溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Do I Nourish the Greater Part of Myself, or the Smaller?
If within a person there is a greater part and a smaller — on nourishing which do I spend my days?
One who follows the greater part becomes a great person; one who follows the smaller part becomes a small person.
The thought that a person holds a higher and a lower part grew up side by side in many traditions. Mencius divided it into the greater part (heart-mind) and the smaller (senses); Xunzi countered that human nature is bad, so sensual desire must be curbed and governed by ritual. Far to the West, Plato split the soul into reason, spirit, and appetite, with reason to rule, and Aristotle too held the rational part should guide the irrational. What ought to govern what — over the hierarchy within the human, East and West cast strikingly kindred questions.
The more an age overflows with instant stimulation and convenience, the more this question — "do I nourish the greater part of myself?" — reweighs how a day is spent.
Mencius said there are two seats within a person.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Mencius said there are two seats within a person. The ears and eyes, unable to think, are dragged along by outer things; the heart-mind thinks and so stands on its own. Which one you follow and nourish divides the great person from the small. I read this not as contempt for the body but as a question of order — which to nourish first. Chasing comfort and stimulation before me, have I not left the greater thing, the heart, to starve? I stand between the greater and the smaller, before this question.
✍️Your Answer
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