In this episode, I share a short clip (and a few passages) from my conversation with Stephen Angle, the author of Growing Moral: A Confucian Guide to Life. The full conversation will release next week on In Search of Wisdom.
Cultivate Your Sprouts
An important starting point for any project is believing in yourself (and human nature). Many wisdom traditions attempt to help us realize our inherent goodness.
In Growing Moral, Angle quotes the Confucian philosopher Mengzi,
“Suppose someone suddenly saw a child about to fall into a well. Anyone in such a situation would have a feeling of alarm and commiseration — not because they sought to get in good with the child’s parents, not because they wanted a good reputation among their neighbors and friends, and not because they dislike the sounds of a child’s cries.” […]
We do not often encounter uncovered wells today but imagine seeing a child chase a ball into a street with oncoming traffic, write Angle. For Mengzi, the point is that our automatic response, which he calls the “sprout of humaneness,” helps to define humans.
Similarly, Albert Einstein called the most important question a person can ask, "Is the Universe a friendly place?” Or, put another way, are humans inherently good? In Buddhism, they call it buddha-nature; all beings have the potential to become Buddhas.
According to Mengzi, if one works at cultivation, one’s sprouts can grow into full-fledged virtues. Angle writes, “Cultivation is work, but once the sprouts grow into full-fledged virtues (that is, once you fill them out), the resulting capabilities are powerful and automatic. This is why the Confucians describe the virtuous reactions of a sage as spontaneous.” […]
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Thank you for listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. Please feel free to let me know if you would like more (or less) of these short clips from In Search of Wisdom.
Cultivate Your Character - Like Confucius