Beyond religion - 5. Compassion and the question of justice

The question of justice

• It is possible to introduce compassion in justice?  For some the idea of it means allow perpetrators of offenses go unpunished.  But compassion do not involve surrender to misdeeds of others.  It requires great fortitude and strength of character, as many of the great fighter against injustice of recent times showed (Mandela, Gandhi, Mother Teresa,...)
• So face to injustice, the compassionate attitude is standing up. but non-violently, which instead of a sign of weakness is a sign of courage.  In a quarrel, people that know the rightness of their position are more prone to stay calm.
• In some contexts, doing nothing makes you partially responsible of the continuation of the destructive behavior.  But the only way to change a person's mind is with concern, not with anger or hatred.

Broad and narrow concepts of justice

• The general principle of justice is the universal precept of fairness and remedy based on recognition of human equality.  The application of justice is the exercise of the law within any legal framework.  For example in a specific time a legal framework may allow the discrimination of people (based of ethnic origin).
• "When a country's legal system enshrines national unity and social order as its highest priorities, and deems any actions construed as undermining these values as criminal offenses, that legal system will not serve genuine justice."

The role of punishment

• Some people consider that certain offenses deserve provoke suffering to the offender, including death penalty.
• Major religions have idea of remedy or of restoring the balance.  Theistic approaches is that of divine judgement, and Buddhists that the law of karma assure we will experience the result of our previous actions.  What would be the function of punishment in a secular basis?  It is about revenge or preventing future wrongdoing?
• Indeed, punishment has an inevitable and important role to regulate human affairs, to discourage actions and generate security and confidence in law.  But discouragement must be proportional.  However, this needs limits.
• If we recognize the ability of humans to change, death penalty seems unacceptable.  Reacting aggressively to an assault is common to animals and humans, but revenge looks exclusively human.
• Indulging a craving for revenge creates an atmosphere of fear, further resentment, and hatred.  By contrast, where there is forgiveness there is a change for peace.

Distinguishing the action from the actor

• All human beings are able to change.  People being reckless when young may become responsible  and caring when maturing.  This applies even for those who have committed the most terrible deeds.
• Therefore rehabilitation education, including meditation training, can help in this process as it happens in some jails.

Altruistic punishment

• Altruistic punishment is theoretical concept of economic research.
• Punishment can be applied in a way which benefits everyone, including wrongdoers themselves.  It illustrates that revenge is not necessary, but the correction of the wrongdoing, in everyone's interest.

Forgiveness

• The past is beyond our control.  The way we respond to past wrongdoing is not, however.
• Sometimes we behave in a rude or harsh way out of anger and irritation, and later we feel remorse.  We naturally forgive ourselves, so we can extend this attitude to others.
• Forgiveness is very much liberating on oneself.  Entertaining resentment towards someone destroy our peace of mind.

The scope of ethics

• Ethics as a mechanism to maintain social order will only cover the outward human behavior.
• If it relates only to the impact of actions on others, feelings and intentions behind the actions will be ignored.
• But the very notion of ethics makes no sense without a consideration of motivation.  If our motivation is pure, genuinely directed toward the benefit of others, our actions will naturally tend to be ethically sound.

