Do you follow a "code"?

[DerDrache]

I've lately been feeling like I need to follow something. The idea of an actual god has always struck me as silly, but I think my life could do with some type of code or guidelines...basically, a way of life. I "dabbled" in Taoism and Buddhism when I was younger, and I'm familiar with some of the Japanese war philosophies. Do any of you practice such ways of life? How's it working for you?

[Axiom]

This is the code I follow

[random_jew]

I do.

No murder

No rape, unless you're drunk.

[Hexadecimal]

I be still and let the Way that cannot be followed reveal itself to me as it truly is. It is perfect, and thus cannot be followed. It is everywhere, and thus cannot be followed. It cannot be found, and thus cannot be followed. It cannot be sought, and thus cannot be followed. When one is still, and is chasing no desire, the Way shows itself.

[MilkAndInnards]

Nine Noble Virtues

[ArmsMerchant]

In my "code," we are All One. No one is better or worse than anyone else. As we all create our own reality, there are no villains, no victims. Thus there is no need to hate, fear or envy anyone else.

I strive to treat others as I would wish to be treated myself.

[AngryFemme]

Unless of course they break into your neighbor's empty house in the middle of the night, eh Arms? Suddenly the "We are all one" thing kind of goes to the wayside in favor of vigilante attempted murder, does it not?

[random_jew]

Originally Posted by ArmsMerchant

In my "code," we are All One. No one is better or worse than anyone else. As we all create our own reality, there are no villains, no victims. Thus there is no need to hate, fear or envy anyone else.

I strive to treat others as I would wish to be treated myself.

Except women right?

[ArmsMerchant]

Originally Posted by AngryFemme

Unless of course they break into your neighbor's empty house in the middle of the night, eh Arms? Suddenly the "We are all one" thing kind of goes to the wayside in favor of vigilante attempted murder, does it not?

I gather you perceive a contradiction between what I said here and what I said in the other thread. Allow me to elucidate.

One, unless I am greatly mistaken, I never addressed the issue of the ethics myself--I raised it, and let others pass judgement. Nor did I pass any judgement on the shooter himself. However, if you think that crime should be punished--(I myself do not, for the simple reason that punishment does not work, in any meaningful sense of the term "work"), you may revel in the knowledge that the shooter was reported to be distraught by his probably ill-conceived action--he acted out of fear--and will have to live with the knowldge of that action, as well as guilt that you probably cannot begin to imagine. Having been there, so to speak, I think I can.

Two, given that we all have immortal souls, we cannot be harmed in any ultimate sense. The fellows who were killed have either merged with spirit or reincarnated. Granted, their families will porbably suffer--but again, whatever suffering we experience in any given lifetime is immaterial in the context of eternity.

Most of us do not think at this level, nor would it serve society if we would all do so. As E. J. Gold once wrote, if we were all awake (that is, enlightened, in the Gurdjieffian sense), we would all stand around looking at the sky and nothing would get done.

Someone (maybe the Buddha) once observed that the essence of enlightenment lies in balance. This resonates with me more than with others, possibly, due to my being a double Libra. Thus my vocation--weapons sales--balances my spiritual avocation. Depending on what seems appropriate at the time, I can do a psychic reading or spiritual healing, or tear down and service a chainsaw--neither action is "better" in any sense than the other.

What's more, you seem to think that I stated or implied that the shooter was "right." I did not. (Although I did opine that the shooting may have been legally justified. Law has nothing to do with ethics or morality.) As I have said many times, at the Highest Level, there are not such things as right and wrong, good and evil--there is only all One. I strive to think, not in terms of good and evil, but in terms of what works and what does not. As one of the Huna Principles states, effectiveness is the measure of truth.

With the wisdom of 20-20 hindsight, I think it valid to observe that the shooting did not work.

[Hare_Geist]

If by code you mean an acquired set of guiding ethical values, then no, not to any great extent. I certainly still have the ethics everyone is deeply instilled with at birth, such as murder is wrong and rape is bad, but I don’t have any conscious set of ethics I follow, like Epicureanism or Christianity. I was a humanist by default for awhile (hooray for science and progress, let’s celebrate the rationality of man, etc. etc.), but I soon thought my way out of that nonsense.