Confucius say…

So I’ve been kind of obsessed with Confucius lately, mostly because I’m fascinated by his verbal usage of the phrase “superior man” (which, I’m assuming is equivalent to the English translation “higher self”). I was browsing Wikipedia and noticed they had a whole section of quotes in the Wikiquote section which included thousands of quotes from very famous people, movies, tv shows, etc. (there are soooo many quotes from The Simpsons, but that’s another story.) Back to Confucius. I read an interesting quote that made me go hmmm and thought it was worth sharing.

Here’s what he said:

“Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attainment of sincerity is the way of men. He who possesses sincerity is he who, without an effort, hits what is right, and apprehends, without the exercise of thought — he is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the right way. He who attains to sincerity is he who chooses what is good, and firmly holds it fast. To this attainment there are requisite the extensive study of what is good, accurate inquiry about it, careful reflection on it, the clear discrimination of it, and the earnest practice of it. ”

The reason I’m both agreeable and skeptical of the statement is because in previous statements, he often talks about how those who are cautious tend to seldom err. So my question is this. If a person is subconsciously speaking or thinking in terms of sincerity and it happens to just “come out” without much effort at all, isn’t that the opposite of “cautious” – which seems to imply that a person think before speaking or reacting?

I’m pretty known around my family and friends as a person who speaks without taking the time to think it through first, however – most of the time I say exactly what I intended to the first time and most likely, wouldn’t change what I said. So does that mean I speak with sincerity or with foolishness.

It’s interesting. If we substituted the word “sincerity” with “speak intuitively” – wouldn’t they almost mean the same thing? I mean, a person’s intuition is often the highest form of sincerity, because it comes from the gut, the heart, the body, the mind, the spirit, the innermost point.

It can be deemed a bit mystifying to try to comprehend a rather simple quote and then feel compelled to debate it’s meaning. Rather than debate it, I can’t help but want to question the intuitive choice to use such a word as sincerity. Now granted, it could simply be a translation issue or maybe I’m just reading too much into it. Guess I do that a lot. One reason I’ve been obsessed with Confucius is because, in the past, Chinese officials (don’t even get me started on my opinion of the Chinese government) – and I’m convinced sometimes they’re still doing it – go out of their way to censor the teachings of Confucius. Most of it was during the Cultural Revolution, but I still can’t fully understand why anyone would want to censor the ancestoral teachings of a man who taught, essentially, self-help. Ok, I get the argument that Confucius spoke out often about the government and, in China, that’s a big no-no. Maybe that was it. But then again, I’m still blown away by his quotes, which I feel, especially when I tap into transcendentalism, were highly accurate.

All of this almost demands explanation. For instance: if a person is speaking honestly and sincerely to another person, yet it hurts their feelings – is it still correct to do so? And another thing. If sincerity is full attainment of inward-searching-of-goodness that is expressed outwards – wouldn’t that also be argued that compassion is a form of sincerity… and if so…. why do some people feel compassion (if done excessively) is a form of pity. I ask this because of my previous post about Quan Yin, who was passionate and sometimes debated as a person who gave pity on people. So is pity a good, sincere thing? Or is it a bad thing that requires more self-reflection?

Here’s another question. If a person is showing pity on another human being but it comes from a beautiful, selfless place (such as giving charity to an organization that asks for money)…. is it sincere… or is it pity? Did Mother Theresa show sincerity or pity? She once said, “I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.” And she also said, “A sacrifice to be real, must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves.” However, could it also be argued that she is self-inflicting pain upon herself in order to replace the struggle with love? Does that love then turn into a selfish love? I believe sacrifice, in general, is a good thing — I’ve heard some argue that sacrifice is not so good because it makes the person on the other end feel as though negative pity is being taken on them. That’s a whole nother story I guess.

If you ever feel like reading some of his work, here is a whole page of stuff on Wikiquote: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Confucius

Love
Isabella
xoxoxoxo

P.S. Confucious sometimes talked about intercourse between men and women and how great it was… but I’ve never once read his opinion on homosexuality, transgenderism, crossdressing, hypnosis, or fantasies. Still searching. If any of you reading this happen to know that information, wondering minds want to know!