"Academic smarts are not the same as peace smarts"

I was recently discussing 'spiritual aspects of living' on various online forums. One group was composed of dedicated atheists, some quite bitter I might add. But to be fair to the atheists, I've known many a religious fellow that are just as bitter, if not more so, than atheists I meet. So just being 'religious' is not a guarantee of being at peace. Each man made religion contains perfection's as well as imperfections. It is up to the practitioner or end user to use the tools in the right way. The problem is not the wisdom that is defective. The problem lies with religious practitioners who are defective in their practice of this wisdom. The wisdom works - we don't work the wisdom.

The discussion based in bitterness brought up the question of "what guiding light do atheists use to be at peace?" Not much was offered in reply to my question. I got a few answers here or there. It seems whenever the discussion turns to 'inner peace' many of the people I talk with are silent, this even goes for the so called pious fellows such as Catholic priests. But, one fellow on the forum mentioned 'truth and philosophy,' as his tools - both of these being good answers for peace generation with proper application. Philosophy plays a big role in my life as well for providing tools to live at peace. I also supplement my spiritual path from many other sources as I will go into below. I am only interested in practical application of philosophy though and not bickering and arguing over the unanswerable. So, I prefer truth based discussions over ego based discussions where the truth gets overshadowed by rhetoric. As someone once wrote ... if someone doesn't know an answer just say so.

I was at a philosophy symposium last year and talked with a professor about a teaching / mentor relationship he had with Ayn Rand. He went on to say how after a year they broke up the mentor relationship on a sour note. After I questioned the professor about Rand's personal life as well as her state of inner peace and happiness, I could see that with all her talents of 'smarts' she was bankrupt when the subject turned to peace smarts, contentment and happiness. She was ego based and not practice based when it came to peace generation. Furthermore, she not only destroyed her peace, but from the information that came out of our discussion, the then student's peace was disturbed at the time and it still sounded disturbed decades later as a distinguished professor and author. Academic smarts are not the same as peace smarts.

The sturdy of ethics and virtue has also helped me along in life. This phrase, "circumstances does not make the man - it reveals him to himself" was taken from James Allen little book entitled "As A Man Thinketh." This important concept of 'self revelation' can also be told in a story that is used in philosophy class called the Ring of Gyges or Myth of Gyges. The story was taken from Plato's Republic and recounts how the shepherd Gyges finds a ring on a hand extending from a crack in the earth and removes the ring from the hand and puts it on. Gyges discovers the ring gives him powers to be invisible at will and then uses these powers to kill the king, rape the queen and take over the kingdom.

What is virtue and ethics? Some authorities define it as 'excellence of the soul' or moral excellence. (Although the Greeks thought of 'soul and form' in different terms than say Christians think of soul. For example, the soul of an eye would be its ability to 'see' and whether this ability was good or bad would decide whether the soul of an eye had 'virtue' or excellence.) What is virtuous behavior in a flourishing human being? In readily understandable terms we can help define virtue for us from this story of Gyges and by asking ourselves the question, "What would we do if no one was looking or we knew we would not get caught?" No heaven, no hell, no karma, no police, nothing but us and our virtue? Would our actions promote our inner peace as well as the inner peace of others or would our actions destroy our peace and the peace of others? Virtue is not learned from the classroom, other than memorizing definitions. Remember, a fool can only say what he knows ~ it takes a wise man to know what he says. How do we become a success at living a virtuous life and really know what we say? As a lecture on Aristotle mentioned: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." We develop it by practice. Practicing 'excellence of the human soul' is how.

A Buddhist practice is another good peace developer for an atheist. (I discuss many other options for atheists in an earlier post, "I am having trouble with Steps 2 and 3.") I've settled on the essence of Buddhism and that is what I work on and find much peace with this type of simplified Buddhist practice.

3 Pillars of Buddhism

1- Practicing mindfulness and meditation to develop peace and self awareness of our own true nature.

2- Accepting the liberating wisdom of impermanence and practicing non-clinging and a lessening of craving and desires.

3- The development of compassion for others.

Buddhists are not required to believe or not believe in God, so anyone can make use of this philosophy irrespective of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. In addition to the 3 pillars, we can use the eightfold path to guide us. Within the 3 pillars and the eightfold path are a lifetime of practice. No need to get lost in endless debate and spend your precious time in idle talk that only serves to massage one's ego. Plenty of work to do right here, right now, unless we prefer to keep our minds distracted through our perpetual complexities we are so addicted to. We do need to give some thought of the 'right' way to live as the eightfold path tells us, so we should never try and be devoid of thought in our lives, but instead look for a balance and let thought serve us for once.

