Confucius : Kong Fu-Tse (551-479 BC), Chinese philosopher; Confucianism has been the substance of learning, the source of values, & the social code of the Chinese.
... other than the biographer's. Well, if a Page 22 biographer of Confucius can be such an unmitigated ass, Confucius may be allowed to be unwise once or twice, I suppose. Myself: I touch upon a delicate subject, but it is a puzzle. Sri Aurobindo: Why delicate? and why a puzzle? Do you think that Buddha or Confucius or myself were born with a prevision that they or I would take to the spiritual... writer of the life of Confucius raised a pertinent question regarding the marriages of spiritual persons in which Sri Aurobindo also figured as one. I Page 21 sent it in the form of a questionnaire to Sri Aurobindo more out of fun than with a serious intention. Here are his good-humoured replies, albeit a bit sharp. Myself: Somebody writing a life of Confucius in Bengali says: "Why... Aurobindo: Well, it is better to be (dharma-mad) than to be a sententious ass and pronounce on what one does not understand. Myself: "We feel so sad about Buddha's wife, so too about the wife of Confucius." Sri Aurobindo: Poor sorrowful fellows! Myself: "We don't understand why they marry and why the change comes soon after marriage." Sri Aurobindo: Perfectly natural - they marry before the ...
... except Christ, showed a lack of wisdom by marrying! Well, if a biographer of Confucius can be such an unmitigated ass, Confucius may be allowed to be unwise once or twice, I suppose. I touch upon a delicate subject, but it is a puzzle. Why delicate? and why a puzzle? Do you think that Buddha or Confucius or myself were born with a prevision that they or I would take to the spiritual life... purpose and I kept the carte blanche that I might use it for other purposes? What's this shishya who doesn't read his guru's objurgations however illegible?! Somebody writing the biography of Confucius in Bengali says: "Why do the Dharmagurus marry, we can't understand. Buddha did and his wife's tale is হৃদয় বিদারক... 203 Why? What is there বিদারক in it? He goes on: "Sri Aurobindo, though... 204 Well, Sir? Well, it is better to be ধর্ম্ম পাগল than to be a sententious ass and pronounce on what one does not understand. "We feel so sad about his wife, so too about the wife of Confucius." Poor sorrowful fellows! "It is the same about কং. 205 He had even a son and two daughters. [Sri Aurobindo put a? above "কং".] Who is this gentleman? Is it Wrong? Or is it Kong ...
... showed a lack of wisdom by marrying! [S.A.:] Well, if the biographer of Confucius can be such an unmitigated ass, Confucius may be allowed to be unwise once or twice, I suppose. [N:] I touch upon a delicate subject, but it is a puzzle. [S. A.: ] Why delicate ? And why a puzzle ? Do you think that Buddha or Confucius or I myself were born with a pre-vision that they or I would take to the... out, because that subject of His marriage made us curious. So I wrote: [Reading from Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo (1995), 575-576] [Nirod-da:] Somebody writing about the life of Confucius in Bengali says: "Why do the Dharmagurus marry, we can't understand. Buddha did and his wife's tale is heart-rending." [Sri Aurobindo:] Why? Mark the tone! What is there... Sir? [S.A.:] Well, it is better to be dharma-mad than to be a sententious ass and pronounce on what one does not understand. [N:] "We feel so sad about his wife, so too about the wife of Confucius." [S.A.:] Poor sorrowful fellows! [N:] "So we don't understand why they marry and why this change comes soon after marriage." [S.A.:] Perfectly natural - they marry before the change ...
... are a few I pick out of a recent barrage with a direct or indirect relation to a causerie on literature. Confucius and a Curious Classification A correspondent echoes the "intrigued" uncertainty felt by Bertrand Russell about a saying of Confucius. "Men of virtue," declares Confucius, "love the mountains, men of learning the sea." A very attractive classification, admits Bertrand Russell but... it mirrors the truths of high heaven but is content like the sea to mirror them instead of reaching out towards them for actual possession as mountains appear to do. Gandhian Satyagraha Confucius was a man both of virtue and learning. Our Mahatma Gandhi is mainly the former. But, of course, all that is done by a virtue-seeking man need not be right. Sometimes, virtue can be mountainish in ...
