Atlas›Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines›Guide 135
Guide XIII-135

Jing reverence or composed attentiveness (Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi)

Zhu Xi, Cheng YiChina
A 21 · L 61 · M 1818 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Zhu Xi's (1130–1200) teaching of "holding to reverence" (chijing 持敬, also jujing 居敬) as recorded in the Zhuzi yulei 朱子語類 (Classified Conversations of Master Zhu) and set out in his Jingzhai zhen 敬齋箴 (Admonition for the Studio of Reverence), building on formulas he took from Cheng Yi (1033–1107) and his circle; read through modern scholarship (Thompson, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Zhao Jingang 2024; Jiao Deming 2019) and, for the Korean reception, Yi T'oegye's Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning in Michael Kalton's English. [source: Thompson, SEP "Zhu Xi"; Zhao 2024; Jiao 2019; Kalton, Ten Diagrams outline]

Jing 敬 began as a religious virtue tied to ancestral and ceremonial rites in the classics and in Confucius's teaching; in the Cheng–Zhu school it also carries the sense of focus, concentration and alertness, and Michael Kalton's rendering "mindfulness" is often used to cover the whole range ("reverence", "seriousness", "composure", "attentiveness" are other renderings). [source: Thompson, SEP §2] It is a contemplative discipline of self-cultivation, not a therapy and not a sitting technique only: it is a composed, collected, wakeful and respectful bearing of the mind–heart (xin 心) kept up in stillness and in activity, through dress, posture, speech, study, work and relationships.

How change happens, as the tradition states it: Zhu Xi held that cultivating jing purifies a person's original nature (understood in Neo-Confucian terms as endowed with principle, li 理), attunes one to its promptings and disposes one to act with appropriateness (yi 義); together with a discerning sense of appropriateness it is the basis of self-mastery (zhuzai 主宰). [source: Thompson, SEP §2, §3.1] It works as one half of a twofold effort: nurturing the mind by reverence, and investigating things to grasp their patterns (gewu qiongli 格物窮理). Zhu wrote that reverence is the root of learning and that exhausting principle is its work, and the two should not be split into separate halves. [source: Thompson, SEP §4.1; Zhao 2024, citing Zhuzi quanshu vol. 23] A related Cheng Yi formula, from the Book of Changes, which Zhu cited: "Be reverent in order to straighten oneself within", paired with practising appropriateness to set affairs square outside. [source: Thompson, SEP §3.1, citing Yulei 37] These are the tradition's claims about moral and spiritual formation, reported here as such.

For the psychotherapist, jing matters in two ways: a client from a Confucian, Neo-Confucian or East Asian heritage (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese) may want to draw on it in therapy; and its emphasis on vigilance, self-watchfulness and "trembling" caution can feed perfectionism or scrupulosity in some clients. The therapist's role is to support the client's own use of the tradition, not to teach it as a spiritual director. [synthesis]

2. Framework

The sources describe no phases, session counts or formal course; jing is a lifelong, daily discipline. The structure below is how the tradition orders the work, followed by a therapy frame. [source: Thompson, SEP; Zhao 2024; Jiao 2019]

Traditional ordering of the work

  • Resolve (lizhi 立志). In later life Zhu judged the twofold method too complicated and gradual on its own and held that the sincere learner should first firmly resolve to realise the Confucian virtues. Goal: a clear commitment that gives reverence its direction. [source: Thompson, SEP §2]
  • "Lesser Learning" (xiaoxue 小學) groundwork. Ordinary conduct (sprinkling and sweeping, answering and responding, advancing and withdrawing in company) is treated as the place where reverence is first nurtured. Goal: steadiness through propriety in small daily acts. [source: Zhao 2024] Kalton's commentary on T'oegye likewise heads a section "Mindfulness through Propriety: Beginning from the External". [source: Kalton, Ten Diagrams outline, ch. 9]
  • Holding to reverence in stillness and activity. Ordering outward demeanour, keeping attention on the one matter at hand, staying wakeful, gathering the mind, and quiet sitting when unoccupied. Goal: composure that is the same whether alone or engaged, inside and outside ("in movement and stillness without deviation, outer and inner both upright", paraphrasing the Admonition). [source: Jiao 2019; Zhao 2024]
  • Investigation and appropriateness. Reading, study and ethical discernment carried out in a reverent frame; reverence without appropriateness is, in Zhu's words, "not alive" (不活). Goal: right response to actual situations. [source: Zhao 2024, citing Yulei vol. 1]
  • Ongoing: the tradition gives no exit criterion. Signs of progress named in the sources are composure that is unhurried (Zhu's image of riding a horse smoothly through a narrow, winding anthill path), fewer lapses, and quicker recovery when attention breaks. [source: Jiao 2019]