The Eightfold Path

1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

How can you differentiate right from wrong? By peace. You learn what destroys your peace and the peace of others as well as what promotes you inner peace and the inner peace of others. Do you need a teacher for that? Or the Pope to tell you? Or just listen to peace as the best teacher?

The 5 precepts are the 'commandments' more or less for Buddhists. Although you are not commanded to do a thing. If you wish to live at peace, then proceed the best you can - but it is your choice.

The Five Precepts

1. Refrain from Killing:
2. Refrain from Stealing:
3. Refrain from Sexual Misconduct:
4. Refrain from False Speech:
5. Refrain from the Use of Intoxicants:

Once I am at peace, I can share with others about finding peace for themselves, which is the secondary reason I practice. I have no interest in practicing Buddhism for extinguishing reincarnation. These "fear based" reasons for being a Buddhist are not authentic or natural - the persons actions are based on fear or negative consequences otherwise they would not do them. My actions are based on inner peace and if I stray - there goes my peace - it is my choice. Remember what I wrote about above with the myth of Gyges? Take away the fear of pain of karma or hell and you have a different person? A truly virtuous life remains the same irrespective of such fears and is not based on them. I enjoy life and realize that due to natural law, suffering comes about as part of the process and I accept it as a fair trade off for the privilege of living, so I would enjoy any reincarnation if given the privilege. Buddhism helps makes this trade off of life and pain more in my favor by lending me support to live a life at peace. I do not practice Buddhism to earn merit for the next life - I practice Buddhism for my own peace generation in THIS LIFE.

I am not shy about any religious path, I take from ALL of them without prejudice. My only requirement is that the religious or spiritual tool be one that offers peace - it always has to pass the peace test, this way it speaks of a 'higher authority' than just man made dogma - it speaks of universal truth. The Muslims have a practice of praying five times a day to Allah. For those that do not know, Allah is the same God of the Jews and of the Old Testament that the Christians worship. The Muslims pray at sun up, when the sun is at its zenith at noon, when the sun is part way down in the afternoon, when the sun sets and when they go to bed. Even though I am a Christian - Buddhist and not a Muslim, I borrowed from the Muslim's prayer schedule to use as a reminder for my own prayers. If a person is an Atheist they can borrow the Muslim's prayer schedule to be mindful of "gratitude" in your life. If you do not want to develop a practice of gratitude, then what about using it as a reminder 5 times a day to relax your breath, practice mindfulness and bring your thoughts back to the present moment? When you have come to a point of gratitude for being able to open your eyes in the morning and being able to take a breath of air everything else is just gravy so to speak. Gratitude plays an important part with finding inner peace, just as being mindful of the present moment and being aware of anything that causes this mindfulness to wander.

If I could define the basis of my religion it would be that of peace. Inner peace is the foundation of it all, for we cannot have world peace without first being at peace within. One time a lady moderator on a Christian forum banned me for claiming that God is peace, telling me "you don't know who God is." Funny thing about the Christians. I am Christian as well as a Buddhist and 90% of the Christian forums have banned me, yet only 10% of the Buddhist forums have banned me. (Really the Buddhist site just 'asked me kindly' to leave. Says something about the Christians and whether they practice what they preach?) Why am I banned so much? Is it for getting in fights or flame wars? No...I get banned for writing about truth. When someone disagrees with you, apply the law of opposites to get at the truth. This removes the personalities and focusses on the principles and helps you see the entire picture. If God is not peace, then God must be the opposite of peace...turmoil and unrest. I prefer to believe God is peace and God is the authority on the subject of peace. The difference between an authority and an authoritarian is this. An authority speaks from a place of truth and such speaks as an authority, whereas an authoritarian rules by fear and not by truth. For the truth stands on it own and the authoritarian stands on their ego. Do we worship a higher power out of fear for if we do not worship this higher power we will be killed? Sound like the aliens in an old superman movies that came to earth to tell us to bow down to them?

Does God or a higher power need us to 'bow down' to a 'big ego' or does God need us to 'act right' to our companions as well as to act right to ourselves? Bowing down produces no peace, whether in the person that demands it due to an over bloated ego, nor does it foster peace within the person forced to worship against their will. But this is how man made religions work - they are run by fear, greed and ego. I prefer to be truth and peace based. Many think God is like 'Santa Claus' and must come through with their demands, just as we did as greedy children making up a long, impossible list for Santa to fill. This smacks of the ego based practitioner. The ego based person prays thinking they know better than God does. The truly spiritual based person prays for God's will and not their own, for if they truly knew better than God, the practitioner would be the God. Nothing wrong with asking, but always end such requests humbly with accepting Gods or a higher powers will with gratitude. Can you imagine if everyone's prayers were answered according to our self centered and conflicting demands? The world would be in real turmoil then. No, I prefer to make God peace and truth based and as such any action that develops peace brings one closer to God and any action that destroys peace brings one away from God.