Beyond religion - Part I - 1.Rethinking secularism

Part I. A new vision of secular ethics

• Although prayer can be helpful psychologically, tangible results will depend on real action, and knowledge (science).
• But science has undermined some aspects of religion (e.g. cosmology), if has not the same effect for inner or spiritual values.
• The Dalai Lama has lead discussions with scientists to explore their understanding on areas such thought, emotion and subjective experience.
• Also inquired scientists to understand the effects of contemplative practice and cultivation of qualities such as compassion, loving-kindness, attention, and calm mind.  If they assess the benefits, perhaps could be promoted through education.
• Evidence found offer a case for the cultivation of human values, without relying in any religious principles or faith.
• Secular is used in the way of Indian tradition: mutual respect and tolerance for all faiths and for people without faith.
• In the West, secular is often understood as opposite antagonistic to religion.
• Indian tradition has the principles of nonviolence and interreligious harmony.
• Modern society has bring more diversity to the cultures, religions, languages that live together.  In such context, a sustainable and universal approach to ethics, inner values, and personal integrity is vital.  This project must transcend religious, cultural, and ethical differences: project of secular ethics.
• The Dalai Lama is convinced that ethics can emerge simply as a natural and rational response to our very humanity and common human condition (i.e. without be based on religion)
• Major faith traditions, theistic and non-theistic, value self-discipline, contentment and generosity as keys to living a meaningful and worthwhile life.
• Theistic religions promote submission to God, that can have a powerful effect to reduce self-centeredness and therefore lay the foundation of ethics and altruism.
• Non-theistic religions consider that every action, word, or though, has potentially unending consequences.  Combined with rebirth, creates a powerful basis for ethics and cultivation of inner values.
• Although religion is beneficial bringing people together, giving guidance and solace, and providing a framework or right conduct, it is not indispensable to the spiritual life.
• Two dimensions of spirituality
• Basic spiritual wellbeing (inner mental and emotional strength and balance) comes from our natural human disposition toward compassion, kindness, and caring for others
• Religious-based spirituality: acquired from family and social influence (culture) and is tied to particular beliefs and practices.
• Ethics and inner values without religion is like water, necessary for our health and survival.  Ethics and inner values in religious context is like tea, have a particular taste, and even can be more nutritious, in a grand extent is water, but it is not indispensable for life.
• Basic human spirituality: disposition towards love, kindness, and affection.  Nurturing this, cultivating inner values that we appreciate in others we start to live spirituality.
• Two extreme views of human nature:
• Aggressive and competitive
• Disposed to gentleness and love

From that, aggressive nature need ethics grounded on external factors.  Instead gentle nature can use ethics based on principles of inner self-regulation that enhances our positive qualities and generate our wellbeing and others'.  This is the Dalai Lama's view.

• Secular, universal ethics can be based in two principles
• Recognition of our shared humanity and our shared aspiration to happiness and avoid suffering
• Understanding of interdependence as humans, including our social tendencies and need.
• However, everyone must investigate the subject by him/herself.  If we find useful the insights of Indian tradition in they journey it is wonderful, but if not, it is also okay!

Beyond religion - Part II - 8. Ethical mindfulness in everyday life

Part II - Educating the heart through training the mind.  Introduction: starting with oneself

Based on Buddhist tradition, substantially from lojong (mind training).  But it does not need any particular belief.

Ethical mindfulness in every life

• On top of the view, we need commitment to develop and apply the values in our daily lives.
• Ethic of restraint (from harming others)
• Ethic of virtue: engaging on positive behavior
• Ethic of altruism: acting for the welfare of others

Ethic of restraint

• Behavior is body, speech, and mind, of which mind is the most important
• Restraint body is to avoid murder, theft, and sexual misconduct such sexual exploitation.  We restraint thru discernment applied to our behavior.
• Restraint speech is to refrain from lying, slandering, divisive gossip (and ordinary gossip).  We must treat others as we would wish to be treated.
• Nagarjuna advice to a king the six principles:
• Avoid excessive use of intoxicants
  
• Uphold the principle of right livelihood
• Ensure that one's body, speech, and mind are non-violent
• Treat others with respect
• Honor people worthy to esteem, such as parents, teachers, and those who are kind
• Be kind to others
• Dishonesty destroys trust and is profoundly harmful
• We must cultivate three qualities heedfulness, mindfulness, and awareness
• Heedfulness: be cautious, attentive
• Mindfulness: be aware of our patterns of behavior (body, speech, and mind).  Use recollection, recall our values and motivation, and let go unhelpful thoughts, emotions, and habits.
• Awareness: pay attention to out behavior and bring it under control
• We develop two qualities
• Self-respect: a sense of personal integrity, upholding the values
• Consideration of others: healthy regard of others

Ethic of virtue

• Being warm and generous, charitable and helpful
• Praising others, listening their problems, and offer advice and encouragement
• Attitude of sympathetic joy for others fortune and achievement

Altruism

• Not necessary to be absolutely altruistic to cultivate it
• Many professions (caregivers, teachers) directly benefit others
• Use discernment (heedfulness, mindfulness and awareness)
• This is the very foundation of freedom

