Morality: A human construct?

Phoenix

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Morality: A human construct?

http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path describes the way to the end of suffering, as it was laid out by Siddhartha Gautama. It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things. Together with the Four Noble Truths it constitutes the gist of Buddhism. Great emphasis is put on the practical aspect, because it is only through practice that one can attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. The eight aspects of the path are not to be understood as a sequence of single steps, instead they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other.

1. Right View

Right view is the beginning and the end of the path, it simply means to see and to understand things as they really are and to realize the Four Noble Truth. As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. It means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas, and to understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning. Right view is not necessarily an intellectual capacity, just as wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence. Instead, right view is attained, sustained, and enhanced through all capacities of mind. It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions. [back to the top]

2. Right Intention

While right view refers to the cognitive aspect of wisdom, right intention refers to the volitional aspect, i.e. the kind of mental energy that controls our actions. Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: 1. the intention of renunciation, which means resistance to the pull of desire, 2. the intention of good will, meaning resistance to feelings of anger and aversion, and 3. the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion. [back to the top]

3. Right Speech

Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. This aspect is not self-sufficient, however, essential, because mental purification can only be achieved through the cultivation of ethical conduct. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious: words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary. [back to the top]

4. Right Action

The second ethical principle, right action, involves the body as natural means of expression, as it refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. Unwholesome actions lead to unsound states of mind, while wholesome actions lead to sound states of mind. Again, the principle is explained in terms of abstinence: right action means 1. to abstain from harming sentient beings, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently, 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and 3. to abstain from sexual misconduct. Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others. Further details regarding the concrete meaning of right action can be found in the Precepts. [back to the top]

5. Right Livelihood

Right livelihood means that one should earn one's living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. dealing in weapons, 2. dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3. working in meat production and butchery, and 4. selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided. [back to the top]

6. Right Effort

Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavors that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen. [back to the top]

7. Right Mindfulness

Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost always conceptualize sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the facticity of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs, and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously, and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualization in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1. contemplation of the body, 2. contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3. contemplation of the state of mind, and 4. contemplation of the phenomena. [back to the top]

8. Right Concentration

The eighth principle of the path, right concentration, refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration, and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels concentration also in everyday situations. [back to the top]

 

Phoenix

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Morality: A human construct?

http://www.crystalinks.com/wicca.html
Aside from the Wiccan Rede and the \"three-fold law\", Wiccans do not have to subscribe to a fixed ideology so beliefs vary, however the common theme is that Wiccans gain a connection with the divine spirit of mother nature through the celebration of her cycles through the Wicca calender. This is done either individually or with other Wiccans.

According to most versions of the three-fold law, whatever one does comes back to one thrice-multiplied, in amplified repercussion. One short, rhymed version of the Wiccan Rede states \"Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: An it harm none, do what you will.\" Often \"none\" is interpreted to include the doer him self in analogy to the \"golden rule\" of other faiths. There are no universal proscriptions regarding food, sex, burial or military service and Wiccans, as a rule, discourage proselytizing (attempts to convert others to a different religion).



At key points in the year Wiccans gather and connect with nature, generally by forming a circle, sometimes using set forms of words, or otherwise improvising according to the participants needs.

The morality of wicca is based heavily on free will allowing individual freedom with as little interference as possible. There is high level of equality in Wicca with the emphasis on the circle and the lack of any preaching. The concept of a talking stick where everyone has their say is more widespread than dominating leaders. The emphasis is on the creation of harmony by allowing the individual to do their own will but encouraging them to think of the harm done to others by the exercising of this freedom.
 

Phoenix

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Morality: A human construct?

http://www.geocities.com/liudegast/nihilism.html
A Little Perspective

Everybody has an answer, but not just any answer, the answer. If you think about it it's truly amazing the sheer number of people that have the officially authorized monopoly on truth. This fact alone highlights the dissonance of absolute values and the misguided nature of idealism. What quantitative value would you place on your life? A life insurance corporation could concoct an exact dollar amount. But even that figure may be inflated, the chemical compounds that make up your body are only worth a few cents. But isn't life more valuable than gold, oil or other commodities? Think again.

