Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

198 IssuesSelf - cultivationThe Confucian idea of “ self - cultivation ” is also a notion worth looking at.We can tend to the moral virtues within us, practicing them daily, watchingourselves carefully. We are building up the virtues of honesty, sincerity,sympathy for others, and so on. The point is to come to humanity, anethical attitude. Confucius did not demand that we become perfect humanbeings immediately; this is a task that takes some time and considerablecare. If we do this, and do it properly, then in a crisis or a situation wherewe have to make a quick decision, we can trust a moral compass within us.Self - cultivation is not something we practice for our private satisfaction orbecause it leads us to some sort of enlightenment. It is meant to allow usto act, and act properly, in our family, our neighborhood, and our country.Perhaps our society would be better off if we talked about self - cultivation.Does Confucianism Include Women? Can ConfucianismInclude Women?Mao Zedong said, “ Women hold up half the sky ” and Chinese women say,“ But why is it always the heavier half? ”In the last 50 years, scholars around the world have looked again at thegreat traditions and re - evaluated them in light of feminist theory and genderdiscourse. In general, modern scholars have used four main approaches toquestion the tradition about the history of women and to establish a placefor women in the modern tradition.First, they look at women in the history of the tradition, their accomplishments,and their status. Second, they look at the texts of the tradition,if applicable, to see what attitudes there have been about women, howthese may have changed over time, and what reasons there were for thesechanges. Third, they look for a basic message in the tradition to see if thatcan indeed include women. Finally, they re - evaluate the past in light of thisbasic message.Taking Buddhism as an example, in step one scholars find that womenplayed an important role in early Buddhism, had more social freedom inthe Buddhist community, were students, teachers, and missionaries, andbecame enlightened. In step two, they find that the later the Buddhistsutras, the more anti - women the sutras tend to be, until finally women aretold they cannot become enlightened as long as they are women. In stepthree, in Mahayana Buddhism, the basic message, they say, is that all sentientbeings contain the Buddha nature and therefore men and women canbecome enlightened equally. Finally, they reject a past that discriminated