Sincerity and Trustworthiness:
To be good, we must reconcile mind and body, make words and actions congruent, and be true to one’s highest nature - which is the ultimate meaning of sincerity, the highest virtue in ancient eastern thought. “The ancient sages believed…inner sincerity is always revealed through one’s conduct.”(I Ching, pp. 188-189) “If one’s attitude is not sincere and whole hearted, one is not able to distinguish between what is appropriate and what is not,”(p.258) what is “right and wrong.”(p.258) When “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,”(I Ching, p. 351) then we have created only the appearance of being good. “The Chinese sages emphasized that appearances should match reality.”(I Ching, p. 332) (*quite confidence)
“The natural state of the individual” is “truthful, honest, and sincere, without any fabrication.”(I Ching, p.220) As the I Ching emphasizes, “The ancients believed that every infant possesses sincerity and trustworthiness. These virtues are part of human nature. All evils derive from negative social influences.”(I Ching, 474)
“Sincerity and trustworthiness draw people close together- they are the root of getting along with people.”(I Ching, p. 473) “Sincerity comes from the heart and is often more easily felt than seen.”(I Ching, pp. 470-471) “being sincere and trustworthy,” one is naturally “at ease and confident.”(I Ching, p.474) “An old Chinese adage says, ‘truthfulness need not deal with artificiality as a healthy person need not deal with medicine.”(I Ching, p.226) One in this place “is firm and strong, truthful and sincere. He is not able to be hypocritical, as a healthy person is not able to be sick.”(I Ching, p. 225) “On the other hand, if one is seeking something other than sincerity and trustworthiness, one will not be at ease.”(I Ching, p.474)
We wonder why anxiety is so high, but then we teach our young to create the mere appearance of being good, to act on ulterior motives, which is bound to leave them ill at ease.
Cratylus 415d that 'vice' has to do with impeding "the stream of the good soul," whereas 'virtue' involves "ease of motion." (*wu wei)
For this reason, “one should know the purpose and goal of one’s life journey and should proceed humbly and joyfully toward that goal… Good fortune derives from inward harmony and sincerity and a peaceful heart.”(I Ching, p.455) What’s more, this attitude is both contagious, self-reinforcing, and brings prosperity. For “If one is joyful and happy, one makes people feel joyful and happy. If one is able to make people joyful and happy, one feels joyful and happy too.”(I Ching, p. 455) And “Making people joyful with trustfulness and sincerity, of course, brings good fortune.”(I Ching, pp. 455-456)
Appearances vs. the Real Thing
Evil has every incentive to create the mere appearance of being good, as wolves might wear sheep’s clothing (just as villains seem always to call themselves ‘honest John’), and our world is filled with those who’ve learned this pretense, who use “all kinds of methods to lure people in a wrong direction or allows itself to be lured.”(I Ching, p.456) So “one should be aware of the danger of trusting such people, who tend to please others to gain benefit from them or mislead them.”(I Ching, p.456) “This hypocritical conduct will bring humiliation. One can fool others for a while, but cannot dissemble forever.”(I Ching, p.450) Be wise to this, for the excellent person “is in harmony with people, but does not go along with them in evil deeds.”(I Ching, p.455) An excellent person “keeps the darkness at a distance,”(I Ching, p,285) “With dignity, but without ill will.”(I Ching, 282) For “one should retreat rather than compromise with the darkness.”(p.283) But “Retreat is not flight…but retreating can also be aimed at preserving one’s strength, waiting for the right time for future advance. A wise person uses strength properly.”(I Ching, p.281)
Others can only know of us what we know of ourselves, after all, so true happiness requires that we not bother with appearances, as Socrates says, but rather become in reality what we wish to appear. So that we can know ourselves, sincerely, to be the hero of our story.(*put into intro)
As does intelligence, according to Confucius: Likewise, Confucius said 'given the sincerity, and there shall be the intelligence; given the intelligence, and there shall be the sincerity'?
