This category explores philosophical rather than directly practical questions, such as Why are we here? and What is the point (of existence)?
We are a social animal. We need others in order to survive and for our own mental well-being. We need to nurture our communities. Family is a form of community. It is one worth nurturing, but our societies today are so complex that we must include those communities that are outside the family. I would
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
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
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
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 –
Empathise – The 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.
Tolerance – I 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.