These past few weeks we've studied several moral systems from all over the world such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, and Judaism. Some people also studied other ones such as moral relativism, anarchism, nihilism, virtue ethics, and social democratism. In the four main ones there were similar teachings and guidelines on how to behave in society and become better people by showing care and respect to others. These similarities are strange though because the founders of each system had no known contact or information about the others and were geographically and chronologically separated. These similarities show that there is a basic moral system for humans that we can follow.
2. Three Important Ideas
-I'd like to remember Confucius' Five Relationships because it's important to know how to behave and treat the others in your relationships and I need to improve upon my own relationships, particulary with my family and friends.
-Second, I'd like to remember Buddha's Four Noble Truths which are that first, life is suffering, the reason for it is human desire for material things, the way to end that suffering is to let go of that human desire and thereby attaining nirvana, and finally, the way to do so is by following the Eightfold Path and meditating. I sometimes let my crave for material things get in the way of the important things in my life and the world around me. I don't need to buy a new cd or spend 10 dollars at Jack in the Box for myself, I should donate the money or do something more useful with it.
-Last, I'd like to remember the Five Pillars of Islam, mainly the one about donating a specific amount to the poor every year. The rest of the Five Pillars deal with their Faith, but the almsgiving is a good moral guide and tells people that if they are financially sound, they are obligated to donate.
3. Picture
What is the state of all the relationships I am in? How can I improve them?
5. Ways to improve myself morally
I believe the best way to become a more moral person is to follow the Eightfold Path, which is right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effot, mindfulness, concentration. Just by observing my speech for one day with the right speech experiment we did showed that I am not a particularly honest person or moral person. The other steps of the Eightfold Path deal with every other aspect of morality and are good guidelines to follow.