With the latest conservative craze being that posting the Bible's Ten Commandments in schools will somehow produced moral citizens -- despite nearly two millennia of evidence to the contrary -- I thought I would off my Zen Gnostic alternative: Buddhism's Eight Fold Path plus Wicca's two laws.
Rather than telling us what NOT to do, Buddhism gives us clear guidance on what forms correct choices:
- Right view
- Right resolve
- Right speech
- Right conduct
- Right livelihood
- Right effort
- Right mindfulness
- Right samadhi ('meditative absorption or union'; alternatively, equanimous meditative awareness)
And the two Wiccan laws:
- An it harm none, do what thou will
- All thou doest returns to thee three-fold
An omnipotent and omnipresent deity surely can come up with laws that can't be violated with impunity. Since the Biblical commandments can be and have been broken, they are not God's laws -- they are Man's. God's Laws show up in science -- in physics, in medicine, in mathematics. If you doubt me, just go to the roof and step off. You will find the law of gravity in full effect -- no matter what you believe.
In my hedge maze analogy, all of us are striving to make it closer to the Dao center of the maze in each pass through life. Thus these ten are more likely to help the traveler to pass through the maze than the Biblical commandments. At each choice point one should consider if the path conforms to the goal of reaching the center.
Keep in mind that no choice you make will prevent your inevitable death. The maze is in constant motion, constant change with new paths opening while other paths vanish.
Choose wisely.
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