In Praise of Virtue

[Newtonian]

As Paul says "with my mind I myself am a slave to God’s law." Thus the Divine Center is known in or thru our minds, so we agree, it seems to me.

So, do you believe we should love Jehovah with our whole mind?

Matthew 22:37-40
He said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’+ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’+ 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”+

 

[Skull]

As Paul says "with my mind I myself am a slave to God’s law." Thus the Divine Center is known in or thru our minds, so we agree, it seems to me.

So, do you believe we should love Jehovah with our whole mind?

Matthew 22:37-40
He said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’+ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’+ 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”+

All who love God & their neighbors, can find no better guide & encouragement than these words.

Of course, as my signature says, my Path is following Buddha.

 

[Skull]

Moral courage is a virtue of higher cast and nobler origin than physical. It springs from a consciousness of virtue, and renders a man in the pursuit or defence of right, superior to the fear of reproach, opposition, or contempt.

S. G. Goodrich

 

[Skull]

If, however, fear or uncertainty should arise, we
know the refuge where it can be allayed: our good
deeds. By taking this refuge, confidence
and courage will grow within us — confidence
in the protecting power of our good deeds done in the
past; courage to perform more good deeds right now,
despite the discouraging hardships of our present life.
For we know that noble and selfless deeds provide the
best defence against the hard blows of destiny, that it is
never too late but always the right time for good actions.

Nyanaponika Thera

 

[Skull]

See the nation embroiled in strife!
How this has moved my heart,
How I was stirred, I shall now tell.

Seeing the crowds in frantic movement,
Like swarms of fish when the pond dries up;
Seeing how people fight each other,
By fear and horror I was struck.

Sutta-Nipata vv. 935–36

 

[Skull]

A person’s fate is flexible, not fixed. Everything is in his own hands.

Master Hsuan Hua

 

[Skull]

In a righteous material battle one should fight nobly and fearlessly to defend his homeland from evil invading forces, safeguarding the well-being and interests of his countrymen and upholding the ideals of virtuous human existence.

Swami Yogananda

 

[Skull]

It is one of the few consolations in this not
entirely disconsolate world, that not only Evil, but the Good also
may have a strong infectious power that will show itself
increasingly if only we have the courage to put it to the test.

"Thus it is our own mind that should be established in all the
Roots of the Good; it is our own mind that should be soaked
by the rain of truth; it is our own mind that should be purified
from all obstructive qualities; it is our own mind that should
be made vigorous by energy." Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra.

Nyanaponika Thera

 

[Skull]

Here is a warning about ignoring virtue and indulging constantly in vice:

All things are bound up in the gods and deeply rooted in them, and through this cause they are preserved in being; if anything fall away from the gods and become utterly isolated from them, it retreats into non-being and is obliterated, since it is wholly bereft of the principles which maintained its unity.

Proclus Elements, #144

 

[.oldschool]

 

[Skull]

One translation, by Swami Paramananda, of the Peace Chant from above video:

OM! That (the Invisible-Absolute) is
whole; whole is this (the visible phenomenal);
from the Invisible Whole comes forth
the visible whole. Though the visible whole
has come out from that Invisible Whole, yet, the Whole remains unaltered.

From Brihadarnyakopanishad V, 1, 1

 

[Natural Citizen]

Relevant reading...

''The greatest, and probably most generally unrecognized, threat to our liberty today results from the gradual erosion of virtue. This decay has resulted from negligence and apathy on the part of many and from calculated attacks on the part of a few. The invasive roots of its opposing influences have crept deeper into the soil of our communities while we have slept, and in some cases, while we have been thwarted in our efforts to eradicate their causes. James Madison stated: "I believe that there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." When the policies and practices of the nation favor rights in exclusion of responsibility, and sanction vice at the expense of virtue, calamity is imminent. The impending consequences of the ruin of public virtue, which already cast a dark shadow across our nation, now loom on the horizon as a force destructive to our society, our government and our very peace and happiness...

The principle of virtue is far greater and of more importance than all other principles combined. Without it, others fail. Virtue is the bridge between liberty and true civilization..."

Continued

 

[Skull]

Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

’Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government. Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric.

George Washington - Farewell Address

 

[.oldschool]

One translation, by Swami Paramananda, of the Peace Chant from above video:

OM! That (the Invisible-Absolute) is
whole; whole is this (the visible phenomenal);
from the Invisible Whole comes forth
the visible whole. Though the visible whole
has come out from that Invisible Whole, yet, the Whole remains unaltered.

