Mindfulness can help us move past arbitrary moral codes
- Many doctrines expound ideas which require a degree of trust and insist upon our faith in them
- The left hemisphere sees things abstracted, isolated, and stripped of context
Bringing fuller awareness to our encounters through mindfulness may help us move beyond blanket codes of conduct derived from such questions as “Why do I have to?” and “How does this apply to me?”. The results of an action can disincentivize us to perform that action in the future, and as children grow up learning the results of their behavior, they might broaden their application of the “don’t be mean” rule to cover a wide range of moral decisions rather than immediately searching for loopholes or ways to circumvent externally imposed restrictions. Thus, if we follow how we have evolved to learn (operant conditioning) and simply start attending mindfully to what our bodies are telling us, the rules might get simpler (though not necessarily easier). Get triggered. Be mean. See how much pain this causes both parties. Don’t repeat.
References
- Brewer, Judson. (2017). The Craving Mind Chapter 8. Learning to Be Mean—and Nice (Location 2286). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Psychology / Yoga / Philosophy / Ethics Status:☀️