I want to start this post by saying this: I don't understand the context. I understand most of the teachings, and I understand that it is not in chronological order, but I don't get the context. Where are they? Why are there many Masters? Which Master is the most important one? Or are they all of the same importance? Who are the people they are giving these teachings to? I am very sorry if at any moment I interpret something wrong, because until now, I have no idea who is who.
On the last post, my technique of describing and interpreting interesting quotes one by one worked pretty well, so I will do the same today. I want to start with a quote from chapter 7: "7.30 Is Goodness really so far away? If I simply desire Goodness, I will find that it is already here." I thought this quote was really interesting. Throughout these first chapters, the book has given me the impression that what every human should be aiming for is Goodness. They make it sound as if it was really difficult to get there, and as if only some people were Good. But with this quote, what they are telling us is that the only thing you have to do to achieve Goodness is to desire it. That was pretty cool to discover.
In this next quote I discovered something I didn't know before: "7.35 The Master was seriously ill, and Zilu asked permission to offer a prayer." I liked knowing that Confucians also pray. I thought they might have some other method or thing that they did, something like meditating, but now I realize they also pray. I still wonder who they pray to though.
Something that I found funny was that always, in the beginning of each chapter, the translator has included a description, that is about a paragraph long and that says what the teaching was about in each chapter. For the case of chapter 8, the description is like this: "This book does not seem to have a clear thematic or focus." I thought it was funny, and that for a person who could translate all that and describe each book, I think they could have done a lot better.
I liked this teaching a lot: "8.2 If you are respectful but lack ritual you will become exasperating; if you are careful but lack ritual you will become timid; if you are courageous but lack ritual you will become unruly; and if you are upright but lack ritual you will become inflexible." I liked it very much, but I have to accept that I don't quite understand the meaning of ritual in this specific context. Does it mean following you culture and religion? Is it something specific that people who follow the Confucian religion have to do? I will ask and I will get back to it some other day.
This next quote I think is one of the ones I have liked the most until now. "11.12 May I inquire about death? / You do not yet understand life -- how could you possibly understand death?" I think the reason why I liked this quote the most is because I have always cared a lot about death, and it is something that has been in my life all the time. Until now I realize that it is very difficult to understand death if you don't yet understand life, and it is very few the number of people who can truly understand life and its meaning. That means that almost no one can understand death. Figures.
The last quote I want to talk about is very short, and it sort of answers one of my questions at the beginning of the post. "11.26 Zilu, Zengxi, Ran Qiu, and Zihua were seated in attendance." This answers the question of who is more important than whom, because I at least know that the ones mentioned are only students. I also know that it is in the format of a class being given to students by their Confucian Masters. I still have to figure out what Master is more important than the others.
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