Review - Book Report/Review Example

Unlike the traditional view of heaven where the soul has to leave the body to enjoy or go to heaven, the soul will advance to a higher being as a form of heaven in Confucianism until it reaches perfection. The immanent and transcendent is the interplay of heaven of earth which is characteristic of a duality or yin and yang to achieve harmony and balance in Chinese philosophy. Among its entity is man who understands the creative message of heaven and his nature of humanity. The process on how heaven works in the universe is a continuous activity and thus immanent; and its metaphysical property of which it does not assume any form but can only be represented because it does not have a physical presence is transcendent.

This is in contrast to Christian theology where God creates the world but is not part of its process. Li on the other hand is the process by which these activities come together into mutually beneficial relationships. In business for example, li should be understood as a practice. A business organization is based upon division of labor where individuals performing related activities work together to achieve something of value to the organization and its customers (Ni Chapter 3). Li, should also be understood as ritual propriety whereby its practice cultivates ren or a person’s humaneness.

Thus, the rituals in society such as a child’s practice of love and deference to a parent is in itself not an absolute good in Confucian standard but rather serves a practical purpose of practicing an individual of enhancing or cultivating his or her ren through the propriety ritual (li) of honoring the parents. In sum, ren is the virtue and li is the process on how to cultivate this virtue that would become advantageous to all. To answer how flexibility enter into our following the Golden Rule and other rules of propriety, it would be important to state that Confucianism strives for harmony and one of the way to achieve this is through the Golden Rule