Meditation

• 9 non-virtuous actions, 9 virtuous actions

Beyond religion - 4. Compassion, the foundation of wellbeing

• Unlike reptilians, birds and mammals spend time nurturing their offspring.
• Humans have a long period of nurture, and the role of others' concern and affection is obviously crucial to our survival and wellbeing.
• There is evidence on the crucial role of warmth and affection for our physical development during our childhood.  But it does not end here, when we face difficulties in life, we turn to others for support.
• When we are treated for illness, the attitude of doctors and nurses is also important.
• Humans are not alone, studies show that it applies to many mammals.
• Wellbeing is not only passive. Even more important is giving warmth and affection, being genuinely concerned for others (compassion) that we gain conditions for genuine happiness.  For this reason, loving is even more important than being loved.
• When we feel compassion, whether we succeed in bringing benefit to others or not, the first beneficiary is always oneself.  It shift our focus from our narrow self-interest, reduces our fear, boost our confidence and brings inner strength.
• By reducing distrust, it opens us to others and brings a sense of connection with them and a sense of purpose and meaning in life.  Compassion also give us respite from our own difficulties. 

Beyond religion - 3. The quest for happiness

• Wealth, health, and friendship
• We need a certain level of material comfort (even hermits do).  But there is no guarantee that material comforts will give lasting satisfaction.  They can even induce to stress, anxiety, and worry (of losing them). The happiness of new material things only increases our wellbeing temporarily.  running after material acquisitions may not be greed but fickleness, this is very much the current consumption culture. However, mental wealth, based on love and compassion cannot create stress.  If we are in a society with strong differences of wealth, the level of contentment will be lower that if it is more balanced.  Well-being depends therefore on context.
• Looking after our physical is crucial.  Eating well, sleeping well, and doing exercise.  Visiting a qualified doctor when we get ill.  But health is neither ultimate source of happiness, as healthy people can also feel miserable.  The state of mind, outlook, and motivation are real sources of happiness.
• Genuine friendship can only be based on trust and affection, and this can only arise when there is a mutual sense of concern and respect
• Two levels of satisfaction
• Sensory level experiences: wealth, health, friendship
• Own mental state: genuine human happiness
• Sensory stimulation pleasures correspond to a craving, that in excess can turn into suffering
• Inner level of satisfaction requires peace of mind or some mental composture.  When we have inner resilience we can mantain some degree of happiness even under extreme circumstances and without sensual stimulation has no positive effect.
• Other factors that contribute to our happiness is a sense of purpose and the feeling of connection with others or belonging to a community.  Both are rooted in compassion or warm heart.

Beyond religion - 2. Our common humanity

• We need clear understanding of what unites us all, our common humanity. What makes us human?
• Our body, ultimately stardust
• Our conscious experience: pain and pleasure
• Francisco Varela: sentient beings distinguish from plants by the ability to move.  The ability to respond to our surroundings with conscious experience is mind
• Human experience is composed by
• Five senses
• Subjective experiences of sensations: pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, or combination
• All sentient beings look for pleasant and avoid unpleasant or painful experiences.  Human beings have evolved to the highest complexity.
• Human mind includes on top of thoughts, imagination and memory, feelings and emotions.  We have a strong capacity for remembering, beyond animals, and toproject thoughts into the future.  Moreover, a powerful imagination and high communication capacity trough symbolic language.  Our pinnacle is the rational thinking, to critically evaluate and compare real and imaginary situations.
• Instinctive capacity for empathy, beyond some limited experience of animals.  We respond to others' suffering, and we share the joy of others' triumph over adversity.  everyone prefers see others smiling rather than frowning
• As socials animals, our survival and flourishing depends on being part of the community, therefore we need empathy.
• We all seek for happiness, no one wishes troubles (NB: why people climb mountains, cross oceans?).  For humans this is a complex issue. In this quest, humanity reached many achievements including religion, and also created many problems: war environment degradation.
•  In the quest for happiness and avoidance of suffering we are fundamentally equal.  The Dalai Lama relates to everyone based on this understanding that generates a natural closeness with anybody. => we are human beings

Beyond religion - Introduction

Last half of XXth century has bring a lot of progress.  At the same time there is still a lot of suffering.

Problems occur also in developed countries, therefore we lack of something.  Of what?  The Dalai Lama believe we pay too much attention to the external, material aspects of life, while neglecting moral ethics and inner values.

