Traditional Culture Is Vital to Moral Education

By a Chinese practitioner, Yu Ren

(Clearwisdom.net) These days, schools are concerned about moral education, yet we still often find problems such as smoking, drinking, on-campus violence, vandalism, insulting teachers, and more. Here we discuss one view of how to understand and implement moral education so that it can be effective.

1. What is virtue?

In traditional Chinese culture, virtue was explained as "the heavenly way," "heavenly principles', or as "benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom, and honesty" that people should follow. The "heavenly way" and the "heavenly principles" show the relationships between the universe and earth, and the natural and social rules of mankind. "Benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom, and honesty" are the moral rules that human beings should observe in following the heavenly way. "Virtue" is fundamental to being human. If humans have no virtue, can they really be considered human?

2. Virtue and happiness

As human beings, we have our human rules. Substances also have the laws of matter. Ancient people used to say: "The ways of men are conditioned by those of earth; the ways of earth by those of heaven; the ways of heaven by those of Tao; and the ways of Tao by nature." That is why, when we do something as humans, we also have to pay attention to cosmic timing, favorable earth conditions, and human harmony, and we have to follow certain rules. When we do things according to these laws, we position things in the right direction, so these things will be thriving and prosperous. If we go against these laws, we will run into big problems. As human beings, we have to follow certain rules, moral rules. If we pay attention to virtue, we will accumulate virtue, and as a result, human beings will enjoy high prestige and command universal respect and confidence, thereby laying a good foundation for dealing with matters, and winning respect from the world's people wherever they go.

A man with no virtue will definitely be without conscience, and will not be tolerated by society. A society with no virtue will definitely be chaotic, corrupt and degenerate. We can see that traditional virtue and the happiness of human beings are closely related.

3. Five thousand years of Chinese history have virtue as the main theme - a valuable resource

Education has long been regarded as an engineer in the building of mankind's soul. The issue of education is ultimately an issue of being human. Human beings have two sides, and can choose either goodness or evil. We learn to be good or to be bad. A Chinese saying goes, "One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black." With universal human nature, good and evil are side by side. If one wants to be compassionate, he has to control all his evil thoughts, learn to suffer, and put in lots of hard work. He should also learn to persistently adhere to it. Indulging a little bit in his desires, one will deviate. It is easier to indulge than to constrain oneself. Another Chinese saying is that, "It takes three years to learn good things, but only three days to learn bad things."

China has five thousand years of history and culture, deeply imbibed with virtue. Its essence has been passed down from generation to generation. Our ancestors understood the universal concept that "man is an integral part of nature." It is common sense in society that "good will be rewarded with good and evil will be punished with evil." It is a basic moral standard for human beings to "treat others as you would like them to treat you." Traditional Confucian virtues such as "honesty, kindness, loyalty and filial piety" are standards to live by in this world. "Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and honesty" are the moral foundation for regulating human beings and society. Traditional Chinese culture exhibits honesty, compassion, harmony and tolerance. The Chinese tradition advocates harmony between nature and human beings, and paying attention to individual accomplishment so as to be tolerant and develop and safeguard virtue in the human world, and so that human beings can have righteous belief.

Traditional virtue advocates restraint, tolerance, frugality, bearing hardships, and enduring hard work. It can stop people from indulging their endless desires. It is the force that guarantees people a meaningful life, while "knowing the way of heaven and one's destiny" will help one live a more rational and clear-minded life, as one will let go of all the worries resulting from insatiable desires. These things conform to the heavenly principles and also to human nature. They stimulate the positive factors of human beings and constrain the negative factors, encouraging one to be compassionate and better. That is why we say that Chinese traditional culture is a very good resource for moral education.

Chinese traditional culture has been passed down from our ancestors, providing a great resource for moral education. "Virtue" was passed down from Gods and provides the basis for human beings to understand cultivation and understand the truth of Dafa. It is also the basis for people to be saved. We have the responsibility to pay attention to it, to cherish it, and to make good use of it.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/9/5/162073.html

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