The respectable .

[china]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The good is not the `respectable'. The respectable man can never know what is good. Most of us are respectable and therefore we do not know what it is to be good. Moral education can only come, not with the cultivation of respectability, but with the awakening of love. But we do not know what love is. Is love something to be cultivated? Can you learn it in colleges, in schools, from teachers, from technicians, from the following of your gurus? Is devotion love? And if it is, can the man who is respectable, who is devoted, know love? Do you know what I mean by respectability? Respectability is when the mind is cultivating, when the mind is becoming virtuous. The respectable man is the man who is struggling consciously not to be envious, the man who is following tradition, he who says, `What willpeople say'? Respectability will obviously never know what Truth is, what good is, because the respectable man is only concerned with himself.Your thought .
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[Unforgiven]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The good is not the `respectable'. The respectable man can never know what is good. Most of us are respectable and therefore we do not know what it is to be good. Moral education can only come, not with the cultivation of respectability, but with the awakening of love. But we do not know what love is. Is love something to be cultivated? Can you learn it in colleges, in schools, from teachers, from technicians, from the following of your gurus? Is devotion love? And if it is, can the man who is respectable, who is devoted, know love? Do you know what I mean by respectability? Respectability is when the mind is cultivating, when the mind is becoming virtuous. The respectable man is the man who is struggling consciously not to be envious, the man who is following tradition, he who says, `What willpeople say'? Respectability will obviously never know what Truth is, what good is, because the respectable man is only concerned with himself.Your thought .[/FONT]

Some times we are so busy trying to see what is right, we fail to see what is good.

 

[MikeyDB]

A man not at peace with himself could never recognize peace in another man.

 

[china]

MickeyDB
A man not at peace with himself could never recognize peace in another man.

Yes.

 

[talloola]

If one has contentment, peace, intelligence, maturity, food on the table,
a warm bed at night, love for and from others, respectability must fall right into the mix, how could
it 'not'., even if you are a cat burglar in the night, no one knows, and you love very minute
of it, 'till you're caught,' of course.

 

[bdi]

question

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The respectable man is the man who is struggling consciously not to be envious, the man who is following tradition, he who says, `What willpeople say'? Respectability will obviously never know what Truth is, what good is, because the respectable man is only concerned with himself.Your thought .
[/FONT]
my friend, would u agree that such a person is not only concerned with himself, but rather only concerned with others, since he is so easily manipulated by the thoughts of others? a respectable man is one who has some "worth", their value is what translates as respect from others... so if the man does not value himself enough (such that he gives importance only to the thoughts of others), then he is not worthy of any respect

respect from others can only follow from self-respect

 

[Pangloss]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The good is not the `respectable'. The respectable man can never know what is good. Most of us are respectable and therefore we do not know what it is to be good. Moral education can only come, not with the cultivation of respectability, but with the awakening of love. But we do not know what love is. Is love something to be cultivated? Can you learn it in colleges, in schools, from teachers, from technicians, from the following of your gurus? Is devotion love? And if it is, can the man who is respectable, who is devoted, know love? Do you know what I mean by respectability? Respectability is when the mind is cultivating, when the mind is becoming virtuous. The respectable man is the man who is struggling consciously not to be envious, the man who is following tradition, he who says, `What willpeople say'? Respectability will obviously never know what Truth is, what good is, because the respectable man is only concerned with himself.Your thought .
[/FONT]

Nonsense, China.

Moral systems and ethical behaviour can easily (and perhaps better) come from a place of enlightened self interest.

Love of one's tribe or children can (and has, over and over) justify the most horrendous behaviour against those not in one's group.

Religious communities are perhaps the most obvious example of this.

Rather than get into a long and badly written dissertation on enlightened self interest, I will merely suggest Richard Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene;" it is an examination of ethical behaviour from the point of view of an evolutionary biologist.

Pangloss

Postscript: Perhaps the word "respectable" would be more accurately replaced by "honourable." It's only a suggestion.

- p

 

[MikeyDB]

Pangloss

I understand where you're coming from.... and that's too bad....

Humankind has never regarded his individual existence as anything more than a compromise between self-interest and the interests of the "collective" the "society" the "nation"....

It hasn't worked....

If you'd suggest that it's worked and you could certainly suggest that the more noble moments of the human enterprise were glimpses of promise...you'd be partly right....

Unless and until we can all wrap our minds around the fact....the fact that we are all the same and have all the same needs wants and aspirations as every other living human being....we have all the same capacities and all the same vices and weaknessess that we are all in this together and critically rely on each other for our existence....we will inevitably slip from the precipice of self-destruction uopn which this world and these species have sat for the past fifty years....

 

[Johnnny]

A man not at peace with himself could never recognize peace in another man.

bump to that and also honesty is important too

 

[bdi]

question

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The respectable man is the man who is struggling consciously not to be envious, the man who is following tradition, he who says, `What willpeople say'? Respectability will obviously never know what Truth is, what good is, because the respectable man is only concerned with himself.Your thought .
[/FONT]
my friend, would u agree that such a person is not only concerned with himself, but rather only concerned with others, since he is so easily manipulated by the thoughts of others? a respectable man is one who has some "worth", their value is what translates as respect from others... so if the man does not value himself enough (such that he gives importance only to the thoughts of others), then he is not worthy of any respect

respect from others can only follow from self-respect

 

[Pangloss]

MickeyDB:

Perhaps you misread me, or I've misread you, but nothing I've written seems to disagree with your last post. . .

Pangloss