Therapy frame [synthesis]

  1. Assessment and consent: explore the client's tradition, how they understand jing, whether they want it in therapy, and screen for risk factors (Section 4, items 10–11).
  2. Integration: agree one or two ways the client will draw on their own practice in daily life and in session, framed in their words.
  3. Review: check effects regularly; move from "try" to "keep" only if the client reports benefit and no harm; step down or pause if adverse effects or scrupulosity appear.
  4. Referral or collaboration with a teacher or scholar of the tradition for questions of doctrine and practice.

There is no evidence-based session count for integrating jing in therapy; it rides inside whatever treatment the client is receiving. [synthesis]

3. Guiding principles

Tradition principles (as the sources attribute them):

  • Reverence spans activity and stillness (敬字通貫動靜). Practically: don't confine it to a sitting period; ask how the client carries composure into work, talk and chores. [source: Zhao 2024]
  • Outer order supports inner order. Zhu: move (compose) one's demeanour and order one's thoughts, and reverence arises; there is no one who is outwardly ordered and solemn yet inwardly dim. Practically: posture, dress and pace are legitimate entry points. [source: Zhao 2024, citing Yulei]
  • Concentrate on one, without straying (zhuyi wushi 主一無適). Practically: one task at a time; the Admonition says not to add a second or third matter. [source: Jiao 2019; Chen Chun cited in Zhao 2024]
  • Constant wakefulness (chang xingxing 常惺惺, from Xie Liangzuo). Zhu glosses it as the mind not being dim or clouded. Practically: alert noticing, not tense effort. [source: Zhao 2024]
  • Gathering in the mind (shoulian 收斂, associated with Yin Tun). Practically: collecting oneself so that nothing extraneous lodges in the mind. [source: Zhao 2024, citing Yamazaki Ansai and Chen Chun]
  • Reverence must join appropriateness. Holding only to concentration without judging right and wrong in affairs makes it lifeless. Practically: composure is for responding well, not withdrawing. [source: Zhao 2024; Thompson, SEP §3.1]
  • Continuity, not commentary. Zhu used the example of serving one's parents: do not keep adding self-commentary; when attention is broken, simply reconnect. Practically: lapses are met by resuming, not by self-criticism. [source: Jiao 2019]
  • Unhurried within carefulness. Zhu answered a student who found the Admonition lacking ease by saying the sense of strain usually comes from not having actually practised it. Practically: strain is a cue to check method, not to push harder. [source: Jiao 2019]
  • Hard to do, easy to underrate. Zhang Shi warned that it looks shallow but is very hard in practice. Practically: expect slow, uneven progress. [source: Jiao 2019]

Therapist principles [synthesis unless cited]:

  • Client-led, in the client's tradition and language. Practically: use jing, 敬 or the client's own term only if they introduce it; do not import it into therapy for clients who did not ask.
  • Concepts attributed, not adjudicated. Practically: ideas such as principle (li), original nature or "facing Shangdi" (對越上帝) are described as the tradition holds them; Jiao notes scholars disagree whether the last means awe before a deity or an objectless inner seriousness. [source for the dispute: Jiao 2019]
  • Competence and role boundaries. Practically: the therapist is not the client's teacher; work within the spiritual and religious competencies set out by Vieten et al. (2013), a set of 16 attitude, knowledge and skill competencies. [source: IONS page for Vieten et al. 2013] Follow the ethics code of your profession (for psychologists, the APA Ethics Code) on competence, multiple relationships and respect for religious difference. [synthesis]
  • Do no harm; watch the dose. Practically: contemplative practice can produce adverse effects even in people without prior mental-health history; ask about them routinely. [source: Farias et al. 2020]
  • No health claims. Practically: the tradition presents jing as moral and spiritual cultivation; it is not a treatment for any physical disease, and there is no clinical-trial evidence on jing itself. [synthesis; evidence status: no trials of jing located]
  • Watch for vigilance becoming scrupulosity. Practically: the tradition's language of caution (戰戰兢兢, "trembling and wary") can be turned into compulsive self-monitoring; assess. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

