Sincerity is the Most
Valuable Asset Anyone Can Have
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
No amount of calculations can replace the honesty of
one’s heart
The issue whether
Ethics and virtue can be taught constitutes an open question in classic
philosophy. Plato and Plutarch are among those who discussed the topic.
We certainly can teach words, ideas and a system of
thought. It is possible to exert influence over the behaviour of people. Mistakes
must be punished in balanced and proportional ways. The good example and
sincere words - spoken with the right intention - transmit correct habits to
people and stimulate good will in their hearts. Such factors make it easier for them to build
by their own merit an individual syntony with the Universal Law, which teaches altruism.
However, the higher ethics and true wisdom do not
occur on the basis of superficial learning. They do not come to us by hearsay, or
through mere imitation, reading or memorizing.
They must be conquered by an independent decision and long-term efforts.
Falsehood is short-lived. In due time all lies are unmasked and truth
prevails. From the point of view of the immortal soul, one billion dollars is worth
the same as one cent. The value of both
sums is zero. Sincerity is the most valuable asset anyone can have.
Sacred knowledge is an attribute of the higher self,
and so is the ethical attitude. It results from a direct contact with that
which is eternal and essential or “celestial”. It is the fruit of experience
accumulated through different reincarnations - along the cycles of the soul, or
Gilgul in Hebrew, in Kabbalah and Judaism.
According to Plato, to learn is to “remember”
something which we already have in our immortal soul. This is not like a product one can buy in the
supermarket. It is not an external behaviour which we can adopt like a child who
imitates her parents. It comes from the silent
center of one’s heart. It emerges in due
time like the sun in the morning, enlightening everything and showing the right
path to follow.
These facts do not mean the educational attempts to
produce goodness and ethics are useless. They indicate instead that people of
every age should try and learn the art of right action by self-devised methods,
patiently learning from their mistakes and sowing that which they wish to harvest
in the future.
It is not possible, perhaps, to teach someone to be internally honest. Such a blessed learning
can only be lived from within, not from the outside, and takes place according
to each one’s merit.
However, we can create the adequate conditions for the
process of honesty to be easier, and for the trap of selfish illusions to be identified, so that the way to
sorrow is avoided, and the path to true wisdom will be found.
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See the dialogue “Meno”, by Plato, and the essay “Can Virtue Be Taught?”, by
Plutarch.
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The above article is also published in our blog at “The Times of Israel”.
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