Website owner: James Miller
Rufus: What is the most important object of life? Gaius: Personal happiness. R: What way of living will give personal happiness? G: The way of wisdom and understanding. R: What is the way of wisdom and understanding? G: It is a life ruled by Reason, Sense, Judgment; a lifestyle in conformity with right reason. Connected with this way of wisdom and understanding is a certain kind of mind, the understanding mind. R: What kind of mind is this understanding mind? G: It is a mind characterized by fear of God, faith in God, love of God; a particular set of values, attitudes and outlooks; and by calmness, quietness, seriousness, sobriety, thoughtfulness. It is a quiet, calm, dispassionate mind; a mind devoid of agitation and worry; a mind of quiet confidence. Such a mind sees things with impartiality, objectiveness, balance and perspective and is important to the proper working of Reason. It is a mind born out of fear of God, love of God, obedience to God; the right way of living; the right outlooks, attitudes and values; good mental health, good conscience, and contentment with little. R: How does one follow the way of Reason, Sense and Understanding? G: One must avoid those things that are against Reason, Sense, and Judgment and pursue those things required by Reason, Sense and Judgment. It happens that the things that are against Reason, Sense and Judgment tend to be destructive or disruptive to the calm, quiet, thoughtful, understanding mind. And the things required by Reason give the quiet, understanding mind. R: What kinds of things are against Reason and detrimental to this calm, quiet, understanding mind? G: Certain kinds of behavior or conduct. Certain ways of acting or responding. Mostly they are things that act against peace and harmony with our fellow man. Things like selfishness, pride, arrogance, anger, hatred, envy, jealousy, malice, bitterness, spite, vengefulness, impetuousness, rashness, covetousness, violence, prodigality, laziness, indolence, carelessness, lust, inordinate desire, strife, argument, lying, dishonesty, stealing, murder, sexual immorality, adultery; treating others wrongly or badly, doing things that will cause one to feel guilt or remorse. R: What kinds of attitudes, outlooks, values, habits and behavior give rise to this understanding mind? G: Attitudes, outlooks, values, habits and behavior that are demanded by Reason and Sense, in conformity with them. Mostly they are things that promote peace and harmony with our fellow man, peace with ourselves and peace with God. Things like fear of God, obedience to God, always doing what is right, acting according to conscience, treating others kindly and with respect; putting the other person first; humility, meekness, kindness, peaceableness, patience, forgiveness, justness, uprightness, honesty, self-control, self-denial, purity, chastity, industriousness, thrift, frugality, self-reliance, contentment with little. R: I have a question. Doesn't your argument presuppose that there is a God and that there is a final judgment in which the just will be rewarded and the bad will be punished? Suppose that I assume that there is no God and no final justice. Can't we then say that Reason and Sense speak for putting yourself first, ahead of other people; for grabbing the biggest piece of pie, for pursuing your own self- interest; for looking out for Number 1 first, forget the other person; indeed for lying, cheating, stealing and doing whatever you need to do to get the things you want? Under this assumption doesn't Reason speak for selfishness instead of selflessness? G: There is a higher wisdom, a higher understanding, that knows that there is a God and that there is final justice. There is within us all a knowledge of right and wrong, a voice for goodness and right, a conscience. Reason, acting from this higher knowledge, knows the folly of going against what is good and right. It also knows that if everyone were fighting to get the biggest piece of pie then all would be fighting and conflict and violence. There would be no peace and harmony. Jan 2005
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