Annual self-review: promoting the world's benefit

Introduction

No new chapter this week. The last two weeks of the year are one week of self-review and one of assembly. The self-review is a fixed yearly act in 墨门 / The Mohist Community: every Mohist looks back over the year against the three tests and the ten doctrines. It is private. It goes to no chapter lead and no council; it is shared only with your care-pair partner. Here is the checklist. Write it in one sitting or over several days.

1. My 职. What assignment did I hold in the chapter this year? How much of it did I actually do? Which part did someone else cover for me? Next year, keep it or change it?

2. My care pair. How many times did my partner and I check in? Do I know which month was hardest for them? Do they know mine? Was there a time I should have called and did not?

3. What I did to promote the world's benefit. Write three things. Not three good deeds: three things useful to people who were not in the room, neighbors, strangers, those who come after. Following the Greater Selection's "motive and result together," write the intent and the outcome of each.

4. The frugality standard. Which of this year's spending was what Frugality calls "added expense that adds nothing to anyone's benefit"? Was my 节用捐 given according to my means or according to habit?

5. The non-aggression pledge. Was there a time this year when I "attacked" someone in word or deed, hurting them in order to win? Do they know? Did I repair it?

6. Practicing the three tests. Did I change a view this year? Because of what: precedent, evidence, or consequences? If not once, what does that say?

7. One 三表 goal for next year. Write one thing to do next year and make three things clear: what precedent it has (grounding), how I will know it works (checking), and who benefits and how if it succeeds (use). Only one.

When you have written it, read it to your care-pair partner and listen to theirs. No comment, one question only: "What did you leave out?" Then put it away, and open it again this time next year.

The three tests

Every item of the review faces a test. The 职 and the care pair are the third test: done or not, useful or not. "Promoting the world's benefit" is the tests' whole purpose. Frugality and non-aggression bring the ten doctrines home to yourself. "Practicing the three tests" asks the reverse question: did checking and use actually change me this year? The final goal requires you to write the three tests before you begin, which is the Community's definition of a plan. There is no other 三表 question this week. Only your own.

For families

• Do a short family review: each person names the most useful thing they did for someone else this year, and one thing they want to do next year.
• "What did you leave out?": let a child ask the adults one question about their review.
• Write next year's "one goal" on a slip of paper, put everyone's together, and look at them again next December.

For chapters

• This week's meeting is: 20 min reading the checklist · 30 min paired self-review (in twos, spread out) · 10 min back together for one thing only: each person says their "one goal for next year" in a sentence, with no explanation and no comment.
• The chapter lead collects no self-review content, only the one-sentence goals, for optional sharing in assembly week.
• 职 reports: the last of the year. Each holder says in one sentence "handing over to" or "continuing."