1.
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you
want to be happy, practice compassion.” (page 951)
There was a story I heard once about a speaker who gave
everyone a task. Everyone wrote their names on a balloon and they placed all
balloons into a big room. The task was for everyone to go inside and find the
ones with their own names on it. Barely anyone got their balloon. After that,
the speaker changed the task to “Pick any balloon and find the person and give
the balloon to him/her.” After a few minutes, everyone has their balloon at the
end. The purpose of this exercise was to teach people that everyone is way too
busy finding happiness within themselves, when really a big part of happiness
is giving it to someone else. So this quote above spoke to me well because I
believe in it well. In Chinese philosophy, this is quite similar; your significance
and influence is based on how well you affect other people’s lives. In fact, my
favorite film of all time is It’s A
Wonderful Life, and that film taught people that real happiness comes from
making other people’s lives be better.
2.
“6. Practice nonattachment to views. Remain open to receive
others’ viewpoints. Do not force others to adopt your views.” (page 954)
This quote basically just means “be open-minded.” Sounds
really simple, but history and society has proved that this is easier said than
done. The second sentence about being open to others’ viewpoints has been
proven nearly impossible for creationists and, no offense, most Republicans. As
for the final sentence about forcing others to adopt views, I have seen this
happen in almost any religion, but especially Christianity.
3.
“How can we survive on a planet of ten billion points of
infinite greed and pride?” (page 967)
This is a good and common point I run into, and it almost
always concerns pollution and global warming at the end. It is amazing that a
significant part of the US government still denies that global warming exists.
However, it has also been scientifically shown via several sources that there’s
nothing we can do to *prevent* global warming and pollution. Eventually the
Earth would no longer support the human race, and we may have to resort to something similar to what we saw in Chris
Nolan’s Interstellar. But even if
that ends up a possibility, what gives us the right to just colonize another
planet and use up its resources?
4.
“[…] so that Christian love really comes with a proviso,
namely that ‘you accept my religion.’ The Confucian view, however, is that all men
can achieve sagehood. It has no organization, and does not require worship of
Confucius since any man can potentially become like him.” (page 975)
YES YES YES! This is exactly why throughout my years, I
never found Christianity fully acceptable. There are places that either don’t
make sense or are just not appealing. I don’t like how Christianity feels like
a club or a fraternity – “You must follow these rules, I mean guidelines, in
order to qualify as a member. Now you may join us. Love us and we will love you
blahblahblah.” Eastern philosophy is never like that. It reaches out to every
single person with just universal ideas and thoughts that anybody can achieve
and reach to. I used to describe Confucianism as an open door that remains
open, warm and inviting for anybody to walk in.
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