Doctrine of the Mean 15

The Way of the superior man may be compared to traveling to a distant place:  one must start from the nearest point.  It may be compared to ascending a height:  one must start from below.  The Book of Odes says, “Happy union with wife and children is like the music of lutes and harps.  When brothers live in concord and peace, the harmony is sweet and delightful.  Let your family live in concord, and enjoy your wife and children.”  Confucius said, “How happy will parents be!”  [Doctrine of the Mean 15]

Today, I decided to discuss the insight I  gained from this text.

In the first line, it can be noticed that even the superior man is not rushing himself towards finding the Way. He is taking little steps for him to earn something better. As what the 3rd step of dieting would always say, no shortcuts. The superior man has started at the first point and followed the next, he did not immediately jumped to the 5th point. His journey in finding the truth is taken step by step and is tagged along with patience for him to succeed and attain his goal.

In the next line, it is saying that the whole society, illustrated by the family, should live in harmony. They should be eyeing for one goal. If the society will be united, then all things would be done smoothly.

As a conclusion, the Doctrine of Mean 15 is trying to say that the Way of the superior man is not easy. The superior man is trying to unfold the truth little by little. The Way in which he is living started from the bottom until he moves up. What he has known today was a product of all the hard works he put into it. One quality of a superior man depicted from this statement is that he is not selfish. What he may have known is his tool for bridging the different kinds of people for one goal. He wanted to share all his knowledge to all of them for them to become one and together, they would journey towards finding the truth.