From Vice to Virtue

It is greed that causes man to act according to his wishes, and cowardice that causes man to act according to his fears.

But, "the highest form of intelligence is the ability to observe without evaluating" (Jiddu Krishnamurti). Until man learns this intelligence, he will never be capable of acting in accord with the true. Until man learns this ability, he will never be capable of exercising sound judgment.

It is imperative to right living that man clears the confusion from his mind. The proper way of living requires that man think and act in a strict progression. The natural state of the mind of man is confusion: we take in the facts while simultaneously thinking of what we would like them to be. This is not the proper way.

The proper way is strictly delineated. We cannot possibly understand the value and importance things hold for us until we see them for what they are. Evaluation must always, and only, proceed from observation.

Why doesn't this come naturally? In a word - attachment. It is because we desire things to be one way, or fear them to be another, that we are incapable of seeing things for what they are. We become personally invested in matters too quickly - indeed, almost immediately.

We must take reality in with detachment, seeing only what there is to be seen, and with a mind unclouded by fear and desire. Only then, armed with the powerful indifference that is the truth, can we act rightly.