Confucianism In My Life

Written for my Religion and Politics class, on Confucianism.

Essentially, Confucianism (which is more of a lifestyle than a theology, but potential for being considered religious nonetheless) as a structured set of ideals not only allows but promotes the prioritization of the community over that of the individual. By religious, I mean so in terms of practicing particular habits or patterns which actively address or interact with a chosen set of values, such as an organized theology (like Christianity is seen as mostly) or as a guide for clarification on ethics (like Buddhism is seen as mostly). Either way, these daily, weekly, or monthly self-reflections, including or not including physical actions such as prayer or meditation, seek to enlighten the self on how to make decisions taking the world around you into consideration with respect to the values which one has decided to commit to. Confucianism discusses this aspect of life as inherently secular, or in other words, entirely personal. With other religions, one can choose to interpret Scripture or even worship as asocial or otherwise intentionally distinguished from the external; however, the creation of Confucianism was done so with fundamental intentions of establishing that distinction.

To realize this, not only about Confucianism but of how faith, belief, and religion is very much capable of being applicable in your life, and yet not necessarily interfere with your daily life, is the ultimate acknowledgement that “[h]uman beings must focus their attention and effort on the moral, and the rest will fall into place.” (p. 104) The unique aspect of Confucianism is that one could say it is an applicable label to all religions. All religions and faiths could in some sense be Confucianist, so long as it is practiced with the focus on morality. Ah, here it is again: ethics.

My friends who are Christian often make statements along the lines of the following: “The Bible says to love all people. I choose to abide by that mindset, and will not allow the other parts of my beliefs [on same-sex marriage, abortion, or who to vote for this upcoming Nov. 6*,] to infringe upon the core moral that we should love one another.” This idea of making personal your own faith and interacting with people based on the single moral of love and compassion is easily considered a Confucianist belief. Does it mean that it is not Christian? Of course not, because most religions promote love and compassion! Those concepts do not adhere to the property of exclusivity.

Great. With love established as the primary motivator for faith, or more broadly life and living, the succeeding question is whether or not love is also the established primary motivator for policy. Does government seek to protect and enhance love, indiscriminately and consistently? If not, how do we take existing structures of government and modify or recreate them in order to do so? Is it possible for human beings, as flawed as we are individually and collectively, to create a system which attempts to be perfect in promoting love in its purest form?

*Sigh.* Although I do not believe it is possible due to the animalistic sense of individual self-preservation paired with our entire species’ historical lack of collective self-preservation due to the accumulation of systematic oppressions of the latter, I also believe there is nothing we as individuals OR as a collective can do besides TRY to disintegrate said structural system by contradicting it with the exact thing which drives any of us to live at all: love. I hope that made a tiny bit amount of sense.

By assuming that “the other” WILL (not can, not may, not should, but WILL) take “myself” into consideration when they make decisions, and in turn choosing to take “the other” into consideration when I make a decision, humanity will inevitably begin to shift.

Our pains lie not in our faiths or our legislations, but rather in our singular choices, and there is naught to be done but take responsibility for ourselves, try with all our might to improve those choices, and trust that others will also.