The journey begins inside each of us. Nurture your nature to mature our culture. As was said over two thousand years ago by a disciple of master teacher Kongzi (Confucius):
古之欲明 Ancients who wished to illuminate
明德於天下者 Enlightened virtue under heaven
先治其國 First regulated their nations
欲治其國者 Those wishing to regulate their nations
先齊其家 First ordered their families
欲齊其家者 Those wishing to order their families
先修其身 First cultivated their selves
欲修其身者 Those wishing to cultivate their selves
先正其心 First aligned their minds
欲正其心者 Those wishing to align their minds
先誠其意 First sincered their intentions
欲誠其意者 Those wishing to sincere their intentions
先致其知 First attained their wisdom
致知在格物 Attaining wisdom lies in patterning things—《禮記·大學》曾子 Zēng Zǐ (曾参 Zēng Shēn, 505-436 BCE),
Disciple of 孔子 Kǒng Zi, Records of Rites, Great Learning,
Excerpt translated by Paul C. Wang
Wisdom allows us to see patterns. Recognizing connections helps us set proper intention and directs our mind to cultivate our best self. So our first task is personal mastery. Then our social virtuosity can serve to benefit others and nature. This is as true today as millennia ago.
But does it still matter?
Many of the most perceptive systems thinkers currently assert some version of the following observation:
We are undergoing one of the greatest,
if not the greatest, transformations
ever in our species existence.
They cite tipping points at multiple scales and scopes or even an existential metacrisis, not the least of which features the fracturing of an epistemic commons; that is, shared meaning making among members of society. This is despite, or perhaps because of accelerated access to more quantity, if not quality, of information than ever before.
Those with a religious view even invoke apocalypse. The word derives from the Greek apokalyptein. Apo means “remove, off, away from" and kalyptein means “cover, conceal, hide". Indeed we are witnessing an amplified revelation of both substantial problems and potential solutions.
I will not extensively elaborate the complex nature of our challenge at hand. However, an essential existential issue is the deployment of godlike technologies (artificial intelligence, quantum computing, genetic engineering, biometric surveillance, etc) without commensurate ethical prowess as moral parameters.
Have we massively powered up while barely growing up?
Moreover, most of the relationships we primally trusted for belonging and wellbeing such as to local landscapes, communal tribes, temporal cycles have disintegrated. The same is true for more modern structures such as the nuclear family, political group, religious affiliation.
Is there anything out there we can grasp onto for permanent security?
Likely not. Because everything that emerges faces emergency at some point and ultimately demise. If this holistic birthing and dying process is dismissed then we lose touch with the totality of reality.
How does this broken duality operate in our inner world?
Conflicts and contradictions must either be resolved within each of us through self-mastery or they will inevitably play out as catastrophes and calamities against one another. And the core of this projected drama concerns death phobia.
What is the significance if “I” die? Well, it depends on who we algebraically equate with “I”.
If “I” am solely the body then its inevitable material end must be delayed at all costs or, perhaps worse, denied. This is mitigated to the degree that “I” can be expanded from personal to familial to social to biological to ecological to cosmological to universal to mystical identification.
No matter how much we try to control, there is never absolute safety in our conditional humanity and temporal world. Only when we develop a sense of the unconditional and eternal can our equanimity take root. This soul awareness of and absorption in spirit leads to true confidence. One that may then emanate to bless and heal others.
The above describes the most natural state everyone is endowed with yet few embody. Thus, the role of deliberate self-cultivation which matures to mastery, not over anyone or anything but, as alignment and attunement to sacred values is paramount.
Etymologically, the word master contains mas- which derives from the Proto-Indo-European meg- that connotes “great” as in mega or omega, even magnificent and major. In Sanskrit, this root is maha- as in maharaja (great king), mahatma (great soul), Mahayana (great vehicle).
So becoming a master is none other than being your greater self. Great as in remarkable and wonderful! Remember, this is simply actualization of the essence you already are.
Such an integrated individual is content, potent, present and lives with integrity, curiosity, creativity. This kind of person can no longer be the rare exception while dysfunctional models, outdated paradigms, stale stories crumble.
We need you to step up, because simultaneous to downfall are new opportunities arising to rebuild a beautiful collective masterpiece.
Hone your self-mastery with principles and practices to stabilize your center, balance your energy, reveal your gifts:
Thank you Professor Hirsh and you’re welcome! I did do a full translation of the Da Xue 大學 but felt it was too long for this article.
Appreciate the Legge, Chen(s), Zhu Xi references. Li 理 is so beautiful as principles and patterns.
Ge 格 parsed as 各 Ge 木 Mu or “each tree” likens to seeing both: trees of forest and forest of trees!
Thank you for always sharing your wisdom.