The great advantage of waking up early is that you can have a leisurely breakfast.
It takes about twenty minutes.
Shi Wangyue cooked coffee and prepared a breakfast that could be considered sumptuous.
There are freshly toasted vegetable egg sandwiches, blueberry waffles, boiled prawns and broccoli, and sliced fruit on the side.
In the morning, the sunlight after the snow falling on it looks so good it makes one’s fingers itch for food.
"Amazing," Ning Youguang praised while taking photos.
Shi Wangyue, having taken a quick shower after making breakfast, was wiping her dripping hair with a towel, "What do you eat for breakfast these days?"
"Sotis the cafeteria, sotis I make it myself." After taking photos, Ning Youguang put down the phone.
Shi Wangyue sighed, "Don’t you want a chef who is always available?"
"What for? I can’t eat a chef," Ning Youguang raised an eyebrow, "I just need delicious food on demand."
She lightly tapped the phone by her side, "Takeout."
"..."
Suddenly, Shi Wangyue felt that earning tons of money wasn’t as satisfying.
...
After breakfast, Shi Wangyue stepped on the accumulated snow to go to work.
With ti to spare, Ning Youguang planned to read a book and listen to a lecture.
Before long, Zhuang Yijing sent a video call, "What are you doing?"
She was doing her makeup.
"Reading and listening to lectures," Ning Youguang put the phone aside.
The two chatted while doing their own things.
"There are so many books in the world, so much knowledge, destined to be unfinished, what to do?" Zhuang Yijing asked as she applied cream on her face.
"Why worry that truth is infinite? Each inch of progress brings an inch of joy," Ning Youguang responded calmly.
"That’s quite sothing," Zhuang Yijing said, patting her face and smiling.
She felt that Ning Youguang possessed many traits she admired and appreciated, but what fascinated her most was her unending pursuit, response, learning...
She had never stopped evolving, becoming a better person.
Seeing Ning Youguang alone in the dormitory, Zhuang Yijing couldn’t help but ask, "Do you feel lonely living alone now?"
Ning Youguang paused the online course she was listening to, "Loneliness isn’t due to the lack of company, the true reason for feeling lonely is the inability to communicate your most important feelings to others."
"Makes sense," Zhuang Yijing nodded.
"That wasn’t my saying," Ning Youguang smiled.
"Who said it?"
"Jung."
"Oh, your great influence," Zhuang Yijing conceded, "So, does that an you don’t feel lonely?"
"That’s right," Ning Youguang said, "I’ve never felt lonely even once." In this lifeti.
"But so say most people in the world are lonely; loneliness hides in every cell, surviving tenaciously," Zhuang Yijing couldn’t understand her condition, "I often feel quite lonely, not when I’m alone, but when there are lots of people together, like in so social settings; the more lively it is, the lonelier I feel."
"Why?" Ning Youguang asked gently.
Zhuang Yijing paused her actions and thought, "Maybe it’s because I know everyone is pretending, all wearing masks, hiding their true selves. It feels hollow, leading to loneliness."
"In that case..." Ning Youguang said, "maybe I’m living selectively, consciously filtering my social circle, and the information I hear, see, and think about to maintain a relatively controllable, comfortable, and peaceful state."
"You are quite serene," Zhuang Yijing said enviously, "Sotis I really envy you, being able to live your ideal life so clearly."
Ning Youguang smiled gently, "Do you know, every clear person grows up in solitude? Because only when one is lonely and quiet do they have the chance to face and examine their own soul."
"Is it like that?" Zhuang Yijing mused, "Then it seems I should seize the opportunity when attending social events in the future, after all, it’s a good chance to face and examine my own soul."
Ning Youguang laughed, "Then you must improve your awareness."
"What’s awareness?" Zhuang Yijing asked.
"Awareness is when you can clearly see all the thoughts in your brain, like greedy thoughts, angry thoughts, hateful thoughts, and various desires. You act only as the observer," Ning Youguang said.
"I only act as the observer?" Zhuang Yijing didn’t understand, "How do I do that?"
"Let give you an analogy," Ning Youguang said, "you’re walking down the road and see a dark cloud floating in the sky. If you look at this dark cloud and then think, ’Ah, a dark cloud is coming,’ ’Is it going to rain?’, ’If it rains, I need to run faster,’ ’Oh no! I haven’t collected the clothes from the balcony!’, ’What should I do?’, and so forth, you are no longer an observer of the thoughts in your brain but have beco the thoughts. But, if you see a dark cloud and only think ’Oh, a dark cloud,’ then don’t continue to contemplate other related matters about the cloud in your mind, you remain the observer. Treat those thoughts and ideas in your brain as clouds you see that disappear upon sight—you are not affected by them, you just watch them co and go. If you can rember, no matter what appears in your mind, you only observe [these will disappear, I am not these thoughts, they are not ], that observation is awareness."
Zhuang Yijing felt dizzy from the explanation.
She frowned, "I need to think about this carefully."
After a while, she asked again, "What if I identify with the thoughts in my brain? What does that an?"
"If you identify with the thoughts in your brain, thinking they are you, agreeing with whatever cos to mind, going along with them, that’s lack of awareness," Ning Youguang said, "A person without awareness is like a child being driven by their brain, naive and simple-minded."
"..." It seed like the majority of people were implicated.
Zhuang Yijing rubbed her forehead, "Is awareness the sa as awakening?"
She certainly didn’t want to be a naive and ’simple-minded’ child.
"No," Ning Youguang said, "Awakening is holistic—it is the entire subjectivity and objectivity as a single phenonon. Awareness is an act, it’s sothing you do, with a self involved. So, the phenonon of awareness divides into subject and object, awareness is a relationship between subject and object, there’s a duality existing between its subject and object; awakening has absolutely no subjectivity or objectivity. In awakening, there is no one who is aware, nor is there sothing being noticed. It’s a complete, total act, unrelated to subject or object, they are dissolved. So, awakening does not imply soone is awakened, nor does it an sothing is being noticed, while awareness implies soone doing the action."
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