Items 1–9 are the practices of jing as Zhu Xi and his sources teach them, described in plain terms, with how a therapist can support a client who chooses to use them. Items 10–18 are the therapist's own work alongside the practice. Nothing here is restricted or initiatory: these texts have been taught openly for centuries. Where the steps go beyond what the sources state, they are marked [synthesis].

1. Ordering outward form (zhengqi yansu 整齊嚴肅, "orderly and solemn")

  • Purpose / when: The tradition treats composed outward bearing as the entry to reverence: Yamazaki Ansai reports Cheng Yi's "orderly and solemn" as "the place where one enters reverence", and Zhu says composing one's demeanour and ordering one's thoughts makes reverence arise. Useful when a client says their mind is scattered and wants a concrete starting point from their tradition. [source: Zhao 2024]
  • Steps (as the Admonition sets out, in paraphrase): straighten clothes and cap; keep the gaze dignified and steady; let the feet move with weight and the hands with respect; choose where to step; leave the house as if meeting an honoured guest; take up a task as if officiating at a sacrifice. [source: Jiao 2019, Jingzhai zhen text] In-session use [synthesis]: invite the client, if they wish, to settle posture and gaze before discussing something difficult, in whatever way their own practice frames it; afterwards ask what changed.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You said your grandfather would straighten his collar before any serious conversation. Would you like to start that way today, and notice what it does?"
  • Watch for: rigidity, bracing or breath-holding presented as "solemnity"; rituals of dress repeated until it feels "right" (possible OCD); shame about body or appearance. Working: the client reports feeling steadier and more present, not more tense.

2. Concentrating on one, without straying (zhuyi wushi 主一無適)

  • Purpose / when: The core sense of reverence for Zhu's school (Chen Chun: "concentrating on one without straying is the meaning of reverence"). For clients who multitask, ruminate or lose themselves in worry while doing something else. [source: Zhao 2024; Jiao 2019]
  • Steps (paraphrasing the Admonition and commentators): while doing a thing, keep the mind on that thing; do not drift east when going west, or north when going south; when one matter is in hand, do not add a second or a third; keep the mind present with the task until it is done. Chen Chun read "second" and "third" as adding one or two further matters on top of the present one. [source: Jiao 2019] Zhu's caution: holding only to this concentration, without judging right and wrong in the affair, makes it lifeless. [source: Zhao 2024]
  • Therapist support [synthesis]: help the client pick one ordinary daily task (a meal, a commute, a conversation with a parent) to do "with one mind"; review what pulled attention away and how they returned.
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your tradition this is 'concentrating on one'. Which single task this week would you like to give your whole attention to?"
  • Watch for: using single-focus to avoid feelings or needed decisions; self-reproach for every drift. Working: tasks feel less fragmented; the client returns to the task more quickly after distraction.

3. Resuming after a lapse (continuity rather than self-commentary)

  • Purpose / when: Zhu explained concentration through serving one's parents: do not keep annotating oneself; when attention is interrupted, simply pick up the thread again. Jiao calls this one of the most apt explanations of concentrating on one. For clients whose practice turns into self-scrutiny. [source: Jiao 2019]
  • Steps: notice the break; without extra commentary, return to the task or person in front of you. [source: Jiao 2019] In therapy [synthesis]: rehearse a one-word internal cue of the client's choice for "return", and track self-critical commentary as a separate target.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Zhu Xi's advice, as you've described it, sounds like: when you notice you've drifted, just come back, no lecture. What happens if you try that instead of scolding yourself?"
  • Watch for: the cue becoming a compulsive check. Working: lapses are shorter and followed by less guilt.

