Chapter Four:The Way of Humanity 57 One day the Founding Master was reading the Zhuangzi and came across a passage about Confucius going to teach Dao Zhi, but returning in vain after suffering many insults.
He said, “Confucius is a great sage. Voluntarily risking danger and humiliation, he tried to enlighten Dao Zhi to what is good, and thereby revealed the true meaning of deliverance for the next thousands of years. However, the means of delivering people differ according to the age. To deliver people today, rather than just preaching to them, you must first practice what you preach and, after the results are apparent, have them find their own way to deliverance on their own. This is so because many people nowadays hasten to preach to others without practicing what they preach and in the end often fall into falsehood, so that the general public does not trust the truthfulness of those who merely preach. Today’s approach is different in method from Confucius’ going to Dao Zhi in order to preach to him directly, but whether one is teaching the world by preaching directly or teaching the world by first embodying the truth, the original intent is the same. Only the means differ in accordance with the times.” http://www.wonbuddhism.org/
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