For the same reason that words have different senses, the mere appearance of confidence, or intelligence, or beauty, or power… are not the same as being truly confident, intelligent, beautiful or powerful. But when we settle for the mere pretense of something, it doesn’t satisfy, and it doesn’t fool us or others for very long. (*put can tell ourselves we’re happy, but…)
So go for the real deal – the genuine article – realize the ideals that are possible in this life…but only if we understand and aim at them! Nobody really wants unhealthy relationships, for instance, but we settle for them when we don’t even conceive of, let alone aim for better and truer. For this reason, it’s worth talking more than we do about what these things really mean, especially with our young, who will only actualize true happiness, friendship, love, and all the rest if they have a well-developed idea of what these things mean. Only then can we learn to both model and understand want what’s good for us. After all, if what we want is artificial to begin with, then getting it will never really satisfy us. As the ancients understood, “We can never get enough of what we don’t really want to begin with.”(Smith) If we chase the means only, we will never reach the ends they are means to. (*put strategy)
Besides, “you can never really get enough of what you don’t really want to begin with!” If getting what we want doesn’t also get us what we need and what is good for us, then it just leaves us wanting more. We may have thought it was real, if we’ve never had anything better to compare it to, and won’t realize until we get it that it doesn’t bring us what we thought it would, and doesn’t feel the way we thought or were led to believe it would.
So this is the sense in which one’s life strategy matters a great deal! Your life strategy is your plan for health, security and well-being - in other words, how you answer the question Socrates asked: what will make you happy in old age? And, given the power of self-fulfilling prophesy, to be wrong about this can have the effect of making one’s life meaningless.
"Which good, then, is it that men love? Is it ...what is really good for him...or what appears to be good for him?"(218, Aristotle)
Egoism, the Golden Rule, Tit for Tat, or what philosophers call Virtue Ethics…these are all strategies for survival. The problem is, Socrates explains, not only are some life strategies unlikely to get us what’s truly good for us, but some life strategies can even backfire—when what our ego thinks we want turns out to harm us.
So it’s in our interest to consider, deliberate, and choose carefully regarding the wisdom, or lack there of, of these popular life strategies. For things are not always as they seem, and our life strategies will not all of them will get us what we think they will. Some choose happiness for themselves at the expense of others, or happiness now at the expense of later, and both have a karmic way of coming back to haunt us. (The Scrooge Effect). In fact, our life strategy can actually set us up for the worse outcome, if we aren’t thoughtful in our choices. (*connect appearance/real thing)
We may think we’re getting what we want, but if it turns out to be bad for us, then is it really what we wanted, and is it real power we have if it doesn’t get us the good things we want, Socrates asks. Because REAL POWER = ability to get what we truly want, that is, what’s actually good for us! Anything less will just bring dissatisfaction, at best, and self-destruction, at worse.
So put your values on the real thing, and as the ancient Vedic Hindus put it, “Seek pleasure… intelligently!” Go after what is truly valuable, not merely what appears to be. Because "a life guided by intelligence is the happiest" (Aristotle)
“Every society organizes itself politically, socially, and economically according to its values.” (OI, Adamson, 35) “Values permeate human life. They give us practical guidance. Moreover…ideas work together with values in a consistent, mutually affirming system, a value system. Ideas such as love, truth, and justice work according to values of caring, honesty, and fairness.” (OI, Adamson, 35) Again, values function, like assumptions, to become actions.
