Each Day I Examine Myself on Three Points

answered by Analects of Confucius, Xue Er

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Each Day I Examine Myself on Three Points asks: The mark left by something I did carelessly — do I let it pass without ever looking back? The film Au Revoir les Enfants (dir. Louis Malle) raises it; Analects of Confucius, Xue Er answers: "Each day I examine myself on three points."

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)

dir. Louis Malle · France

A careless glance, a moment's lapse, can bring results that cannot be undone. A child's conscience carries that instant for life. When do we come to see another as a whole person, and why does that recognition always arrive too late?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

The mark left by something I did carelessly — do I let it pass without ever looking back?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

吾日三省吾身

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Each day I examine myself on three points.

💡 TL;DR

Confucius's disciple said he examined himself each day on three points.

📝The Classic Answers

Confucius's disciple said he examined himself each day on three points. To look back is not self-reproach but returning one's eyes to what was carelessly passed. A child carries a moment's lapse for life because reflection lives in that heart. It is through this looking-back, too, that we come to see another as a whole person. Before letting today's careless acts drift away, I choose to hold at least one of them in my eyes again.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

Pick one thing you passed by carelessly today, and look back a moment on how it may have landed on someone.

📖 Classic Source: Analects of Confucius, Xue Er. Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.