Confucius Analects – Handling Mistakes – 孔子论语 – 如何面对和改正错误

15.11 Learn from mistakes

子曰、過而不改、是謂過矣。

The Master said, ‘To have faults and not to reform them,– this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.’

19.4 Superior man commits mistakes, he learns and changes through them

子貢曰、君子之過也、如日月之食焉、過也、人皆見之、更也、 人皆仰之。

Zigongsaid, ‘The faults of the superior man are like the eclipses of the sun and moon. He has his faults, and all men see them; he changes again, and all men look up to him.’

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Here we see the imperfection of even a superior man, as those who strives towards a Superior Man still commit errors. What make a superior man stands out is that s/he can learn from mistakes, corrects upon it, and will not commit it in the future.   This is similar to the description of individual karma in the Buddhist tradition, where through repeated choice, individual slowly let go of habits which is now seen to be wrong and undesired.  Eventually the tendency and intensity to repeat past habits will decrease and errors will not be repeated.

15.11 子曰、過而不改、是謂過矣。

19.4 子貢曰、君子之過也、如日月之食焉、過也、人皆見之、更也、 人皆仰之。

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人无完人，君子也会犯误。但是，君子有别于一般人的是，他/她可以从错误中吸取教训，纠正它，并不会在将来再犯。这裹其实等于佛家对个人业力的描述：经过反覆的选择，个人可以慢慢的去放下错误和不好的习惯，慢慢的，过去习惯的强度和出现频率就会渐渐降低，以至不再重复错误。