4. Constant wakefulness (chang xingxing 常惺惺)

  • Purpose / when: Xie Liangzuo's formula, which Zhu adopted: reverence is simply the mind not being dim or clouded; in stillness there is an awareness that stays awake. Ansai describes it as reverence at its clear, bright point. Suits clients who report going through the day on autopilot. [source: Zhao 2024]
  • Steps (as described): keep the mind awake and clear; when a selfish desire or stray thought arises, rouse oneself (tisi 提撕), notice it and set it aside. [source: Zhao 2024, summarising Zhu] In therapy [synthesis]: link brief moments of "waking up" to existing cues the client chooses; distinguish noticing from suppressing.
  • Example language (illustrative): "'Not letting the mind go dim' could be as simple as noticing, at the doorway of each room, where your mind is. Does that fit how you understand it?"
  • Watch for: hypervigilance, effortful thought suppression with rebound, intrusive thoughts being treated as moral failures (screen for OCD), insomnia from trying to stay "awake". Working: more moments of clear presence without added strain.

5. Gathering in the mind (shoulian 收斂)

  • Purpose / when: The formula associated with Yin Tun: gathering body and mind so that not a hair of extraneous matter is admitted (as Ansai and Chen Chun report it). For clients who feel dispersed or pulled outward by others' demands. [source: Zhao 2024]
  • Steps: collect attention inward from scattered concerns; let nothing extraneous take hold. [source: Zhao 2024] Cheng Yi's teaching (via Zhu's commentary) is that holding on to the mind is done simply by reverence that straightens what is within. [source: Zhao 2024, citing Sishu zhangju jizhu] In therapy [synthesis]: a short pause of collecting oneself at the start or end of session, if the client chooses.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before we begin, would you like a moment to gather yourself in the way you practise at home?"
  • Watch for: emotional shutdown or dissociation presented as "collectedness"; withdrawal from people. Working: the client feels more "in one piece" and still available to others.

6. Reverence carried through activity and stillness, inner and outer

  • Purpose / when: The Admonition calls following these practices "holding to reverence" and asks that movement and stillness not diverge and outer and inner be upright together; Jiao (with Luo Qinshun) treats this as a core of the text. For clients whose composure collapses in conflict or busy work. [source: Jiao 2019]
  • Steps (paraphrase of the Admonition): guard the mouth like a sealed jar; guard intentions like a city wall; be earnest and attentive, never daring to be careless; keep the same composure when acting as when sitting. The text warns that a moment's gap lets countless selfish desires in and a hair's-breadth slip turns things upside down; Zhu explained to a correspondent that both refer to losing reverence, one in time and one in affairs. [source: Jiao 2019] In therapy [synthesis]: pick one recurring hard situation (a family meal, a meeting) and plan how the client will carry their composure into it; review afterwards.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You keep your calm well when you sit in the morning. What would 'the same mind in movement' look like at Thursday's meeting?"
  • Watch for: "guarding the mouth" turning into silencing legitimate needs or not disclosing abuse; catastrophic reading of small slips ("a hair's breadth"). Working: steadier responses in the chosen situation, with needs still voiced.

7. Quiet sitting (jingzuo 靜坐) in Zhu Xi's sense: public outline only

  • Purpose / when: Zhu advised that in the leisure from reading one may sit quietly so the mind is level and the qi 氣 (vital energy, as the tradition understands it) settles; he also said that if quiet sitting cannot dispel thoughts, it means one was not reverent while sitting. He found his teacher Li Tong's emphasis on stillness one-sided and asked how one moves from sitting to timely moral response. [source: Zhao 2024; Thompson, SEP §2] The sources give no posture manual, breath method or duration here, and none is given in this guide.
  • Steps: sit quietly, composed and wakeful, as a complement to study and activity, not a replacement for them. [source: Zhao 2024] In therapy [synthesis]: if the client already sits, ask how they do it and how it affects them; keep it brief and eyes-open if they wish; do not add breath control.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Zhu Xi seems to have seen sitting as a way to settle before getting back to life. How does your sitting help you get back to life?"
  • Watch for: the adverse effects in item 15; long or intensive sitting used to escape distress; heavy self-blame when thoughts don't stop (Zhu's line about not being reverent can be heard as an accusation). Working: settledness that carries into the day.

