Practice humanity's high principles

August 11, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

Last week, I wrote about something of a cultural shift through which men and women seem to place less value on personal integrity. Notably, members of the "Ugly Party" demonize and wish the worst for those of opposite views. Political mean-spiritedness is nothing new, but it has seemed to reach a contemporary crescendo.

Many have commented on man's competing passions. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us." In Time magazine's Dec. 3, 2007, cover story, "What Makes Us Good/Evil," Jeffrey Kluger posited, "The savage and the splendid" coexist in the same person -- "Morality and empathy are writ deep in our genes. Alas, so are savagery and bloodlust."

James Madison famously observed, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." Kluger asserted that man's sense of "morality" -- a "sense of moral grammar" -- is built on empathy that's inborn; but others teach man how to apply it. As my father taught me when I was a child, "Live with cow, sleep like cow; live with parrot, fly like parrot."

Later, in college, I learned that political socialization is a process that molds one's values and beliefs, opinions and perceptions, attitudes and personality. As a lifelong process, political socialization stops only when man dies.

Why can't old dogs learn new tricks?

Stanford Professor Larry Diamond, a specialist in democracy studies, posited nearly two decades ago that political culture is "'plastic' and open to evolution and change"; that a people aren't condemned "to perpetual authoritarianism and praetorianism."

Political culture is a people's predominant values, beliefs, attitudes, sentiments and ideals about their society's political system, and their own roles in the system. Diamond said a people's "values, beliefs and orientations" can be "reshaped by the deliberate actions, doctrines and teachings of political leaders."

Lord Buddha taught: "Everything changes, nothing remains without change."

Madison relied on a system of limited government with structural checks and balances and a separation of powers to keep man from abusing power.

For Kluger, some men "do come untracked" as Homo sapiens deal with those "outside" their tribe, but the "overwhelming majority" don't "run off the moral rails." "Our opposable thumbs and big brains gave us tools to dominate the planet," said Kluger, "but wisdom comes more slowly than physical hardware." Savagery and killing continue until man becomes more "fully civilized."

Ancient Hindus, Greeks, Egyptians; Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad; and a long list of Eastern and Western philosophers have sought to understand human nature and to build a "good" society for humans to live in peace and harmony.

Yet look around. We see among friends, within families, between office workers, community members and nations, a world of frictions and disharmony, of disorder and discontentment.

An Indian spiritual sage, Jiddu Krishnamurti, said this need not be so. "It is possible (for man) to live ... sanely, happily, intelligently without the battle going on inwardly and outwardly"; that he can do so in "a good society" and "a good society can only exist when mankind is good."

"Our life is a constant struggle," he said, "a battlefield not only within ourselves but also outwardly." So, man needs an "Inward Revolution" -- Man must live in the present "in goodness" and "let go" of anything else.

Krishnamurti defined "good" as that which is holy and related to the highest principles. You don't preach love and then kill; you don't preach killing, stealing and smearing someone's good name. The "ending of the 'me,'" is a must in man's relations, actions, thinking and way of life; "meditation" transforms the mind, instills compassion, love and energy to transcend life's pettiness, narrowness and shallowness.

Spiritualwealth.com, The Road Map to a Rich Life, provides valuable reading materials: Perennial Philosophy -- "Philosophia Perennis" -- encompasses the ongoing and never ending "Great Conversation" about the best life, using the teachings of Confucius, Aristotle, the world's great religious traditions and more.

Perennialists say there are things of everlasting importance to people everywhere: certain "core principles" handed down through generations that must continue. The Golden Rule exists in every society, they say; love, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, generosity, humility, integrity are among the qualities that contribute to the best life.

Spititualwealth.com made simple the study of Buddhism, which the Dalai Lama called a science of the mind. Suffering is caused by attachments and cravings, said Buddha. End them -- by following an eightfold path, to break out of routine, habitual impulses, delusions, fear, ignorance, pride, anger, envy and hatred -- and you end suffering.

For the Dalai Lama, once man's basic needs -- food, clothing, a roof -- are met, there shouldn't be a need for more money or greater success. Man has a mind; contentment is a state of mind; one's happiness depends on how one perceives one's situation. Let go of attachments and cravings. And embrace the highest principles.

An old saying goes, "practice makes perfect."

We don't even need perfection. Just practice the high principles.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.