I had created a web-site, TimelessWayInstitute.com, and maintained it
for years. The purpose of the web-site was to promote Confucianism in America.
I have decided to stop maintaining this web-site and to give up the
domain name. I created the web-site because I believe Confucianism has much
to offer America. I still believe that, but I do not want to put the
time and money into maintaining this particular web-site, TimelessWayInstitute.com. I will put my time into other venues for
promoting Confucianism.
Robert Canright
author of Achieve Lasting Happiness: Timeless Secrets to Transform Your Life
Saturday, November 25, 2017
What Happened to AchieveLastingHappiness.com?
I had created a web-site, AchieveLastingHappiness.com, and maintained it for years. The purpose of the web-site was to promote my book, Achieve Lasting Happiness. I have decided to stop maintaining this web-site and to give up the domain name. I wrote the book because I believe Confucianism has much to offer America. I still believe that, but I do not want to put the time and money into maintaining this particular web-site, AchieveLastingHappiness.com. I will put my time into other venues for promoting Confucianism.
Robert Canright
author of Achieve Lasting Happiness: Timeless Secrets to Transform Your Life
Robert Canright
author of Achieve Lasting Happiness: Timeless Secrets to Transform Your Life
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Questions and Answers About Confucianism
Back in 2008 a college student who was studying Confucianism
as part of a college course on religions of the world sent me a questionnaire. The student from Texas A&M, Kingsville,
asked questions about Confucianism.
Below are the questions and answers. I published this in 2008 on my
website www.AchieveLastingHappiness.com.
I am moving content from that website to this blog and will be shutting
down the Achieve Lasting Happiness website.
Here is the questionnaire and answers.
1.) What
does practicing Confucianism mean to you in your daily life?
Confucianism has absolutely changed my life. It has had as profound an effect on me as my
Christian baptism, my marriage, and the birth of my children. What it means in my daily life is that I
strive for self-cultivation daily and work daily for the prosperity and peace
of the people. It is with me like my
shadow.
2.) Do
you personally consider Confucianism to be a religion, philosophy, or something
different? Please explain why.
I see it as a philosophic commitment. It is a school of thought like Stoicism. It says that if you worship, then worship
sincerely, but does not dictate religious worship or define a religion. It describes a way of life.
3.) Take
us through your daily life as a practicing Confucianism.
The major Confucian practices, in my view, are (1) study,
(2) introspection (to improve yourself), and (3) working to improve, support,
and build up one’s community.
I study every day.
I’ll study a Confucian scholar, or a Western scholar, or I’ll study the
Bible. I consider carefully what I
study. As an example, within a Confucian
work called the Great Learning, I
discovered what I see as a plan for the interaction of education and
society. I started the Timeless Way Foundation to promote this
vision of education and have posted a Power Point presentation in PDF on the
website:
I think about the 8 steps in the Winding Spring Process and
consider if I’m exercising any of these steps.
I will consider one of the lists of virtues Kongzi (Confucius) discussed
and then think about them in my life. I
share some of this with others. Here is
a blog post that relates the love of learning to other virtues. This post discusses Analect 17.8
I think the version of 27.8 in my book is easier to read
than the one I posted, which is partly why I wrote my book: “Achieve Lasting Happiness, Timeless Secrets
to Transform Your Life.”
I have friends who are Buddhists so occasionally in my daily
introspection I consider the Eightfold Path.
The last time I pondered the Eightfold path, I thought Christianity had
more power to transform the heart. So my
thinking about the Eightfold path turned to thinking about the nine gifts of
the Holy Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-23.
The goals of a Confucian are a sincere heart and the
betterment of the people, so I work hard every year to reform education.
4.) How
does practicing Confucianism reflect your experiences as a Texan? Our book talks about Confucianism as a
Popular Chinese Religion, so does this idea clash with being a Texan?
I believe the best qualities of a Texan are (1) grit, (2)
heart, and (3) wisdom. These correspond
to a list of 3 Confucian virtues (1) courage (grit), (2) humanity (heart), and
(3) wisdom. This list of three Confucian
virtues is listed on page 54 of “Centrality and Commonality, An Essay on
Confucian Religiousness” by Tu Wei-Ming.
Americans are free to interpret Confucianism in light of
Western culture exactly because it is a philosophy and not a religion. I believe Confucianism could be a greater
engine of positive change in Texas than in China because it is fresh and new in Texas.
5.) Proper
execution of duties is one of the main principles of Confucianism, how do you
interpret this in your daily life.
I try every day to make this a better world. This is how I exercise my duties as a
Confucian. I am presently running for
the local school board. See my blog
posts related to morality and good leadership as I run for political office:
Preaching morality is a Confucian tradition and I do it
publicly.
