--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "ispiritkin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "ruthsimplicity"
> > <ruthsimplicity@> wrote:
> > >
> > > > > What we do has consequences and we should not limit our focus
> > > to self realization or enlightenment, but to doing good.
> >
> > <snip> The criteria for "doing good" are
> > first "Do no harm," or at the very least *try*
> > to "do no harm," and second, try to do things
> > that have the instantaneous karmic effect of
> > elevating your own state of attention. IMO
> > *that* is one of the only indicators we have
> > that we are "doing good."
> >
> > What I couldn't agree with less is his sugges-
> > tion that the enlightened can do "anything they
> > want" and actually be enlightened. In my book
> > the enlightened still produce karma, and thus
> > still can create negative karma and suffer the
> > results of it if they perform negative actions.
> >
> > Being able to do "anything they want" is lazy
> > philosophy, and the top of a very slippery slide
> > into Hell.
>
>
> Ruth, "doing good", in my book, comes from a place of arrogance. It
> implies that one knows what is "good" in the first place, and then
> one executes the correct performance flawlessly. You are probably
> using the words differently than I am, but whenever I see the
> phrase "doing good" in this context, my neckhairs bristle and I check
> to make sure my weapons are handy.
>
I have a different take on "being good". It can include your view
above, which to me a sort of Ayn Rand view of altruism.
However, per my prior adjacent post on being "sadhu" and "good", from
SBS quote, I know there is a ground state of goodness. When one is in
that zone, its all good. All action is permeated with love, respect,
caring,tenderness, support, and helpfulness. Its not an intellectual
thing. Not the result of a phd in Ethics or Religious Shastras.
And its clear when someone is functioning from that zone. No fancy
titles or labels can disguise it,or make what is not there appear.
> I strongly resonate with the quote by C.S. Lewis,
> "It may 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."
>
> So I pursue the route, like Turq pointed out, of first "doing no
> harm".
>
> Years ago I went through a turning point during which I committed
> what I thought was a series of The Most Regrettable Actions of My
> Life. These actions were taken, by the way, fully in the quest
> of "doing good" for my then-boyfriend. It was after realizing my
> folly that I decided to take the very humble and modest approach of
> doing only no harm (in my judgment, which I was severely questioning
> at the time), and very carefully take notice at several checkpoints
> how things turned out, so that I could change direction as soon as I
> noticed any problems developing. I'm giving all this background to
> stress that the important thing is that I was paying very close
> attention to motives, actions and results.
>
> What I noticed was that when my motive was to benefit myself, things
> kind of muddled along. When my motive was to benefit my children,
> things went better for all of us. Sometimes a course of action
> would, by coincidence, benefit EVERYONE it touched -- self, children,
> friends, and even my opponents or enemies. THESE courses of action,
> I learned, were the best of all. These actions benefitted me the
> most and my children the most. And they didn't harm anyone, even
> people I really disliked (not that I was too worried about them, but
> as I'm counting the tallies, there's the data).
>
> So I decided to more consciously seek these actions, the ones that
> benefitted everyone, not because I was altruistic, but because
> everything just worked out so much better ("left better lies", to put
> it in billiards terms) when I found "the middle way", the way lying
> above the other choices which seemed to benefit one at the expense of
> another.
>
> Putting this into a nutshell, I pursue actions which seem, to my
> limited perception, to resonate with the Force and to align with the
> Flow.
>
> I'm not picking on you, Ruth. Go ahead and call it "doing good" if
> that's what it means to you.
>
