In response to my last article, Right Concentration, a reader requested that I address another one of the core pointers on the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Action. This spurred the inspiration within me to write an article for each one of the eight pointers which are core to Buddhist ethics and philosophy. Traditional Buddhist teachings tend to be prosaic and culturally outdated. One of the biggest challenges people encounter is the applicability of these teachings in their daily lives. Which is why a reinterpretation of these principles, sans pedagogical constraints, can be important and useful.
The question of “right action” is particularly relevant to our post-modern reality. A reality in which morality is no longer designed and dictated to us by organized religion and, depending on where your political affiliations lie, may be wildly different for you compared to that of your neighbour’s. One of the great fallouts of globalization and the rapid cultural acceleration that has accompanied it, has been the dilution of traditional values around human interaction, speech, behaviour and ethics.
Growing up in India, it was unanimously agreed upon by all the Indians I encountered that the West had “loose morals”. This is not to say that we Indians were correct in our viewpoint, but only that we were raised with a very strong sense of ethics (partly supported by our Hindu beliefs) which was different than what we perceived the Western World followed. This was an oversimplistic way of looking at the matter, for there was no such entity as “the West” in reality. Each culture had their own unique traditions and ethical frameworks, and even within each culture resided a myriad variations. Yet, there was a kind of cohesion of values that each member of the culture intrinsically understood, and this contributed greatly to ones existential security.
With globalization, in addition to the import and export of goods and services, we began to witness the rapid import and export of cultural ideals, morals, norms and values. Human ethics transformed into a marketplace in which the most appealing ideals went “viral” and became the fastest promoted and most widely adopted.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Dark Knight of the Soul (formerly Advaitaholics Anonymous) to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.