Whatever we do in the ordinary world that we think will be of some benefit to others or ourselves
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha - Daniel Ingram
Moral acts are beneficial acts - those that benefit both ourselves and others. Morality is the art of taking actions that benefit ourselves and others. Actions that are beneficial are moral. Actions that are not beneficial are not moral.
Benefit is not only physical - improving the quality of mental states, happiness and dealing skilfully with the human condition are all moral acts.
Kindness and compassion are two ways to perform moral acts.
Kindness is about improvement. Compassion is about reducing suffering.
Kindness is working to improve the lives of others. Compassion is working to understand and relive suffering.
Compassion means allowing ourselves to be touched by the pain of ourselves and others. Awareness of emotion in yourself and others is the foundation of emotional intelligence.
By feeling the suffering of the world we see and accept suffering as a part of the human condition. Compassion means rejecting nothing.
Compassion also means feeling joy - being happy for others when they do well, achieve and are happy. Often we feel bad when our peers do well - refocusing on being happy for and proud of your friends who are doing better than you is a compassionate practice.
It’s important to be thankful for the opportunity to practice both kindness and compassion. Kindness gives us the opportunity to be generous, with our time and possessions.
It also allows us to turn negative situations into positive. If someone does you wrong, they are giving you the opportunity to improve your skill in being kind. It’s harder (and therefore more valuable for improving your skill) to be kind to someone who has done you wrong.
Training in morality at its best is grounded in a theoretical or direct appreciation of one more assumption, that of interconnectedness. Interconnectedness at this level means an appreciation of the fact that we are all in this together and that we all share the wish to be happy. When we take into consideration our own needs and the needs of those around us, we are more likely to be naturally kind and considerate of ourselves and others. Thus, we try to make it a habit to try to take into account the feelings, opinions and welfare of those around us - Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha - Daniel Ingram
Working for the benefit of yourself and others is based on the truth of interconnectedness. If there is no separation between yourself and others, then working for the benefit of others is the same as working for yourself.
We work not only for the benefit of our current self, but for the person we were yesterday, and for the person we will become tomorrow. This is founded on the reality of no-self.
We work not only for the benefit of others today, but for who they were yesterday, and for who they will be tomorrow. This is founded on the reality of interconnectedness.
The challenge comes in balancing between the two. Working solely for the benefit of others is not practical - starving yourself so that others can eat will lead your own death and no further chance for you to benefit others. You should work on developing & caring for yourself so that you may care for others.
Some will struggle with taking actions for others. Some will struggle with taking actions for themselves.
Others doesn’t just mean other humans - it extends to all living things, with special care placed on those that can feel pain.
Others doesn’t just mean those alive today - it extends to future living things as well. (Sapiens quote). This also makes training (ie teaching a dog to wait before crossing the road using punishment) moral - an action should be judged based not only on the instantaneous impact but future impact as well.
Like kindness and compassion, generosity is an extension of the non-dual view. If there is no separation between yourself and others, it makes sense to share.
You should be equally generous with all your possessions - time, money and knowledge. You cannot make up for being selfish with your time by being generous with money.
The benefits of generosity are often reflected backwards. Teaching is a great example of this - I’ve learnt more teaching that I ever did as a student. Not only do you learn more about the topic you are teaching, but you learn about how others learn, which helps when reflecting on how you yourself learn.
Not only are they reflected backwards, but they are magnified upon doing so.
Generosity with ideas becomes easy once you understand that a) ideas generate more ideas and b) it’s execution that counts.
Painters must want to paint - Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goldman
The Buddha , the Godhead , resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower . To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha – which is to demean oneself - Zen Motor
Morality is actions that benefit ourselves and others. Working hard to improve the quality, quantity and effects of our actions is therefore a moral act.
It is your moral duty to work hard to improve and care for the world - people, animals, plants and the environment.
The principles I highlighted above (kindness, compassion and generosity) are all hard work. None of them are natural (if we define natural as our self centred Darwinian viewpoint). All of them require skill (to perform correctly) and effort (to perform throughout the day).
The moral importance of hard work also means that there is no contradiction between success and morality. Some people have a tendency to avoid material success as a sign of moral failure - I propose the opposite. It is possible that material success comes through immoral means - but I propose that moral success is impossible without hard work, and that hard work almost always implies material (money, fame, power, happiness) success. Success and morality intersect but don’t always overlap (picture)
Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions - Dalai Lama XIV
What matters is our intention to benefit ourselves and others. We did, do and will do the best with the understanding we have at the time. Our lack of skill and understanding means that even well intentioned actions will not always work out.
What then of an act with good intentions that goes wrong? Is this moral? I say yes.