How to Become a Hindu

CONFUCIAN BELIEFS

1. I believe in the presence of the Supreme Ruler in all things, and in Heaven as the Ethical Principle whose law is order, impersonal and yet interested in mankind.§

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2. I believe that the purpose of life is to follow an orderly and reverent existence in accord with Li, propriety or virtue, so as to become the Superior Man.§

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3. I believe in the Golden Rule: “Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you.”§

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4. I believe that Confucius, China’s First Sage, is the Master of Life whose teachings embody the most profound understanding of Earth and Heaven, and that Mencius is China’s Second Sage.§

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5. I believe in the writings of Confucius as scriptural truth and in the Four Sacred Books: The Analects, Doctrine of the Mean, Great Learning, and Mencius.§

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6. I believe that each man has five relationships, entailing five duties to his fellow man: to his ruler, to his father, to his wife, to his elder brother and to his friend—the foremost being his familial duties.§

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7. I believe that human nature is inherently good, and evil is an unnatural condition arising from inharmony.§

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8. I believe that man is master of his own life and fate, free to conduct himself as he will, and that he should cultivate qualities of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and sincerity.§

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9. I believe that the family is the most essential institution among men, and that religion should support the family and the state. §

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