Chapter 7: Developing A Spiritual Research Paradigm: A Confucian Perspective

This chapter endeavors the construction of a spiritual research paradigm through the lens of Confucianism.¹ The Confucianism we reference might be thought of as a way of life rather than as abstract philosophy to be studied and debated.² We believe the living version of Confucianism is a valuable perspective because Confucius saw human knowledge and enlightenment as a process of acquiring wisdom through living a virtuous life in the world. In this view, research and the development of knowledge is an endeavor that is a way of life and part of moral cultivation and service to the world rather than separate, objective, and independent as is assumed in Western science. The notions of “human-heaven unity” and “humanheaven correspondence” is the ontological belief of Confucianism, and it forms the view of a spiritual research paradigm from a Confucian perspective. The concepts of human-heaven unity and correspondence assume that virtue or the Good is a normative force in the universe and cultivation involves putting oneself in attunement with the underlying goodness of the universe (Wong, 2001). The outcome of attunement is humans who: live long healthy lives, have access to the knowledge and wisdom of the universe, and contribute to society (flourish in the Greek sense of eude-monia). Elaborating further, Mencius, one of the most famous Confucians after Confucius himself, held that humans were given an “impersonal ordering force from heaven” that he conceived of as sprouts of goodness (Wong, 2001). Confucian cultivation of these sprouts involves attuning or aligning oneself with the ordering patterns of the universe. It is through the attunement that one engages in spiritual research that provides one with practical and spiritual knowledge. In simple terms attunement with the great patterns of the universe is the means by which one conducts spiritual research.