“Humility is of an inner beauty…humility should not be dealt with as a strategy. It should become one’s nature.”(I Ching, p.46) What’s more, the ancients understood “the importance of hiding one’s excellence and firmly maintaining it.”(I Ching, p.45) This is why Confucius said 'it is the way of the excellent man to prefer the concealment of his virtue'? For one “loses by pride and gains by modesty.”(I Ching, p.29) One needn’t show one’s inner beauty outward, for “one’s excellence…will be discovered when the time is ripe.”(I Ching, p.42)
"[A] high value must be set upon truthfulness (Plato's Republic, 78)... To be deceived about the truth of things and so to be in ignorance and error and to harbour untruth in the soul is a thing no one would consent to.”(Plato's Republic, 74)
"For we should not admit that knowledge is perception, not at least on the basis of the theory that all things are in change," for some things are absolutely unchanging.[T183c] "If that is so, knowledge does not reside in the impressions, but in our reflection upon them."[T186d] And if we keep this in mind, he concludes, then "we shall be less inclined to imagine we know something of which we know nothing whatever..."[T187c] "All the impressions which penetrate to the mind through the body are things which men and animals alike are naturally constituted to perceive from the moment of birth; reflections about them with respect to their existence and usefulness only come, if they come at all, with difficulty through a long and troublesome process of education."[T186c] The challenge is to see the continuity underlying their changing appearances and experiences, the essential forms underlying our words. It is in this sense that Socrates interprets Protagoras to be saying that not all is in flux, only that all appearances are. The wise person will reflect sufficiently to tell the difference. The tendency to equate perception with knowledge makes for much confusion, and Socrates intention is to purge us of this tendency to ignore the objective world out there, and to focus on changing subjective perceptions and appearances in here. Taken too far, this precludes the possibility of wisdom and ignorance, as if all people are equally good measures of what is real. We know from experience that this isn’t the case, but because there are so few who are truly wise, this is all the more reason to treasure and – importantly – understand them!
"[The true philosopher seeks true knowledge – desires to distinguish between the idea and the object in which it partakes.[Rap Book V] For the human mind is vulnerable to appearances; things appear smaller or larger, depending on if one is close up or at distance. As light bends in water, appearances can change. Apparent contradictions are everywhere, and we need to have a good measure to trust, to help us reconcile the confusion in order to have unity within self. Appearances are relative, and so confusing, as relative pleasures to pains. A higher wit says no one wants mere appearance, but knowledge. We seek reality of the good, the end of every soul, not the mere appearance of it.
The delight of one who alone knows true being can never be known by the unjust, who goes for different pleasures all together. Thus the higher pleasures are known only to those who seek them, true philosophers, meaning, the genuine lover of truth, sincerity, authenticity, justice.[RepJ BookIX 583] True and pure pleasure belongs only to the wise, and others are only shadows, mere appearances of pleasure.[RepJ BookIX] Both pleasure and pain are motions of the soul, and there is a mean between them which is sometimes at rest. Consciousness exists in the interaction between these and moves between the natural upper and lower and middle region [RepJ BookIX 584, p.349]. And just as health is pleasurable to those who've been ill, so someone standing in the middle having come from the lower would imagine himself in the upper, that is, if has never seen true upper world. So those who enjoy lower pleasures think them higher, for they have nothing higher yet to compare their experience to. Appearance suffice for reality for all, and those who've never seen the true don’t know the difference; only those who have, do.[RepJ BookIX 585] There is a neutral state, by the way, which seems like both pleasure (after cessation of pain), and like pain (upon cessation of pleasure); but this is only relative appearance, not true pleasure.[RepJ BookIX 583, p.347] It is appearance only and not reality, when tried by the test of true pleasures. For many intrinsic pleasures (i.e. smell, music, taste, orgasm) are not relative, but absolute, in that they have no antecedent pain [RepJ BookIX 584, p.348]. For just as there are just and unjust ways to get wealth [RepJ BookIX 591], so there are just and unjust ways to get pleasure. And then the law of nature will set into their hearts a guardian, which is true music [RepJ BookIX 591], which will make them take good care of children [RepJ BookIX 591], will put honor in their soul [RepJ BookIX 591], and give them that pure pleasure. (*self-regulation)
"[O]nly the just man is happy; injustice will involve unhappiness."[RepC1.353, p.39] In fact, “...the good and just man is so far superior to the bad and unjust in point of pleasure, there is no saying by how much more his life will surpass the other's in grace, nobility, and virtue."[RepC p.315] Likewise, "...the lowest depth of wickedness goes with the lowest depth of unhappiness, and that the misery of the despot is really in proportion to the extent and duration of his power, though the mass of mankind may hold many different opinions...” [RepC p.302] Of course, anyone can call what they feel ‘happy,’ but this doesn’t make it the case, and if they don’t know what they’re missing, they have nothing to compare it to, so don’t really know what they’re missing or what truer happiness might feel like.