8. Joining reverence to appropriateness and study

  • Purpose / when: Reverence straightens the inner life; appropriateness (yi) squares outer affairs; reading and investigation are carried out in reverence. For clients using composure to avoid decisions or ethical questions. [source: Thompson, SEP §3.1, §4.1; Zhao 2024]
  • Steps: after settling, ask what is fitting in the actual situation; read and reflect with full attention; act. [source: Thompson, SEP §3.2; Zhao 2024] In therapy [synthesis]: connect composure work to values clarification and problem solving in the client's own moral language (filial duty, humaneness ren 仁, propriety li 禮).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Now you're steadier, what would be the fitting thing to do about your brother, in your own sense of what's right?"
  • Watch for: rigid moralism or filial obligations that override safety; the therapist imposing values. Working: decisions feel both calm and right to the client.

9. Daily recitation or reflection on the Admonition, and propriety in daily routine

  • Purpose / when: Jiao reports that the late-Qing scholar Dai Fengyi recited the Admonition reverently every morning from youth and found reading and understanding came more easily. In Korea, T'oegye placed the Admonition among his Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning, followed by a diagram on the course of a well-lived day. [source: Jiao 2019; Kalton, Ten Diagrams outline] Small daily acts of courtesy and order ("Lesser Learning") are treated as cultivation. [source: Zhao 2024]
  • Steps: read or recite the text at a fixed point in the day; reflect on one line; carry it into ordinary conduct. [source: Jiao 2019] The detailed content of T'oegye's daily-schedule admonition is [uncertain: not verified]. In therapy [synthesis]: if the client wants, choose one line in their own translation as a daily intention and review it.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Which line of the Admonition speaks to what you're working on? Would you like to carry it this week?"
  • Watch for: recitation becoming a ritual that must be done perfectly or repeated (scrupulosity); using the text to condemn oneself. Working: the line orients rather than accuses.

10. Spiritual and cultural assessment, and consent to integrate

  • Purpose / when: At intake or when the client first mentions jing, Confucian self-cultivation or family moral teaching. Grounded in the spiritual and religious competencies of Vieten et al. (2013) [source: IONS page]; the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions are suitable structured tools [uncertain: not verified].
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask what the practice means to the client, where they learned it (family, academy, reading, a teacher), and how they practise now. (2) Ask whether it is a resource, a burden, or both, including family expectations of propriety and filial duty. (3) Ask whether they want it included in therapy and how. (4) Record consent, including the right to keep the practice private. (5) Screen for risk factors listed in item 15.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned 'holding to reverence'. Can you tell me what that means for you, and whether you'd like it to have a place in our work?"
  • Watch for: the client feeling judged as old-fashioned or, conversely, feeling pushed to be religious; family pressure presented as personal choice. Working: the client describes the practice in their own words and sets the terms of its use.

11. Client-led integration within spiritually integrated psychotherapy

  • Purpose / when: When the client wants their tradition to support therapy goals (anxiety, rumination, anger, attention, grief, moral distress). Cross-refer: Domain VII (spiritually integrated psychotherapy; contemplative psychotherapy).
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) Map the client's goal onto the practice they already value (e.g. "concentrating on one" for scattered attention; "orderly and solemn" for agitation; reverence joined to appropriateness for moral decisions). (2) Agree a small, concrete daily use. (3) Use the client's terms, translations and texts. (4) Review effects each session. (5) Keep conventional evidence-based treatment in place for any disorder.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You want to stop snapping at your children. Is there something in how you practise reverence that could help in those moments?"
  • Watch for: the therapist becoming the authority on the tradition; spiritual bypassing of grief or anger. Working: the client reports the tradition and therapy pulling in the same direction.

