Wang Yangming Quotes

The virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself.

The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself.

Knowledge is the beginning of practice; doing is the completion of knowing.

There is a very interesting dialogue between master and disciple illustrating this difference between samadhi and attachment in Denshu Roku57 written by the Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher, O Yomei (Wang Yang-ming). His disciple Riko-cho (Lu Ch’eng) once him about the meaning of the merit of primal oneness. In my opinion, this term generally alludes to samadhi.

Wang Yangming noted, ‘There have never been people who know but do not act. Those who are supposed to know but do not act simply do not yet know.’ You know when you’ve reached the place of fully experiencing the Earth’s heartbreak, because you suddenly realize you are drawn to action – not because you think you should do something, but because you are impelled to do it.65