源出于动，相对于动；没有动态的参照，就没有静态的存在。
说到动和静，不得不提爱因斯坦的相对论：光速是三维世界里的极限速度。The Scale Reduction and Clock Slowness effects效应指出当事物的速度达到光速时，他们的速度都降为零。由此可推论当所有的事物的速度都为光速时，他们相互之间都是静止的。
这个静止是相对的。
- 当一朵花静静地绽放时，消耗的是这朵花的世界的所有时间。
- 当种子安静的发芽时，没有人能够注意到。
- 在我们的身体里，所有的细胞和器官在每一刻都在悄无声息地变化和新旧更替着，完全不以人的意志为转移。
我们生活在地球上，虽然我们的地球母亲在以赤道466米/秒的速度自转，但我们丝毫感觉不到这个速度，更别提地球绕太阳的轨道公转的速度约为107,000公里/小时。我们这个喧嚣的世界从外太空看回来，不过如一颗挂在深蓝天际的美丽的静谧的蓝色星球。
这个世界的生命中所有重要的过程都是在安静的状态下缓慢发生的。人类来到这个世界，带着自己的灵魂与受精卵结合，一切的过程都是在悄无声息中进行。没有人能快速地从一岁一下子到了二十岁…
但是，生命在所有这些静谧中生机盎然地发展。
- 花朵在静静的绽放中流淌色彩的斑斓和馥郁幽香。
- 种子在静静的发芽中爆发破土而出迎难而上的生命嫩芽。
- 人体在新陈代谢中长高长大，也积累着认知、思维和精神的高度，广度，深度和浓度。
地球母亲也在日月之间的自转和公转中吸收和发散着光和热，维持她自身的生命系统，提供万物赖以生存的生命能源和物质基础。地球如慈母般滋养着人类的发展，支配这份母爱的是她身体深处那颗活跃的跳动的大爱的心。
静中有争，其实是在说静中有动，告诉人要学会从动心的现象与心绪中体验静心，在静心中体会和获得生命的动力。
“做人宜诚，处事宜静”。当我们心平气和，诚挚做人，静心感受身边事物以及我们所拥有的一切，就会不断地发现生活的美。当我们能不断地用心发现生活的美，我们就可以和平圆满地处理业务，团队，组织，社区乃至国际政治经济的一切事情。
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/helenqiuhong_%E9%9D%99-stillness-is-the-biggest-movement-time-activity-6844163650295623681-hPPi
1 Green Planet 