What Does The Great And Venerable Teacher Mean

“ This gave rise to the premise that if the people of an empire are unhappy, they have to right to overthrow the ruler and give the Mandate of Heaven to a new and better ruler. Confucius believed that in order to have a good society and good life, there must be a benevolent ruler who will lead the empire to prosperity. History continues to repeat itself in China by an empire rising and prospering and eventually becoming corrupt. Then the people award the Mandate of Heaven to a new ruler who will go through the same cycle of creation and degeneration. This tracks with another Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang, which states that opposite forces—such as benevolence and despotism—are interconnected in the natural world. All of this combines to emphasize the relevance of historic repetition to the development of China.

While there are many ways to be an outstanding teacher, every high-quality teacher should, in my opinion, have these skills and dispositions:

This passage, “It is easy to keep from walking; the hard thing is to walk without touching the ground… You have heard of flying with wings, but you have never heard of flying without wings. You have heard of the knowledge that knows, but you have never heard of the knowledge that does not know”(Chuang Tzu), illustrates the difficulties of people’s communication in the world. Here, Chuang Tzu is using Confucius’ words to explain his own views on dealing with people or things near you. In the sentence, Confucius is trying to tell Yan Hui that to be able to live in the world, he has to be “selfless”, which is to forget everything and forget the existence of one’s self. In order to reach “selflessness”, people need to learn how to do “Heart fasting” which is a spiritual sublimation and spiritual fasting, not just a kind of ritual. “Heart Fasting,” is letting people clean their minds, avoid all kinds of distractions, stop being cranky, and calm their hearts down. Confucius is trying to tell the world to put every pressure down because if there is too much burden in a human’s heart, there is no way to deal with things well. When doing something, there will be gains and losses. If we care about gain and loss, we will lose the real us. We have to forget everything and understand that putting something down is not a loss, but a way to pick it up better.

Yin – yang is a Chinese philosophical way of embracing human thought which considers two dimensions including humanity, character, and situations in life. This philosophy emphasizes that two complementary forces exists in the universe that are mutually opposed to one another but still remain in unity. According to “Hegelian, Yi-Jing, and Buddhist Transformational Models for Comparative Philosophy”, it is believed that the two forces are dependent on another and are well balanced (Robert 6). This paper intends to explore the major aspects of yin-yang way of thinking, how it affects the Confucius and Lao Zi ways of viewing happenings in the universe and the application of this kind of thought to the contemporary society

Nowadays, people call the first level Tao, “Tao of Heaven”[ Yates, R. (1997). Five lost classics : Tao, Huanglao, and Yin-yang in Han China / translated, with an introduction, and commentary by Robin D.S. Yates. (First ed., Classics of ancient China).26-29]. The second level of Tao is the rule or rules of Tao to create or derive everything on the Earth, “the Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things”.[ Tao Te Ching, chapter 42] In other words, Tao transforms to chaos; the chaos transforms to Yin and Yang; Mix Yin and Yang to the balance point; Everything would created from Yin, Yang, and the balance point of Yin and Yang. The third level of Tao is the way to use Taoism ideology in life. The founder of philosophical Taoism is Lao Tzu, who also is known as Old Master or Laozi.[ Creel, H. G., 2-5] The Dialectic thoughts and the Tao of third level are full of his books, Tao Te Ching, for example, chapter 58 of Tao Te Ching:“Misery！——happiness is to be found by its side！Happiness！——misery lurks beneath it！Who knows what either will come to in the end?”[ Lao tzu, 老子, Tao Te Ching

A teacher needs to be flexible and adaptable due to schedule changes, adapting lessons, gaining new students, adapting to various behaviors and various academic levels of students. A teacher needs to be assertive when advocating for the needs of their students, themselves and for their peers. To be outstanding you have to have compassion towards your peers, your students and their families. A teacher always need to be prepared for their day including designing lessons, creating materials, writing IEP's, knowing students levels, handling any behavior, that anything can happen and always have extra work. A teacher should be able to Multitask, you have to wear lots of hats in this field such as a mother figure, nurse, friend, disciplinarian, enemy,

Chinese Buddhism reached its highest point of popularity and influence during Han Yu’s lifetime, and this matter as a Confucian greatly concerned him.