Which is cheaper to create human life or an ounce of gold? Gold can actually be synthesized in a cyclotron but the cost is astronomical, however human life or any life can be created virtually for free. Planet Earth is infested with perpetual self-replicators but the amount of platinum for example is finite. This self-righteous confidence manifests itself as an unlimited capacity for egoistic narcissism and self-magnification. Human arrogance conveniently assumes itself the apex of evolution yet in reality the corporal being is merely a disposable vehicle for the reproduction of genetic material, not the other way around! Natural human cravings are harmful to the self but profitable to the genes, hence the prevalence of self-destructive behavior among others. And remarkably this is the true solution to the classic existential dilemma, why life is just death or as John Lennon once put it, \"Why in the world are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear,\" most assuredly we are. The human body isn't programmed for pain-free longevity just long enough to reproduce, which is why doctors will never run out of business. The biological boss may be too small to see but is far too powerful to ignore.

If human value could be measured outside the skewed perspective of the collective ego it might look something like this; if only one individual existed on planet Earth they would be the most important human. If two people existed their individual significance would be divided in half (1/2). If six thousand million people existed on Earth what would the individual significance of each one be? A simple equation shows the value as the fractional percentage of the whole population plus any incidental, conjectural additives from education, training, intelligence etc. Presupposing this Marxian values system of universal equality the formula for individual human value is:
1/p + (E/p)
p = current world population
E = years of education, training, work experience.
So in a world of six billion people your uneducated mass is 1/6000000000 or 1.67 x 10^-10 of that whole. Your significance is 0.0000000167%. With a 12 year education your significance rockets upward to a factor of 2.167 x 10^-9 or 0.0000002167%.

Is it any wonder religion is so popular, why human nature so desperately seeks meaning and purpose even in the most ridiculous places? Why do secular Americans hide behind money fooling only themselves into thinking that wealth gives them significance? Isn't it painfully obvious why society invents artificial concepts such as justice, morality, and ethics? The brutality and utter irrationality of the animal world is just outside the rusty gates of our crumbling civilization. But isn't it comforting to know that as long as we're inside we have the warming sensation of fairness, equality and justice for all (that can afford it anyway)?

Self-delusion may well be the defining quality of human nature. Lies maintain our flimsy order, we find consolation in myths like 'what we do has significance' and 'God punishes the wicked'. The constant avalanche of empirical evidence to the contrary simply gets relegated to the third class bureau of irrational philosophers.

\"Hypocrisy can flourish when goodness is defined not only as kind and altruistic behavior, but as sticking to the rules and obligations of the faith.\"[3]

Our 'leaders' wage war in the name of peace and establish democracy with an iron fist. Our traditional values are warped; they reflect fantasy not reality. Our values are so removed from reality that fantasy becomes reality and truth becomes error. This is the primary difficulty in conveying the meaning of nihilism; all morally loaded concepts are biased against a lucid description of the nihilistic viewpoint. Nietzsche was addressing this issue when he wrote the title and the book Beyond Good and Evil. But it's not just a series of lies it's a debasing and wholly aberrant structure. The problem is so deep that even the words to define it must be replaced with a new lexicon.
 

Phoenix

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Morality: A human construct?

The Seven Deadly Sins
http://deadlysins.com/sins/index.htm
Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.

Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
http://deadlysins.com/virtues.html
Contrary, Heavenly, and Cardinal Virtues

In this world of iniquity, they are a few gleams of hope in the mire of our shameful indulgences. Various formulations of Virtue have been proposed over the ages.

The Cardinal Virtues:
prudence, temperance, courage, justice

Classical Greek philosophers considered the foremost virtues to be prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. Early Christian Church theologians adopted these virtues and considered them to be equally important to all people, whether they were Christian or not.

The Theological Virtues:
love, hope, faith

St. Paul defined the three chief virtues as love, which was the essential nature of God, hope, and faith. Christian Church authorities called them the three theological virtues because they believed the virtues were not natural to man in his fallen state, but were conferred at Baptism.

The Seven Contrary Virtues:
humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, diligence

The Contrary Virtues were derived from the Psychomachia (\"Battle for the Soul\"), an epic poem written by Prudentius (c. 410). Practicing these virtues is alledged to protect one against temptation toward the Seven Deadly Sins: humility against pride, kindness against envy, abstinence against gluttony, chastity against lust, patience against anger, liberality against greed, and diligence against sloth.

The Seven Heavenly Virtues:
faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance, prudence

The Heavenly Virtues combine the four Cardinal Virtues: prudence, temperance, fortitude -- or courage, and justice, with a variation of the theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. I'm still researching the origins and popular usage of this formulation.

