The Spiritual Basis of Morality

Today’s social norm is that there is no norm. The current mood is that everyone must be tolerant of everyone else, regardless of how far from former norms they might be. If it’s not your normal it’s their normal and they shouldn’t be criticized for it, or looked down on. Their standard is simply different from yours – no better, no worse, or so the idea is promoted.

This idea of extreme tolerance is a recent development arising only within the past several years, although there has been a continual slide in that direction since the social revolutions of the 1960s. I can remember back to the 50s and into the early 60s when American society quite strictly followed societal norms. There were norms that everyone was not only expected to, but willingly followed. For men facial hair was a sign of degeneracy as was long hair, and they simply were not seen.
The rebellious youth of the 60s rejected those norms, purposely wearing their hair long just to flip-off the established order. The Beatles, whose hair would be considered quite moderate today were derogatorily called “mop heads.” A decade earlier cohabitation prior to marriage was almost unheard of, but with the advent of the birth-control pill and the women’s liberation movement that norm went out the window as well. The established order was being rejected by the youth, and that included churches and their ideas of morality as well, and the idea of moral relativism was embraced anew.

Moral relativism rejects the idea of objective standards for right and wrong behavior. Rather it is the individual who determines what is wrong and what is right based on nothing more than their personal choices. Of course this concept is more easily promoted in an atheistic society. If there is no God, and no afterlife, then why should someone else’s standards be imposed on others? As the youth of the 60s rejected the authority of their parents and the government, norms were gradually relaxed, year after year, until, fast forward to today, homosexuality is not only openly flaunted as being normal, but barnyard brothels are an increasing concern for community leaders, and efforts are even made to normalize pedophilia. Not everyone agrees with this of course, and the conservative members of society see it as the modern Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Spiritual Basis of Morality

The concept of human morality is founded in the spiritual understanding of life. Accepting that we are not the body, but the spiritual being within – who continues to live after the demise of the body – changes everything.

Full freedom is given to human beings to learn how to use the power of spirit. Spirit has complete control over matter, and human beings are allowed to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes over the course of many incarnations. As we know to well, learning often occurs as a reaction. Put your hand in fire once and you won’t do so again. Our parents and guardians do their best to help us avoid painful experiences and our churches do as well. The Christian tradition for example, teaches “as you sow, so shall you reap,” and the Vedas present the same idea as the law of karma – as you do it will be done to you. Despite such admonitions we are often determined to learn the hard way – by experience.

The purpose of morality however goes beyond the fear of punishment, to aim at the development of spiritual maturity, which is the goal of human life. To help us achieve that goal we are given guidelines. If we follow them we progress. If not we regress. Just like when climbing a mountain there are sometimes trails and guideposts to help us along the way. If we go off of the trail our chances of reaching the top are diminished.

Moral standards are not simply the whimsical ideas of a conservative society. They are there as guides to help us avoid mistakes. We have the choice to accept and follow those guidelines or to reject them and act whimsically and independently, but we must accept the consequences of our actions.

Following the moral codes uplifts and raises our consciousness, while wanton, licentious behavior degrades our consciousness. While the influences of such behavior are generally too subtle to notice on an occasional one-off basis, they are accelerated where deviations are taken to extremes, as in alcohol or drug addicts. In the pictures below one can understand the state of the mind, and the state of consciousness of these people simply by observing their faces before and after, thus realizing how by neglecting moral principles we degrade ourselves.
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Have a look now at the faces of some people from the 1950s. You can see the bright faces reflecting a more wholesome way of living. The face is the index of the mind. Where the mind is pure the face will reflect that. When the mind is disturbed and contaminated that can also be seen. Just as degraded living has its consequences, so does moral living.
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