November 13

After reading these three books, I decided I would comment on the quote I was mostly inspired by. From 4.17 I took, “When you see someone who is worthy, concentrate upon becoming their equal; when you see someone who is unworthy, use this as an opportunity to look within yourself.” This quote made me realize how we always criticize people without even knowing them and we are always focusing on the negative aspects of a person. I believe that it is important to look at the positive aspects of a person because it is always easier to learn and try to adapt the positive characteristics of a person. It is usually easier to tell which the negative aspects of a person are because they tend to be stronger or one notices the bad things, instead one is used to seeing good things and therefore doesn’t appreciate them as much as one should.

5.12 “What I do not wish others to do unto me, I also wish not to do unto others” This phrase reminds me of a quote I was taught in third grade, and from then always remembered. It is the following” treat others as you want to be treated”, both of these sayings are trying to express the same thing to the reader. It is trying to show that respect is very important in life and even though not everyone thinks alike or feels the same, the closest you’ll ever get to know about what a person feels is feeling it yourself. This is why I believe that t is true that one should treat the others as you would like to be treated because if you were happy when you were treated in a certain way, the other person will probably also feel happy when treated in that way. The same thing happens with the things that shouldn’t be done because if you didn’t liked it when it was done to you then the other person will probably dislike it when done to them.

6.28 “If I have done anything wrong, may heaven punish me.” 5.19 “I do not know about that- what makes you think he deserves to be called good?” These two quotes connect because they make you realize that one has been living their whole life with a certain image of good in their head but who decided what good was? Shouldn’t that be a subjective question instead of an objective one? Still, somehow, someone made some standardized points on what was good and what was bad, and from then on the whole world has followed those points. What decided that those points themselves were “good”? And the same thing occurs with wrong and right… who chose what was correct and what wasn’t and who chose how to punish the wrong doers? Here the master asks heaven to punish him but how can heaven measure a moderate punishment and how can each person know if they deserve it or if they deserve it more or less than another person? Life will continue to be a mystery to all of us and you can decide if you like the current rules which have been brainwashed onto your head or if you want to establish your own rules. But if you choose to make your own rules and follow these, you must accept the consequences.