... except Christ, showed a lack of wisdom by marrying. Well, if a biographer of Confucius can be such an unmitigated ass, Confucius may be allowed to be unwise once or twice, I suppose. I touch upon a delicate subject, but it is a puzzle. Why delicate? and why a puzzle? Do you think that Buddha or Confucius or myself were born with a prevision that they or I would take to the spiritual life... Of course the first thing is to believe, aspire and, with the true urge within, make the endeavour. 2 September 1931 Ordinary Consciousness and Awakening Somebody writing a biography of Confucius in Bengali says: "Why do the Dharmagurus marry, we can't understand. Buddha did and his wife's tale is heart-rending [হৃদয়-বিদারক]." Why? What is there বিদারক in it? He goes on: "Aurobindo ...
... And luckily at the very beginning of my survey — in China itself — I found the word of wisdom. It came from the sage Confucius. I would rather be a disciple of Lao-Tse than a Confucian, which is perhaps the Chinese for confusion, (laughter) Anyway, here Confucius was quite clear and not in the least confused. His aphorism read: "Our greatest glory lies not in never falling but in rising... rising every time we fall." So this became my life's motto before I reached Pondicherry. After my arrival here, I let Confucius himself drop (laughter) and naturally looked for something in Savitri. There I found Sri Aurobindo saying that it is not easy for us to remain perched on the heights for long. He writes that "a dull gravitation drags us down." Then he adds: This too the Supreme ...
... spiritual. Nirodbaran made the pathetic remark with other cases in mind: "We feel so sad about Buddha's wife, so too about the wife of Confucius." After discussing the matter half jocularly and half seriously Sri Aurobindo concluded: "Do you think that Buddha or Confucius or myself were born with a prevision that they or I would take to the spiritual life? So long as one is in the ordinary consciousness ...
... with a letter (27 April 1936) of Nirod's and Sri Aurobindo's answers that may shed some light on a point which some people seem to find 'puzzling.' . Nirod: "Somebody writing the biography of Confucius in Bengali says: 'Why do the Dharmagurus marry, we can't understand. ...' He goes on: 'Sri Aurobindo, though not Dharmaguru, has done it too, and can be called dharma pagal. ' 2 Well, Sir?" ... you, except Christ, showed a lack of wisdom by marrying!... I touch upon a delicate subject, but it is a puzzle." Sri Aurobindo: "Why delicate ? and why a puzzle ? Do you think that Buddha or Confucius or myself were born with a prevision that they or I would take to the spiritual life? So long as one is in the ordinary consciousness, one lives the ordinary life —when the awakening and the new ...
... question is sometimes posed why Sri Aurobindo married at all, if he had no intention of leading what passes for "normal" family life. There have been others too, for example Gautama Siddhartha and Confucius and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. If there was to be a "change" soon afterwards, why did they marry Page 211 at all in the first instance? Answering the correspondent who ventured to put... Aurobindo wrote disarmingly: Perfectly natural - they marry before the change - then the change comes and the marriage belongs to the past self, not to the new one.... Do you think that Buddha or Confucius or myself were born with a prevision that they or I would take to the spiritual life? So long as one is in the ordinary consciousness, one lives the ordinary life - when the awakening and the new ...
... a Sandow or a Ramamurti. She may seek to bring about a better combination of mental & moral, or of moral, mental & physical energies; but is she likely to produce anything much above the level of Confucius or Socrates? It is more probable & seems to be true that Nature seeks in this field to generalise a higher level and Page 116 a better combination. Neither need we believe that, even here ...
... can be said to be a veritable landmark in the history of the philosophy of mysticism.” The author continues: “It is surprising to find parallel thoughts in the writings of the Chinese philosopher, Confucius, who lived in the 5th century B. C. To the question ‘How can the finite man attain the infinite Cheng?’ he answers: ‘Cheng is actually to be reached only by the sage, but it is the business of the ...
... presence that determines all our thoughts, activities, feelings, impulsions of will by its infallible power and knowledge. The older religions erected their rule of the wise, their dicta of Manu or Confucius, a complex Shastra in which they attempted to combine the social rule and moral law with the declaration of certain eternal principles of our highest nature in some kind of uniting amalgam. All three ...
... it is the action of the Grace of the Mother that alone can effect a transformation of the Vibhuti [ p. 35 ]. I would like to know the difference. Take for example, Christ, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, Confucius, Zarathustra, Buddha, Shankara, Mohammed, Alexander, Napoleon—among these well-known figures which are Vibhutis of the Mother and which are Vibhutis of the Ishwara? And what about the Mother's action ...
