Looking Him in the Eyes

Adjudicating ethics can be a tricky endeavor.

Ascertaining morality can prove for complex situations.

Yet throughout every day and through the end of this life, you'll find yourself confronted with a variety of ethical and moral concerns. Reality places you in a variety of situations where you need navigate the tenuous and oft-perplexing combative currents between mind and spirit--where all too often the brain wants you react with animal impulse whilst the soul prefers respond with benevolent means.

Thus you find yourself locked into a perpetual war between biology and spirit where when situations rear up, your body oft wants react one way whilst the soul desires an alternate resolution.

For example, when someone acts rude towards you in public, your brain will undoubtedly want respond with an equally rude rejoinder. But your spirit would prefer you take a softer approach--either forgiving the person for that insult or responding unto insult with kindness.

This is the battle we all fight on a daily basis. And throughout most situations the divide between benevolence and cruelty remains rather obvious.

We all know that if someone cuts you off in traffic, the wrong response is trying hard towards ramming them off the road. And we all know that if left alone in a room with a million dollars in cash that belongs unto someone else, the adverse path is absconding with the money.

Things like theft, rape, murder, torture--these things are clearly wrong. And about that we all can essentially agree.

But the moral and ethical situations confronting you on a daily basis rarely involve those clearcut demarcations. Often they entail decisions and choices where making the right moral/ethical move remains rather hazy and ambiguous.

For instance, in the earlier example where someone cuts you off in traffic, we (hopefully) agree that ramming the person off the road is the wrong choice. But what about screaming at them to release your frustration? What about giving them the middle finger then speeding by?

All sorts of minor moral/ethical problems like this confront us constantly, and our challenge in life is finding the right path. Yet we go through this life without a guidebook or strategy guide providing us the right answers--thus we need riddle through these problems largely on our own, and often that means adopting your moral cues based on the mores of the society in which you live.

Therefore if you reside in a rude culture you'll have a greater tendency towards embracing callous acts. And if you live in a place where most people remain hospitable and upbeat towards strangers, you'll likely embody that as your default reaction when dealing with others.

Thus culture greatly influences our morals and ethics--steering us headlong down some paths whilst prompting us from following others.

But there's a far simpler method towards deciding upon the ideal ethical path in any given situation. And that method can be accomplished by performing a simple visualization.

When you get into a situation and have difficulty deciding upon the most moral/ethical course, for each possible reaction, ask yourself a simple question: Would you be comfortable explaining your behavior to God whilst looking him straight in the eyes?

If you'd have zero problem admitting your behavior to Him--and zero issue explaining it to Him directly--chances are pretty good that's a fairly ethical course of action.

But if you find yourself hesitating even slightly, wondering whether you could actually stand in the presence of the divine whilst admitting your act, chances are equally good that you should consider following another more ethical course.

And even if you don't believe in Him, still you can use that same technique unto your advantage. Simply answer that same question whilst picturing yourself basking in the presence of an entity of utter perfection--someone of flawless morals and impeccable character.

It's an incredibly simple method, but an incredibly powerful one. Applied unto our earlier example, you might find yourself shying away from even screaming in rage at that motorist who cut you off. And you might find yourself then looking for a more calm and peaceful resolution towards that offense--up to and including forgiving that other driver and forgetting the incident entirely.

Seriously, start using that technique in your daily life. At least give it a try.

Then whenever you find yourself at an ethical crossroads, choose your ideal action based upon what would make you most comfortable talking about when looking Him in the eye.

At the very least, it'll give you new perspective on your perception of your actions.

And if nothing else, it'll make the brain shut up for a moment so the benevolent voice of your spirit can slip through and help you do the right thing.

a reply to: Trachel

Walking the razors edge.

I would advise to be always ware of the edge...its vey sharp.

Caressing the blade is another matter.


Cheers!

a reply to: Trachel

Except you're talking about a God who commanded Moses to stone a man to death for collecting firewood on the Sabbath.
Numbers 15:32-36

So I'm not too sure how he'd judge me flipping off someone for cutting me off in traffic. For all I know simply giving him the finger would have been far too light of a reaction and he would ask why I didn't throw him to the lions instead.

originally posted by: mOjOm
a reply to: Trachel

Except you're talking about a God who commanded Moses to stone a man to death for collecting firewood on the Sabbath.
Numbers 15:32-36

So I'm not too sure how he'd judge me flipping off someone for cutting me off in traffic. For all I know simply giving him the finger would have been far too light of a reaction and he would ask why I didn't throw him to the lions instead.

You raise a super-interesting point.

When I say God, I'm not talking about the "biblical" God talked about in that book written by men and revised constantly and ceaselessly across endless years and translations.

I'm talking about the omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving God that exists in a state of eternal ethical and moral perfection.

originally posted by: Trachel

You raise a super-interesting point.

When I say God, I'm not talking about the "biblical" God talked about in that book written by men and revised constantly and ceaselessly across endless years and translations.

I'm talking about the omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving God that exists in a state of eternal ethical and moral perfection.

Oh. So a different God then. But you and those people who wrote the Bible seem to use the same words to describe apparently two different Gods. So you can see why I confused the two. I'm sure I'm not the only one to make that mistake.

a reply to: Trachel
Explaining your (subject to judgement) behavior while looking God in its eyes? Do you not do this every day when looking into a mirror?

Are you overthinking this as in finding or examining extreme emotional positions to satisfy your own adrenalin requirement? If so I empathize.