It's Good to be Good
/The point is to find the valid, intelligent, harmonious way of coping with life. . . . It is good to be good, right? Unbelievable as it sounds. People will say it is crazy to be good in a world that is so evil. But we say it is good to be good. It is not good to be judgmental and critical and vindictive and hateful and aggressive. Those things are not good for anybody.
-Dr. Hora, Encounters with Wisdom book 2: chapter 8: Reverence for Life
We can’t wait for the world to be peaceful so then we can be peaceful. And the world will not open to peace and happiness through criticism. It is our individual commitment to living in joy, in intelligence and in love that bring these qualities to ourselves and to the situations we encounter.
Yet it seems so natural and automatic to complain and criticize – especially when there are so many problems in the world. Metapsychiatry is pointing out that to indulge in being critical and negative hurts us. It narrows our viewpoint to see only what is wrong. We, then, become part of the problem by feeding it with our attention. To be “good” is not to attempt to be a good person – a “goody goody” – it is to know that inspired ideas cannot be received by a mind filled with criticism.
Joy just is. It’s not in the lights or the stars, in getting or giving presents; nor is it in gathering with friends and family, although one might, or might not, be aware of joy in any of these experiences. Experiences come and go; joy is a spiritual quality that is unchanging. It manifests through awareness of it.