Humanity

 Fan Chi’h asked about humanity
Confucius said, “It is to love others”...
Analects 12:22, Confucius

    Some say that the beginning of life starts when a man asks questions. In the course of my existence, I have observed that indeed there are a lot of questions, some answered, and many still unanswered. Funny as it may seem, that as I read the Analects that I discovered a basic question that I find compelling – that is about humanity.

  Occurrences and meanings that coincide with each other bring out more than that of their literal meanings. Oftentimes, the meanings I give these words are based on what I wanted them to be. But again, the more I try to put my own meanings to them, the more the truth in them comes out, and these truths are undeniably hard to just set aside. Every word has its own truth no matter how simple it may seem.

“To love others”, Confucius said, is what it takes to be a part of humanity. Why? Because we NEED to be one with humanity. It makes sense for me. What better way for me to unite myself with the entire society than by that most common instrument that had existed ever since the dawn of time – Love. It is love that binds the strongest. It is love that established my being bound to my family, my friends, MEUS MUNDUS – my world, and eventually our world. It is the instrument by which I often use to let go of things, and choose. It is love that makes my life meaningful – the thought that someone I love would be there, waiting, needing me, that gives me the inspiration to live life and to love living it…

   The Analects in its own ways, and as tested by time, confirms in me the ability to be what I should be. It incites me to go even further in developing the meaning of my existence. In its richness, I may not be able to live a gull life. But with loving, I may be able to live my life to its fullest. There is more in life that just thinking of its problems and complexities. There is meaning – a deeper meaning in the simplicities of life. In the silence of Confucian analects, there lies a multitude of realities waiting to be discovered and yielding only one thing – to have harmony in life.