*Morality and certainty*
Presented to Jacob, by RICK OGDEN
(And repplied to within the hour)
Jacob, read the exercise. Focus seriously, be scientific, conduct the experiment, and ask yourself the follow-up questions. Discover your subtle workings and, with a new self trust, find your life being based on a refreshing inner authority based on a deeper comfort with and a new understanding of your psychological dynamics.
The following statements are almost certainly true; however, some are more
true than others. Watch your intuition's sense of certainty fluctuate as
you read them.
1. "Within the next ten seconds, somewhere on the earth, a shoelace will break."
** Rick, based on my own experience, I think that it is not common for shoelaces to break. I would need to know how widely distributed is the use of laces of the kind that break. I would find more credible that one will break this month. **
2. "Exactly at this very instant, somewhere, someone is reading the word
"rhododendron"."
** As many other people probably have experienced, hearing somebody pronouncing a word exactly when I am reading it, is not uncommon. It is indeed most surprising when the word is not common. I do not have such a plant in my garden; however, I do see it sometimes in the gardening newspaper column.
Being an international word, I would just eliminate the first five words from your statement. **
3. "Right now, an ant is crawling over a rock."
** Sounds almost as self-evident. Does not fit the character of the previous statements. **
4. "On this earth, at this moment, a child is dying of starvation."
** Having been an adviser of the WHO on nutrition, I know this to be true. **
************
Ask yourself,
A) "Is anything certain--absolutely without exception? "
** Not things that are expected to happen in the future. The past and the preset are absolutely certain. **
B) "How does absolute certainty affect my spiritual beliefs?"
** Since I have been certain of what I stated above, my beliefs are based on that certainty. **
C) "At what exact point in time did I feel the phrase "Exactly at this very
instant" applied? Was I reading the word "rhododendron" at that moment?
Or, did I take too long to read that word?"
** Not clear. I found it very applicable to the ants, because they are zillions of them and billions of rocks. **
D) "Do I feel the list writer cheated with the "ant" statement? Why is that
statement so certain?"
** I have offered explanations. **
E) "What percentage of my knowledge is composed of "facts" that are entirely
speculation but nonetheless believed by me to be absolutely true? Is this
kind of believing different from spiritual faith?"
** To me, as a scientist, there are no "facts," but only facts. Speaking of coincidences, the last three days I have concentrated on defining terms to be used when referring to science. I am posting that short work at the end. **
E) "How can I "defend" that I am "certain" that a child is always starving to death, and yet hardly feel much emotional reaction to that fact?"
** I consider valid the proposition that one specific person's suffering is
a disgrace, but many person's is a statistic. It should be added that children starving belong to a class that affects the conscience of few well- fed adults. Specially when they have been acquainted with this "fact of life" since childhood ("Don't throw food: think of the starving children in Bangladesh"). Besides, not much effort is required to forget other people's troubles. **
F) "What mechanism works within me to keep my emotional "temperature" within
certain limits? How do I cooperate with this mechanism?"
** As postulated in the S-DP essay on THE GOOD AND THE BAD, The Bad was iitially found by evolution to serve the individual's advancement, and later on, The Good was found as serving the formation and advancement of the group. The meaning of "group" is also explained. The emotional homeostasis is influenced by the interplay of how another individual's misfortune affects our concept of personal advancement, and how our identification with what we have defined as "our group" is affected by a given individual's misfortune.
If we find ourselves mulling about a given circumstance, it is emotionally ambiguous. If our mulling is recurrent, our concepts, conscious or not so, are ambiguous.
When one has to "cooperate" to consciously maintain the emotional homeostasis, a mental 'dialogue' looks for rational clarifications. The intervention of an external analytic mind is the only "rational" approach.
At a molecular level, the under-secretion of neuro-transmitters in the neurons devoted to cognitive and affective functions is inimical to rational thought, especially when the contemplated ambiguity is associated with emotional stress. An analytic mind will advice on this aspect. **
G) "In which situation would I most likely have a stronger feeling: Seeing on television a starving child in a distant country or seeing a parentless
child living in an abandoned building in my neighborhood?"
** The latter circumstance applies to "our group." **
H) "How do I participate where my morality, my knowledge, my beliefs and my
heart meet in one issue's challenge? Do I preside over these situations or
merely wait for the issue to resolve itself without my conscious efforts?"
** A person feels commensurate to his degree of identification with the group within which the specific situation presents itself. Such identification is the result of all the vectors (variables) you mention.
Inaction, or variable degrees of action, result from the intensity of the feelings interacting with altruistic leanings. (Some of these ideas are presented in the D-SP esasy on ALTRUISM.) **
I) "Do I need to be more inwardly pro-active and carry the banner of my
morality to my "inner self" which largely creates emotions and thoughts
without consulting me first?"
** One does not need to do anything. **
J) "How would I do that?"
** By reading and understanding the D-SP essays and Interdialogs, which nobody else needs to read, and even less are capable of understanding, as demonstrated by the present exercise in old-fashioned, passe' philosophy **
