Post 16 A Harmonious World
Xunzi, a great thinker and a philosopher in ancient China, explains why human beings stand out distinctively at the highest level in nature as follows:
“Water and fire are substances with energy but without life; plants have life but without cognizance; animals have cognizance but without morals; human beings have energy, life, cognizance, and morals thereby making them supreme. (Cognizance means awareness, understanding or knowledge.)
Why is it that human beings whose strength is not equal to that of oxen, and whose walking speed is inferior to that of horses, have command over oxen and horses? The answer is that human beings are gregarious (enjoying the company of others), whereas oxen and horses are not.”
We can therefore divide the living things in the world in ascending order as water and fire, plants, animals and human beings.
Hence, when human beings cannot live peacefully among one another, they are worse than oxen and horses. The world will only be a better place to live in when people are harmonious in nature.
20 October 2009
Live and let live!
ReplyDeleteWell said and thank you, Juliet.
ReplyDeleteThis proverb is Dutch in origin. John Ray made it an English proverb in 1678.
One should be tolerant of differences because no two people are the same.
How wonderful it is for people to live in harmonywith God as the conductor and we as the musicians playing harmoniously in an orchestra
ReplyDelete