If I Want Goodness, Goodness Is at Hand

answered by Analects, Book 7 (Shu Er)

기원전 5세기(공자 언행록)

If I Want Goodness, Goodness Is at Hand asks: If you learn only after losing someone that they quietly loved you, was that love in vain? The film Failan (dir. Song Hae-sung) raises it; Analects, Book 7 (Shu Er) answers: "Is humanity far off? I want it, and it arrives."

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Failan (2001)

dir. Song Hae-sung · South Korea

In a bond that was a marriage in name only, one person nurtures a true heart toward the other alone. The other learns of that heart's existence only after they are gone. Was this love that never reached in vain, or does it, however late, change a person?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

If you learn only after losing someone that they quietly loved you, was that love in vain?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

我欲仁斯仁至矣

仁遠乎哉？我欲仁，斯仁至矣

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

Is humanity far off? I want it, and it arrives.

💡 TL;DR

In the Analects, Confucius says, "Is goodness far away?

📝The Classic Answers

In the Analects, Confucius says, "Is goodness far away? If I want goodness, goodness is at hand." Love was always near, but we do not see it until we open the heart. If, even late, a person realizes the love that was for them and weeps, that love is never in vain. I choose to fear the folly of recognizing love too late. To see the heart beside me now, before I lose it — there, at last, love arrives.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If someone quietly cares for you nearby, recognize their heart today, before you lose it and regret.

📖 Classic Source: Analects, Book 7 (Shu Er).
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.