I think it is our duty in our country to be involved
politically for the betterment of society, not as a contest for power or the
corruption of influence peddling.
Don’t forget that duty is very important for some Westerners
too.
6.) Do
you practice Ren (jen) and if so what does this mean to you. Same question for Li.
I see Ren as a love of humanity. Compassion and benevolence are a part of
it. Ren is our interaction as humans
building each other up as humans. It is
more than compassion and benevolence. It
is nourishing the connection between us all that makes us human. Humans do not
live in isolation. Practicing Ren means
that everything you do is put in the context of the impact your actions have on
others. Take a look at the novel,
“Howard’s End” by E.M. Forster. On the
title page it says this, “Only connect….”
Look at Western science.
To determine scientific truth you must have independent verification of
experiments. This means you cannot have
Western science without a form of connectedness similar to what is valued by
Confucians: working out differences to
achieve harmony.
In running for the school board I am recommending we create
a community compact to clarify community values and build more commitment to
living up to our higher values. This is
a Confucian method motivated by Ren.
Li is complex.
Originally Li was described by Confucius as propriety and ritual. Ritual is intended to strengthen
connectedness, so when my daughter’s high school football team got into the
playoffs, I went to every game, even driving from Plano
to Austin. I don’t care about football, but I went and
cheered because it is a community ritual. (Go Wildcats!) I eventually found myself caring about the
outcome. When we lost the 5-A state
championship to Trinity Euless in double over-time, that really hurt. That shows that ritual can work to develop
emotional connection. (Yes, Trinity played Judson Converse next for the title,
but that was an effortless win. The real
contest was Plano
vs. Trinity.)
I just bought a book, “Choosing Civility” by P.M. Forni.
Civility is a form of propriety. Our
kids sporting events have too many parents acting like lunatics. This is a perfect point of entry for a
discussion on civility.
The Neo-Confucians view Li as “principle.” Originally Li meant “pattern,” and I see
principle meaning the pattern of morality reflected in the universe. In the West this is called “Natural
Law.” Within my daily practice of
Confucianism I look for the juxtaposition of Western and Confucian moral principles. I look to compare and contrast and ponder
what I find. For example, Cicero has these 4
virtues: (1) justice, (2) wisdom, (3)
courage, and (4) moderation.
Compare and contrast these 4 with the 5 virtues of
Confucianism:
Courage is in other lists of Confucian virtues. You do not see a lot about moderation in
Confucian writings because there was so much poverty. What’s really a striking difference is
“justice.” Justice is a Western
concept. The East has not had
democracies or republics like the West. Justice
is in our pattern of morality, but not in the Eastern.
Summarizing Li: I am mindful of propriety, I respect ritual,
and I look for moral principle in the world around me, including the world of
cultural constructs.
7.) How, to you, can you distinguish Confucian as
a God? How does this differ from the
worshipping of other religious Gods?
A real Confucian would view the worship of Confucius as
superstitious nonsense. It is a mistake.
I know no Confucians with that view.
I am a Christian. I can tell you a
major difference between Christianity and Confucianism: Christianity offers you salvation for your
immortal soul, but offers nothing for your prosperity while Confucianism offers
the hope of prosperity and worldly peace, but is silent about an afterlife.
8.) Are
their any rites of passage acknowledged by the Confucian religion? (e.g. birth,
puberty, marriage and death)
Confucian rituals are really social rituals. They belong to individual cultures. American Confucianism is not organized enough
to have its own rituals.
The Chinese have a book, the Book of Rites, called the Li
Ki. I believe the work called the Doctrine of the Mean was a chapter in
that work. I am not really interested in
Chinese rituals, so I have not read the book.
Scholars have already gone through that work and found the Doctrine of the Mean, so I believe what
is universal has been discovered within the book already.
9.) Our
book stresses the importance of filial piety throughout life and death. Is this idea important in your life and if so
can you explain?
Respecting parents was already a part of my Christian
beliefs, but Confucianism reinforces it.
I pointed out to my daughter that in the 10 Commandments, after the
commandments about God, “honor your mother and father,” is before, “do not
commit murder.” That says a lot about
the importance of respecting your parents.
I am not a Catholic, nor a Mormon.
I believe as a Christian that once your parents are dead, they have gone
before God and your prayers cannot affect the judgment they received.
Filial piety, in the fashion of the Chinese with long
periods of mourning, is a Chinese cultural practice that does not have to be
transferred to other cultures that have no history of ancestor worship.