... cases it is the action of the Grace of the Mother that alone can effect a transformation of the Vibhuti [p. 16]. I would like to know the difference. Take for example Christ, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, Confucius, Zarathustra, Buddha, Shankara, Mohammed, Alexander, Napoleon—among these well-known figures, which are Vibhutis of the Mother and which are Vibhutis of the Ishwara? And what about the Mother's action ...
... need fear no fall. But this would mean an extreme "Safety First" measure. I would have to keep sitting on the ground for ever and a day, or else walk on all fours. I prefer what the Chinese sage Confucius has to offer me. He wrote: "Our greatest glory lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." You can't deny that I have risen and I shall try to rise also to the occasion of our ...
... They embody sets of values and are based on specific views of the world and of man's place within it. China's two great philosophers had lived during the first half of the second millennium BC. Confucius had laid down theories of man and the way of human society around 500 BC. Lao Tzu is thought to have expounded his mystical vision of man and the tao or 'way of nature' around 300 BC. Taoism is p ...
... 384 Christianity, 23, 58, 151, 168, 213, 280,282,359 Churchill, Winston, 91, Ill, 128 Coleridge, 194 Commonwealth, 91, 106, 236 Communism, 25, 27-8, 125-6 Confucius, 222 Copernicus, 308 Cordelia, 185n Corneille, 197 Crete, 214 Cyrus, 240 Czechoslovakia, 100 DANTE, 39, 79, 197 . - Divina Commedia ...
... Jesus, 68, 107, 114, 116-18, 120, 122-4, 129, 240, 267 Christianity, 120, 125, 240, 244, 276 Coleridge, 84, 235 -Kubla Khan, 84 Commonwealth, 284, 290 Communism (Sovietic), 253 Confucius, 281 Cousins, James H., 52n -New Ways in English Literature, 52n DANDAKARANYA,276 Dante, 53, 60-1, 71, 85, 169, 176,219 -Inferno, 53, 60n., 149, 169n -Paradiso, ...
... tapasya and the fruits of their Page 134 tapasya have been left with the collectivity. We hardly know anything about these people. In the historical period we had the Buddha, Confucius who showed us the path and exhorted us to follow a certain discipline and live in a certain way in order to attain perfection. All this, even if it has enlightened our life a little bit, has ...
... "Wisdom and the Religions" - a veritable universal congress of the world's seers, saints and savants like Asoka, Carlyle, Porphyry, Seneca, Emerson, Socrates, Plato, Heraclitus, Voltaire, Tseu-Tse, Confucius, Minamoto Sanetomo, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Epictetus, Lao-Tse, Leibnitz, Hermes, Schopenhauer, Sadi, Asvaghosha, Rumi, Spinoza, Bahaaullah, Omar Khayyam, Pythagoras, Kant, Firdausi, Ramakrishna ...
... words of a sage and seals them in his heart. (Ecclesiasticus) *** It is impossible to arrive at the summit of the mountain without passing through rough and difficult tracks. (Confucius) *** Seek for a guide who can lead you to the gates of knowledge where shines the light free of all darkness. (Dhammapada) *** ...
... Kempis) 20.12.1953 *** Only a wise man can recognise the wise. (SMALL) 27.12.1953 *** Question attentively and then meditate at leisure over what you have heard. (Confucius) 03.01.1954 *** He who likes to question increases his knowledge. 31.01.1954 *** He who loves to question, expands his knowledge; but he who considers only his personal ...
... gypsies! And when I say Hungarian, I mean the Magyar element which I suppose has mid-Asiatic characteristics. Do these ideas point to some occult truth or some outstanding fact of previous birth? Confucius? Lao-Tse? Mencius? Hang-whang-pu? (Don't know who the last was, but his name sounds nice.) Can't remember anything about it. As for the Hungarian gypsy, I suppose we must have been everything at one ...
... individuals who first harmonised and perfected its traditionary ideals and routine of life and expressed the consciousness of the race in their political or ethico-legal systems. Such were Lycurgus, Confucius, Menes, Manu. For in those days individual greatness and perfection commanded a sacred reverence from the individual consciousness, because in each man it was to this greatness and perfection that ...
... the distinction we can gather from the Gita which is the main authority on this subject.” 4 Among the Vibhutis may be counted: Veda Vyasa, Hatshepsut, Moses, Pericles, Socrates, Alexander, Confucius, Lao Tse, Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, Mohammed, Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, Shankara, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, and undoubtedly many more in all times and climes. All of them were ...