Our instinct is compassionate, the spiritual principle from which all other positive values emerge.  Its essence is a desire to alleviate the suffering of others and promote their wellbeing.

We create systems to deal with problems of the society, but they only are effective depending on the way we use them.  They will be as effective as the responsibles for implementing.

As long as we put priority to material values, problems will persist.  But science has no ground yet for foundations on personal integrity, and religion address specific groups of people, while present societies are mixed.  Therefore we need secular ethics.

 

Beyond religion - 11. Meditation as mental cultivation

• Develop awareness to deal with emotions
• Cultivate inner values is to develop the paramitas.  Mental discipline needs familiarisation with the mind itself, in Tibetan gom.

Transformation

• There are three levels of understanding: hearing, reflection, and contemplative experience.  The last is when the understanding is fully integrated (e.g. learning to drive a car)
• Hearing: convincement
• Reflecting: deep conviction that makes the knowledge part of our view
• It applies also to compassion, not limited to intellect faculties.

Forms of mental cultivation

• This is not only buddhist but also other traditions
• Mental discipline don't requires faith commitment, only recognises that a clearer and calmer mind is beneficial for ourselves and others.
• There are two types:
• Analytical meditation
• Absortive meditation
• There are two types of objectives, both need effort
• Cultivating the mind, e.g equality of all the beings
• Cultivating the heart: compassion
• Procrastination
• Story of the lama promising a picnic to the students
• Until we make the same, not commiting, we will find excuses with other things more urgent to do.
• Planning and practice
• Early morning is usually the best time (since YMR is not for the case everybody)
• At the beginning, do ten/fifteen minutes per session (YMR short time/many times)
• Find the place: for most of us sound can be disturbing, do better in a quiet place.
• Position: cross legs, or in a chair with both feet in the ground.  Preference for less distractions
• Relax body and mind: use breath.
• Reflect on the benefits
• Respite(?) from obsessive worrying, calculations, and fantasising
• Path to highest wisdom although it takes long time
• Reflect also in the shortcomings of not practice
• Focused attention
• Chose an object, after some time you can use mental image
• The image must be bright and clear.  Also heavy.
• After stabilizing using breath [may take months] inspect the mind, not too tight, not too relaxed.  When distracted, bring back the mind
• End with a deep breath.
• Present moment awareness
• You may sit in front of low colored plain wall
• Relax your mind breathing
• Rest in the natural state of awareness
• Try to not follow your thoughts, see them as clouds in the sky
• Slowly you will have glimpses of the mere luminosity, realizing that your mind is like a mirror
• When distracted bring back your attention to the mere awareness
• End with some deep breaths
• Loving kindness and compassion
• Relax and settle the mind
• Think on someone that you have difficult with, and consider that is like you. The person wants happiness and do not want suffering
• Cultivate the wish that this person achieve happiness.
• Equanimity
•   Analytical: level our interactions to avoid categorize as friends, foes, and strangers
• Experiential: develop strong feeling that all humans are equal to aspire hapinessm and wish to avoid suffering.  Wonder what justifies discrimination between me and others.
• Rejoicing
• Roles that inspire us (doctors, teachers,...) identifying what motivates people to devote to others
• dealing with afflictive emotions
• Five emotions
• Relax mind, and choose one emotion
• Reflect on the effect of the emotion on you
• Develop awareness about how it feels , in particular when the emotion arises
• Apply relevant antidotes
• Forbearance for anger
• Loving kindness for hatred
• Imperfection of objects for desire and greed
• Obstacles
• Agitation causing distraction: visualize a dark sphere
• Dullness or space out  causing laxity: visualize a bright sphere
• Practice need time
• Joy of mental training
• Never force, remain patient and do not discourage
• Needs discipline, not punishment
• Impact on daily life
• Modest goal of achieving groundlessness, characterized by natural humility and robust peace of mind
• Moderate effort over long period is the key to succeed
• Emphasis in quality rather than quantity.  The purpose is to become compassionate