12. Secular and clinical adaptations (cross-reference only)

  • Purpose / when: For clients who want attention and composure training without a Confucian framing, or a Confucian client who also wants an evidence-based programme.
  • Steps: No published clinical protocol adapting Cheng–Zhu jing was verified [uncertain: not verified]. Scholarly work links T'oegye's "reverent seriousness" with philosophical therapy (Kang, philpapers record) [uncertain: not verified]. Kalton's rendering of jing as "mindfulness" invites comparison with mindfulness-based programmes [source: Thompson, SEP §2]; for structured adaptations refer to Domain II (MBSR, MBCT, MSC, CFT) and Domain VII. Any comparison should note the differences: jing is moral, relational and tied to propriety and study, not a programme of non-judgemental awareness. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "There are structured mindfulness courses with research behind them. They're not the same as your tradition's reverence, but some people use both. Would that interest you?"
  • Watch for: presenting jing as equivalent to secular mindfulness, or a secular course as replacing the client's tradition. Working: client makes an informed choice.

13. Referral to and collaboration with teachers or scholars

  • Purpose / when: For questions of doctrine, text interpretation or deepening practice, which are outside the therapist's role.
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask whether the client has a teacher, academy (shuyuan 書院 in China and Taiwan; sŏwŏn in Korea), study group, or university scholar they trust. Which institutions currently teach jing practice is [uncertain: not verified]. (2) With written consent, consult on how the client understands the practice. (3) Keep roles distinct: teacher for practice and doctrine, therapist for mental health. (4) Be alert to any teacher relationship involving pressure, exploitation or control (Section 5).
  • Example language (illustrative): "That's a question about how the text should be read, and a teacher of your tradition would answer it better than I can. Is there someone you'd like to ask?"
  • Watch for: the client feeling dismissed; teacher advice that conflicts with medical care. Working: client has a clear source of guidance for each kind of question.

14. Trauma-sensitive adaptation

  • Purpose / when: For clients with trauma histories for whom inward focus, stillness, or bodily self-scrutiny may trigger intrusions or dissociation. Treleaven (2018, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness) describes this kind of adaptation for mindfulness [uncertain: not verified]; cross-refer Domain IV (trauma-sensitive yoga).
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) Prefer the activity-based side of jing (one task with full attention; composure in movement) over prolonged quiet sitting. (2) Keep eyes open and attention partly on the external environment. (3) Offer choice at every step, including stopping. (4) Keep practice short and let the client set the dose. (5) Use grounding (feet, objects, naming things in the room). (6) Avoid language of "trembling", "guarding against" or fault when the client is shame-prone.
  • Example language (illustrative): "We can do this with eyes open, and you can stop any time. Would you prefer to practise while washing the cups rather than sitting still?"
  • Watch for: flashbacks, numbing, freezing, spacing out, increased startle. Working: the client stays within tolerance and feels in control.

15. Screening and managing adverse effects

  • Purpose / when: In every case where the client practises quiet sitting or intensive self-watching. A systematic review of 83 studies found at least one adverse event reported in 65% of studies, a pooled prevalence of 8.3% (3.7% in experimental studies, 33.2% in observational ones); most common were anxiety, depression and cognitive anomalies, and events occurred in people without prior mental-health history. [source: Farias et al. 2020] The Varieties of Contemplative Experience study (over 100 interviews with Western Buddhist meditators and teachers) mapped challenges across domains including hyperarousal and dissociation, perceptual, affective, conative, cognitive, sense of self, social and somatic. [source: Cheetah House VCE page; Lindahl et al. 2017] These data come from meditation, not from jing specifically; their application here is [synthesis].
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) Before intensive or extended practice, screen for history of psychosis, mania, severe dissociation, current suicidality, recent trauma and OCD. (2) Ask routinely about anxiety, low mood, sleep, strange perceptions, depersonalisation and harsh self-monitoring. (3) If adverse effects appear: reduce dose, shift to activity-based practice, ground, add social contact and ordinary routines, and coordinate with the client's teacher if the client wishes. (4) Specialist support for meditation-related difficulty is offered by Cheetah House (consultations, support groups, training for teachers and clinicians). [source: Cheetah House VCE page] (5) Refer to psychiatry if psychotic, manic or suicidal features emerge.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people find that practices of stillness or self-watching stir up anxiety or odd experiences. Has anything like that happened for you?"
  • Watch for: sleep loss, agitation, derealisation, rising guilt. Working: symptoms ease with dose reduction and grounding.