The Seven Corporal Works of Mercy

Continuing the numerological mysticism of Seven, the Christian Church assembled a list of seven good works that was included in medieval catechisms. They are: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to strangers, clothe the naked, visit the sick, minister to prisoners, and bury the dead.
 

Phoenix

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Morality: A human construct?

http://www.rhfweb.com/iethics.html
NATIVE AMERICAN CODE OF ETHICS
1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit
will listen, if you only speak.
2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit,
anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will
find guidance.
3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your
path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with
you, but no one can walk it for you.
4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve
them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with
respect and honor.
5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community,
the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not
yours.
6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth - whether it be
people or plant.
7. Honor other people's thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt
another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to
personal expression.
8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you
put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.
10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice
optimism.
11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your
worldly family.
12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and
water them with wisdom and life's lessons. When they are grown,
give them space to grow.
13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will
return to you.
14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this
universe.
15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self,
Emotional self, and Physical self - all need to be strong, pure and
healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in
spirit to cure emotional ails.
16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you
will react. Be responsible for your own actions.
17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not
touch the personal property of others - especially sacred and
religious objects. This is forbidden.
18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if
you cannot nurture and help yourself first.
19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on
others.
20. Share your good fortune with others. Participate in charity.
 

Phoenix

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Morality: A human construct?

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/an...poras/life.html
Knowing the pygmies has been an extraordinary experience for me; they are the most peace- loving people I have ever met. Polite, very dignified, and even humorous, they hate and avoid violence. When they disagree, they argue and may hit each other - even husbands and wives - but they rarely use weapons. Murder is extremely rare. If two people disagree, they avoid each other, stop speaking for a while, and build their huts so the entrances do not meet. If the dispute is more serious, one of them will leave the village to join another group.

A fixed rule in pygmy ethics (possible only in large, sparsely populated areas!) is that people who quarrel badly must separate. Their companions, tired of hearing voices raised in anger, endeavor to silence them. If the arguers persist, they are sent outside the village. Pygmies hate those who \"make a noise\" or \"disturb the peace,\" to use their own words.

Men and women are equal in pygmy society, and everyone discusses matters of interest around the fire. The most serious punishment that can be inflicted is expulsion from the village, which amounts to a virtual death sentence. Life in the forest is fine in a group, but it is nearly impossible to survive alone. Sometimes, of course, another group will accept the exile.

One remarkable feature is the parents' exceptional love for their children. And although parents raise their own children, all the adults treat the children as if they were their own. A child who is orphaned is immediately adopted without distinction by a family of aunts or uncles. Colin Turnbull, the first anthropologist to live at length with these people, and an excellent writer, notes that the children call all adults of their parents' generation \"mother\" or \"father,\" all those of the generation before \"grandmother\" or \"grandfather,\" and all those of their own generation \"sister\" or \"brother.\" The old and infirm are protected carefully, as long as they do not jeopardize the group's lives. I remember one pygmy being called to a farming settlement to kill a mad gorilla - the locals often rely on the skill and bravery of the pygmies. Having mortally wounded the gorilla, the man was bitten very severely in the lumbar area and paralyzed from the waist down, but he was kept in the tribe. (In the forest, inability to walk means certain death.) The pygmies take care of the injured, and I have seen blind and extremely sick people kept within the group and cared for by their relatives.

I am often asked how long pygmies live. Their life expectancy at birth is about seventeen years, which sounds terrible compared with that of U.S. males (70) or females (76). Many deaths take place at very early ages, because of infectious diseases. It is rare to find individuals above 60 years of age, but the ages of individual pygmies is usually based on estimates because they have no interest in it. In spite of high mortality, they maintain (barely) their numbers. Other Africans are better off; even if health services are usually very poor, many of them have some, however limited, access to modern medicine; pygmies essentially have none.

The pygmies no longer have a language of their own. They speak the language of the peoples with whom they have come into contact over time, perhaps even centuries previously. Because they have also moved long distances, their language may be borrowed from peoples living far away. Turnbull says they appear to attach no importance to the future or the past; what counts is the present. As they say, \"If it is not here and now, then what do where and when matter?\"

Their god is the forest, of which they feel themselves an integral part. It is both father and mother, the being that permits them to live and that must be respected. Depending on the region, after death pygmies are either burned or laid in their hut, which is knocked down around them after a funeral rite. Their bodies are then left to dissolve into the earth while their companions move on.