Beyond religion - 10. Cultivating the key inner values

Patience and forbearance

• Includes the qualities of tolerance, forbearance, and forgiveness.  It is the ability to endure suffering.  It is not passivity, nor resignation with gritted teeth.
• Patience to those who harm
• Many factors
• Angeris not wanted (it is like being ill)
• Response with kindness and forgiveness is more appropriate, distinguishing between the action and the actor.  We can opposite to the unjust action, but still being concerned by the actor (imagining he/she is your son/daughter)
• Patience through acceptance of suffering
• Developing genuine attitude of acceptance of the reality that life involves hardship.  Suffering is not good, but accepting it will make it easier to bear.
• People that have gone thru heavy hardship (e.g. IIWW) are more able to cope with adversity without loosing their humour.
• Shantideva: if there is a solution what need is there for dejection; if there is no solution what point is there in worry.
• Not surrender to suffering, accepting it is the first step to combat its harm.  Accepting it, we begin to see that not everything is negative.
• Suffering can be a catalyst for spiritual growth, on top of make us stronger, it brings to some humility and more tuned with reality.
• Patience through contemplation of reality
• If we have a misfortune, it can be the fortune of someone else (e.g. job opportunity to someone else, maybe needing it more than ourselves).
• Benefits of practicing patience: not loss composure, use of discernment also in difficult situations, give us inner space, gain self-control, and choose to respond with kindness and compassion.

Contentment

• The example of the Dalai Lama in a western shop: "I like this, and this, and this... but actually I don't need it"
• It is ethical value? The tibetan term is absence of greed, knowing what is enough.  It is the virtue of moderation.  Poverty is not a virtue, but happiness does not come from wealth.
• The financial crisis of 2008 was caused by greed, excessive speculation (means activity without full knowledge), and lack of transparency that allowed dishonesty.
• Contentment is not suggesting that poverty is acceptable, because it causes tremendous hardship, and we must try to alleviate it.
• It is wiser to set us limits and exercise contentment of material richness.  In contrast, the potential to acquire mental richness is limitless.  We must therefore strive for more.

Self-discipline

• It must be voluntarily embraced.  Imposed rarely brings about inner transformation.
• Considering the harm of lack of self-discipline (e.g. drug abuse) we should consider those looking after us and those whose welfare is connected to ours.
• Socially, corruption that goes on almost everywhere is a failure of self-discipline.
• Mastering our destructive emotions with awareness and self-discipline of body, speech, and mind frees us of the turmoil when our behaviour contradict our values.  Instead of turmoil, come confidence, integrity and dignity.

Generosity

• We talk about generosity of the heart, connected to the virtue of forgiveness
• There are four kinds: material goals; freedom from fear; spiritual counsel; giving of love.
• Always must aim benefit others, not seeking favours or praise.
• Using discernment: proper formats; at the right time; out of respect for the recipient.
• Charitable giving and philanthropy: the most important is for health and education; it possible for everyone, adjusted to our own possibilities 
• Joy of giving: giving benefits the recipient but also the giver.  It is good to take joy of it.

Beyond religion - 9. Dealing with destructive emotions

• If we could not change our behaviour then we would be slavesof our emotions, but science is collecting evidence that change is possible
• Emotions are a combination of mental processes and feelings (actually there is no single mental process without feeling but for the sake of simplicity we call some process just thinking)

