"Kerokero keroppi, Kappa ga keroppi!"

Recently I was chatting with Gomen the Tadpole, who confessed to me that after a lifetime of studying Buddhism, he had just started learning about Western philosophy thanks to the Internet. Here are a couple of things that perplexed him:

The Radical Academy on Duns Scotus:

Scotus reaffirms his voluntarist doctrine in his ethics; this means that G-d finds within His will the motives for realizing one series of possibles rather than another.

"Do you mean," he asked me, "that G-d has more than one will?" To emphasize his bewilderment, he pointed to this passage from the Doctrine of the Mean (中庸):

天地之道、可一言而尽也、其為物不貳、則其生物不測。

The Way of Heaven and Earth may be described exhaustively in a single statement.
When they do something, it has no doubleness, so they produce things that are unfathomable.

"And this doubleness (不貳), it's some kind of duplicity?" I wondered out loud. "Who would imput treachery or double-dealing to Heaven and Earth?"

"Actually," Gomen informed me, "It means that Heaven and Earth don't have a contingency plan." The term buer (不貳) means "no alternative." In a battle description from the Odes (詩経：大雅：大明) we have the line:

上帝臨女、無貳爾心。

G-d on high is watching you;
Let no doubleness be in your hearts.

And, in that last, "mystical" chapter of Mencius, we are told:

殀寿不貳、修身以侯之、所以立命也。

Not to allow any second plans,
regardless of brevity or longevity of life,
but to polish one's heart and wait for the Mandate of Heaven,
this is the way to fulfill ones destiny."

In other words, Heaven and Earth have only one will; they don't have a contingency plan. Similarly we -- tadpoles, kapparen, foxes, whomever -- we need to make our plans based upon our life's work, and put 100% of our efforts there. Like Stephen Hawking, continuing to study physics in spite of his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, like Lance Armstrong continuing to cultivate his bicycle riding skills in spite of testicular cancer, this is the only way to accomplish something outstanding.

"This is a Confucian teaching," Gomen told me. "But it fits perfectly with the Buddhist ideas of karma. But Scotus --- where does he come in?"

"I'm sorry," I said. "I don't know."

And so, with a perplexed heart and wondering mind I left Gomen beside the churckling brook, crossed the bridge, and went on my way.