Achieve goodness, a complex idea for certain. What does it mean when you say "Achieve goodness?" That's exactly what we are trying to find out with the Analects, and with Confucius.
This book confuses me a little (as always) because it doesn't necessarily say what to do to achieve goodness, but it tells you: "To live in the neighborhood of the Good is fine. If one does not choose to dwell among those who are Good. how will one obtain wisdom?"(Book4 4.1) What I found weird about this was that it didn't tell you to be good or how to achieve goodness. It just tells you to be surrounded by good and you will be fine (remember, we don't even know what good actually means!). So, I can be Adolf Hitler and massacre and destroy the live of millions, but if I live in the same neighborhood as Mahatma Gandhi and I'll be fine? This makes no sense to me at all.
I believe that the whole purpose of the Analects is to discover what being "good" really is, to discover the meaning of the word "good" or "goodness". I think we must discover the meaning because our modern interpretation of being good nowadays might be much more different than it was before. Nowadays being good is doing your h.w, being respectful to parents, being nice to people. When before it could have meant being religious and following god's words step by step, and honoring your heritage, or something like that. So, as you see, very different meanings. Or maybe nowadays being good is having property or money: "Wealth and social eminence are things that all people desire, and yet they are acquired in the proper way I will not abide them. Poverty and disgrace are things that people hate, and yet unless they are avoided in the proper way I will not despise them." (Book4 4.5)
I think no one will ever understand and interpret Confucius correctly...I guess I'll just have to wait and finish reading the Analects, Good Bye!
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