Emotional states

• Usually we classify the emotional states in two groups
• Positive: pleasant or joyful
• Negative: unpleasant or painful
• From the buddhist perspective the classification is different
• Beneficial
• Harmful: to our long-term wellbeing
•  Sadness, grief, and remorse can be unpleasant but not necessarily afflictive (they can help for example, to overcome the death of a loved one)
• Longing for something pleasurable can lead us to destructive behaviours (one extreme, could be get addicted to a drug).
• Destructive emotions undermine our wellbeing creating internal turmoil and depriving mental freedom
• Destructive emotional states, like greed, hatred, and malice
• Potential destructive depending on intensity, like attachment, anger and fear
• Emotions appeared for evolutionary purposes
• Attachment creates bonds
• Anger repel forces for survival
• Fear responds to threats by vigilance
• Envy prompts to compete to not disregard our needs
• However destructive emotions do not have constructive elements e.g. hatred is always destructive
• Duality of emotions appears also for doubt, shame, grief, competitiveness, egoism (distinguish between healthy sense of self and unhealthy sense of self)
• Destructive emotions have a tendency to distort the sense of reality (e.g. attachment becomes greed, anger becomes hatred) and makes us unable to act in our own interest.  They cloud our capacity of discernment
• Unrealistic perspective
• Anger family, characterised by an exaggerated repulsion: hatred, enmity, malice
• Attachment family, characterised by an exaggerated attraction: greed, lust, craving
• Envy, pride and doubt family, characterised by a mixture of excessive attraction and excessive repulsion
• Envy is attachment and attraction plus anger and hostility
• Pride includes conceit, arrogance, prejudice and obsessive embarrassment, that is attraction and repulsion
• Doubt includes anxiety, obsessive guilt rooted in fear and self-loathing
• We use a two-fold approach: to reduce the impact of destructive emotions and to develop our natural positive qualities
• Reduce: taking a position (commitment?9 to neutralize and use antidotes (positive antidotes).  Based on the understanding of the harm of the emotions use heedfulness, mindfulness, and awareness.
• Develop strong enthusiasm and determination to avoid the harm and the disturbance of our inner peace
• Understanding causes: we use to attribute the cause outside, but when we reflect, we understand that our reactions depends on our outlook, attitude and emotional habits.  Although we can be right, when something wrong happen our feelings can be often unrealistic and exaggerated, mostly dominated by our habits.  Therefore, we must pay attention to these habits.  For example, anger mostly perpetuate by our lack of contentment that facilitate the trigger of the destructive emotions.
• Awareness: we must be open and honest with ourselves and bring awareness to our emotional triggers, how we feel, and what behaviours they provoke.
• Attentiveness: it is difficult to achieve.  This is natural and we must develop awareness gradually, with patient perseverance.  Starting with the outward manifestations of our behaviour because they are easier to notice.  After some training, we can walk back the casual chain to eventually eliminate the afflictive emotion.
• Catching oneself: be vigilant to become familiar with the ways destructive emotions affects us physically.  The we can try to observe our physical and mental responses to the sensations (voice changes, closing fists, ...).  Then, we step back in the causal chain to the moment the emotion arises (use breath).  Eventually we can catch the emotion before it arises getting less sensitive to the triggers, and not allowing the projection that distorts reality.
• Moods (Dr. Ekman) there is a continuum between emotions, moods, and personal traits, each one more persistent than the precedent.  So the way of treating them is the same.  Although moods seem more difficult to change, they are not permanent (e.g. we change mood when we hear good news).  The way is always dealing with the underlying emotion.

Beyond religion - 7. Ethics in our shared world

• Ethical problems come from human behaviour to solve them we must change our outlook and our ways of doing
• We cannot set an ethics for our personal level and another for the social level.  If we look only for our inner development neglecting the wider problems of the world we are mistaking. We must apply the principle of global responsibility
• Rapid progress of technology is a challenge to keep the pace of our discernment to use all this power
• Indeed, all this progress, and the fact that we do not have destroyed ourselves, is due to our ability to cooperate.
• War is outdated and illogical.  Violence only conduces to more violence.  In our highly connected world, distant events can have an impact (e.g.terrorism is an extreme example).  Also the outcome is unpredictable.
• Therefore, it is necessary to adopt programs of discernment (compassion in practice) committing to dialogue, cooperation, and understanding also increased and we cannot longer pretend ignoring the impact of our actions in the environment.  These challenges needs cooperation, and states cannot think only in their national self-interest.
• The economic inequalities are more extreme than ever and apart of the morality issue, it provokes many problems: wars, immigration... Initiatives like microfinance can help to alleviate poverty.
• Education has focused on technological knowledge and ethics was assumed through religion, but this changed.  In a secular approach ethics must be based in an universal approach.  Education must include formal exercices of attentiveness and the cultivation of inner values.
• Teacher must embody these values: i) academic excellence; ii) moral integrity; 3) kindness
• To face all the challenges we must perseverate

Meditation

• Interdependence: i) how are we at peace? ii) how we got economic prosperity? iii) how the environment changes?