Marriage is not a very complex rite. If need be, pygmies divorce. The current habit of \"buying\" their wives probably was adopted from local cultivators. They pay not with money - they do not have money - but by working for the future parents-in-law, perhaps doing their hunting for a year or two. Before he can marry, a man must prove he can hunt game and therefore support a family. When he takes a wife, he must also give something in exchange, to replace the contribution the woman made to her family.
 

Phoenix

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Morality: A human construct?

The Ethics of Huna
by Serge Kahili King
http://www.huna.org/html/ethuna.html
From time to time I am asked about the ethical side of Huna because at first glance the Principles seem to be amoral. That is, it bothers some people because there do not seem to be any clear guidelines for behavior, no shoulds or oughts.

However, as is appropriate for \"hidden knowledge,\" the ethics are implicit in the Principles. If you use them logically, you can't help but be ethical. Let's examine them one by one, in that light.

If you accept that the world is what you think it is, consciously and subconsciously, then it only makes sense to work on changing your beliefs for the better in order to have a better life. After all, we are really talking about your subjective experience of the world, not some imagined objective world. Like it or not, subjective reality is all you're going to get. A fascinating implication of this is that your subjective experience itself will tell you clearly how well you are doing in the thinking department. Life will be good to the degree that your thinking is good. You can't hide from your beliefs.

If there are no limits, then the universe is infinite. Some scientists like to speculate about multiple universes and even multiple infinities, but they are just playing with words. \"Universe\" means the whole thing, and \"infinite\" means, well, infinite. The idea of an infinite universe implies that all of it is everywhere and everywhen, which implies that every part of it is infinite. And that implies that you are, too. Which finally implies that you are always encountering yourself, in some guise or another. So it makes sense to be kind to your neighbor, because your neighbor is yourself.

To say that energy flows where attention goes implies that the effect of sustained attention, conscious or subconscious, is to give power to the object of attention. Dwell on sickness and sickness will increase in your life; dwell on happiness and you will have more of it; focus on lack and the lack will be more evident; focus on abundance and abundance will abound. Of course, if your focus is mixed, you will get mixed results. It doesn't take a lot of smarts to figure out that it pays to pay attention to your attention.

If now really is the moment of power, then every moment is an opportunity to change your life for the better, which is what everyone is trying to do anyway. In any moment unfettered by past or future considerations change can happen instantaneously. The most interesting thing about that is that when the mind or the body have such an opportunity they automatically move toward peace and happiness, as if ethics were already built in.

If you define love as the behavior of being happy with someone or something, then increasing your loving is a practical thing to do, if you want to be happy. The ancient wise ones who developed these ideas noted the curious fact that happiness increases as happiness increases, meaning that you have to spread it around to keep it going. This kind of happiness does not imply a giddy, carefree, positive band-aid kind of happiness. The word \"aloha,\" love, from which the principle is derived, also includes the concepts of mercy, compassion, grace, charity, and all of the other good things that come under the name of love (it does not include any of the bad things). As you practice love, you increase love and happiness for all concerned.

If all power comes from within, an idea that logically follows from the second principle, then everything has the same source of power. The difference lies in the manner and skill with which it is applied. However, there is an aspect of power that is frequently overlooked. Power is the ability to use power to empower. Hydroelectric power comes from the power of falling water to empower machines to generate electricity. Political power comes from the power of a society to empower individuals to give orders or pass legislation. Power has no single beginning or ending or source. It keeps changing focus. As more people become aware of their power to empower, they will naturally give it more careful consideration.

If effectiveness is used as the measure of truth, which is often the case in our daily lives in some areas and not in others, then the feedback from our experience will easily guide us toward more effective behavior. This idea is based on a Hawaiian word, \"pono,\" a concept of goodness, rightness, or appropriateness. As used in the ancient culture it meant the greatest good for the greatest number, not as defined by some arbitrary rules, but by the actual experience of success, prosperity, health and happiness. In this sense, then, the truth of your actions will be demonstrated by the results as they are experienced by all involved.

In the history of ethics, according to Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, \"there are three principal standards of conduct, each of which has been proposed as the highest good: happiness or pleasure; duty, virtue, or obligation; and perfection, the fullest harmonious development of human potential.\" The ethics of Huna include all three.
 

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