When the moon is located directly opposite the sun, we have a full moon. During the night all the rays of the sun are reflected back to earth from where we can see the full bright circle. There are countless examples of the effect of this phenomenon on the life and on the planet. We can find some possible physical explanations but what about the symbolic one, is there an explanation? I couldn’t find a satisfying one so; here is mine.

If we were looking for the light of the sun during the night then the moon acts as a modulating control device. This controller will give us 100% of the function it executes on a full moon. All the other days there will be some sort of filtering, inspection, checking and not everything can be allowed through, some of the light can and some of the light cannot pass through. Let’s look at the moon as a sign for a gatekeeper, inspector the regulator of some sort of traffic. The light enables everything to be seen, our actions, our work, our whereabouts. And during the time of light, of day we reach out to our psyche and act the things that we want to be seen, witnessed and accepted. And when this happens, we can verify and accept our own actions as successful, we have found a witness and place a checkmark back to our psyche, we are done. Whether there is a someone or not the light will make our action visible the light will be the witness. When our expectations are not meet, when we find ourselves disappointed with our actions or the feedback from others, when we find that we cannot accept others actions then we have to place all this into our psyche and add a new page, a new chapter, a new book that needs an answer. We are unable to rectify this information we carry. As we interact with reality this thing, we carry becomes our grievance to reality, the challenge to the world. Unable or unwilling to display it as we know it will not be accepted in our reality. How to fix this difference that we find between ourselves and the world? Where can we appeal?

The light comes once in 29.5 days on the dark side and this is the moment when all and that means 100% of the cases are accepted. All needed is to give a shape, a form a sound to the hidden issue and present it, to the moon. Some feel the rare occasion and rush to act it but that will be a wasted effort. Acting will be taking control of the situation ourselves and miss the opportunity to submit, to let go of the burden. Let in go is not to let go in vacuum, let in go is to trust that the truth will happen, beneficial to us or not the truth will happen we will not hoard, we cannot impede and stand in the way.  Universe is
open for business and all grievances are accepted, trust and present.

The lone wolf made the way up to the rock, he could see his only friend clearly. Without the pack there was no one to witness his successes no one to help in the time of need, but now he could tell it all and he spoke to the moon with his long howl. OWWoooooo  😊

 

 

Value systems, good and bad, morals. What are these, why? Let’s consider a task; we are cooking a meal, building a wooden table or maybe embroidering a cloth for the same table. On these tasks we need to have a plan, recipe or design, and a set of skills. But let’s consider also a more contemporary example, we want to play a videogame. On this last task the plan becomes less important but we still need the skills to work the game console. Some general knowledge of the steps we must follow and how to use the necessary tools is necessary and needed. After all we cannot build a wooden table with a needle or cook with a game console, can we?

Obviously as we progress on our particular undertaking of the chosen task and advance towards the result we face a final moment, the completion. Evaluation of this culminating moment is a comparison with our initial expectation. This will definitely shed some light on our skill level.

Keeping this analogy in mind let’s look at the ultimate project, life. Your life, my life. I want to look at the role of the value systems, the good and the bad. Where do morals fit in this project? I will not digress to other important questions about life, related or not, they belong to my future posts. For now, what do we know about morals so far and what can they do for me?

Let’s start with the two main explanations we find today; I will start with the most widely accepted one.

Morals are a social construct. This understanding springs from the theory that matter evolved into a human being. Yet again as discussed before, the same assumption is at the root. I need to insert this note here. The assumption is that; it is the matter that evolved not the psyche, so the mention of evolution on this paragraph refers to the theory of evolution of matter, including the evolutionary psychology as a derivative. On this basis following the chain of events evolutionary psychology concludes and tells us about reciprocal altruism at the root of morals as a social construct. The concept is simple; tit for tat, I scratch your back you scratch mine.  Expanding the concept of utility beyond the material resources and tools we find the use for a friend as a benefit. In order to enhance the impact and highlight the importance of the role in this theory I have to add the actual word used, survival. The use of this word clears up a lot of misconceptions we might add. And defines whatever result we get, strictly on personal advantage and benefit from an external human party. As the concept of trading services or we could say compromise on personal freedom for personal benefit expands beyond to family, tribe, group, village, nation the whole world; we can say that the notion and understanding of any value system, gets confusing. It becomes impossible to have a defined description that will be universally applicable. We find ourselves unable to draw a line between the personal and the communal freedom versus the personal and communal benefit. As the confusion about a definition of values is not enough, we have to also deal with the consequences. The actual proof from history and experience. Any attempt to integrate any defined concept of the above understanding (favoring one or the other, personal or collective) fails miserably by causing enormous suffering in a large scale for the collective.  And then the massive suffering will trigger a reset, a violent abandonment of whatever agreement we have arrived because of a hefty personal loss, and we start all over again. But if we stay true to our initial agreement on the values then there is no conflict with the definition, because the self benefit is at the root. How can that be? Who benefited? Is the tyrant or dictator still considered moral? Let’s consider as much as we can the tyrant situation as well, is the tyrant happy? Observing the history, the more power one achieves the more ruthless and thirstier for power it gets. Up there at the top, what is the dissatisfaction? If it is not enough then we can safely guess that whatever was the source of need it was not fulfilled. So, the end result is that no one really advances in achieving a situation where completion of the needs is satisfied.

