CAN MORALITY BE TOO GOOD A THING?

The neighbors rejoiced, “Oh, you are so fortunate! You got more horses!” The son, a very adventurous boy, tried to ride one of the wild horses. He fell off and broke his leg. “This is so terrible!” the neighbors cried.

Soon thereafter, the country broke out in a war and the government was recruiting more soldiers. Since the boy was exempt from joining the army due to his broken leg, his life was spared. The neighbors cheered, “Wow, your family is so fortunate!”

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Life continually changes, and our perspectives change along with it. So at the level of social morality, can we necessarily say what is good or bad, what is right or wrong? Often, it can be hard to know. Often, it is relative. And yet, from a very young age, we are taught what is good and bad, right and wrong — positive and negative — and it is reinforced to us over and over again, becoming strong, fixed information. This overly strong sense of social morality — including well-meaning intentions like wanting to be a very good citizen — can come to control our lives.

Moral and social codes are created by the human mind. They can be useful to guide us in society. But if we do not learn to go beyond them, we will be continually judging ourselves and others, becoming very careful, self-monitoring, and rigid. Unknowingly, our True Self becomes hidden from others, and we forget who we are.

In the mingjue (pure consciousness) collective field, there is nothing to hide. Everything is illuminated and self-revealing. There are no secrets, no good or bad, no right or wrong. Mingjue is the state of oneness that contains all dualities. The duality is always there, but the unity is the greater perspective.

This means that, from mingjue consciousness, all choices or paths are observed as equal processes, or simply understood as different life experiences. Just as we saw in the opening story of the family with the horses, what we might deem the “wrong” path or a “bad” experience might lead to more enrichment later. Or perhaps the more challenging path leads to a greater awakening of consciousness. Who can know?

The important thing is that we continue training our consciousness. In mingjue gongfu, we learn to:

1. Choose the way of compassion
2. Respect the codes of society but also go beyond them
3. Be flexible, let go of strong attachments and judgments, and play duality as a game

This is the practice of wu wei, the art of living without resistance. This is a high-level oneness, where harmony naturally appears. And as we have been learning, harmony is health.

How well can you maintain an open, free heart while also respecting social and moral codes? Are you flexible in your judgments of what constitutes a “good” or “bad” person? Can you readily free yourself from guilt and past mistakes?

Adapted from the course, “Awakening the Inner Healer,” Module 2, Part 2 (October 2022), as taught by Teacher Wei.

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A selection on the dance between oneness and duality, from the ancient Daoist text Tao Te Ching, by Laozi (Lao Tzu):

TWO 

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other. Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

— translation: Stephen Mitchell, 1995

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