From Brihadarnyakopanishad V, 1, 1

Isavasya Upanishad for Beginners - Invocation

The translation from Hindi to English on the Isavasya Upanishad for beginners - Invocation

tinyurl.com

 

[Skull]

When a noble disciple contemplates upon the Enlightened
One, at that time his mind is not enwrapped in lust, nor in
hatred, nor in delusion. At such a time his mind is rightly
directed towards the Perfect One (Tathāgata). And with a
rightly directed mind the noble disciple gains enthusiasm
for the goal, enthusiasm for the Dhamma, gains the delight
derived from the Dhamma. In him thus delighted, joy arises;
to one who is joyful, body and mind become calm; calmed in
body and mind, he feels at ease; and if at ease, the mind fi nds
concentration. Such a one is called a noble disciple who among
humanity gone wrong, has attained to what is right; who
among a humanity beset by troubles, dwells free of troubles.

Buddha in AN 6:10

 

[Skull]

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C. S. Lewis

 

[Skull]

A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of grovelling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of any mere external force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. No such conditions can exist as descending into vice and its attendant sufferings apart from vicious inclinations, or ascending into virtue and its pure happiness without the continued cultivation of virtuous aspirations; and man, therefore, as the lord and master of thought, is the maker of himself the shaper and author of environment. Even at birth the soul comes to its own and through every step of its earthly pilgrimage it attracts those combinations of conditions which reveal itself, which are the reflections of its own purity and impurity, its strength and weakness.

James Allen (1864-1912)

 

[Skull]

To see a man fearless in dangers, untainted with lusts, happy in adversity, composed in a tumult, and laughing at all those things which are generally either coveted or feared, all men must acknowledge that this can be from nothing else but a beam of divinity that influences a mortal body.

Seneca.

 

[Skull]

We will begin from those things which for our instruction are primary. These are perspicuous and evident to all, and though they do not apprehend the power and essence of virtue, yet according to common conceptions about virtue they awaken our desire for good through certain aphorisms, familiar to many, expressed in accordance with the visible images of real beings. These are thus set forth:

(1) As we live through the soul, it must be said that by the virtue of this we live well; just as, since we see through the eyes, it is by the virtue of these that we see well.
(2) It must not be thought that gold can be injured by rust, or virtue tainted by baseness.
(3) We should betake ourselves to virtue as to an inviolable temple, in order that we may not be exposed to any ignoble insolence of the irrational element of the soul.
(4) We should confide in virtue as in a chaste wife, but trust fortune as we would a fickle mistress.
(5) It is better that virtue should be received with poverty, than wealth with vice; and frugality with health, than abundance with disease.
(6) As much food is injurious to the body, so is much wealth pernicious to the soul evilly inclined or disposed.
(7) It is equally dangerous to give a sword to a madman, and power to a depraved man.
(8) Just as it is better for a purulent part of the body to be burned than to remain diseased, so it is also better for a depraved man to die than to live.
(9) The theorems of philosophy are to be enjoyed as much as possible, as if they were ambrosia and nectar; for the pleasure arising from them is genuine, incorruptible and divine. Magnanimity they are also able to produce, and though they cannot make us eternal beings, yet they enable us to obtain a scientific knowledge of eternal natures.
(10) If vigour of the senses is desirable, much more should prudence be sought; for it is as it were the sensitive vigour of our practical intellect. And as by the former we are protected from deception in sensations, so through the latter we avoid false reasoning in practical affairs.
(11) We shall worship the deity rightly, if we render our intellect pure from all vice, as from a certain stain or disgrace.
(12) We should adorn a temple with gifts, but the soul with disciplines.
(13) As prior to the greater mysteries the lesser are delivered, so a disciplinary training must precede the study and acquisition of philosophy.
(14) The fruits of the earth are indeed annually imparted, but the fruits of philosophy at every part of the year.
(15) Just as land must be specially cultivated by him who wishes to obtain from it the best fruit, so the soul should be most carefully and attentively cultivated, in order that it may produce fruit worthy of its nature.

From Exhortation to Philosophy by Iamblichus

 

[Skull]

It is more important to want to do good than to know the truth.

Petrarch, "On His Own Ignorance and That of Many Others"