Today's Reflection
Teachers Who Stretch, Not Flatter
Yan Hui sighed deeply and said, 'The more I look up at it, the higher it seems; the more I bore into it, the harder it becomes. I see it ahead, and suddenly it is behind me. Yet the Master skillfully leads me step by step—broadening me with culture, restraining me with ritual. I could not stop even if I wanted to.'
Yan Hui's famous description of Confucius' teaching is a portrait of what great mentorship feels like: always out of reach, always calling one higher, yet delivered with such skill that the student cannot stop pursuing. The Master does not flatter—he broadens (博) and restrains (約). Great teaching demands more, not less, of the student—and the student is grateful for being stretched.