📖Thick face, black heart: the path to thriving, winning & succeeding

March 1, 2021

authors: Chu, Chin-Ning
year: 1994

Thick Face, Black Heart → Thick Face, Black Heart
- p.7
```
    When you conceal your will from others, that is Thick.
    When you impose your will on others, that is Black.
    —Lee Zhong Wu
```
- Thick Face, Black Heart can be utilized for either good or evil purposes. → Thick Face, Black Heart is neither good nor evil
- Thick Face = The Shield
  - An adept of Thick Face creates his own positive self-image regardless of criticism of others. (p.10)
    - can put self-doubt aside
  - Thick Face can be humble and submissive. It is the ability to adopt to situation without regard of what others think of you. (p.12)
- Black Heart = The Spear
  - take action without regard how consequences will affect others (p.13)
    - ruthless, but not necessarily evil
  - has courage to fail (p.14)
- Progression → Thick Face, Black Heart progression
  - Phase 1:
    - stage 1. thick as a castle wall, black as a charcoal
      - thick but still penetrable, obviously black for anyone
    - stage 2. thick and hard, black and shimmering
      - more pleasant, not obviously selfish
    - stage 3. so thick it’s formless, so black it’s colorless
  - Phase 2: Self-Inquiry
  - Phase 3: The Warrior (combination of phase 1 and 2)
    - dispassion and detachment
    - fit for greatness
    - the union of spiritual and material world
- p.22
  a good man’s actions are not always gentle.
- p.23
  The natural way of Thick Face, Black Heart is beyond human manipulation, beyond the petty standards of human judgment.
- p.44 master the distinction between virtue and vanity
Follow Dharma
- p.77
  […] nothing is hard or easy. Competition for survival is the condition of life.
- (is startup a seek for instant gratification? it depends on the motives)
p.101
For a truly spiritual individual, the path of spirituality is like walking on a razor’s edge; it as a diligent pursuit of one’s perfection. […] It is impossible to attain the spiritual perfection if you have avoided discovering the path by which you can contribute to society as an individual.
positive psychology critique and leveraging your negativity
- p.107-108 you are good as you are. people who promote positive psychology make you inferior for not being positive as if something is wrong with you → Telling people what they should be focuses then on how they are not
- p.109 success has no rules. it can come even for those with negative thinking (positive thinking skips this) → Success has no rules
  - this does not invalidate positive psychology. it’s just if you’re negative by nature, you don’t have to fix that
  - e.g. Mark Twain was pessimistic and sarcastic
  - Marilyn Monroe, Ernest Hemingway
- p.115 pessimism sometimes is realism
- _
  Only mediocre are always at their best. —Jean Giraudoux
- p.122 If you’re inconsistent, that might be a part of your power. Some people need a period on inactivity to jump higher. Enjoy your non-productivity as that’s part of your productivity → Non-productivity as part of productivity
- p.128 there is no universal negativity definition. it is created by humans and changes over time and place
- (what are my “negativities?”)
p.143 Crisis is renovation, a test for your ability to endure
p.147 (what would I do if I was living someone else’s life)
Chinese symbol for money is gold + 2 spears:
- first spear is outer battle
- second spear is inner battle
16 principles of work
- p.200 3. work is not separate from your spiritual unfoldment
- p.201 work does not need you, you need work.
  - “the world does not need any book, but I need to write one”
- p.203 7. Life evolves through actions
- p.204 (common saying)
  The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.
- p.206 using intuition as a business tool
  - (re: dreyfus model)
- p.209 12. Discover your natural rhythm
- _
```
    If you perform the sacrifice of doing your duty,
    you do not have to do anything else.
    Devoted to duty, man attains perfection.
    —Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita
```
- provide for yourself and others
  - entrepreneurs provide work for self and others
§10 sometimes you need to submit
Tamas/Rajas/Sattva
- Tamas—inactivity
- Rajas—activity, struggle (red, orange?)
- Sattva—knowledge, wisdom, expansion (yellow, turquoise?)
St. John of the Cross
St. Teresa of Avila: “Interior Castle” ↔ Chakras

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