This week has been a mad dash, starting with a return from a brief trip to California, and woven with the dying of a loved member of the congregation. Along the way I had to prepare for an evening conversation on Confucianism, which I was expected to know a little more about than the others present. I’m not sure I succeeded. But, I did find the subject rather more compelling than I thought I would.
In particular I was taken with the text The Doctrine of the Mean. It’s authorship is traditionally attributed to Confucius’ grandson Zisi.
It begins in Charles Muller’s translation:
What Heaven confers is called “nature.”
Accordance with this nature is called the Way.
Cultivating the Way is called “education.”
That which is called Way cannot be separated from for an instant. What can be separated from is not the Way. Therefore the Superior Man is cautious in the place where he is not seen, and apprehensive in the place where he is not heard. Nothing is more visible than the hidden, and nothing is more apparent than the subtle. Therefore the Superior Man is cautious when he is alone. When joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure have not yet arisen, it is called chung (equilibrium, centrality, mean). When they arise to their appropriate levels, it is called “harmony.” Chung is the great root of all-under-heaven. “Harmony” is the penetration of the Way through all-under-heaven. When the mean and harmony are actualized, Heaven and Earth are in their proper positions, and the myriad things are nourished.
What follows in the book is a reflection on human nature and the way of heaven.
I feel this is a core document for anyone thinking of liberal religion in our time, crossing borders, and finding our true ancestors.
I encourage a perusal…
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