16. Telling spiritual experience apart from illness

  • Purpose / when: When the client reports unusual states, intense awe, or a sense of facing Heaven or Shangdi in practice.
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) Describe the experience in the client's terms without endorsing or dismissing its religious meaning. (2) Assess function, distress, insight, sleep, mood and psychotic or manic features. (3) Consider whether it fits a religious or spiritual problem as DSM-5-TR lists it (Z65.8) [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8] rather than a disorder. (4) Consult the client's teacher, with consent, about whether the experience is familiar in their practice. (5) Do not miss depression, mania, psychosis or dissociation.
  • Example language (illustrative): "That sounds very significant to you. Can we also check how you're sleeping and coping day to day, so we look after all of you?"
  • Watch for: pathologising normal devotion; missing emerging illness. Working: a shared understanding the client accepts, with risk assessed.

17. Scrupulosity and perfectionism linked to reverence

  • Purpose / when: The Admonition calls for being "trembling and wary", never daring to be careless, and warns that a moment's lapse lets in countless selfish desires [source: Jiao 2019]; Zhu glossed reverence as an alarmed sense of being in awe [source: Jiao 2019]. Some scholars criticise Cheng–Zhu reverence for excessive strictness toward external norms that suppresses the self (Feng Dawen and others, as Jiao reports). Clients with OCD or perfectionism can turn these ideals into compulsive self-monitoring, checking of thoughts, repeated recitation or posture rituals.
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) Assess for obsessions (fear of moral impurity, of a careless thought) and compulsions (checking, repeating, reassurance seeking, mental reviewing). (2) Psychoeducation framing OCD as distinct from sincere practice. (3) With consent, consult the client's teacher or a respected scholar of the tradition about what the tradition actually requires, so exposure work does not violate it. Zhu's own advice to resume without self-commentary (item 3) and his concern for unhurried ease (Section 3) can support the work. (4) Exposure and response prevention: graded exposure to feared imperfection (for example, leaving a minor lapse uncorrected) with refraining from rituals; obtain informed consent, explain temporary anxiety increase, and adjust pace. The IOCDF publishes guidance on scrupulosity [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your tradition asks for care, but it sounds as if the checking has become a master. Would it help to ask your teacher where real reverence ends and the OCD begins?"
  • Watch for: reassurance seeking from the therapist; exposure plans that cross the client's genuine religious lines. Working: less time on rituals, practice feels freer.

18. Role, ethics and self-disclosure

  • Purpose / when: Throughout.
  • Steps [synthesis]: (1) Do not act as the client's teacher, confessor or spiritual director. (2) Avoid dual relationships, such as practising or studying in the same group. (3) Notice your own views of Confucianism (admiration, or associations with patriarchy and authoritarian family structures) and keep them out of the client's choices; disclose your own commitments only when it serves the client. (4) Work within the Vieten et al. (2013) competencies [source: IONS page] and your profession's ethics code (for psychologists, the APA Ethics Code) on competence, multiple relationships and respect for religious difference.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not a teacher of this tradition, but I'm glad to help you use it in a way that serves what you want from therapy."
  • Watch for: the client deferring to you as an elder or authority, a pattern the tradition's respect for teachers may encourage. Working: the client keeps ownership of their practice.

5. Handling problems

The classical sources address only a few of these difficulties (strain, lapses, one-sided stillness). Responses are [synthesis] unless a source is given.

