Morals, spirituality and politics - an outline of issues raised by freedom of spiritual exploration
The essential message we are making is that the spirit of exploration -
whether it is of the world, universe, matter, or of spirituality or the
world within us - is essential to our existence and has been created
and shaped by evolution by the web of nature's life forces - to lead us
to discover the energies that connect all of us.
The other side to this message is just as essential - exploration has
to be moderated by a strong commitment to the spirit of generosity -
fairness, kindness, forgiveness, patience and compassion. Also to
critical thought, especially to study and acceptance of the
uncertainties inherent in the structure of human knowledge, the
limitations of knowledge itself, and the dangers of becoming attached
to a belief system.
The study of the roots of aggression, violence, conflict, oppression
and war is also vital to understanding how to preserve our natural
rights for free exploration, and to comprehend the importance of
commitment to compassion, forgiveness and the spirit of generosity.
Within this framework, what kind of morality makes sense?
Olde World Morals
"Do unto others as you would be done by"
"Don't do to others what you would not want done to you"
"And that ye harm none, do as thou will"
Enlightened Morals
Fairness, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness. Patience, compassion.
Like gardeners caring for their plants, we care for the awakening of each other's hearts and minds.
For those who need
to have it spelled out .... a reasonable and fair morality - to demand
and respect the right to basic freedoms
All living things have a
sense of what they wish to be. Basically we all wish for - amongst other
things - life, dignity, liberty, pursuit of happiness
A moral person is a good natured person, one who seeks ways to improve these things for themselves and others.
An immoral person is a bad natured person, one who tends to diminish these things for others.
When these things are threatened, a response developed through
the path of inventiveness is better than the path of aggression.
What is this sense of how we all wish to be?
We all have a right to these fundamental freedoms - a fair and decent morality would demand respect for these rights
- freedom from physical and emotional harm
- freedom from deliberate derision, racism, discrimination
- freedom from being deprived of our dignity
- freedom from hate, greed, fear
- freedom from being forced into conditions that give rise to sustained stress
- freedom from abuses from those who have more power, control, wealth, status, or authority than us
- freedom from coercion from any organization, group, belief system - and freedom to question them
- freedom from misinformation, propaganda, manipulation through being given incomplete information
- freedom from being invaded, stalked, dictated to, coerced
- freedom from acts of violence - to ourselves, community, or property
- freedom from being prevented from meeting our basic needs
- freedom to live in a community that supports our basic needs, and helps us learn to realize these freedoms
- our basic needs
- a place to live, eat, pursue our dreams
- food, clean air, clean water, a clean environment
- social contact, learning, sharing
- the right to a fair economy, free of exploitation, respectful of community, environment and equality
- all of these fundamental freedoms
Other freedoms
- freedom for inner and spiritual exploration - to follow our dreams, inspiration, wisdom
- freedom and facilities to develop skillful insight into
the effects of our actions on others and on our environment
- freedom to take actions and judgments that are based on this skillful insight
- freedom to pursue the development of learning, analysis, study and
creativity - these are some of our most noble attributes of the human
spirit
- we should work to support the right to
the freedom to continue learning, to study all methods of analysis, to pursue our creative spirit
- encourage engagement in learning how to better serve this sense of how we all wish to be
- being forgiving when we make
mistakes or stray from serving this sense of how we all wish to be
Reasonable expectations
- we have a right to demand fairness, respect, humility and
limited access to government of those with power, control and wealth
- history has shown that governments that impose legislation
based on religious morals and belief systems, become destructive
and violate the above freedoms - therefore government should not
legislate beliefs and morality - instead, government should uphold the
most fundamental freedoms listed above
- history has also shown that even the best political systems, morals
and so on, will be destroyed when misinformation is used by those in
power ....
- our laws should ...
- demand and uphold the right to accurate and complete information
- criminalize the use of deception and the intentional use of inaccurate information by any of these entities:-
government,
any government agency,
business,
corporation,
any individual or group of individuals for the purpose of serving these organizations
- ensure that those who provide information must also provide -
- an
analysis of the accuracies and inaccuracies in their information
- an
honest assessment of any incompleteness or uncertainties in their
information
- an independent assessment of their information