Analects, Books 12-14

While I do the reading, it is many times that I start thinking about relationships between The Master, and the common people, the people that receive his teachings. Also, it happens often, when I start comparing God and the Master.

The Master is different from God, because though both are superior than most, The Master lives within the people, and is there to teach them things, on how they ought to live. We could say both of them “dislike” some people, God when they disobey him or anything he says, The Masters when that individual doesn’t make good usage of Goodness, or Virtue, or whenever they are not keen to learn, and rather focus on the fact that the yare stupid, compared to the Master.

God punishes these people, yet the Master doesn’t. It can be said that, in a way, the Master is hypocrite—doesn’t let the person know what he thinks of him/her, and he is not willing to punish him/her. Rather, the Master hopes that that person will be able to find a way in which they can correct themselves.

Though Humans prefer to punish than wait and see whether that person will correct him/herself, they are hypocrite, they are afraid to tell a person what they truly feel about them, and prefer to tell others about that person, which leads to bad situation (rumors, fights).

So the Master shall serve for us as an example of what we should be—or try. And though he might be a bit similar—at least more alike than God—he is different from most common people.

People who are smarter than others, tend to feel superior than others, and they don’t realize how the “others” might be superior than him—in any other areas, in which smartness might not be needed. The Master is smart, and doesn’t take it for granted; he is modest and makes others understand than it is not at all impossible for them to be like him. He speaks of Goodness and the willingness to learn as tips to success—so it’s not like he likes feeling superior

If the Master ever took advantage of his “power”, is that he uses it to teach others, and doesn’t speak about himself at all.

For the people, perhaps the Master is perfect. But he doesn’t feel this way. He talks about his love for learning, and implies it, therefore showing us what is needed to be successful. He does not love everyone, but is not willing to show it, letting the person realize how they’ve been bad—it is this way by which he is different from God, and similar to humans, hypocrite.