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The Goodness Within: Realizing Our True Nature

The Goodness Within: Realizing Our True Nature

Last updated on: November 19, 2025 at 3:04 am by Henry Karlson

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The Goodness Within: Realizing Our True Nature 2025-11-19T03:04:46-05:00 Henry Karlson

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阿道,: Statue Of Wang Yangming Who Taught Our True Nature IS One / Wikimedia Commons

Who we are, at the core of our being, is good; our true nature is good because it was created good by God. Even if and when we defile ourselves by our actions, our nature remains, in essence, as it was created by God. It is good. We might have lost sight of it, and so misunderstand ourselves, but it remains, and it is something we need to find again, to find, as it were, our true face, the face as it is before we were born (covered by the filth of our sins). Sadly, many Christians no longer understand this. Indeed, many think human nature as it is in itself is evil. We need to reject this distortion of the faith and return to way Christians presented humanity as being naturally good, a truth observed especially in the writings of the Greek Fathers, so that we can better understand what it means to be human:

The Greek Fathers start from this view of human nature. Our true nature is our real self, the one seen in scripture as made according to God’s image and likeness (Gen 1:26). We were meant to live in God’s presence as in light. Our nature was basically good and God’s uncreated energies were always present to God. [1]

It is not our nature which separates us from God, for God’s image is found within it. It is our actions which, conventionally speaking, separate us from God:

Lest anyone suppose that nature is what divides a servant of God from a transgressor and the virtuous from the wicked, he attributes both to the will and says that one is either wicked or virtuous as a consequence of his own will: He did not want. Another, however, wants to understand to do good. The virtuous wants this very thing: to practice good things [2]

Those who choose to do evil can, through their action, be described as evil; but we do so, not because their inner nature has been corrupted so they are evil by nature, but because they have put on a mask, a mask created by their actions, one which hides their true self, their true nature, their innate goodness, from everyone, including themselves. Confucians came to understand this in their own way, and so, speaking in a way which comes close to Christian theology, Wang Yangming said human nature is good and if properly embrace it, it will lead us to do what is good and true, while if we embrace selfish desires instead of following its prompting, those desires will lead us away from our true nature (and in doing so, cover it so our true nature is hard to find):

True nature is one. Human fellow-feeling, a sense of moral duty, proper norms of behavior, wisdom: these are the true nature of true nature. Intelligence and understanding are the substance of true nature. Joy, anger, grief, happiness: these are the emotions of true nature. Selfish desires, alien energies: these are what cover over true nature.[3]

We have defiled ourselves, we have lost sight of our true selves, we have become selfish, self-seeking, prideful, avaricious, and so have cut ourselves off from our unity with the rest of humanity, indeed, the rest of creation. We try to become individuals cut off from everyone, however, we cannot do so entirely; our true nature remains, our connection with the rest of humanity remains: human nature remains, which is why it could be and would be assumed by the Word of God. In the incarnation, we find human nature remains good. That human nature is one and the same with all humanity, leading to humanity being one. This unity is one of the ways Christ shares grace with humanity. Grace works to purify us, to cleanse us, to heal us, so that when we cooperate it and the potential it gives us, we can remove the mask of sin, the mask of the false self, and reveal to ourselves and everyone our true face.

Let us live our lives in order to work out and reveal our innate goodness, to reveal our true face to all. We must recognize it will be a process, a process which is possible because our human nature is embedded in the Word of God:

We are always in the process of becoming more and more our true selves in God’s creative Word and His Spirit of love. Our nature can never be outside of God’s loving activities. Grace is God’s primary and constant presence in His creative activities in our lives, in our history. These activities cannot be separated from His nature as love.[4]

Confucian teachers tell us true learning is connected to discerning and understanding our true selves, our innate goodness; but they also point out such knowledge is not true knowledge unless we act on it:

There is no such thing in the world as fully comprehending the true pattern without applying it in practice. Thus, knowing without acting cannot be considered learning, and knowing without acting cannot be considered fully comprehending the true pattern. Therefore it is evident that knowledge and action are joined as one and advance together: they should not be divided into two things.[5]

The more we act on what we have learned (of our true nature), the more we reveal our true humanity, the more we will inspire others to do likewise. But also, the more we learn of that nature, the more we will find our lives is meant to be filled with learning, always learning how to act with and support everyone with our love:

Love people until people are loving too. Respect people until people are respectful too. Be faithful to people until people are faithful too. This alone is the method for learning without stopping. [6]

It is important to know ourselves. It is imperative for us to realize our innate goodness, to know that each of us share the same humanity with each other, the same good nature. We are all people made in the image and likeness of God. This is why coming to know ourselves will not lead us to be individuals cut off from everyone else, but rather, the reverse, as we will see the pattern of heaven as it is found in all of us, and indeed all things, the pattern of heaven which not only unites us all but intends us all to work together through our innate goodness, so that all can be blessed:

Heaven’s true pattern: each and every person inherently possesses it. It is not an external adornment. It is not preserved [only in a great sage like] Yao or destroyed [by an archvillain like] Jie. Therefore, all people can become [sages like] Yao and Shun by means of it. The mind of the man in the street is identical to the mind of Yao and Shun: it is all one mind, there is no other. Beginning students and the sages have this mind in common, share alike in this single true pattern of Heaven.[7]

[1] George Maloney, SJ, Prayer of the Heart (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1981), 158.

[2] Didymus the Blind, Lectures on the Psalms. Trans. Jonathan Douglas Hicks (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2024), 233.

[3] J.C. Cleary, trans. and ed., Worldly Wisdom: Confucian Teachings of the Ming Dynasty (Boston: Shambala, 1991), 39 [Wang Yangming].

[4] George Maloney, SJ, God’s Exploding Love (New York: Alba House. 1987), 125-6.

[5] J.C. Cleary, trans. and ed., Worldly Wisdom: Confucian Teachings of the Ming Dynasty, 43 [Wang Yangming].

[6] J.C. Cleary, trans. and ed., Worldly Wisdom: Confucian Teachings of the Ming Dynasty ,63 [Wang Gen].

[7] J.C. Cleary, trans. and ed., Worldly Wisdom: Confucian Teachings of the Ming Dynasty, 27 [Zhan Ruoshui].

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