来书云：「事上磨练。一日之内，不管有事无事，只一意培养本原。若遇事来感，或自己有感，心上既有觉，安可谓无事？但因事凝心一会，大段觉得事理当如此，只如无事处之，尽吾心而已。然乃有处得善与未善，何也？又或事来得多，须要次第与处，每因才力不足，辄为所困，虽极力扶起而精神已觉衰弱。遇此未免要十分退省，宁不了事，不可不加培养。如何？」
所说工夫，就道通分上也只是如此用，然未免有出入在。凡人为学，终身只为这一事。自少至老、自朝至暮，不论有事无事，只是做得这一件，所谓「必有事焉」者也。若说「宁不了事，不可不加培养」，却是尚为两事也。「必有事焉而勿忘勿助」，事物之来，但尽吾心之良知以应之，所谓「忠恕违道不远」矣。凡处得有善有未善及有困顿失次之患者，皆是牵于毁誉得丧，不能实致其良知耳。若能实致其良知，然后见得平日所谓善者未必是善，所谓未善者却恐正是牵于毁誉得丧，自贼其真知者也。
来信说：「在事上磨练。一天之内，不管有事无事，只一心培养本原。若遇事来感，或自己有感，心上既有了觉，怎可说无事？只因事凝神一会，大抵觉得事理本该如此，只像没事一样处置，尽我的心罢了。然而处置仍有善与不善，为什么？又或事情来得多，须依次序处理，每每因才力不足被它困住，虽极力撑起而精神已觉衰弱。遇此未免要十分退省，宁可不办事，不可不加培养。怎么样？」
所说的功夫，就道通的分上也只是这样用，但未免有出入。人为学，终身只为这一件事。自少至老、自朝至暮，不论有事无事，只是做这一件，就是所谓「必有事焉」。若说「宁不了事，不可不加培养」，却还是两件事。「必有事焉而勿忘勿助」，事物之来，只尽我心的良知去应付，这就是「忠恕违道不远」了。凡处置有善有未善、有困顿失序之患的，都是被毁誉得失牵累，不能实致其良知罢了。若能实致其良知，然后见得平日所谓的善未必是善，所谓未善的，恐怕正是被毁誉得失牵累、戕害自己真知的东西。
Your letter says: 'Tempering on affairs. Through the day, affairs or none, I single-mindedly nurture the root. When affairs come stirring, or my own feeling stirs, the mind aware — how call that no task? Only gathering the mind a moment on the affair, sensing broadly that the principle is thus, I handle it as if nothing were afoot, exhausting my mind's part. Yet handling is sometimes good, sometimes not — why? Or affairs crowd in, needing ordered dispatch, and my strength failing, I am bogged down; straining upright again, the spirit already wilts. Then I cannot but withdraw and restore — rather leave the affair undone than stint the nurturing. Is that right?'
The work you describe, on your level, is used just so — yet it wavers in and out. The learner's whole life is this one affair. From youth to age, dawn to dusk, affairs or none, doing this one thing — the always-having-the-task. To say rather leave affairs undone than stint nurturing is still to make two. The task at hand, neither forgetting nor forcing: as things come, meet them solely with the mind's innate knowledge exhausted — loyalty and reciprocity, and the Way not far. Every handling that turns out well or ill, every jam and disorder, comes of being dragged by praise and blame, gain and loss, failing to extend innate knowledge in earnest. Extend it in earnest, and you will find what you called good was often not good, and the not-good was precisely the dragging of praise and loss gnawing at your true knowing.