Building Inner Strength: The Chinese Philosophy of Wang Yangming's School of Mind

by Jueren Wang, Tony Blishen (Translator)

Overview

Normality today is to be enslaved by the material world to the point where individual happiness has not kept pace with increasing material prosperity. Have we lost our original nature in the pursuit of the external material world? Wang Yangming’s School of Mind of nearly 500 years ago teaches us how to overcome external circumstances and seek the source of the great strength that lies in our innermost being. Wang Yangming’s School of Mind is a gathering together of the achievements of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. It is one of the most representative and influential strands of Chinese philosophical thought and proposes that “conscience” is a cosmic prime principle innate in man that transcends all living things. The lifelong realization and practice of conscience is the only path towards self-fulfillment and perfection of character. This book uses Wang Yangming’s principles of “Mind is Principle,” “the unity of knowledge and action,” and “the exercise of conscience” to describe the School of Mind in simple terms to enable you to understand your own original self and go on a journey of self-cultivation that will gain you a kind of inner freedom and strength.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938368615
Publisher:	Shanghai Press
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.25(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Wang Jueren is a researcher of Chinese history and traditional culture. His publications include Three Hundred Years—The Rise and Fall of the Tang Dynasty and Lessons in the Wisdom of the Diamond Sutra. Tony Blishen is a retired British diplomat with service in China, Japan, and Mongolia. He studied Chinese and Japanese at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and at the Deng Zhi’ang College of Chinese in Hong Kong. His nearly 20 translations for the Shanghai Press include everything from modern fiction and children’s fiction to Zen poetry and classic literature.

Read an Excerpt

Build Your Inner Strength (excerpt)
 
The world today exists in an era of rapid technological change in which mankind has employed its intelligence and ability to create a material civilization of unprecedented prosperity that strives to make life more convenient, efficient, and comfortable. Regrettably, this highly developed material society does not offer a concomitant meaning to life. A lifestyle that puts consumerism and amusement to the fore does not equate with happiness. This is the inborn illness of modern civilization, its clinical symptoms an all-out search for material prosperity to the progressive detriment of our spiritual life. With our insatiable appetite for more and more possessions, we have allowed our own spiritual self to suffer from an increasingly serious famine. The result is a loss of meaning, an imbalance of life and alienation in human nature that makes the outer world appear ever more dazzlingly attractive, whilst our inner world becomes increasingly depressed, apprehensive, despondent, empty, and bewildered.
Erich Fromm (1900–1980), the German-born Jewish American psychoanalyst and humanist philosopher, believed that in the ancient Greek and Hebrew sources of Western civilization man’s lifetime aim was to “seek the perfection of man” but that today contemporary man invariably pursues “the perfection of objects” with the result that man has objectified himself and turned his life into a subsidiary of property. Thus, “to be” is now under the control of “to have” and “existence” is subordinate to “possession.”
It is no coincidence that amongst the sources of Chinese culture, particularly in the Confucian thought of pre-Qin philosophy represented by Confucius (551–479 BC) and Mengzi (c.372–289 BC), “the perfection of man” was the lifetime aim of the Chinese people and, even more, their most lofty spiritual target. One might even say that it was the seat of the meaning of all human life. As the Confucian classic, the Great Learning, says: “From emperor to the common people, all should make self-cultivation the foundation of their lives.” For the aim of self-cultivation is the perfection of character and self-realization, Fromm’s “perfection of man.”
Feng Youlan (1895–1990), the modern Chinese Confucian philosopher, expressed the spirit of Chinese philosophy in simple language when he said in A Short History of Chinese Philosophy: “There are all kinds and conditions of men. With regard to any one of these kinds, there is the highest form of achievement of which any one kind of man is capable. For instance, there are the men engaged in practical politics. The highest form of achievement in that class of men is that of the great statesman. So also, in the field of art, the highest form of achievement of which artists are capable is that of the great artist. Although there are these different classes of men, yet all of them are men. What is the highest form of achievement of which a man as a man is capable? According to the Chinese philosophers, it is nothing less than being a sage.”
A sage is someone whose character is at the zenith of perfection and whose spirit is free and independent through and through. Confucius once described his own experience of a life of study from, “at fifteen I had the will to study perfection of character” to, “at seventy all that I desired fell within prescribed limits.” Clearly, it is this state that is one of absolute spiritual independence.
As the Confucians saw it, the search for the meaning of life and the ability to live the kind of worthwhile life described above were, purely on a material plane, unachievable: effort was also required on a spiritual plane. Put another way, to be like Confucius, the goal of ultimate spiritual independence must be achieved through the perfection of character. It is only in this way that the meaning and value of life can grow and the hope for true joy, happiness, and success can be realized.
However, is it possible that for ordinary people like us, this kind of Chinese philosophical life is beyond our reach?
This is a superfluous anxiety. Confucius said: “Is Ren (humanity) far? If I desire it, it will arrive.” Mengzi said: “Man may be as Yao and Shun (mythological sage kings).”
Ren is the highest moral quality of Confucianism and Yao and Shun its most revered examples of integrity of character. Confucius and Mengzi were certain that everybody could possess the virtue of Ren and become a sage because they believed that each and every one of us possessed the potential.
Then, what should we do to fully realize this potential? What is there, really, that can allow us to find the meaning of life and live a worthwhile life?
Wang Yangming (1472–1529), the great Ming dynasty (1368–1644) Confucian scholar and direct transmitter of the spirit of Confucius and Mengzi, had an extremely concise answer: the exercise of conscience.
 

Table of Contents

Preface: Take the Road to Spiritual Independence Part I This Is How Sages Are Refined The Skepticism of the Child Prodigy: Is Common Sense Reliable? The Path Towards Sagehood Do Not Waver, Maintain Your Inner Freedom The Cheng-Zhu School of Reason and the Lu-Wang School of Mind Enlightenment at Longchang: the Birth of the Yangming School of Mind Part II Mind is Reason: The Road to Self-Realization Lies in the Mind Chapter 1 Trees and Flowers Amongst the Rocks: Wang Yangming’s Worldview Chapter 2 Creating a Secret Chamber for Your Soul Chapter 3 Personality Is the Source of Happiness Chapter 4 Knowing One’s Original Self Chapter 5 Retrieve the Joy of Mind Part III The Unity of Knowledge and Action: Knowledge Is the Beginning of Action and Action Is the Culmination of Knowledge Chapter 6 Constructing One’s Own World of Meaning Chapter 7 Work Is Self-Cultivation Chapter 8 Constructing an Innermost Being Impervious to Both Adoration and Insult Chapter 9 Transcending Suffering Part IV Exercise Conscience: Investigate for Knowledge, Act with Virtue and Eradicate Evil Chapter 10 Characteristics of the Four Great Values of Conscience Chapter 11 The Journey Towards Self-Cultivation Chapter 12 Realizing Spiritual Transcendence in the Mundane World Chapter 13 The Key to the World of the Mind: The Four Rules of Conscience Chapter 14 Establishing the Will to Achieve Sagehood