Wang Yangming
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"In recent years I have read widely the idealistic writings of Wang Yangming on the School of Mind, the Buddhist methods of enlightenment, Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching,10 as well as Nietzsche on power and consciousness, Arthur Schopenhauer on metaphysical will, Heidegger on existentialism, Foucault on life and aesthetics ... What appears to be a constant thread is idealism."
"Wang Yangming said, “When desire is banished, that is where the natural order of things resides.”15 I understand this to mean, people are one part of heaven, but when desire and distractions are excessive, it is impossible to know what heaven is. When desire is banished, unity with heaven is achieved and then it is natural to become aware of heaven’s law. Tranquillity may allow you to hear a real kind of existence – some say that’s God, some say it’s nature, some say it’s truth."
"Wang Yangming, Instructions for Practical Living and other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yangming, trans. with notes by Wing-Tsit Chan,"