Ancient Precepts

The Native Americans tell a story about two wolves. 

 

   “A fight is going on inside me,” the Elder said to a child.  “It is a terrible fight between two wolves.  One wolf is evil.  He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

   The other wolf is good.  He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”

   And then he said to the child.  “The same fight is going on inside of you.”

   The child thought about it for a minute and then asked, “But, Elder, which wolf will win?”

   Then the Elder replied simply, “It depends on which wolf you feed.” 

In the Gospel of Thomas, Verse 7 Jesus said, “Blessed is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human.  Cursed is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion will become human.” 

There are more and more sentiments such as these in the Hebrew and Christian Old and New Testaments, although none quite as concise as Thomas!  The ancient Sufi’s also had their way of leading to God, now called the Enneagram.  There are 9 negative ways of acting, and 9 corresponding virtues.  The Enneagram cites seven of the Christian “deadly sins” – pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony and lust, but adds two others, deceit and fear.   The nine fruits of the spirit are: love, joy, peace, kindness, forbearance, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

I assume, but I don’t know, that there are these same precepts in all ancient religions and philosophies. 

These are all really good precepts to live by:  feed the wolf of joy, not the wolf of evil; devour the animal within oneself so that the energy from that animal can be used to do good, and do not allow the animal to take over one’s humanity; study and learn the negative ways of living so one can recognize them, and study and learn the corresponding virtues so that one can live them.  

These precepts have been around for many thousands of years, and although they are usually applied to individuals, the thought occurred to me that they might just as well be applied to ideologies as well, including political ideologies.  One can determine which ideology one wants to be associated with by standing back and evaluating which of the negatives and which of the virtues each emphasizes.   

Is there a current political ideology that promotes fear, hatred, arrogance, lies, superiority, among other negative characteristics?  How about fear and hatred of black and brown people?  Who put the acquisition of even more money (greed) before helping put food on the table of poor people?  Who use the specious argument that to do so makes people dependent on government instead of God.   How about hatred of homosexuals based on religion?  How about adherents of an ideology being so arrogant that they attempt to keep themselves in power by stopping anyone except adherents of their own ideology from voting?  How about an ideology where their mostly male adherents attempt to control women by passing laws that prevent women from making their own decisions regarding their own health care?  What about an ideology that wants to stop protecting air and water in order to make even more profits for corporations?  That denies the truth of climate change because to do so would limit its ability to make even more profits? 

Is there a current ideology that promotes compassion and generosity to the other by helping the other, by all legal means, to obtain enough food so children do not go hungry, who are compassionate to the elderly, who attempt to provide health care for as many as possible, who recognize that other people have the same citizenship rights and do not attempt to disenfranchise them, who believe that the truth should be told rather than the dissemination of lies to obtain power, and/or for greed.  That wants to protect air and water from pollution?  That wants to hear the truth about climate change in order to stop polluting our air with carbon, even if it takes government regulation. 

There will always be thoughtful people in all ideologies that do not fit into any category.  That is a given. 

But when precepts have been around for several thousand years, it usually is not a good idea to pretend they are of no account.  Greed is not good.  Government is not bad.  Regulations of industries for the good of all of the people are not socialism.   

To paraphrase and old aphorism, “It’s not nice to fool time-honored precepts!”  If we do, as a nation we will all end up in a great deal of grief.  We will have fed the wrong wolf.