Rooted in the feet... Extended through the fingertips

Only after the principle in things is fully apprehended does knowledge become complete; knowledge being complete, thoughts may become true; thoughts being true, the mind may become set in the right; the mind being so set, the person becomes cultivated; the person being cultivated, house-hold harmony is established; household harmony established, the state becomes well governed; the state being well governed, the empire becomes tranquil.

Ta-hsueh, "Classic of Confucius," para. 5


6.28. A person must examine his mistaken mind with his unmistaken mind. The unmistaken one is the original mind; the mistaken one is the original mind lost. (12.7a:3/205:14)

6.21. For the person [whose mind] is bright, it's bright. Others must nurture it. Nurturing isn't to hammer and chisel away at it laboriously. It's simply to keep the mind open and calm, and in time it'll become bright of itself. (12.5b:12/204:10)

5.5. When one's original mind has been submerged for a long time, and the moral principle in it hasn't been fully penetrated, it's best to read books and probe principle without any interruption; then, the mind of human desire will naturally be incapable of winning out, and the moral principle in the original mind will naturally become safe and secure. (11.1b:3/176:12)

3.10. As soon as a person makes the effort, he'll discover the obstacles. When he begins making the effort, he'll be intent on doing one thing, but some other thing will get in his way, and he'll understand neither. It's just like when we practice inner mental attentiveness and probe principle - these two things get in each other's way: practicing inner mental attentiveness refers to the way of controlling and restraining oneself; probing principle refers to the way of investigating the ultimate. These two things simply hinder each other. But when we get good at them, naturally they no longer get in each other's way. (9.3a:7/150:12)






(all quotes except the first are from Learning to Be a Sage, selections from the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically translated by Daniel K. Gardner)

I must say I feel somewhat in the wrong by posting pieces of the text here, since many of the comments about learning and reading speak against skipping around and not reading things in an appropriate order...