This wisdom was inspired by The Four Books, Chinese classic texts introducing the core values and beliefs in Confucianism, a way of life taught by Confucius. Confucianism has formed the ground rule of the Chinese culture over the last centuries, and has been influencing spiritual, social and political life in China. One of The Four Books is called The Great Learning.
I have been living in China continuously for the last 11 years, this is 1/3 of my entire life. My wife and son are both Chinese citizens. I also went to a graduate school in China and have been working in China my whole professional life teaching business management at international schools. You can get to know me better here.
I have picked up a few interesting ideas (which are neither direct translations or have direct meaning) from The Four Books, and turned them into a few inspirational thoughts which I would like to share with you now.
- To achieve a state of balance you should find your own way, unique path by paying equal attention to different areas of life – body, mind and soul.
- Have enough rest and free time in the present to be able to reflect on the past, and you will achieve a peace of mind in the future.
- Set priorities, realize what important in your life is, and get rid of everything that is not of the greatest importance.
- Bring your relationships with others and past affairs into order. End what has to be ended, if you really want to move on.
- Everyone is capable of learning new things and self-improvements regardless of what we do for a living, how much money we have in our bank accounts or which political party we support.
- We can only be successful by putting great effort in learning and improving. There are no shortcuts. This is one of the reasons why value investors like Warren Buffet are more successful than unknown short traders.
I must admit that my life has been heavily influenced by many thoughts introduced and preached in Confucianism. However, I do not lean toward one single religion or philosophy, but try to choose from different systems what universally good is, and implement into my life all the things that truly work and add value.
I believe that each religion represents only a selected aspect of a human life with different religions focusing on different things. Very similar to different political systems which do things differently (managing countries in a centralized way versus decentralized way). Cultures also emphasize different things in life (competition versus collaboration).
I also strongly believe that at the end of the day, we know how to distinguish good from bad, that people are born with the ability to do the right thing. Because everything we experience in the world gives us an opportunity to be a righteous person.