  • "I can't stop my thoughts when I sit, so I'm failing at reverence." Zhu did say that sitting without dispelling thoughts means reverence was absent [source: Zhao 2024], but he also treated reverence as spanning activity and stillness and counselled simply resuming after a lapse [source: Zhao 2024; Jiao 2019]. Response: shift emphasis to reverence in activity (items 2, 6), shorten sitting, separate the tradition's ideal from self-attack; consider a teacher's view.
  • Strain, tension, headaches, "trying too hard". A student of Zhu complained that the Admonition lacked ease; Zhu replied that the felt pressure usually comes from not having really done the work [source: Jiao 2019]. Response: treat strain as a sign the method has become forceful; return to gentle, one-task attention and outward composure; check for anxiety disorder or perfectionism. The interpretation that ease follows genuine practice is the tradition's; the clinical response is [synthesis].
  • Stuck: no change after weeks. Zhang Shi warned the practice looks shallow but is very hard [source: Jiao 2019]. Response: lower expectations, narrow to one daily situation, make sure evidence-based treatment for the presenting problem is also in place.
  • Using composure to avoid. Composure as withdrawal from conflict, grief or decisions. Zhu's point that concentration without appropriateness is "not alive" [source: Zhao 2024] gives a tradition-consistent challenge. Response: pair composure with action planning (item 8) and emotion-focused work.
  • Overwhelm, dissociation or unusual experiences in practice. Stop or reduce practice, ground, assess (items 15–16), refer to psychiatry if needed, and offer Cheetah House or similar specialist support [source: Cheetah House VCE page].
  • Scrupulosity and moral self-punishment. See item 17: assess for OCD, ERP with consent and consultation with the client's religious authority.
  • Non-adherence. Explore meaning rather than push: the client may feel the practice belongs to parents, may associate it with harsh discipline, or may simply not want it in therapy. Respect withdrawal of consent; the tradition is not a therapy requirement.
  • Family and cultural conflict. Propriety and filial reverence can become arenas of intergenerational conflict, gender-role pressure or control. Response: explore the client's own position; distinguish the tradition's ideals from coercive family practices; assess safety where control or abuse is present.
  • Ruptures around the tradition. The client may sense the therapist sees Confucian teaching as patriarchal or outdated, or as exotic. Response: name it, ask, repair; keep concepts attributed and the client's view central.
  • Deference to the therapist as authority. Clients raised with strong reverence for teachers and elders may not disagree openly. Response: invite disagreement explicitly; check for unspoken dissatisfaction; offer choices.
  • Teacher or group concerns. Where a teacher or study community uses "reverence" to demand obedience, isolate members, control finances or sexuality, or punish questioning, treat these as signs of coercive control: support the client's autonomy, help them consult others, and support leaving if they choose, attending to any religious trauma. Documented misconduct specific to jing teaching: none found in the sources consulted.
  • Health claims. If the client believes the practice will treat a physical illness, keep medical care in place and route health questions to their doctor; jing is presented by its tradition as moral and spiritual cultivation, and there is no clinical-trial evidence for it as a health treatment. [synthesis]
  • Children and adolescents. Where parents impose strict propriety or self-cultivation routines on a minor, assess wellbeing, consent and assent, and safeguarding concerns if discipline becomes harsh. [synthesis]

Sources

Online sources:

Works cited:

  • Zhu Xi, Jingzhai zhen 敬齋箴 (Admonition for the Studio of Reverence), text as given in Jiao 2019.
  • Zhu Xi, Zhuzi yulei 朱子語類, passages as quoted in Zhao 2024 and Thompson (SEP).
  • Kalton, Michael C. To Become a Sage: The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning by Yi T'oegye (cited in Thompson, SEP) [uncertain: not verified].
  • Lindahl et al. (2017). The Varieties of Contemplative Experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. PLOS ONE, 12(5), e0176239 (as listed by Cheetah House).
  • Farias, M., et al. (2020). Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: a systematic review. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 142(5), 374–393. doi:10.1111/acps.13225.
  • Vieten, C., Scammell, S., Pilato, R., Ammondson, I., Pargament, K. I., & Lukoff, D. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5(3), 129–144.
  • Treleaven, D. A. (2018). Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness [uncertain: not verified].
  • American Psychiatric Association. DSM-5-TR, Cultural Formulation Interview [uncertain: not verified].
  • ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances
  • American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, https://www.apa.org/ethics/code (guidance referring to it is synthesis).
  • Kang, "Yi T'oegye's Reverent Seriousness and Philosophical Therapy" (PhilPapers record KANYTR) [uncertain: not verified].
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