(Note: I use AI to help me translate my stories from Japanese to English.)
Among Confucius’s sayings, my favorite is the following:
“They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.”
I used to be unable to understand the difference between loving the truth and delighting in it. However, I have come to understand it this way:
Knowing corresponds to the third person, loving to the second person, and delighting to the first person. In other words, knowing is like “they,” loving is like “you,” and delighting is like “I.”
When you know the truth, there is a distance between yourself and it. When you love it, that distance becomes small. When you delight in it, there is no distance at all.
When you delight in the truth, you and the truth become one.