... end a priest was found who, for some remuneration, consented to perform the ceremony. When Sri Aurobindo was later asked why he had married at all, he wrote in reply: ‘Do you think that Buddha or Confucius or myself were born with a prevision that they or I would take to the spiritual life? So long as one is in the ordinary consciousness, one lives the ordinary life. When the awakening and the new ...
... o'erwom; When hours have drained his blood and filled his brow With lines and wrinkles... I see hardly any creases across my forehead. At my age I should be expected to speak like Confucius who, when asked how his brow could show such three deep furrows, answered: "The first reminds me of the gross defects with which my nature was marked from birth. The second recalls the track of great ...
... Research Institute, 1951, Varanasi; Pye, M., The Buddha, Duckworth, 1979, London; Lealman, 0., Averroes and His Philosophy, Clarendon Press, 1988, Oxford; Hall, D.L, Ames, R.T., Thinking Through Confucius, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1987, New York; McGrath, A.E., Christian Theology: An Introduction, Blackwell, 1994, Oxford. 18 Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, ...
... of Nations, Voltaire presented the first modern comparative history of civilizations, including Asia. Later he returned to the Chinese philosophy is his Dictionary, praising the teachings of Confucius: "What more beautiful rule of conduct has ever been given man since the world began? Let us admit that there has been no legislator more useful to the human race." * * * Page 69 ...
... all the famous people in the world or any of them; but you must prove your case.... 80 (2)AK: When Paul Brunton saw you, he had the impression of you as a Chinese sage. Sri Aurobindo: Confucius? Lao-Tse? Mencius? Hang-whang-pu? Don't know who the last was, but his name sounds nice! 81 (3)AK: That incorrigible Nirod has a chronic habit of misquoting me. He garbles my words, misreads ...
... "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought". Such an age of Reason and Ratiocination and pure brain power was ushered in by Buddha in India, and almost contemporaneously by Socrates in Greece and Confucius in China. The rational, that is to say, the scientific or analytical attitude to things appeared in the human consciousness for the first time in its fullness and almost exclusive sway. Neither the ...
... cal schools, the Sankhyas perhaps, and in the great Buddhist illumination – Buddha being, we note with interest, almost a contemporary of Socrates and also of the Chinese philosopher or moralist Confucius – a triumvirate almost of mighty mental intelligence ruling over the whole globe and moulding for an entire cycle human culture and destiny. The very name Buddha is significant. It means, no doubt ...
... 339, 368, 385 Brindaban, 385 Britain, 338 Buddha, 52-3, 104-6,182-3,196,221, 225,309,311, 344,349,400 CHINA, 54 Christ, 349, 379, 400 Churchill, 346 Commonwealth, 362 Confucius, 196 Czardom, 338 DANTE, 228,284,287, 388 – The Divine Comedy, 388 Darshanas, 297 David-Neele, Alexandra, 142, 173 Diti, 287 Durga, 249 Duryodhana, 206 EINSTEIN, 222 ...
... to Sri Aurobindo in 1936 that the Master had struck Paul Brunton as a Chinese sage, and given the disciple the impression as of a King of the Hungarian gypsies, swiftly came the answer: Confucius? Lao-Tse? Mencius? Hang-whang-pu? (Don't know who the last was, but his name sounds nice.) Can't remember anything about it. As for the Hungarian gypsy, I suppose we must have been everything at one ...
... 546fh Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 78 Chirol, Sir Valentine, 269 Chitrangada, 100, 106, 185 Clough, Arthur Hugh, 639 Colebrooke, Henry, 13 Confucius, 212 Continent of Circe, The, 450 Conversations of the Dead, 338 Cornville, 134,140 Cotton, Sir Henry, 36-7, 204, 206 Cotton, James S., 31, 33,37, 38 ...
... y the high-water mark of the current year in Yogic consciousness. Already I have written the story of this memorable event to some friends. Let me repeat it to you. I have always valued old Confucius's maxim: "Our greatest glory lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." Of course, the Chinese sage was not speaking in reference to treacherous lower limbs, but I found his words ...
... short-cuts to outgrowing our hidden weaknesses, and prove actually a grace and not a mere punishment. So, in the fundamental assessment, they are no mistakes at all.” Amal-da has always valued Confucius’s maxim: “Our greatest glory lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” So, with the torch of his sincerity he sought to probe the raison deters of the Mother’s apparently disparaging ...
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