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This week we learned about Confucius, his teachings, and read the Tao Te Ching poems. We were also asked the question whether we would want fame now or later after death and whether we would be rock or water during a conflict. This reflection has to do with my views from the week’s teaching as well as my first visit to the Nur Allah site.

I read the excerpts from the Analects of Confucius and two of them stood out to me. One of them was [13:10] The Master said: “If any of the rulers were to employ me, I would have control of the situation within a month, and would have everything straightened out within three years.” I enjoyed this quote because it made me thing of the difference between having a title and having the necessary qualities of deserving that title. If the Master could fix the situation within a month, then those rulers seem undeserving of their title. How can one be called a ruler while this Master could fix everything within three years. From my past experiences, I’ve come across people who claim to be good at something or say they can do certain things when in reality they are lying. This quote connects to me because it helps me not to judge people by the cover. Like I’m a very skinny, small child, but I’m also a black belt in karate. So don’t judge people if you really don’t know their past, and also don’t listen to people when they are sometimes bragging about themselves because most of the time, it’s false.

Another quote was [4:17] The Master said: “When you see a good person, think of becoming like her/him. When you see someone not so good, reflect on your own weak points.” This is similar to the previous quote where I think don’t treat others as you would want to be treated. If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything. I like how to quote ends, with it not saying “when you see someone not so good, don’t think of becoming like her/him.” Everyone has flaws and you shouldn’t judge people based on their weak points. There’s nobody perfect out there, and there will never be someone where you can 100% strive to be like. Just be yourself, and don’t judge people because if you do, then you will become that person who isn’t so good.

From the Tao Te Ching poems, one of them stuck with me. Poem 27 states “Therefore the good person is the bad person’s teacher, and the bad person is the good person’s resource.” I like this quote because it resembles balance in the world. There is always two sides of every coin is one of my favorite sayings, and this poem explains that well. We need people to compliment each other. From my experience as a tutor, if everyone is good at math, then my job is useless. And without tutors, people who aren’t good at math can’t get help. These so call “good” and “bad” people need each other because they can’t become complete without learning from each other. I learn about how to help people when teaching and how to adapt based on the student, and the student learns how to deal with a difficult problem and learn that some people don’t have to be good at everything to succeed in life. That’s my take from the poem, and it’s a good way to look at life.

The two questions asked in class were interesting to me. First of all, I would much rather be famous later than now. I’m not a very social person, so I hate attention. I much rather live in the shadows while people get recognition for my actions. I don’t need fame to be happy, fame is a tangible item. Popularity and happiness don’t necessarily work well with each other. For the water and rock question, I’m definitely water. I’m a calm person, so I just avoid the conflict or ignore the conflict if it’s small. I don’t get angry at little things, so like water, when there is a roadblock (like a rock), I would swim around the obstacle and keep going. Some people just get angry, and I’m always about having a positive and clean mind when dealing with problems.

Today was also my first day at my community site: Nur Allah. I went to the Friday service and meet with the sisters and brothers who work there and meet with locals who go there to pray. I somewhat taught myself the Arabic alphabet when the children were being taught while helping out the sisters in the classroom. It’s very interesting how they read from right to left, which I know is common but I had to train myself to avoid reading left to right when saying the alphabet. Everybody there is very nice and I had to good time working with the kids during Sunday school. Good week in class and with  Sunday school overall. I’ll have another reflection next week, hope you enjoy this one.

The excerpts from The Analects that we read for class both reinforced my prior knowledge of Confucius and his teachings, as well as providing me with further knowledge regarding his teachings. Before we read these excerpts I was under the impression that Confucius only emphasized filial piety and education, but since reading these excerpts I know there is far more that Confucius stood for as well. Confucius not only spoke about the aspects of filial piety and education that he stood for the most, but he also spoke about the way that governments should be treating their people to make society the most equitable for everyone. For example, “The Master said: “If good men were to govern a country for a hundred years, they could overcome cruelty and do away with killing. How true this saying is!”. Confucius also writes, “The Master said: “If you govern the people legalistically and control them by punishment, they will avoid crime, but have no personal sense of shame. If you govern them by means of virtue and control them with propriety, they will gain their own sense of shame, and thus correct themselves.”. So, not only does Confucius care deeply about filial piety and education, he also cares a great deal about the way that governments treat their people and how they let societies function.

As I was reading the second half of Tao Te Ching, I noticed that so many of the teachings within it are timeless and can be applied to today’s world. I think these are important characteristics to have for a philosophy, which is the reason that Taoism has endured for thousands of years.

Text 53 and 67 are especially relevant to modern day American culture. Text 53 talks about everything that is wrong with society such as, “The government is divided, Fields are overgrown….But the nobles’ clothes are gorgeous.” This is directly comparable to the political and social climate in the United States. The partisan politics have deepened tensions on many issues and distanced groups of people from each other just because of their policy beliefs. The environment is almost beyond repair just as the overgrown fields in Tao, but no worries because the rich wear designer clothes and eat at the finest restaurants as the poor struggle to make ends meet.

