Expert: Anandapanyo Bhikkhu - 9/14/2009

Question
What does he mean when he says "A gentleman can see a question from all sides without bias. The small man is biased and can see a question only from one side.



or



A gentleman takes as much trouble to discover what is right as lesser men take to discover what will pay


Answer
Dear Carmen,

Confucius or Confucianism is not necessarily directly related to Buddhism. However, I will try to answer this question from my Buddhist perspective.

"A gentleman can see a question from all sides without bias. The small man is biased and can see a question only from one side."

Well, in Buddhism, the Buddha also explained that their are two main types of people: The wise, and the fools. The Buddha also explained how to tell the difference.

The wise see the truth the way the truth is, fools see it the way they want.
The wise see good as good and bad as bad. The fools see good as bad, and bad as good.
The wise pay homage to those who deserve homage, fools do not.
The wise do not use their words to cause any harm, the fools use their words to hurt others.
The wise support one's parents, fools do not.
The wise refrain from evil and do good, the fools do evil and refrain from good.

The wise man the Buddha talks about can be related to the gentlemen Confucius mentions and the fool can relate to the small man. When you can truly see a question or truth from all sides, without bias, you see everything, therefore you see the truth. When you see the truth, you can make a decision based on the truth. However, when you see things from one side, you do not see the truth, you see a slice of the truth and therefore cannot make a proper decision.

This reminds me of a story I once heard. One day many blind people encountered an elephant. The first blind person grabbed the elephant's ear and described an elephant as the ear. The next blind person grabbed the elephant's leg and explained what an elephant is based on the leg, the next one grabbed the tail and said that that was what an elephant was. The blind men started arguing and professed that each person was right. However, a normal sighted person walked by and saw the blind men arguing, then asked them what they were arguing about. The blind men told him and the man with sight explained what a elephant really looked like. However, the blind men called him crazy and held on to what they thought was an elephant.

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"A gentleman takes as much trouble to discover what is right as lesser men take to discover what will pay. "

This goes back to the explanation above, a wise person will focus on what is right, however, a fool will be concerned only with what will pay. This means that a wise person focuses on what is right since that is the right thing to do. The fool will only concern themselves with what is profitable, without concern for what will cause them or other harms.

I hope I have answered your questions.

Sincerely,
Phra Anandapanyo