The Daodejing is an ancient Chinese text written around the 6th century B.C.E., which encompasses eighty-one short chapters and involves the teachings of being in absolute harmony with the universe. According to tradition, a sage named Laozi wrote the Daodejing, however, certain scholars argue that this text is a collection of multiple sources over the course of a few centuries. The Daodejing is the fundamental text of Taoism, a philosophical and religious tradition of Chinese origin that accentuates existing with “the Way.” Tao, romanized as Dao, signifies ‘path’ or ‘way’, and expresses how life cannot be understood by simple conceptions, rather as a condition of an actual living experience. The Daodejing has influenced many schools of thought, including Chinese Buddhism, and continues to be a text that inspires readers globally. Agreeing with this highly influential, ancient text, there are certain issues that people must overcome and understand to fully be harmonized with “the Dao.” Taoists would insist that to be one with the Way, an individual must understand the motivations behind their desires, be in a state of “Wu Wei,” translated as non-action, or acting naturally, and realize that names polarize the true nature of their meaning.

Zhuangzi teaches that a true, open mind can only be reached by letting go of the past and emotion. Just as my learning to from removing the past experience references from my mind, I also need to learn to control my emotions toward people and situations in general. These emotions influence my approach to life. It keeps me from truly enjoying others, and experiences of today.

I believe in order to be considered an outstanding teacher, you need to have diverse set of skills and abilities. An outstanding teacher needs to have many different qualities, because a teacher not only teaches, but serves as a role-model, mentor, and supporter. Teachers instill the love of learning in their students. Teachers need to be enthusiastic, patient, understanding, and organized. An outstanding teacher also needs to be able to work well with other, such as co-workers and administrators. Outstanding teachers need to be able to self-reflect in order to continue developing. They need to consistently develop new teaching strategies and techniques. They need to keep students engaged and enthusiastic about the subject they are teaching.

In order to become a virtuous person an individual must become one with the Tao, an example of a good life is found in Chuang Tzu – Basic writings, “If you do good, stay away from fame. If you do evil, stay away from punishments. Follow the middle; go by what is constant, and you can stay in one piece, keep yourself alive, look after your parents, and live out your years.” (Section three, p46). In order to become one with the Tao and individual must understand the Way and example of the Way “…For this reason, whether you point to a little stalk or a great pillar, a leper or the beautiful Hsi-shih, things ribald and shady or things grotesque and strange, the Way makes them all into one.” (Section two, p. 36) The Way is having the ability to consider all things one. Looking at the creatures of the world without bias and treating everything and everyone as equal. In order to follow the Way one must gain enlightenment, to gain enlightenment one must heavy focus on meditation. Taoists believe that time is cyclical, not linear as many in the West believe, therefore time repeats itself, has no beginning and no end. Tao is considered to be the first cause of the universe, and is the force that

During the end of the Zhou dynasty, China moved away from its ancient values of social order, harmony, and respect for authority. In order to maintain these values, Chinese scholars and philosophers looked for different solutions. Confucius was China’s most influential scholar who had a scholarly life and wanted to restore the order and moral living China had left behind. Besides Confucius other Chinese scholars and philosophers developed ethical systems with very different philosophies. Some were more focused in nature and others in government. For example, a Chinese thinker, Laozi, for him only natural order was important. This involves relationships among all living things. He said that a universal force called the Dao, meaning ‘’The Way’’,

According to The Analects, Confucians do not appear to mourn one’s own death. They believe that if a person was following the Way in the morning, that it is okay to die in the evening (4:8). As far as the purpose of one’s life, The Analects places more of an emphasis on living one’s life according to the Way, and when time is up, accept death. The text reads, “Be steadfast unto death in pursuit of the good Way,” (8:13). This can be interpreted to mean that one should not worry about death, but on living one’s life in a manner that is consistent with the Way. If that Way should lead to death, it is what was meant to happen.

We have covered the general accounts of human nature found in Confucianism and Taoism in light of the historical backdrop of the Period of Warring States. Use your responses to the following general questions below as an opportunity to refer either to the Smith text and accompanying assigned scriptures(s), Smith video(s) on China, Confucianism, and Taoism, or any additional material covered in class. Look ahead to the next question on the chun tzu in order to plan on avoiding repetition of answers verbatim within each essay if there are areas of potential overlap.

In, “This Too Is Life”, the author, Lu Hsun, writes about his thoughts on life and its values as he is dying of illness. Hsun first explains the duality of exhaustion and rest, the fearfulness of exhaustion and not being able what you have to do as you have already done too much. The fear of missing out on the active, productive parts or life where you feel like you are truly living, coupled at the same time with the blissfulness of rest and simply doing nothing and having nothing to do, experiencing the comforts of idleness. In these moments of inactivity, it is easy to feel as if one is not really living life, that life has no purpose if one is not being productive. But, what Hsun is trying to express