Who's to say who is right? If I'm right and you are wrong who is the decider of our fates? Righteousness is something that comes about by the ego. We play into the fact that only we know the proper way things go. We know what is right and anyone that thinks differently is wrong.
But where do the thoughts we think about righteousness come from? It is our conditioning of ourselves through our ancestory, religion, society and often gender.
In France when you are scorned for your country it is an outrage. In Lebanon it is not. In the Catholic religion if you commit a sin you go to hell, but in the Buddhist tradition they only see a sin as wrong thought. Who is right? Who is right when we go to war? The country that starts it or the country that ends it? The one who says it is acting on their faith or the one that believes they have God and their faith behind them?
You see there is no right or wrong. It is only our perceptions based on our experience. Our righteousness then is a mute point. For when faced with another's perception of the world, be it on a personal level, planetary, our by country, we still have within us the makeup that lead us to the belief in our righteousness to begin with. It is no more qualified or right than the person or country you disagree with. The only real difference is the way that thought and belief came into being. For if you were in the shoes of the other person and had their history, you most often would have arrived at the same thoughts and beliefs that they did.
During times of war, turmoil, and anger we must remember that we all have different ideas and beliefs. The ego will often times lash out in something we want to call "righteousness", but the righteousness in our minds, is not necessarily the only "right" way. If we deal with our problems and disputes in this way, being open to the fact that others have been raised in a different light, come into different beliefs, it allows us to hold a space between us. We can meet halfway, knowing that not everything we do is right and not everything they do is right, but somewhere in between lies the heart space to make almost any situation right between us.
But where do the thoughts we think about righteousness come from? It is our conditioning of ourselves through our ancestory, religion, society and often gender.
In France when you are scorned for your country it is an outrage. In Lebanon it is not. In the Catholic religion if you commit a sin you go to hell, but in the Buddhist tradition they only see a sin as wrong thought. Who is right? Who is right when we go to war? The country that starts it or the country that ends it? The one who says it is acting on their faith or the one that believes they have God and their faith behind them?
You see there is no right or wrong. It is only our perceptions based on our experience. Our righteousness then is a mute point. For when faced with another's perception of the world, be it on a personal level, planetary, our by country, we still have within us the makeup that lead us to the belief in our righteousness to begin with. It is no more qualified or right than the person or country you disagree with. The only real difference is the way that thought and belief came into being. For if you were in the shoes of the other person and had their history, you most often would have arrived at the same thoughts and beliefs that they did.
During times of war, turmoil, and anger we must remember that we all have different ideas and beliefs. The ego will often times lash out in something we want to call "righteousness", but the righteousness in our minds, is not necessarily the only "right" way. If we deal with our problems and disputes in this way, being open to the fact that others have been raised in a different light, come into different beliefs, it allows us to hold a space between us. We can meet halfway, knowing that not everything we do is right and not everything they do is right, but somewhere in between lies the heart space to make almost any situation right between us.
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