The Great Learning
Why must we first cultivate our own minds in order to set the world right?
📝ONGO's Reflection
When I encountered again in this book the source of that familiar phrase, "cultivate the self, regulate the family, govern the state, bring peace to all under heaven," I felt a deep sense of responsibility at the truth that the order of the world begins, after all, in the disposition of a single heart, my own. The process of "manifesting bright virtue," extending knowledge, making the will sincere, and rectifying the mind, reads less as mere political philosophy than as the most rigorous of self-cultivation guides. It is a stern ancient teaching: withdraw the arrows of criticism aimed outward, and first make your own inner self transparent and bright.
"Things have their roots and their branches. Affairs have their ends and their beginnings. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning."Zengzi, The Great Learning
"사물에는 근본과 말단이 있고, 일에는 끝과 시작이 있으니, 먼저 하고 나중 할 것을 알면 도에 가까워진다."
🌱Apply It Today
Rather than a grand resolve to change the world, start with the small act of "cultivating the self": tidy your desk today and quietly settle your restless mind.
