Confucius, Another Beginning

Reading the analects has been very interesting. There is a lot about Goodness and how that can lead to happiness. It reminds me of Bhagavad-Gita, in the sense of knowing that everything leads to something else that leads to something else. If we don’t remain with Goodness, then there will never be adversity and we won’t be able to enjoy happiness either. It’s kind of confusing, but in a way it also makes sense, because how can we enjoying happiness, if there is no adversity? Then how are we know that we are actually and truly happy?

People who are Good feel they have Goodness, but there are “those who are clever to follow Goodness because they feel that they will profit from it.” (4.2) But here comes the trick “merely set your heart sincerely upon Goodness and you will be free of bad intentions.” (4.4) This means that only those who really are Good will be able to profit from Goodness, because if you are not clever enough you won’t even be able to be Good in the first place.

There is a difference between being clever and being wise, “the wise take joy in rivers, while the Good take joy in mountains, the wise are active, while the Good are still. The wise are joyful, while the Good are longed-lived.” (6.23) I think that means a lot, the wise are like the ones that know everything but don’t really know how to use or express their knowledge, so they are active, joyful and moving as fast as rivers because they feel there is no time to lose. While the clever, the Good, know how to act, but they first prefect to wait and see what is happening around them and what they can do to help or simply be good. That’s why they are so still, live so long and are as strong and powerful as mountains.

Most of the time when we see someone else make a mistake, we usually laugh or make fun of them because of doing something so dump, but is happens to all of us and we have to try to understand that those things happen so that we can be better and then other will look at us, just as how we might look at others, because “when you see someone who is worthy, concentrate upon becoming their equal; when you see someone who is unworthy, use this as an opportunity to look within yourself.” (4.17) that will not only help us be better, but we will also be able to learn from ourselves and others, like Yan Hui. “Who among your disciples might be said to love learning? There was one named Yan Hui who loved learning, he never misdirected his anger and never made the same mistake twice. Unfortunately, his allotted life spam life was short and he passed away. Now that he is gone, there are none who really love learning – at least, I have yet to hear of one.” (6.3) Never making the same mistake twice must be something really great to achieve… but who is Yan Hui anyways?