Confucius

People St. Augustine has met in the Spiritual World

Confucius

When we are born to the world, we are not complete, with all of God's attributes. We need internal and external environments on many levels during our growth to perfection. However, we shaped ourselves in the wrong direction before we reached perfection.

Then, what is the original human image and the standard of human perfection, and what process is required for us to perfect ourselves in the original form? As you know, I have experienced both the life on earth and one in the spiritual world, and I would like to elucidate this issue on the basis of this experience.

For this, I wanted to meet Confucius, who is highly respected and admired by all people on earth. When on earth, he strictly observed the rules of propriety even in such minor things as taking a step. This intrigued me, and I asked him why he felt he had to live like this. Confucius opened his mouth only after a long silence. He believed that since he had not been born according to his wish, he should cherish everything around him as he respected his parents, and furthermore that his parents were also a precious inheritance from his ancestors. According to him, in our life on earth, we should respect and serve our elders in all matters, and love our juniors because they are to inherit our tradition. Since our vertical and horizontal human relationships are for the sake of sharing precious love, we should rely on one another in trust, cover one and other's defects, share things together and strengthen our friendships. Confucius feels that this is the natural human way.

On the other hand, exhorts Confucius, our natural environment is also a precious inheritance from our parents and ancestors, and so we should cherish and improve it so that we can again hand it down to our descendants pure and clean. All we have received from our ancestors, including our bodies, our thoughts, and our living environment, reflect their spirit. All of us have the responsibility to keep what we have received intact and pass it on to our descendants. Therefore, he continues, in heaven and earth, there is nothing that is without value. It is necessary for us to cherish them, and to do this we need to be educated in the rules of propriety. Serving our ancestors is no different from believing in and serving God.

This is the conclusion of Confucius.

Although I do not know when, where, and how Confucianism started, I concluded that this philosophy has something important for us. The human nature that seeks to use freedom within the limits of certain established norms, instead of living arbitrarily must eventually come from the nature to love and serve God. In this light, we can say that from the beginning, we are created in such a way that we live in an inseparable relationship with God. I believe that all human beings should live this way, and that this is very natural for them.

May 18, 2000