Anyway, you are free to think or not think of God or higher power as you see fit. I am only a 'minor authority' on peace and do not wish to be an authoritarian, so I allow freedom for al to think as they wish and only ask the same courtesy be extended to me - reciprocity. Psychologist William James once said, "A great many people believe they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." This applies to atheists as well as the religious or the pious. To avoid prejudice, we have to be careful of 'black or white' absolutes if you claim to truth based and not ego based in your beliefs. I work to keep an open mind for all religions as well as those persons that believe nothing. When I discussed Christian principles one time an Atheist piped up to say "the Christians have no principles," and "Jesus was a fabled creation of the Christians." When we sperate the personalities from the principles it makes looking at things much easier. When I am referring to Christian principles I speak of such things as charity, works of mercy and the golden rule, where the emphasis is on principles and not on the personalities of the church. For even if Jesus was created as a fable, these Christian principles are universal truths in their own right if one desires to live a life at peace and promote the peace of others in this world.

The Corporal Works of Mercy:

To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To harbour the harbourless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy:

To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offenses willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.

You see, by applying the rule of reciprocity or rule of opposites we can see if we were in these positions of the needy mentioned above, we would like such charity bestowed on us for the most part. What about our children, parents and loved ones? Wouldn't we wish the same for them? We have no loved ones? What about our neighbors? The Christian ethic says to treat one another as we would wish to be treated. As we give so we receive. Even if an atheist, as we give peace - we receive inner peace as many of the tools I mentioned above do not require belief in God, they only requirement is a desire to be at peace and to bring peace to others. This is the Christian doctrine in a nutshell, when we put principles before personalities.

As you instill seeds of peace within others you plant the same seeds and water these seeds within you as well. As James Allen wrote in As a man Thinketh:To think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all - such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor."This is universal truth that transcends man-made religions. Remember, we do not have to do it perfectly. Just look for direction and forget perfection - for perfection or range is of the ego and form is of the soul. There are many tools for peace within the worlds spiritual paths, no one said these paths are perfect, in fact, it was once said that walking the spiritual path is akin to walking on a razors edge. But if we bother to be honest, non prejudicial and to look, we can find tools that can help us be at peace whether atheist, agnostic or not.

In the Gnostic gospel of Thomas, it was reported:

"The disciples asked Jesus, when will the kingdom come? Jesus replied, 'The kingdom will not come by watching for it. It will not be said - look here or look there. Rather, the kingdom of heaven is spread out upon the earth and men do not see it."

What does this quote mean for the atheist as well as the religious minded person?

For the atheist or as a nonbeliever of an afterlife: THIS LIFE IS IT - This life is either heaven or hell as you make it. Just grabbing all the gusto you can will not give you peace. It requires much more than that - for greed is never satisfied by attainment, it is only satisfied by contentment. We are reminded to be mindful of each moment given to us and to be grateful for this life. Being of service to others and charitable actions help lead us to contentment and peace. There are 3 components for a happy life: Contentment, love or compassion and gratitude. When we realize that happiness and contentment are there for the taking and that they are independent from our circumstances it sometimes can sink in that there is nothing stopping us from being content and happy this very instant. It is your choice alone as to whether you make this life one of peace for yourself and others or not, but in either case you will reap what you sow. "Just as a life of virtue yields its own reward, a life of vice yields its own punishment" - Plutarch

For the religious minded person and believer in an afterlife: Jesus' saying will foreshadow things to come. For if we make this earthly life hell for ourselves and others, we have a slim chance of doing better in an afterlife. Just paying lip service to religious principles and doing the opposite will not do it. Again mindfulness of our actions is most important. An old Buddhist saying sheds some light on our journey "when one eye is kept on the destination, it only leaves one eye left for the journey." If we keep fixated on the after life, and can't find peace in the present life, we can lose sight of the fact that our actions can turn the present moment in a living hell for us as well as others. Actions speak louder than words and this especially applies to such religious beliefs. By applying the rule of reciprocity and Christian ethics and charity we have better chance at entering any afterlife and in the interim help make this life a peaceful one for all that dwell on earth.

So, whether you are on either end of this spectrum of beliefs, the choices are the same as to the direction we take when it comes to inner peace. The seeds of enlightenment are all around us - we only have to seek the truth and come to peace within to realize this.



Take care,