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One can not do right in one area of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in another. Life is one indivisible whole. - Gandhi The more I live, the more I r

One can not do right in one area of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in another. Life is one indivisible whole. - Gandhi The more I live, the more I realize that this statement isn't about moralizing and is about a fundamental truth about our psychology.

lightcatcher 15y ago
I discovered this truth myself in my senior year of high school. Prior to that year I got through high school doing roughly no work outside of class and managed to get low A's in my classes through intellect. I also competed in track and field throughout high school somewhat seriously. However, in my senior year of high school, I ended up putting in much more time and dedication to track (as well as joining the cross country team, making it an all year commitment), so I spent an average of ~22ish hour/wk doing workouts related to that over the course of the year. I expected the little time I spent on school to drop to zero, however I was surprised that I was actually much more motivated to work on my relatively easy/unstimulating schoolwork. After working hard at running before and after school, it just felt unnatural to not work hard at schoolwork.
nick_urban 15y ago
Studying Zen made me realize that most of the teachings which people interpret moralistically (or theologically) actually point to a psychological reality.
- EvilTerran 15y ago
  At least with Buddhist teachings, I'd definitely agree. Similarly with some of the Ancient Greek schools' teachings (Epicureans, Stoics, etc), even in parts of their mysticism. I don't know enough about, say, Hinduism, Taoism, or Shinto to comment on those, but I get the impression they're fairly similar in that regard, too. However, I can't help but feel that a lot of Abrahamic teachings seem to be mostly about increasing the mimetic fitness of the faith. For instance: "go forth and multiply" is always good for keeping the size of your congregation up; evangelism likewise; "you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" reads to me as "don't eat your future dairy animals", a handy survival tip in the bronze age; and so forth.

lightcatcher 15y ago

I discovered this truth myself in my senior year of high school. Prior to that year I got through high school doing roughly no work outside of class and managed to get low A's in my classes through intellect. I also competed in track and field throughout high school somewhat seriously. However, in my senior year of high school, I ended up putting in much more time and dedication to track (as well as joining the cross country team, making it an all year commitment), so I spent an average of ~22ish hour/wk doing workouts related to that over the course of the year. I expected the little time I spent on school to drop to zero, however I was surprised that I was actually much more motivated to work on my relatively easy/unstimulating schoolwork. After working hard at running before and after school, it just felt unnatural to not work hard at schoolwork.

nick_urban 15y ago

Studying Zen made me realize that most of the teachings which people interpret moralistically (or theologically) actually point to a psychological reality.

EvilTerran 15y ago
At least with Buddhist teachings, I'd definitely agree. Similarly with some of the Ancient Greek schools' teachings (Epicureans, Stoics, etc), even in parts of their mysticism. I don't know enough about, say, Hinduism, Taoism, or Shinto to comment on those, but I get the impression they're fairly similar in that regard, too. However, I can't help but feel that a lot of Abrahamic teachings seem to be mostly about increasing the mimetic fitness of the faith. For instance: "go forth and multiply" is always good for keeping the size of your congregation up; evangelism likewise; "you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk" reads to me as "don't eat your future dairy animals", a handy survival tip in the bronze age; and so forth.