Beyond religion - 6. The role of discernement

• Although compassion is the foundation of ethics we need also discernement to ensure that our choices are realistic and our intentions are not wasted
• Ethical awareness, beneficial for oneself and others, arises from the use of reason
• Rules for simply, daily cases, are OK, so we do not become overwhelmed by every decision
• Ethics questions are often not blank or white.  We must check our motivation and the pros and cons of our decisions.  One perspective is not enough.  Moreover, every incident is the result of countless causes and conditions, some may remain hidden and many are beyond our control.
• Therefore we must relay in our motivation and discernment to ensure we (try to) do our best

Meditation

• Trying our best 

A summary of "Beyond Religion"

Abstract

This document is a humble attempt to summarize the extraordinary book Beyond Religion, the proposal of ethics for the whole world that the XIV Dalai Lama.

Introduction

Placing priority on material values do not stop all problems. Science have been very effective to find solutions to material problems, but it cannot provide foundations on personal integrity. In our mixed society we cannot adopt either a religious approach. Therefore, we need a secular ethics.

Part I: A new vision of secular ethics

1. Rethinking Secularism

Secular ethics must be based on two principles:

1. Shared humanity
2. Understanding of our interdependence as humans

2. Our Common Humanity

What we humans have in common?

1. Our body, ultimately stardust
2. Our conscious experience: pain and pleasure

3. The Quest for Happiness

There are two levels of satisfaction:

1. Sensory level experiences: wealth, health and friendship. But having all three do not guarantee happiness
2. Inner mental state: where we can experience the genuine happiness

Other factors contributing to happiness (based on scientific research): sense of purpose and connection with others.

4. Compassion, the Foundation of Well-Being

Humans need affection to grow up, and also in the adult life when we encounter difficulties. Our happiness not only appears when we receive, it is even more important when we give love.

There are two levels of compassion

1. Biological level: it is instinctive (ex: mother love)
2. Extended level: need deliberate cultivation

5. Compassion and the Question of Justice

Punishment can be conceived to benefit everyone, including the wrongdoer. Forgiveness is not forgetting; it helps to liberate us from the pain and gives a chance to peace.

Ethics must look at motivation. Pure motivation, to benefit others, makes actions ethically sound.

6. The Role of Discernment

We need discernment to ensure we take realistic choices. Although we can have rules, most cases are not black or white and we need to look carefully pros and cons.  Ultimately the good of bad of our action is about our motivation.

7. Ethics in Our Shared World

Ethics must apply to our personal and social life, developing a sense of global responsibility: there are wars, economic inequalities, etc.

Education should include exercises of attentiveness and cultivation of inner values. Need perseverance.

Part II: Educating the heart through training the mind

8. Ethical Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Ethical training proposed by the Dalai Lama is base on lojong (Mind training in Tibetan) providing of the Nalanda tradition.

There are three aspects or types of ethics:

1. Cultivating the right behaviour of the body, speech, and mind, retraining of harming others
2. Practicing virtue with other: being generous, charitable, and helpful. Praising others and rejoicing of their achievements.
3. Being altruist: it is not necessary to set a goal too high. We will use discernment to cultivate our altruism with heedfulness, mindfulness, and awareness.

9. Dealing with Destructive Emotions

Often emotional states are divided on pleasurable and painful. However the Nalanda tradition distinguish two types by another criteria: beneficial and harmful.

Destructive emotions undermine our wellbeing, and although they can have an evolutionary purpose, we must learn to handle them as they distort our perception of the reality.

There are five families of emotions: anger, attachment, envy (jealousy), pride, and ignorance.

We need to

1. Reduce their impact, understanding their causes, and learning how to use the antidotes (the positive emotions).
2. Develop enthusiasm to avoid our inner peace disturbed.

10. Cultivating Key Inner Values

The key values we must develop are:

1. Patience and forbearance: tolerance, forbearance, and forgiveness
2. Contentment: absence of greed. Poverty is not a virtue.
3. Self-discipline: must be voluntarily embraced
4. Generosity: there are four kinds; we must use discernment, having joy when giving.

11. Meditation as Mental Cultivation

• Develop ethics needs: cultivation of awareness and inner values
• Transformation operates with the three levels of understanding: hearing, reflection and contemplative experience.
• Analytical and absorptive meditations
• Cultivate the mind and the heart
• Create conditions: avoid procrastination, plan the practice, reflect on the benefits of practicing
• Meditations: focussed attention; present moment awareness; loving kindness and compassion; equanimity; rejoicing; dealing with emotions
• Success is realistic approach and perseverance