Everyone would like to be born a Greater being. Nobody would want a suffering life. Everyone wishes to go to the bright place meaning Heaven after death. However, human beings are often helpless when it comes to this matter. What is actually the root of the problem?

Firstly what is the meaning of by being great? During the time of Confucius, there was a comment about him to his student and it was said, “I am most impressed with Confucius’ boundless knowledge about the universe. Even from the ‘Sang Yang’ (a kind of bird that had only one leg) dancing around he could predict so accurately that there will be a fire. Your teacher is truly a Saint!” This student went to inform Confucius of this remark made by others. Confucius then said, “I lived in a very poor family when I was a child. That is why I know so many of these insignificant things and learned all these lesser abilities.” In the eyes of Confucius, all these knowledge, ability or proficiency in language were all insignificant matters. There was really nothing to be proud of or be arrogant about it. He said it was because he was so poor that he picked up all these mundane skills.

From this we can establish that if we live in comfort, then we may never learn. It is not surprising that people who grew up with a silver spoon may not even know how to cook rice or fry an egg because they have maids to do that for them. One rich young lady did not even know how to boil water when was requested to give a helping hand in the temple in order to make tea for the guests. She finally learned it at the temple because her house has many maids to look after their households.

To understand this point, let us refer to a passage from The Book of Mencius:

“Gong Du Zi asked, ‘Everyone is born a human. Yet some become the greater beings and some end up as the lesser beings. Why is that so?

Mencius replied, ‘Those who follow the greater body would become the great beings and those who follow the lesser body would end up as the lesser beings.’

Gong Du Zi asked again, ‘Everyone is human. Why would some follow the greater body, and some follow the lesser body?’

Mencius responded. ‘The ears and the eyes are thoughtless entities. Therefore they are easily deluded by external entities. The interaction between these entities creates the delusion. The heart is a conscious medium. For as long as one is mindful, one will gain from one’s existence. If one is not mindful, then one will gain nothing. All these are bestowed upon us by heaven. We must firstly establish the greater body. The lesser body will not be able to deprive us of our wholeness. This is how one can become a greater being.”

Gong Du Zi was a student of Mencius. He was curious about why the path chosen by each individual is so different. Greater beings means a Saint, a Buddha, people of nobility and great virtues. Jesus Christ was a human when he was alive, likewise

From the reply of Mencius we can say that there exist two paths. If you follow the path of a greater body, then you will become a greater being. If you follow the path of a lesser body, then you will become the lesser being. Of course everyone would like to follow the greater body. Unfortunately people are not awakened to the reality and just look at the surface, for example:

There are two persons. One is a very knowledgeable person who has completed his doctorate degree and the other one an illiterate. The former is very arrogant and disrespectful towards his parents and other elderly persons. In contrast, the illiterate person is very humble and filial towards his parents. Who is better of the two and will earn respect of others? The answer is quite obvious. One can be very knowledgeable but if one is arrogant and disrespectful, then all the knowledge that one has gained becomes insignificant. On the contrary, one can be illiterate but has great sense of humility and respect. Not only the illiterate can win the respect of others but also gain nobility. We can then establish the difference between nobility and inferiority and it is not whether one is rich or poor in life can make us great.

Mencius had used the eyes and ears to describe our entire physical being. The eyes and ears are organs similar to all our other organs such as our heart, liver, and kidneys etc. These organs themselves are thoughtless. They do not know how to think and it is easy for them to be deluded by external entities. We cannot allow these organs to run our lives because they can be easily influenced and tempted by the external conditions such as desires. For instance, if a person let his eyes roam towards physical pleasures and do not know how to control his conduct; it can become a sexual misconduct which is a sin. He then becomes a lesser person and most of the sins started with sight and then the mind and action of the hands. Many downfalls are due to this misconduct.

The first thing we must do is to establish the greater body and they are bestowed upon us by heaven according to Mencius. To be enlightened to Tao is essentially to revive the strength of the greater body; to come to the realization of the existence of the greater body, the spiritual body. Then we should seek to nurture the strength of the greater body so that it can govern the lesser body to lead a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Author: T.A Chew

T.A Chew was told that, “wealth and fame in life is governed by heaven, but the good and the bad is governed by himself.” He understands that as long as he can establish his greater body, his lesser body will be glorified. Website: http://www.white-sun.com

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