Ethics Without Really Trying

Ethical behavior without really trying? 

Well, why not?

They say that ethical behavior is an epiphenomenon of enlightenment, after all. It’s a byproduct of the process.

“In the esoteric traditions, codes of morality are less important for the simple reason that the ultimate purpose of the spiritual effort if to attain a level of personal development at which morality is natural,” Walt Anderson wrote in Open Secrets: A Western Guide to Tibetan Buddhism.

 “It is discovered within oneself, and external authority is no longer necessary or meaningful. This principle is not foreign to western psychology. Lawrence Kohlberg theorized that the most highly developed human beings operate out of inner moral principle. The same point is made by Abraham Maslow in his studies of healthy, ‘self-actualizing’ people who, he says, have relatively little respect for the formal rules and regulations of the society, but at the same time a strong sense of concern for others.”

So no commandments or supernatural insights need apply.

The Buddhist path to ethical behavior, for example, is entirely based on observation and reasoning, noted philosophy professor Narayan Champawat. “His characteristic doctrines such as impermanence and dependent origination have an empirical justification,” Champawat wrote.

“Among the founders of religions, the Buddha was the only teacher who did not claim divine authority in any form. He attributed all his realization, attainments and achievements to human endeavor and human intelligence. 

“His rejection of metaphysical speculation is based on the philosophically sound insight that such questions are unanswerable on the basis of observation. For example, he compares the question, ‘Does the saint exist after death or not?’ to the question ‘(Has) the flame that has gone out gone north or not?’”

Kohlberg's levels of moral development. Adults can get stuck at any one of them.