by “The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute but the man who does not ask is a fool for life.“
The first teacher of China was a Chinese philosopher by the name of Confucius. The teachings of Confucius enable us to view life from a different angle.
Confucius always held the view that life is a celebration rather than a burden or a cause for sorrow, and that only those who have a true understanding of life—those who do not seek out its meaning—can dance with it, love it, laugh with it, sing with it, and cry with it.
Confucius rejected the idea of any type of depression. He claimed that if you attempt to suppress any aspect of reality, you stray from the truth. Living in the present and accepting everything without prejudice is the proper way to live.
Confucius’ writings and speeches can transport you. The right way to live life is to live it as it is and accept everything without discrimination.
Confucius’ books and his discourses can take you a long way in your personal growth. That’s why in this article we will discuss four very important teachings of Confucius.
1. Asceticism is not a solution
What I like very much about Confucius is his holistic way of living because what is that guru who in search of truth does not start talking about life itself and hurts his body or other human beings?
Where many people leave their wives, children and homes and go away from worldly life for the attainment of truth, they make their children orphans and their wives widows in a way. On top of that, they also give up food and torture their bodies as well. Whereas in reality there is no need for any kind of sacrifice to know the truth.
Confucius says that asceticism can be taken even without giving up material things if you understand that you never held anything and how will you leave that which you never held?
You are the pure awareness that simply observes everything as it happens. The one that catches and releases things is not you but your mind.
Understand this thing and you will remember that there has always been a lot of distance between you and illusion. This means you cannot leave what is real and there is no need to leave what is not the reality, just the realization of the truth is enough and all the attachments will automatically fall.
2. Learn to be alone
Confucius says that you were born alone, will live alone and will die alone. Loneliness is our true nature, but we have not understood this truth, because of this misunderstanding, we treat ourselves like an unknown person and instead of drowning in the beauty, peace and joy of our loneliness, we consider it as loneliness. Huh.
Loneliness is just a bad understanding of loneliness. As soon as you consider yourself lonely, you start drowning in negativity and ugliness and become of the world. Everyone runs away from being alone because it is a wound.
We lose ourselves in the herd and use friends, neighbours, wives or children so that we do not feel the pain of loneliness. But to date, no person has been able to get out of this feeling of loneliness because the natural thing cannot be got rid of.
In loneliness, a gap comes in you and you feel that something is incomplete. But in loneliness, you are complete and you are one with complete acceptance.
So just change your understanding and accept the fact that you cannot get out of your loneliness because truth cannot be divided. Lies have many faces but the truth is always one and it is understood only when it becomes one.
3. Rise above logic and mind
Confucius saw the mind as a saw that, when used at the right time, can break wood to build a house, burn it to keep warm or make a tool out of it. But think for yourself what would happen if you were sitting all the time holding a saw in your hand? Sometimes you will cut your hand, sometimes you will hurt your feet and sometimes you will injure others.
The mind only knows how to cut, there is no wisdom in it. Sometimes he will bite the bad and sometimes the good because his nature is to bite.
Confucius tells a little story where a very rich man who lived in a village. Once that rich man gives some money to the boat driver to go to the other side of the river and says just take me across the river in the boat. He sits in the boat and after walking a little, the boat starts rocking because the current of the river is very strong that day. The boat capsizes in no time. The boatman knew how to swim, so he swam to the shore, but the rich man was washed away by the water.
When this news spread in the village, the family of that person started searching for his body. After two, or three days, a fisherman himself goes to the family members and says that he has found the body, but he demands a huge amount to hand over the body to the family members. The amount is so much that the family gets very nervous even after having so much money. For such two days, the fisherman is also worried about whether he will get the money or not and the family members are also wondering whether it is right to give so much money.
Time starts passing and rich family members go to a logetian to find out a way to bring back the body for the last rites. It will start rotting and it will be of no use to him again. If you stay for a while, he will reduce his money.
Just like that the fisherman is also getting troubled there. Because in reality, the body is rotting, then he also goes to the same logetian to find out some remedy. Logetian tells him also that you don’t hurry family can’t bring anybody from anywhere else for last rites they will have to come to you and they will give him the asking price too, you just don’t leave the deal.
In this story, Confucius explains to us that the mind is a prostitute, it does not see right and wrong, and it can be made to do anything. Whether it is an argument or a story like two sites have different interests, the intellect will do the work of both sites and will present all kinds of arguments.
That’s why one cannot depend on one’s mind or intellect to know the truth. Logic will try to prove your point as well as the point of your enemy. Don’t make logic your friend, it will cheat you. Go beyond logic and mind, there is an intelligence within you which does not show any favouritism and it never changes.
Attachment of the mind creates the illusion of separation, but as soon as you keep your distance from your attachment, your mind also becomes calm and then you become wise.
Wisdom is internal and logical in the temporal world. That’s why you also go beyond logic, otherwise, you will never get the truth.
4. Make a connection with nature
Confucius has never given much importance to ambition. Because according to them, the growth of a person comes from nurturing his talent and his potential. Seeing the success of others, you decide that you too want to be like them, but you do not understand that the path of that person’s life is different from yours.
You will grow the most when you don’t compete with anyone and just give the right environment and the right knowledge to the seed inside you to grow.
Confucius says that if you don’t ask, you will get, if you give up the desire to grow, you will grow and if you don’t consider yourself different from it, you will also become the same. This means your desire doesn’t matter because you don’t know what is best for you.
So don’t make your own goals. You are already born with many goals, if you allow yourself to grow properly and follow your every interest, then you will fulfil all your goals. If you don’t put any hindrance in between, then whatever has to happen will happen.
If you have the potential to become rich, you will become rich, and even if you were born with the hunger to know the truth, you will still know the truth one day or the other.
That’s why don’t be in a hurry, let life happen inside you, and it will automatically take you to the right place.
Conclusion
Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, believed that life is a celebration rather than a burden. He rejected the idea of any type of depression and believed that living in the present and accepting everything without prejudice is the proper way to live. Confucius also taught that retirement is not a solution, as it is not necessary to give up material things in order to attain truth. He believed that understanding that we never truly hold anything, and that it is our mind that catches and releases things, is key to realizing the distance between ourselves and illusions of material things.
From a psychological perspective, Confucius’ teachings align with the concept of mindfulness and acceptance. By encouraging individuals to live in the present and accept reality without prejudice, Confucius promotes the idea of being fully present and aware in one’s life experiences, howsoever it may be. This can lead to greater self-awareness, decreased stress and negative emotions, and improved mental well-being. Additionally, his ideas suggests that letting go of attachments and expectations can lead to greater psychological flexibility and well-being. Overall, Confucius’ teachings offer valuable insights for promoting mental well-being and self-awareness.