Morals are a order from above. This sentence can be summarized as the second understanding, the religious perspective. Thou shall not kill; thou shall not lie. Utility is at the root of this explanation as well. The reward is secured from an external party that is not other people, the personal advantage will come as luck or fortune. On the other hand, not obeying in performing morals, as an order, will bring misfortune or punishment. Also, the perceived moral status can be exhibited to demand status from others. So, the expectation set is that applying morals will be advantageous. And this is in line with expecting a favorable treatment from other people, relationships, health, and the natural environment. Any unfavorable outcome is a serious question to this understanding and application of morals in life. To make the personal situation more difficult if something goes wrong the third party is not present to explain things, no reward and no appeal. Another answer is that the reward or the punishment will be applied after this life. This becomes even more difficult to relate to, not only the third party is not available to answer but the answer might not be available, ever for your awareness or to tell others. This ends up with guilt and resentment for an unlived life based on fear. Is this type of understanding collectively beneficial? The problem is uncertainty, maybe yes maybe no. There are many favorable examples and many unfavorable ones. The real answer is, this definition does not offer the understanding to match our expectations of a favorable life with certainty by using morals.

Conducting life based on either of these understandings of values, we come up short to our expectations. Which brings about doubts, leaving it up to our discretion to utilize them, when we see it fit (immediate advantage) or completely discard them. Our inner permanent conviction on (what I called) the first postulate cannot be changed. Truth happens! Our beliefs are based on this uncontestable condition of playing the game, and it is this conflict with reality that leads us to the understanding and knowledge. So, what are morals then?

The most compelling evidence is the persistence of the concept through time, the good and the bad has stayed with us, we have the words and notions, we use them every day. The use is not only found on abstract concepts and theories but also on real life things and phenomena. Notion of values, the morals are also packaged in myth which have been transferred successfully generation after generation. If truth happens then, the existence of good and bad has happened always and persisted. What is the common element on myth and the everyday use of the concept? I have written three posts in the last two years analyzing the words, simple observations of the “good” in use as noun, adjective, synonym etc.  The meaning that stays through different uses, times, the root can generally be described to have benefit implications with temporal connotations. In other words what we call morals is not one thing, is two things. One is the benefit, the destination the desired end result. The other is the pathway to said result, how fast is being achieved. We need to split them up in order to understand them, for this we don’t have the words but we can make a compromise. Good and bad are destinations and morals are a time coefficient. Morals are the mode of transportation to that destination. As an illustration truth is a car going to the destination “good” and lie a car going to the destination “bad”.  In this case truth and lies are equally moral as a transportation mode to their respective destination. Morals are a human activity that make time to arrive at the chosen destination.

This definition of morals has functionality first the utility is up to you. Have we lost direction going back and forth like the hare, in the fable of the turtle and the hare? If the one lying is gaining on you, are you sure that is the direction you want to go? The destination also could be explained with functionality and the effect it has on us and the surrounding. That is another post.

The message given to us, thou shall not lie, it is not an order. It is a hint, a helping hand, a push in the right direction.

 Is there a relation between spirituality and morals? 

 I looked up the definition of life;

- "the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death."

"the origins of life"

Seems like propagating through time is a key feature, but to what end? For how long? Is matter taking a shot at eternity? Or is the eternal an inherent feature? I do not know, but the use of the word survival used to describe as the motivation for how life come to be is demeaning. Not the most descriptive, but it is also a valid point. So, could it be that intentional destination is built into the choice of word?

Survival or Eternity? Well, is clear that is up to you, and your choice of Reality.