impossible for those who are wicked to be friends (Aristotle)
To be good, we must reconcile mind and body, make words and actions congruent, and be true to one’s highest nature - which is the ultimate meaning of sincerity, the highest virtue in ancient eastern thought. “The ancient sages believed…inner sincerity is always revealed through one’s conduct.”(I Ching, pp. 188-189) “If one’s attitude is not sincere and whole hearted, one is not able to distinguish between what is appropriate and what is not,”(p.258) what is “right and wrong.”(p.258) When “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,”(I Ching, p. 351) then we have created only the appearance of being good. “The Chinese sages emphasized that appearances should match reality.”(I Ching, p. 332) (*quite confidence)
“The natural state of the individual” is “truthful, honest, and sincere, without any fabrication.”(I Ching, p.220) As the I Ching emphasizes, “The ancients believed that every infant possesses sincerity and trustworthiness. These virtues are part of human nature. All evils derive from negative social influences.”(I Ching, 474)
“Sincerity and trustworthiness draw people close together- they are the root of getting along with people.”(I Ching, p. 473) “Sincerity comes from the heart and is often more easily felt than seen.”(I Ching, pp. 470-471) “being sincere and trustworthy,” one is naturally “at ease and confident.”(I Ching, p.474) “An old Chinese adage says, ‘truthfulness need not deal with artificiality as a healthy person need not deal with medicine.”(I Ching, p.226) One in this place “is firm and strong, truthful and sincere. He is not able to be hypocritical, as a healthy person is not able to be sick.”(I Ching, p. 225) “On the other hand, if one is seeking something other than sincerity and trustworthiness, one will not be at ease.”(I Ching, p.474)
We wonder why anxiety is so high, but then we teach our young to create the mere appearance of being good, to act on ulterior motives, which is bound to leave them ill at ease.
Cratylus 415d that 'vice' has to do with impeding "the stream of the good soul," whereas 'virtue' involves "ease of motion." (*wu wei)
For this reason, “one should know the purpose and goal of one’s life journey and should proceed humbly and joyfully toward that goal… Good fortune derives from inward harmony and sincerity and a peaceful heart.”(I Ching, p.455) What’s more, this attitude is both contagious, self-reinforcing, and brings prosperity. For “If one is joyful and happy, one makes people feel joyful and happy. If one is able to make people joyful and happy, one feels joyful and happy too.”(I Ching, p. 455) And “Making people joyful with trustfulness and sincerity, of course, brings good fortune.”(I Ching, pp. 455-456)
Appearances vs. the Real Thing
Evil has every incentive to create the mere appearance of being good, as wolves might wear sheep’s clothing (just as villains seem always to call themselves ‘honest John’), and our world is filled with those who’ve learned this pretense, who use “all kinds of methods to lure people in a wrong direction or allows itself to be lured.”(I Ching, p.456) So “one should be aware of the danger of trusting such people, who tend to please others to gain benefit from them or mislead them.”(I Ching, p.456) “This hypocritical conduct will bring humiliation. One can fool others for a while, but cannot dissemble forever.”(I Ching, p.450) Be wise to this, for the excellent person “is in harmony with people, but does not go along with them in evil deeds.”(I Ching, p.455) An excellent person “keeps the darkness at a distance,”(I Ching, p,285) “With dignity, but without ill will.”(I Ching, 282) For “one should retreat rather than compromise with the darkness.”(p.283) But “Retreat is not flight…but retreating can also be aimed at preserving one’s strength, waiting for the right time for future advance. A wise person uses strength properly.”(I Ching, p.281)
Others can only know of us what we know of ourselves, after all, so true happiness requires that we not bother with appearances, as Socrates says, but rather become in reality what we wish to appear. So that we can know ourselves, sincerely, to be the hero of our story.(*put into intro)
As does intelligence, according to Confucius: Likewise, Confucius said 'given the sincerity, and there shall be the intelligence; given the intelligence, and there shall be the sincerity'?