Here is a good description of the emotions associated by
Asians regarding filial piety. The
occasion is an adult son at his father’s death bed:
“I feel to the bottom of my heart
that my flesh and blood are something that came from my father. This person on whom I am laying my hand is my
father, who brought me into the world.
He is a part of my flesh, and that part of me is dying.”
“Until then I had felt that my
father was a different being, but this time, looking at him in front of me, I
felt that we really were one body – just like a new cactus stuck to the stem of
the old one. I came to understand how my
father felt about me, his son. I came to
understand his heart. My father who
brought me into this world is dying…. I feel as if my father is with me in my
heart.”
The quote is from “Confucianism
for the Modern World,” edited by Daniel A. Bell, page 174. Filial piety has a lot of meaning for the
Chinese.
As a Christian I believe children are a blessing from God,
but I believe my life is from God the creator and my parents are God’s servants
in bringing me up as a Christian.
Confucian writings do teach the sentiments described in the
quote, but I see that as a reflection of Chinese culture. I have had people tell me only Chinese can be
Confucians, but that is only true if Confucianism is equivalent to being
Chinese. I can never be Chinese, but I
believe we can put aside those precise implementations of Chinese culture that
are not a precise match to our culture.
I believe we can adapt the spirit of the Confucian teachings on filial
piety by recognizing the importance of parental respect taught in Christianity
and in Western culture.
Additional Comments
I believe America
is in a serious leadership crisis. Both
Washington and Wall Street are failing.
I believe the lessons in Confucianism regarding leadership,
administration, and governance can help turn rejuvenate American leadership.
Here is where I blog on the leadership crisis
Here is where I blog on American Confucianism
and
Here is Confucianism in education
Confucianism can help America. It is my duty to contribute to a better
future for America. I am confident Confucianism will play an
important role in our country. I just
hope it doesn’t take more than 20 years to begin to really take off because I
might not be here to help.
Saturday, October 28, 2017
The Loves and Commitments of Confucianism
“Know
thyself,” said the temple at Delphi.
Only you can peer into your heart and know what you truly love, but
others can see your actions and see your commitments. These are related. Love empowers commitment; commitment sustains
love.
What
are the loves and commitments of Confucianism, the Ru Jia? To become a noble person I believe one starts
by loving humanity. The love of humanity
leads to a love of virtue. The love of
virtue leads to a love of culture. The
love of culture leads to a love of learning.
And the love of learning leads to a love of order.
I
believe the first commitment of a noble person is to family. The commitment to family enables a commitment
to self-cultivation. The commitment to
self-cultivation enables a commitment to community. A commitment to community enables commitment
to a state. And a true commitment to a
state should enable commitment to world peace, because no state is truly secure
unless all states live in harmony.
A
love for humanity empowers a family. A
love of virtue empowers self-cultivation.
A love of culture empowers community.
A love of learning empowers a state.
And a love of order empowers world peace.
World peace sustains
order. A successful state sustains
learning. Successful communities sustain
culture. Successful self-cultivation
sustains virtue. And successful families
sustain humanity.
These are the five loves and five commitments of
Confucianism.
This is my contribution to the growth of the Confucian tradition.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Multiculturalism: The Investigation of Things and Philippians 4:8
Multiculturalism can be much
more than the appreciation of another culture’s music, art, or food. Synergy between two cultures is the true
fruit of multiculturalism. An example of
synergy between Eastern and Western cultures is demonstrated by a study of
Philippians 4:8, a Christian work, with the “investigation of things,” a
Confucian method.
The “investigation of things” is
an important part of The Great Learning. In America we would assume the investigation
of things would be a scientific investigation.
But The Great Learning is a Confucian work, so the investigation of things is
an inquiry into moral principles. It is
a search for the moral principle, Li, permeating the world. This study of Philippians reveals hidden
depths within this Bible verse, proving Confucian methods can benefit
Americans.
As a Christian student of
Confucianism I have found Confucianism very compatible with Christianity. They are not equivalent, but Confucianism is
complementary and synergistic with Christianity.
We can apply the investigation
of things to Philippians 4:8 by remembering Li in its roots refers to “pattern”
and restructure the verse to look for patterns.
“…whatever is true,
whatever is
noble,
whatever is
right,
whatever is
pure,
whatever is
lovely,
whatever is
admirable –
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy –
think about such things.”
Notice the words: “true, noble, right” align with the three
validity claims identified by the philosopher Jurgen Habermas in his Theory of Communicative Action: (1) a validity claim to truth, (2) a validity
claim to truthfulness, and (3) a validity claim to rightness (appropriateness).
A validity claim to truth means
the speaker postulates some statement to be objectively true. A validity claim to truthfulness postulates
the speaker is trustworthy, that he is not intending to deceive. A validity claim to rightness means the
statement will lead to something practicable, something appropriate, something
acceptable, or something that feels right.
