Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

Mencius 103universe – but only when we practice morality. Mencius makes the samesort of point when he says,Anyone who completely knows their own mind/heart, then, knows theirhuman nature. When you know your human nature, you know Heaven. Tokeep your original mind/heart and nourish your nature, you serve Heaven.Neither an early death nor a long life should cause you any worry; insteadyou should cultivate your self and establish your own destiny. 48The connection between human beings and Heaven can be experienced ifwe practice morality and come to know ourselves. Finding, and keeping,our original mind/heart means behaving properly over time. We have seenMencius say that the gentleman does not lose his original mind/heart andpreserves the mind/heart as it was when he was a child. In this way, saysMencius, we can come to know Heaven.Mencius also links human beings and Heaven together through thevirtue of sincerity. Sincerity, as we have seen, means to think, act, andspeak without any self - interest or “ double - mindedness. ” Mencius uses achain argument to talk about sincerity. He begins with the first link, whichis understanding goodness. If a man can do this, then he is true to himself.This allows him to please his parents. If he can please his parents, his friendswill trust him. If his friends trust him, his superiors will have confidence inhim and he will be able to govern the people. Mencius concludes, “ So, sincerityis the Way of Heaven; to think about sincerity the Way of man. ” 49 Bybeing a truly ethical person, being sincere, we can share in Heaven ’ s ethicalcharacter. This leads us to one of Mencius ’ most famous statements: “ Allthings are complete within me. If one examines oneself and finds sincerity,there is no greater joy. ” 50 When Mencius says “ all things ” he means allthe things of the universe. They find completion within us when we sharein the universe ’ s virtue of sincerity.Just what Mencius meant by these kinds of statements is much debated.It looks like he believed that a properly cultivated person could, in someway, join together with the universe itself in its moral purposes. The difficultyis knowing just what to make of Mencius ’ statements. This is becausewhat is missing is any description of Heaven or the moral universe, how itis constituted, how, exactly, it works, and all the other more “ theological ”points we would expect to find.SummaryLike Confucius, Mencius begins with the individual. We have within usthe potential for moral behavior. Moral behavior always has a social