For the same reason that words have different senses, the mere appearance of confidence, or intelligence, or beauty, or power… are not the same as being truly confident, intelligent, beautiful or powerful. But when we settle for the mere pretense of something, it doesn’t satisfy, and it doesn’t fool us or others for very long. (*put can tell ourselves we’re happy, but…)
So go for the real deal – the genuine article – realize the ideals that are possible in this life…but only if we understand and aim at them! Nobody really wants unhealthy relationships, for instance, but we settle for them when we don’t even conceive of, let alone aim for better and truer. For this reason, it’s worth talking more than we do about what these things really mean, especially with our young, who will only actualize true happiness, friendship, love, and all the rest if they have a well-developed idea of what these things mean. Only then can we learn to both model and understand want what’s good for us. After all, if what we want is artificial to begin with, then getting it will never really satisfy us. As the ancients understood, “We can never get enough of what we don’t really want to begin with.”(Smith) If we chase the means only, we will never reach the ends they are means to. (*put strategy)
Besides, “you can never really get enough of what you don’t really want to begin with!” If getting what we want doesn’t also get us what we need and what is good for us, then it just leaves us wanting more. We may have thought it was real, if we’ve never had anything better to compare it to, and won’t realize until we get it that it doesn’t bring us what we thought it would, and doesn’t feel the way we thought or were led to believe it would.
So this is the sense in which one’s life strategy matters a great deal! Your life strategy is your plan for health, security and well-being - in other words, how you answer the question Socrates asked: what will make you happy in old age? And, given the power of self-fulfilling prophesy, to be wrong about this can have the effect of making one’s life meaningless.
"Which good, then, is it that men love? Is it ...what is really good for him...or what appears to be good for him?"(218, Aristotle)
Egoism, the Golden Rule, Tit for Tat, or what philosophers call Virtue Ethics…these are all strategies for survival. The problem is, Socrates explains, not only are some life strategies unlikely to get us what’s truly good for us, but some life strategies can even backfire—when what our ego thinks we want turns out to harm us.
So it’s in our interest to consider, deliberate, and choose carefully regarding the wisdom, or lack there of, of these popular life strategies. For things are not always as they seem, and our life strategies will not all of them will get us what we think they will. Some choose happiness for themselves at the expense of others, or happiness now at the expense of later, and both have a karmic way of coming back to haunt us. (The Scrooge Effect). In fact, our life strategy can actually set us up for the worse outcome, if we aren’t thoughtful in our choices. (*connect appearance/real thing)
We may think we’re getting what we want, but if it turns out to be bad for us, then is it really what we wanted, and is it real power we have if it doesn’t get us the good things we want, Socrates asks. Because REAL POWER = ability to get what we truly want, that is, what’s actually good for us! Anything less will just bring dissatisfaction, at best, and self-destruction, at worse.
So put your values on the real thing, and as the ancient Vedic Hindus put it, “Seek pleasure… intelligently!” Go after what is truly valuable, not merely what appears to be. Because "a life guided by intelligence is the happiest" (Aristotle)
“Every society organizes itself politically, socially, and economically according to its values.” (OI, Adamson, 35) “Values permeate human life. They give us practical guidance. Moreover…ideas work together with values in a consistent, mutually affirming system, a value system. Ideas such as love, truth, and justice work according to values of caring, honesty, and fairness.” (OI, Adamson, 35) Again, values function, like assumptions, to become actions.
