SHENMO MOTTO: Virtue & Wisdom

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Abacus math spirit of Shenmo culture 25 years of destiny and apperception between abacus math and I

2014-06-12 丨

The writer is from the Ministry of culture development



In September 1990, I began to study abacus math in a secondary school. Before that, I thought it was very difficult to learn, because I had learned abacus math in my primary school based on formulas, but I had failed to master it and some negative psychological impact had been brought to me to some extent; however, the abacus math method of my secondary school has been greatly improved, and I mastered it quickly.

At that time in the secondary school, a school teacher asked us to master three abilities, “be skillful at abacus math, have good handwriting, and write high-level articles.” The teacher told us that reaching any one of the three abilities, we could find a good job. At that time, I chose to “be skillful at abacus math to find a good job”, and this was the most primitive motive. It was because this motive that I began to take a fancy to abacus.

At that time, in accordance with the requirements of my teachers, I practiced abacus math for more than three hours every day. Four months later, the school held an abacus math competition, in which I got the first in the class selection easily; then as one of the five competitors in my class, I practiced abacus math hard for more than two months to participate in school competition, and I won the first easily in the whole school (outdistancing students of high grade who had exercised for more than three years), and I was famous for my graduation level of completing the 20-minute examination in six minutes. Since then, I opened the prelude to practice abacus math professionally. Regardless of summer or winter, weekends or holidays, I insisted on practicing abacus math for more than three hours to 1997, during which I won awards in province-level or city-level competitions repeatedly.

In seven years of abacus math practicing, the psychological or mental power tempering was the most challenging. When practicing abacus math, there would be irritability and even pain emotions, for example, boredom due to boring practice; we had to practice abacus when students went to a spring outing on weekends; we had to practice abacus when students went to the cinema or playing poker; we had to resist and balance conceited emotion after winning prizes and getting praises from leaders and students; we had a number of simulation competitions every day, in which we had to ease the nervousness, as well as tangle due to unstable performance; the biggest trouble was plateau phenomenon, namely, we may make no progress after a few months of hard practice, when we wanted to smash the abacus, and completely broke relationship with abacus. In short, the process of practicing abacus was accompanied by not only happiness and joy, but also trouble and pain; I wanted to give up several times, but held up the abacus again and again.

Until one day, abacus math made me understand that: the abacus in front of me wasn’t a simple calculation tool, but a partner, who sometimes was my friend, but sometimes was my enemy; sometimes made me excited and happy, but sometimes made me annoyed and silent. The daily practice was like wrestling against the partner. When I understood this truth, I found that abacus practice was no longer practicing skills, but practicing the law; the process of practicing abacus was actually the fight against mental devil, and the result was that either the abacus defeated me, or I defeated the abacus. It is a process of strengthening my mental power. Unconsciously, my emotion management and temptation resistance abilities, and my composure, toughness and endurance have been greatly improved, and perseverance has become my internalized abilities; I have entered the realm of pursing advancement. Later, I slowly realized that the abacus practice process would experience the process of “basic understanding – skillful - proficient – excellent - automatic”; in each stage, the technical level, mental state, and mental power are different, and the mental devil (emotion) is also different; once comprehending this process, one can open a channel, which will provide ways to deal with anything he/she encounters.

Later, I started to work, and abacus math became my career; I worked with abacus, and I taught others how to learn abacus math; abacus became a tool for my living. After that, I founded a school of abacus math and mental abacus math. Today, looking back, I find establishing school is also “basic understanding – skillful - proficient – excellent - automatic”; running a school needs skill or technology, and I applied this process to school running imperceptibly. Now it seems that abacus math is not only a tool, but also has the soul and spirit, and the abacus math spirit has become the origin of Shenmo spirit. The process of fighting against abacus math was not only the wrestling against mental devil, but also the process of strengthening mental power. This has created my ability to deal with affairs, and has achieved the core power of Shenmo development.

Looking back, the abacus math spirit has achieved Shenmo culture. Also what I always think deeply is that my destiny with abacus started from fighting against each other (I fought against the abacus, and the abacus fought against me at the same time), and then I defeated the abacus. That makes me understand that practicing abacus is practicing the law and rectifying mind. After that I used abacus to make a living and to experience life. After the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, I find that I benefited from abacus greatly, and I should thank for abacus, pay back abacus, develop abacus, and promote abacus, and spend a lifetime advancing with abacus.

The abacus experience has brought me a wonderful life course, but what gives me the greatest inspiration is the abacus math spirit of “basic understanding – skillful - proficient – excellent - automatic”, which lets me understand that any career needs a technology or skill, not just limited to music, sports, art, etc. (for example, Shenmo Education needs technology or skill to running school). If we can comprehend the different stages of “basic understanding – skillful - proficient – excellent - automatic”, we can strengthen our mental power through fighting against the work (the work is also a technology or skill), and can cultivate toughness and endurance through tempering mental power, thus forming the ability of pursuing advancement. I believe that the work is also the process of tempering mind, wrestling against mental devil, as well as rectifying mind and improving personality.

Finally, I would like to say that abacus math spirit should inspire Shenmo colleagues—and even all the people to correctly view the difficulties in our work, which is exactly the process of tempering ourselves. We need to learn to make use of various difficulties appearing in the work, and fight against the work to strengthen mental power. Not only can it promote the development of our career, but also strengthen our mind!

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