Our little VOTM sangha has tried every month to pick a virtue that would help each of us grow in some way, practice a noble quality, take a step closer to a higher reality and learn new ways of giving and loving. Some virtues have been easier to assimilate than have others, for sure. The very process of picking a virtue has been educative- for instance, sometimes, I have wondered if something is even a virtue. For instance, happiness. Or decisiveness (which is the VOTM of July :) btw).
Just struggling with conflicting urges of wanting to express that thought while also wanting to do my best to see how a thing of real value lies buried in applying that month's virtue has been a useful exercise for me. Along the way, understanding what makes a friend resonate deeply with a chosen virtue has helped me understand my friends better too. After all, life's lessons come in many different shapes and forms and this intentional process of picking a virtue has brought with it a new surprise lesson every time!
And this is what I have realized, especially for the selections I've had to make an effort to get my head around.
(Now this might be VOTM 101 for many of you, but for me it was an important realization and hence share I shall.)
What makes a virtue a virtue then? Let me take the example of happiness. At first I had thought to myself surely, this can't be a virtue! I mean, what's to practice?...
It took me a while to recognize that it is what brings forth happiness and indeed, where the true source of it lies- in divine grace- is what imbues happiness with virtue. Digging deep within to identify what brings happiness, what is ephemeral and what is truly lasting, what is a result of our conditioning from a material perspective and what is necessary for our spiritual growth- indeed, that is the virtue of happiness.
Is it not true that the sunlight streaming in through the window every morning makes me sing with utter joy? Indeed, every breath I take is an act of mercy of that Supreme being; the very flowers and birds that bring a smile upon my face, His gift to mankind; the love of family and friends, a blessing most precious, the source of greatest joy. To know happiness then is to know gratitude; it is to know contentment.
Is it not equally true that the things I cherish most cannot be measured or quantified by the sum total of all my worldly possessions? To know happiness then is to know what is material and dispensable and what is of far greater value than that.
Can I deny that in my moments of weakness and fear, it is only prayer that brings me strength and inner peace? Should I not know then that there can be no room for grief when I submit entirely to His will? No room for misery if I recognize courage and acceptance, detachment and wisdom, come from the same eternal being, and from whose love arises true joy and bliss. To know happiness then is to know the most essential truth.
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You might wonder why I have waxed eloquent on happiness six months after the fact. Well, it is because despite the light bulb going off in my head then, I was seized by the same confusion when it came the turn of decisiveness! God knows, I need to practice it more than anybody. But the virtue part of it still bothered me. Until I remembered what
S always said to me about decision analysis and Vedanta being one and the same. And truly it is. A decision cannot be judged based on its outcome but only on how it was made, given the information one had at the time. In some ways, this really brings a very important facet of detachment home. Not just that, efficient decision-making process demands objective reasoning, setting priorities and accepting unknowns. From a spiritual standpoint, if one always remembered to go through, say, a goodness checklist, one should never have an ethical dilemma, yeah? :) In other words, checking for 'good, kind and necessary' is not only a worthwhile gating process for speech, but for every decision that we make. Understanding what makes something good and why there is no exception to being kind at all times and doing this consciously at every turn, can only give greater clarity and conviction and before you know it a decision must emerge! And therein lies the virtue of decisiveness.
