Inside vs Outside - Is Batman right?

Want to exercise your mind on some deep thinking?

Try this quote from 'Batman Begins'

"It's not who you are underneath. It's what you do that defines you."

Sounds like DengXP's "Not white or black cat. The one that catches the mice is a good cat".

Do you agree?

Consider this:

• James 1:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 
• James 1:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

But, what about this:

• Chinese Philosophy of Zhuang Zi 内圣外王 inside Saint Outside King
• or Confucius School of 内修外治 inside developed outside rule.
• i.e. The Virtuous will rule well.
• For more, see Understanding The Great Learning DaXue in One Minute

and this

• "for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." (Rom. 3:28)
• Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
• Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
• Matthew 23:27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

How to resolve this Inside-Outside mess?

The answer can be found in this Japanese Proverb:

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

So, Batman is only 50% correct if you are a kind teacher, else we can say such extreme view is completely wrong since half truth is actually a lie.

West vs East Mindset
This is the typical western mindset of Either OR.
The Chinese mindset of Yin-Yang will think of it as a coin with two sides, the head and the tail. A head side does not exist without the existence of the tail side.

The Chinese mind set has a set of fixed priniples based on values but are flexible in its applications. ( 仁义为本，权变为末）. The application of the principles must always fit the people in the situations that they are in. To the superficial observer, the Chinese systems seems inconsistent, one time this, one time that. But the consistent principle is fit. Jesus said in Mark 2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins."

In today medical practice, it is called personalization ---- health supplements must fit the nature of the person's bodies. This is actually ancient TCM concept.

See Confucius as the Best Coach - Personalized Teaching

Don't be just a screwdriver and think that the world are all screws. Neither do we think we are a hammer, if we are not a screwdriver, and think the world are nails to be hammered!

Know about how they think differently from us, whether we be East or West, see
East West Fusion Mindset as a Key and as Simple as ABC

Lim Liat (c) 24 Jul 2014