Beliefs

I have made this a sub-category of the Why theme/category. Although Beliefs is slightly different, I prefer not to have too many main themes. Any philosophical exploration of the Who and Why questions I am exploring here cannot avoid subsequent questions about God, or gods, who or what he or she may be, and whether or not he or she exists, and how or why I arrive at any conclusions on this matter. Articles categorized as Beliefs concern the benefits, disadvantages and dangers of religion or other beliefs.

Integrity – a precept

Integrity Be honest, especially to yourself. In order to achieve this, you need to be honest to others too. A common trap for dishonesty is to progressively believe your own lies. We often make life more complicated than need be, and being dishonest with ourselves and others exacerbates this, enclosing us in an ever-tightening web

Read More 

Foresight – a precept

Act with the intention to leave your surroundings unchanged or better than when you found them. A simple way of viewing this is to imagine your grandchildren will have better lives than you because of your legacy. Try and consider the long-term consequences of your behaviour or actions. Seemingly harmless events done in the present

Read More 

Respect Life – a precept

Respect life The ancient Indian religion Jainism prescribes “ahimsa”, or a path of non-violence to all living beings. Jainism defines violence as intentional or unintentional harm. This could be related to “Empathise” so I have placed it second in the list, although I think this list should not be considered a list of priority. Jains

Read More 

Precepts to live by

What Precepts should I attempt to live by?   And to what extent should they be followed?

I have written the summary here as a page. Each precept is linked to a post where I explore the precept in more detail. Should there be any others? Should there be less? Should they be in a different order?

The first and most all-encompassing precept must be –

EmpathiseThe Golden Rule or The Ethic of Reciprocity is “Do not treat others in ways that you would not like to be treated”.

Then ….

Respect life – This seems an obvious precept to most people. In some ways this is similar to the first one, and as a result may not be necessary. However when you look into the issues of respecting life, there are many aspects to consider which could be interpreted in many ways. As a result an interesting mind and morality exercise is to explore the meaning of this. Overall I think this precept is subordinate to Empathise, and I find the most difficult moral considerations here are helped if that is so.

Foresight – Act with the intention to leave your surroundings unchanged or better than when you found them. A simple way of viewing this is to imagine your grandchildren will have better lives than you, because of your legacy. Try and consider the long-term consequences of your behaviour or actions. Seemingly harmless events done in the present may have detrimental long-term consequences.

Integrity – Be honest, especially to yourself. In order to achieve this, you need to be honest to others too.

Nurture Community – We are a social animal, and cannot survive on our own. We need others in order to survive, but also for our own mental well-being.

Learning  and discover and enjoy learning in general as a goal in life. Question what you or others believe.

ToleranceI think judging others is a default setting in humans, which is hard to avoid. Maybe that is necessary for a stable society? However a judgement implies that the judge is better and does not err into making the fault of which the judged is accused. In a sense that places the judge on higher moral ground. I think if you dare to pass a judgement, judge someone by their actions, and not their words. Although words can lead to violent actions, racism and bad deeds, freedom of speech is critical to growth, development and understanding. This does not mean agree or do not counter anything anyone says. It means do not silence them, lock them up, or otherwise mistreat someone for what they have said, unless the threat becomes their actions, and not their words.

Empathise – a precept

The first and most all-encompassing precept must be – Empathise  The Golden Rule or The Ethic of Reciprocity is “Do not treat others in ways that you would not like to be treated”. The alternative similar and more commonly known version may be easier and more useful to remember, but is not exactly the same

Read More