Self-Cultivation: A Neo-Confucian and Ignatian Dialogue
Edited by Aaron Michael Ullrey.
The following Research Reflection is part of an ongoing series spotlighting CSWR scholars and their research.
Zhu Xi’s Reflections on Things at Hand (hereafter, Reflections on,12th century) and St. Ignatius’s The Spiritual Exercises (16th century) may vary in rhetoric, content, and style, but their attitudes, methods, and mechanisms for personal self-cultivation overlap. The Neo-Confucian premise of wanwuyiti and St. Ignatius’s prescription for “Finding God in All Things” galvanize human action through self-cultivation.
Neo-Confucians in the Sung dynasty (960–1279) were inspired to uphold moral standards, in response to Buddhist rivals and the perceived moral degradation in Chinese society. The Reflections on, by Zhu Xi and Lv Zuqian, is a primer for Neo-Confucian self-cultivation in which metaphysical principles are rooted in wanwuyiti—the universe is One, but its manifestations are many. Benevolence (ren), according to this moral ontology, is the supreme virtue among all virtues, thereby morality is essential for all mankind.
The proper attitudes in self-cultivation are “reverent composure in internal life” and “regarding tranquility as fundamental.” Reverent composure means to collect oneself, pay attention, and generate respect toward beings and matter; tranquility is a condition devoid of human desire. Another technique called “knowing when to stop” works to remove self-centered desires.
For exterior behavior, Reflections on emphasizes enacting changes when dealing with worldly affairs and interpersonal interactions, progressing from self-improvement to self-correction, then self-mastery, and ultimately “reverting to propriety.” The concept of “equilibrium” is an important nexus between internal and external cultivation. Originally, it referred to the state of mind with feelings “not-yet-manifested.” However, the idea gradually evolved to signify a middle ground between quietude and activity, thereby differentiating cultivated equanimity in Neo-Confucianism from Buddhist practice.
Neo-Confucian self-cultivation aspires to “sageliness within and kingliness without,” achieving wisdom and benevolence and positively influencing the construction of a moral society. Sung-era Neo-Confucian adherents either established academies of learning or devoted their lives to public services. Thus, wanwuyiti does not really construe a coherent universe; rather, it provides a supernatural framework that makes morality imperative for mankind.
The Spiritual Exercises unfold in the life-story of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order. After his conversion, the saint composed The Spiritual Exercises to aid Christians in finding the presence of God everywhere by cultivating equanimity and universal beneficence. The manual is used by an exercitant—a person engaged in spiritual exercises, guided by a director, in a retreat—to deepen his relationship with God.
Mutual love, for Ignatius, manifests in deeds rather than words. The exercitant should contemplate the immanence and transcendence of God in all created beings and objects. Manifested deeds rooted in love are apostolic services driven by an individual’s mystical illuminations and the God-given impulses of love. The exercitant thereby finds God in all things.
The Spiritual Exercises describes a four-week retreat deploying “the purgative way” to reflect on sins, “the illuminative way” to contemplate the earthly life of Christ, and “the unitive way” to suffer with Christ and establish union with God. The central soteriological theme is to praise and serve God. The created world actually exists in order to aid individuals to praise and to serve God; the exercitant should be indifferent toward all created things. Detached from desires, the exercitant is instructed to avoid emotion-eliciting objects of thoughts. Finally, the exercitant praises and serves God by service to the world.
Two types of emotional movement are inspired by forces external to the soul: “consolation” from God and “desolation” from the devil. Consolation generates acts of virtue; desolation generates acts of disquietude. God’s grace detects and conquers desolation. The Spiritual Exercises provide the immediate presence of God and grace through Christ by cultivating visual and sensory imagination, and the exercitant through contemplation forges a bond with Jesus.
Ignatian spiritual formation, like Neo-Confucian self-cultivation, demonstrates the depth of the Society of Jesus’s response to the social-cultural needs of the time: the reform, social re-evangelization, and the worldwide propagation of Catholic faith. Ignatius and his followers sought to enact the will of God; they served God by serving the world as ministers, missionaries, scientists, and, especially, as educators.
Both wanwuyiti and “Finding God in All Things” are supernatural premises that guide the self in relation to the other through benevolence (ren) and love (agape). Both premises emerge from notions about ultimate reality. The Neo-Confucian tradition aims to return to the origin of human nature in a relational scheme (wanwuyiti), and the Ignatian Catholic tradition envisions contemplation in action by “Finding God in All Things.”
The two religions have much to say to one another and much to say to us in an age of global interreligious dialogue. Personal transformation comes from searching within, but the interior and exterior must be integrated and manifested in social action. Learning and schooling that serve the common good can never be overemphasized because both traditions enact service through education.