The golden rule “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself”

As seem in the Analects 论语 (論語), of Confucius (孔子), should work perfectly in the uniform old Chinese society, that considered themselves as the kingdom that had a world around it (中国) (中國), the middle kingdom, and the other people as barbarians (although there were a great pluralism in the hundred school of thoughts 诸子白家 (諸子白家) and not the uniformity of the Qin 秦 dynasty).

But in our diverse society this seems more complicated, maybe the rule would be better “do not treat others as they do not want to have been treated”; but we do not want they get treated as they want when they’re out of control nor when want to hurt themselves, some of us live in a free world that we cannot have the option to not to be free.

We cannot simply ignore the others either. This was, is, and will be cause for much conflict.

 

The seemingly frivolous Analects of Confucius

The Analects were, to me, in part, seemingly superficial; what the master ate, how he sleeps, how he dresses… But now I understand that a opportunity of having a Sage should not be missed, and we should try to grasp any meaning, any opinion he has about the world around us, like seem in the Analects “someone asked the master about …” and learn学(學)xue. It is sad that we don’t give attention to Sages, or should I translate as thinkers, as people gave before.

Of course we have to have care to not go too far, an error made for example using the Yi jing; when you receive a reading of the fifth line of 1乾qian “a dragon flying in the skies”, don’t mean you will see a dragon that you will try to capture and sold such a rare creature; don’t hunt dragons. If a situation is represented by one of the trigrams of the 八卦bagua or one of the five elements (better translated as phases), the fire, water, or mountain, is not important, this don’t mean water means that will rain, that you’ll have to go uphill to a mountain during a trip or that someplace will burn; it is just an indication of something more profound. An movement of the form of 太极拳(太極拳) taijiquan (taichichuan )is not made to be mimicked, they are there to show a greater truth that cannot be shown in one million of movements.

Confucianism 儒家and lies

Lie is, surprise, one of the most common forms of礼(禮) rites, or propriety (as translated by Legge, in the Chinese language is the same word) , of course not endorsed by Confucius 孔子 kong zi (my idea of rite is, as most everything in my work, of larger scope). The world wouldn’t live three days without it: Imagine a leader of a nation telling what he thinks about the wife of another leader in a meeting, people telling the truth about others in a society full of preconceived ideas; with our pride, the world would soon end in a great blood battle.

Defining lie is trick; there is half-truths, truths omitted, euphemisms, etc., etc.

When Confucius was asked about death “how can we know about the death if we don’t know about life?”, we could imagine that he don’t believed much in such extraordinary things “The things that the master not talked about was extraordinary facts and spirits”, what he would have to do with sacrifices? To explain this, we should resort to opposite ideas, a good way to search for the truth; Mozi墨子, a student of Confucius, but with differing ideas, described the sacrifices as just a way of social reunion (and some Confucianists have the same idea) .“If I don’t attend to a sacrifice I consider as not having”; the sacrifice to the spirits was the last important thing, the presence was important. What some people would call this?

And, almost anyone that lies would lie about lying. For example if you found that the nature of human beings was inherently evil, would you lie about it being good to give them hope? I would. I prefer the more human people that lies than the perfect “saints”: “only the virtuous can love and hate”.

Of course the importance put on not lying was important for Confucius, as he put great emphasis on example as a form of education. Maybe the key with lies is exact that: lie and lie about lying.

The seemingly frivolous Analects of Confucius

The Analects were, to me, in part, seemingly superficial; what the master ate, how he sleeps, how he dresses… But now I understand that a opportunity of having a Sage should not be missed, and we should try to grasp any meaning, any opinion he has about the world around us, like seem in the Analects “someone asked the master about …” and learn学(學)xue. It is sad that we don’t give attention to Sages, or should I translate as thinkers, as people gave before.

Of course we have to have care to not go too far, an error made for example using the Yi jing; when you receive a reading of the fifth line of 1乾qian “a dragon flying in the skies”, don’t mean you will see a dragon that you will try to capture and sold such a rare creature; don’t hunt dragons. If a situation is represented by one of the trigrams of the 八卦bagua or one of the five elements (better translated as phases), the fire, water, or mountain, is not important, this don’t mean water means that will rain, that you’ll have to go uphill to a mountain during a trip or that someplace will burn; it is just an indication of something more profound. An movement of the form of 太极拳(太極拳) taijiquan (taichichuan )is not made to be mimicked, they are there to show a greater truth that cannot be shown in one million of movements.

The greatest lesson from Confucius

The greatest lesson from Confucius is Learn by yourself, not what he taught. O maior ensinamento de Confucio foi aprender por si mesmo, não aprender o que ele ensinava. 最重孔夫子教 是自学不是学其教.