As most of you know I have been away from facebook and the website for a while due to health reasons. I sincerely appreciate those who follow me here and am sorry for my absence. I’ve had a chance to reflect on the role of the Kongdan Foundation and it’s intended role going forward. How to express that we are all universal and connected in ways we don’t seem to understand or appreciate. We are not islands unto ourselves. This connection to nature and each other was shown again in the Houston area and in Florida the last few weeks with hurricanes and wind and water. Rather we believe in global warming or not, man’s (our) impact on nature is real. Cause and effect are still determining factors with universal law. Climate change is real and man’s impact on nature and our environment is not deniable and should not be debatable. My own reference points always seem to point to history and China. With all the talk today of “fake news” and somehow interpreting events with commentary to fit our own opinion of reality – either real or imagined – there must ultimately be some sense of unity that combines the needs of all.
The notion of the “Great Unity” first appeared in the Book of Rites, one of the Confucian Chinese classics, first codified by Ji Dan, the Duke of Zhou in Qufu in one thousand B.C. According to it, the society in Great Unity was ruled by the public, where the people chose men of virtue and ability, and valued trust and harmony. People did not only love their own parents and children, but also secured the living of the elderly until their ends, let the adults be of use to the society and helped the young grow. Those who were widowed, orphaned, childless, handicapped and diseased were all taken care of. Men took their responsibilities and women had their homes. People disliked seeing resources being wasted but did not seek to possess them; they wanted to exert their strength but did not do it for their own benefit. Therefore, selfish thoughts were dismissed, people refrained from stealing and robbery, and the outer doors remained open.
None of this occurred by accident. The I Ching was always the talisman, or guide, to how to see how things connected to each other. This is best illustrated by something called “The Dazhuan, The Great Treatise”, the 5th and 6th Wings of the Ten Wings that has guided Chinese philosophy from the time of Confucius until today.
Contending for the middle must become the mindset of all going forward.
Number 30
September 25, 2017
What is our Role?
One of the core principles of spiritual understanding is to see how everything fits together in the universe and how this reflects back upon us. This was one of the underlying premises of following the stars, the big dipper being a favorite, for example.
There was a symmetry knowing that while the stars were stationary the earth moved so that what you saw today would in turn come again… and again. and again. Everything in nature and the universe connected us to everything else. Could there be a purpose to our being here and how do we learn to see beyond ourselves? When do we learn that the attachments and riches of a lifetime are but a flash of lightening in eternity.
For the earliest shaman this understanding and eventual wisdom was paramount in establishing the connection between what was to be known as heaven and earth and what man’s role was to become. Because it encompassed everything (the ten thousand things), it was unnamable but was to become known as the Tao, or to many God. The advantage that China has had over the millennia has been an uninterrupted history where the dots (prefaced by the stars in the sky) could be connected over space and time. The question was and has always been what man’s connection or role between heaven and earth should be. As a teacher, I would always stress finding our innate talents and using them to see beyond ourselves. I was a university teacher teaching students who were to become teachers themselves. I learned a lot about what my own role was to be then.
It was to this question that Taoism, Buddhism, Confucius, and even Christianity in China has collectively attempted to speak to and attempted to answer. Not in competition, as if one has the answers the others don’t. But a collective consciousness that leads one to a universal awareness and that we all came from and will return to the same source.
If we are connected to a universe that is never ending as human beings with souls or a spirit that is eternal; we are in reality never ending spirits simply having a human experience. Knowing this what can our ultimate role or experience while we are here be?