“Humility is of an inner beauty…humility should not be dealt with as a strategy. It should become one’s nature.”(I Ching, p.46) What’s more, the ancients understood “the importance of hiding one’s excellence and firmly maintaining it.”(I Ching, p.45) This is why Confucius said 'it is the way of the excellent man to prefer the concealment of his virtue'? For one “loses by pride and gains by modesty.”(I Ching, p.29) One needn’t show one’s inner beauty outward, for “one’s excellence…will be discovered when the time is ripe.”(I Ching, p.42)
"[A] high value must be set upon truthfulness (Plato's Republic, 78)... To be deceived about the truth of things and so to be in ignorance and error and to harbour untruth in the soul is a thing no one would consent to.”(Plato's Republic, 74)
"For we should not admit that knowledge is perception, not at least on the basis of the theory that all things are in change," for some things are absolutely unchanging.[T183c] "If that is so, knowledge does not reside in the impressions, but in our reflection upon them."[T186d] And if we keep this in mind, he concludes, then "we shall be less inclined to imagine we know something of which we know nothing whatever..."[T187c] "All the impressions which penetrate to the mind through the body are things which men and animals alike are naturally constituted to perceive from the moment of birth; reflections about them with respect to their existence and usefulness only come, if they come at all, with difficulty through a long and troublesome process of education."[T186c] The challenge is to see the continuity underlying their changing appearances and experiences, the essential forms underlying our words. It is in this sense that Socrates interprets Protagoras to be saying that not all is in flux, only that all appearances are. The wise person will reflect sufficiently to tell the difference. The tendency to equate perception with knowledge makes for much confusion, and Socrates intention is to purge us of this tendency to ignore the objective world out there, and to focus on changing subjective perceptions and appearances in here. Taken too far, this precludes the possibility of wisdom and ignorance, as if all people are equally good measures of what is real. We know from experience that this isn’t the case, but because there are so few who are truly wise, this is all the more reason to treasure and – importantly – understand them!
"[The true philosopher seeks true knowledge – desires to distinguish between the idea and the object in which it partakes.[Rap Book V] For the human mind is vulnerable to appearances; things appear smaller or larger, depending on if one is close up or at distance. As light bends in water, appearances can change. Apparent contradictions are everywhere, and we need to have a good measure to trust, to help us reconcile the confusion in order to have unity within self. Appearances are relative, and so confusing, as relative pleasures to pains. A higher wit says no one wants mere appearance, but knowledge. We seek reality of the good, the end of every soul, not the mere appearance of it.
The delight of one who alone knows true being can never be known by the unjust, who goes for different pleasures all together. Thus the higher pleasures are known only to those who seek them, true philosophers, meaning, the genuine lover of truth, sincerity, authenticity, justice.[RepJ BookIX 583] True and pure pleasure belongs only to the wise, and others are only shadows, mere appearances of pleasure.[RepJ BookIX] Both pleasure and pain are motions of the soul, and there is a mean between them which is sometimes at rest. Consciousness exists in the interaction between these and moves between the natural upper and lower and middle region [RepJ BookIX 584, p.349]. And just as health is pleasurable to those who've been ill, so someone standing in the middle having come from the lower would imagine himself in the upper, that is, if has never seen true upper world. So those who enjoy lower pleasures think them higher, for they have nothing higher yet to compare their experience to. Appearance suffice for reality for all, and those who've never seen the true don’t know the difference; only those who have, do.[RepJ BookIX 585] There is a neutral state, by the way, which seems like both pleasure (after cessation of pain), and like pain (upon cessation of pleasure); but this is only relative appearance, not true pleasure.[RepJ BookIX 583, p.347] It is appearance only and not reality, when tried by the test of true pleasures. For many intrinsic pleasures (i.e. smell, music, taste, orgasm) are not relative, but absolute, in that they have no antecedent pain [RepJ BookIX 584, p.348]. For just as there are just and unjust ways to get wealth [RepJ BookIX 591], so there are just and unjust ways to get pleasure. And then the law of nature will set into their hearts a guardian, which is true music [RepJ BookIX 591], which will make them take good care of children [RepJ BookIX 591], will put honor in their soul [RepJ BookIX 591], and give them that pure pleasure. (*self-regulation)
"[O]nly the just man is happy; injustice will involve unhappiness."[RepC1.353, p.39] In fact, “...the good and just man is so far superior to the bad and unjust in point of pleasure, there is no saying by how much more his life will surpass the other's in grace, nobility, and virtue."[RepC p.315] Likewise, "...the lowest depth of wickedness goes with the lowest depth of unhappiness, and that the misery of the despot is really in proportion to the extent and duration of his power, though the mass of mankind may hold many different opinions...” [RepC p.302] Of course, anyone can call what they feel ‘happy,’ but this doesn’t make it the case, and if they don’t know what they’re missing, they have nothing to compare it to, so don’t really know what they’re missing or what truer happiness might feel like.
impossible for those who are wicked to be friends (Aristotle)