These three validity claims of Habermas align well with the three modes
of persuasion named by Aristotle in his work On Rhetoric: logos, ethos,
and pathos.
There seems to be symmetry
between the three validity claims and the three assessments of beauty in
Philippians 4:8. Finding something pure
is like an objective assessment of truth.
Finding something lovely is an assessment of the character of the object
of beauty by the beholder, similar to finding a person trustworthy. Finding something admirable is an emotional
or personal assessment of the beautiful object, similar to finding a statement
acceptable or appropriate.
Here is a table showing the relationships we are
discussing. Notice the alignment of
truth and beauty.
The relationship between truth
and beauty brings to mind this line from the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats:
“’Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ –
that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.” At first we think we have six separate
measures: true, noble, right, pure,
lovely, and admirable. Now we realize one
thing can meet all six criteria simultaneously and thus be both true and
beautiful
Matthew Arnold comes to mind
when thinking next about the expression, “if
anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” Matthew Arnold, in Culture and Anarchy, said culture is getting to know “the best that has been said and thought in
the world.” Culture is excellent or
praiseworthy, so pursuing culture should help us think about what is excellent
or praiseworthy. We can surmise from
this that Christians should pursue culture as part of walking the Christian
path.
Resting in perfect goodness is
an important part of The Great Learning. I have often sought a secular explanation of how
one could dwell or rest in perfect goodness. Now I think one explanation of how one can
dwell in perfect goodness is to make one’s mind dwell in truth and beauty. Culture is an aid to resting in perfect
goodness when it helps us dwell in truth and beauty. Matthew Arnold also said, “Culture is ... the love of perfection; it is
a study of perfection.” Culture, at
its best, works to perfect our humanity.
Looking at Philippians 4:8 with
Confucian eyes I saw the unity of truth and beauty. I saw culture is more than a form of
recreation; it can aid in perfecting our humanity. Ask a Christian how to rest in perfect
goodness and he will point towards God.
Now we can see an answer for a secular society: one can rest in perfect goodness by resting
in truth and beauty.
We could stop our study now, but
let us consider whether discovering the unity of truth and beauty is
discovering a moral principle. Keats
already made this observation, so let us delve deeper by considering how the
Confucian scholar Wang Yangming expressed the unity of knowledge and action: “Knowledge
is the beginning of action, and action is the completion of knowledge.” This expression advances an equivalency
relation to a process.
To choose a starting point
between truth and beauty in defining a moral process, consider how Plato said in
Book VI of The Republic that the mind, and its products, is the child of the good. The good is the highest ideal, or form. Plato presented this analogy: as the sun is to light, so the good is to truth. It is through truth we perceive. As Plato put it, “the form of the good provides truth to what is known.”
Because we must perceive
something through truth before we can appreciate its beauty, we can conjecture
that truth takes precedence over beauty.
We can restate the unity of truth and beauty as a process after the
fashion of Wang Yangming: “Truth is the beginning of beauty, and beauty
is the fulfillment of truth.” Now we
have gone a step beyond Keats.
A principle must have
utility. As an example, we will apply the
unity of truth and beauty to test an assertion.
We will test the truthfulness of an assertion by looking at its results
and deciding if they are beautiful.
Here is an assertion to examine
for truthfulness: “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved
you. Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13) Ask yourself:
can this lesson lead to a beautiful life? We can use Galatians 5:22-23 for the
attributes of this kind of life: love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. If these nine attributes
from Galatians 5 described an ugly life, then the words of John 15 would be
false, according to the unity principle of truth and beauty. If we find these nine attributes describing a
beautiful life, then we can conclude the assertion of Jesus in John 15 is true: self sacrifice is an expression of the
greatest love.
I believe this study shows the
Confucian investigation of things is a powerful tool that can benefit Americans. Philippians 4:8 is valuable for Christians
and non-Christians wishing to nurture and grow the better parts of their
humanity. The investigation of things reveals
Philippians 4:8 saying culture perfects our humanity. Confucians find they can rest in perfect
goodness by resting in truth and beauty.
We developed a new moral principle, the unity of truth and beauty, by
using the investigation of things. We
can use this new principle to assess truth.
The genesis of a new moral principle from interaction between
Christianity and Confucianism is an example of the synergy that is the highest
expression of multiculturalism.
If we can glean so many
additional ideas from one well understood Bible verse through the investigation
of things, imagine how much we might learn
if we applied the Confucian search for moral principle to entire works,
such as “On Duties” by Cicero. Applying Confucian theories and methods to
great works of our culture will surely renew Western culture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
