In our previous post, we observed that expansion of our sense of moral responsibility beyond the human realm is found not only in the evolving 21st century spirituality, but also in some expressions of past religious and philosophical traditions. Of particular note is the Neo-Confucian tradition, which unfortunately is often overlooked in accounts of the world’s major spiritual and philosophical traditions.
Neo-Confucianism took the moral philosophy of Confucius (who avoided metaphysical and religious speculation) and gave it a cosmic scope, asserting that human ethical behavior constitutes an extension of moral quality (particularly ren) into the Universe (or in Confucian terms, into Heaven, Earth, and Humanity). This extension of moral responsibility beyond the human is intimately related to a corollary assertion of the inter-connectedness of all realms of the Cosmos. Humans do not exist as isolated beings, but rather as a part of a Cosmos of inter-connected entities of varying degrees of consciousness and moral awareness. This sense of the human connection to a larger reality is beautifully described by the 11th century Neo-Confucian Zhang Zai (Chang Tsai) in the beginning of his classic work, The Western Inscription: Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as I finds an intimate place in their midst. Therefore that which fills the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions. Carrying this sense of inter-connected reality to its logical moral conclusion that, as part of a larger reality, we have moral empathy for and responsibilities that extend to that larger reality of which we are a part, is Wang Yangming’s (15th to 16th c.) touching description of the enlightened sage as one who feels moral empathy for humans, non-human living beings, and even inanimate objects: When he observes the pitiful cries and frightened appearance of birds and animals about to be slaughtered, he cannot help feeling an inability to bear their suffering. This shows that his humanity forms one body with birds and animals. It may be objected that birds and animals are sentient beings as he is. But when he sees plants broken and destroyed, he cannot help a feeling of pity. This shows that his humanity forms one body with plants. It may be said that plants are living things as he is. Yet even when he sees tiles and stones shattered and crushed, he cannot help a feeling of regret. This shows that his humanity forms one body with tiles and stones….. Everything from ruler, minister, husband, wife, and friends to mountains, rivers, spiritual beings, birds, animals, and plants should be truly loved in order to realize my humanity that forms one body with them. (translations by Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy) Contemporary cosmology, evolutionary theory, the emerging field of Big History, and even quantum theory all assert that humans are not isolated entities but rather part of a larger interconnected whole, and from this insight comes a sense of moral responsibility that expands beyond the human to all sentient beings and even the entire Universe. As this expanded sense of moral responsibility continues to develop in the 21st century and beyond, we can look back to Zhang Zai, Wang Yangming, and others in the Neo-Confucian tradition as an important historical source of this sense of cosmic ethical responsibility.
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