Confucianism and Buddhism

¶ … Leading a natural life is the key to happiness. When someone is in a situation that feels unnatural or uncomfortable to him or her, that person is not able to do what comes naturally. In order to be truly free, one must live a natural life in as natural a state as possible. Happiness is possible only when one's true nature is not being violated in any way.

When one determines to discover one's true nature and to live in a natural state, one will be surprised at how few needs one really has. A good society is one that is small, supplying human needs without excess. A private life is the most natural life and leads to much more happiness than a public life. This essay has some good things to say regarding our human nature and what leads to hatred and conflict.

According to this essay, leading an unnatural life with too much excess is one of the biggest factors leading to violence. When people have too much and live in a state that is not natural to them, they can not be happy. A lack of happiness leads to conflict between people. Also, when people lead too public of a life, they lose touch with themselves and their true natures and get all caught up in false hierarchies and power plays between each other. This, too, leads to conflict.

However, it is difficult to lead a totally natural life and to stay out of public life altogether, as the threat of deprivation is always there that will lead one back to the public life. Wants and needs are a basic part of human nature, and these wants and needs, by leading people back into public life, are an indirect source of conflict. The solution to all of this is to carefully examine one's wants and needs and to determine which ones are real.

Determining what one's needs truly are is enlightening in that one usually discovers that one has a great many fewer needs than one thought before. When one realizes that one has few real wants or needs, one is better able to keep in touch with the natural life and has less need to get involved in the public life that leads to conflict. It is difficult in today's society to totally avoid engagement in public life.

It is still true that a combination of too many false wants and needs, power struggles that come with public life, and living against one's natural state contribute to human hatred and conflict, especially when our wants and needs begin to compete with those of others. However, it is difficult to give up most everything we have and go live in the forest nowadays. In that regard, then, going against one's true natural state is something that most of us have to live with, at least on a partial basis.

A more practical solution to this problem today would be, instead of giving up one's material possessions to live in the woods, to set aside regular time to be with one's self in quietness and meditation daily, preferably in a natural setting, where one can contemplate one's nature and one's wants and needs in an unobstructed, peaceful state of mind.

This sort of regular daily practice would be most beneficial to people today and would be a more practical solution to the problem of conflict in modern times than the solution presented in this essay. The second essay deals with Confucianism. Confucianism also focuses on living a natural life and following the right way of living (the right way being the natural way). The second essay makes several important points in its presentation.

These points are: The hierarchy of parent over child is the only natural hierarchy, and one that is free from being able to be judged by human beings. If a son is a good son, he will follow his parents' teachings after they are gone. If a leader is to make the people willingly follow him, he must set things in the world in their natural order.

It is good to be gentlemanly toward others and to live in harmony with others, even moving gracefully in sync with other fellow humans in situations that would otherwise be contentious without this mind-set. A nation that is harmonious is one that follows The Way. The Way, of course, is the way of nature. Working hard for one's needs is part of The Way. A good ruler sets a good example by following The Way himself. This is the best way to get others to follow the leader.

A nation ruled by a good leader will have peace internally, because a good leader will follow The Way. A good leader is also benevolent, and brings this quality out in others. Again, Confucianism, according to this essay, focuses on what is natural as being of the utmost important to human beings. The Way, the natural path that followers of Confucianism adhere to, is simply the path of doing what is right according to nature.

There is a strong focus on natural law here, as if nature had pre-ordained the ways in which humans are to best get along with each other. Part of this is to be "gentlemanly" with each other, to give each other proper respect as human beings. According to this essay, it is also important for a nation to have a good, benevolent ruler who follows The Way, as this sort of ruler will act as an example for the people.

The people, presented with a good example, will naturally follow what the leader does. This will lead to a peaceful nation. Conflict and hatred occur when people deviate from The Way. An individual can follow The Way without a leader if he is diligent and studies all of the appropriate ancient texts and devotes much time to learning The Way.

This sort of individual can bring peace into his or her own life without a benevolent leader, but it is beneficial for everyone around if there is a leader following The Way. There surely is a right way and a wrong way to act toward one another and in our daily activities. However, it is unclear if this way to act is a fundamental natural law or something that has evolved as the ideal way to act over the millennia of trial and error in human relations. At any.