Mencius Reflection

The 7 pages regarding the thoughts of Mencius are somewhat repetitive I believe. Mencius believes in a sense that humans are not inherently good or bad rather neutral at birth and it is more outside influences and the values that one places on thoughts or actions that sways one to either side as their life progresses. One of the sayings I like the most in the reading is when he talks about people losing their dogs or chickens, going to go out and look for the lost. But when they lose touch with their heart or it becomes broken, they will not go out and look for it. This is important because he ties in that you only have one life and man should value every inch of their skin/body. With this value of your life he brings up another good point of if ones favorite thing in the world is to love, their least favorite thing in the world is to die. So then why does one take so many risks and put themselves in danger? While I somewhat understand this, I feel like my side to this is one is not truly living if they don’t take risks because then they are not seeking out their full potential.