Confucius
...f life or an “ethical guide” rather than as a religion. The Confucius vision of life is, in my opinion, very ethical and as many would say “down to earth”. The focus of Confucian learning is practice, but Confucian learning is also about a state of being, which covers one's attitude toward life, one's social relationships, and one's view of oneself. The keynote of Confucian ethics is jen, translated as “love,” “goodness,” “humanity,” and “human-heartedness.” Jen is a supreme virtue that represents human qualities at their best. Important Confucian virtues include righteousness, propriety, and integrity. One who possesses all these virtues becomes a chün-tzu, otherwise known as a perfect gentleman. Confucius’ vision of life is best expressed in the Confucian golden rule, “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.” Although Confucianism became the official philosophy of the Chinese state, it has never existed as an established religion with a church and priesthood. Chinese scholars honored Confucius as a great teacher but did not worship him as a personal god. Nor did Confucius himself ever claim any kind of divinity. Unlike Christian churches, the temples built for Confucius were not places in which organized community groups gathered to worship him, but public buildings or structures designed for annual ceremonies. Although Confucius accepted the idea of heaven, he never talked about God and talked about heaven in terms of a continuum with the human world, he stressed that heavenly principles were rooted in human nature and realized through human practices. The Chinese character for “mind” is the same character that designates “heart” as well. As the ultimate reality, the heart and mind is identified with benevolence or humanity or also knows as jen and with the original substance common to people, heaven, earth and all things. The heart and mind guards and dominates body and experiences, and as the substance of benevolence a...