Text 67 addresses the thought processes’ of many classes of people today, “Nowadays, People reject compassion But want to be brave, Reject frugality But want to be generous”. I can see this reflected even in own my family and myself. My mom and I may own name-brand purses when off-brand purses would do the same job (rejecting frugality) , yet at the same time we religiously donate to Riley Children’s Hospital (want to be generous). I think that people sometimes need to remember that making small changes to their own lives can result in better lives for others. If this were to be done on a larger scale, than the return would be much more noticeable.

Just simply reading this text has inspired me to start making changes in my own life.

Hey Everyone! today I’d like to talk about the BBC documentary Genius of the Ancient World Confucius. This documentary was really interesting because it filled me in on the life and teachings where I wouldn’t have been filled in otherwise. Confucius had a very top down architecture for governing both families and societies. “It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered” (The Great Learning 14). Confucius’ ideals spoke of mutual respect between young and old and it’s through this ideal is how a just society functions. Confucius also valued education and merit as a basis for leadership. This ideal requires the leader to be an expert in their trade in order to lead. This is not how modern day society is run. Compared to Confucius’ ideal modern society  today’s society is often governed by people who don’t have the educated background.

This documentary, as well as the reading on  was very interesting because it allowed me to brush up on the aspects of Confucianism that I had learned before. This material also taught me more about Confucius background that I never considered before.

The lecture last night in Shelton Auditorium was nothing short of fascinating, but also depressing. The keynote speaker, Fleet Maull, had an absolutely amazing story to tell full of tragedy and hope. It was interesting that he started off by saying that he spends one third of the year in retreat, yet does not feel very religious. He founded the Prison Dharma Network, which is a Buddhist program the offers hope to inmates and is in almost all fifty states. He started a small meditation group in the prison chapel while he was incarcerated for drugg-smuggling. The popularity grew so much and he completely changed his life around after serving over ten years in prison. He is even featured in the film Path to Freedom. 

Something that Maull brought up struck me as true failure on behalf of the United States was that one in one-hundred Americans is in prison. The United States also has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world and the is going through the worst opioid epidemic in history. These are facts that are not acceptable that we need and can do better as a society to change. We should start by looking to Scandinavian countries for advice on prison systems that are based on transformative healing vs shame-based prisons, which are what the United States currently have. The prison systems’ philosophy hurts everyone involved from the inmates to the clerks to the parole officers.

One way this lecture related to class content was that one of the speakers talked about how we assign meaning to crime and that crime exists because we have created it. We give meaning to what “deviant behavior” means, and that often just unconventional behavior of marginalized populations can be see as “deviant”. This reminded me of our class discussion on Taoism and how a twenty dollar bill only has value because we assign it value.

In music, many values are portrayed through the artist’s lyrics. Across all genres, including rap, pop, and country, common themes of trust and honesty are shown. Drake’s hit “Trust Issues” is about trust in relationships because he believes people may judging him based off his money. He quotes, “All I care about is money and the city that I’m from”, stating many only care about what he has, not caring about who he is as a person. In Tao Te Ching’s poem #17 the author writes about his feelings on trust. He quotes, “Without fundamental trust there is no trust at all” (Tao Te Ching 17). Similar to Drake’s song, the author is explaining that without trust a relationship can not grow. As it is for many, it takes me time to fully open up and trust someone. In these two examples the author and singer are addressing one must be open to getting to a trustworthy level in a relationship in order for the relationship to work, which I agree with. In the country hit, “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood, Carrie sings about how her ex was not honest and cheated on her. She sings, “Oh, maybe next time he’ll think before he cheats”. In relation to the same poem in Tao Te Ching’s Daodejing intro, the poem quotes, “be careful in valuing words” (Tao Te Ching 17). Cheating goes directly along with the poem as they both touch on the value of keeping your word (in the songs case, staying loyal). These values in songs express societies “norms” as they have been shown through the media (writing and music).

Both Confucianism and Taoism are ways of life and are philosophies that are practiced by many worldwide. The two were established in China and have rich traditions. Both are associated with a specific founder. Their respective traditions have some overlapping ideas, but they also have some various philosophical differences. Taoism seems to be more of a self-conscious philosophy where the individual practicing needs to be very aware and conscious of his/her thoughts, behavior, and attitudes. Confucianism is more focused on relationships with others and social harmony.

Although there are several differences and similarities between the two philosophies, and I look forward to identifying and appreciating these as the semester continues, it is difficult to summarize all the similarities and differences in one blog post. Attached is a Venn Diagram of some of the key points that I have noticed from our readings thus far.

[embeddoc url=”http://blogs.butler.edu/ghs208spring2020/files/2020/01/ConfuciusvsTaoismVennDiagram-1.jpg” download=”all”]

Hello everyone it pleases me to discuss the reading Tao Te Ching today. In Tao Te Ching, the reading for today, poems are use to elucidate the values of the Daoist school of though. While reading these poems you can see many similarities of modern American ideals. For example, using clear and unbiased judgement when making decisions. We see this discussed in poem 3 of the reading, “Therefore, the True Person governs by emptying the heart of desire and filling the belly with food, weakening ambitions and strengthening bones” (The Tao Te Ching 7). While this doesn’t align perfectly because too often time we let anterior motives govern our actions. This conjunction between these two tell us that daoism can be used to describe a good way to govern our country.

The take away i got from this reading is daoism is a philosophy of balance. We as Americans prefer to govern and judge with balance an this have parallels with the Daoist school of thought.