Sincerity of Will
Making one's intentions genuine and pure.
Cheng (sincerity) means making one's intentions genuine. Self-deception must be overcome; one must be honest about one's motivations. Without sincerity, no virtue is real.
Making the intentions sincere means not deceiving oneself.
Self-deception is the fundamental obstacle to moral growth.
Great Learning
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- What Confucianism says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
The Great Learning defines sincerity as not deceiving oneself. Before deciding what to leave unsaid, the tradition asks whether the silence is discretion or something you are concealing from yourself as well as from them.