Xiong Shili (1885-1968)
The cosmos is one great whole. Its basic nature, which is that of mind, will, and consciousness, is constant and continuous. It is dynamic, a vast ever-running current of changes, in a process of perpetual transformation, producing all things. In this current, two factors are at work:
- an integrating and consolidating tendency called “closing,” which gives rise to all becoming of physical things, and
- a strong, directing, controlling tendency called “opening,” which is the operation of mind.
No matter how great the variety of physical and mental happenings in the world, they are all one in the “original substance.” They are its functionings and manifestations, just as waves of the ocean are one and continuous with the ocean itself. “Original substance” is “original mind.” Spirit and matter are simply two aspects of its perpetual operation. “Original mind” is thus common to human beings, heaven, earth, and all things. Its continuous transitions create what is new, not capriciously but with all the orderliness and causal sequence that science discovers. In spirit it is ren (humanity, humaneness, human-heartedness), the inmost ethical nature of reality and all its functions.