ETHICS
Where has the practice and learned art of being a good person gone? Wilber et al contend,
Integral Ethics, like any decent ethics, is the art of being a good person. It’s the practice of goodness in our everyday lives and includes all the ways of being truthful, authentic, caring, and courageous that continue our basic integrity. Integral Ethics also refers to the dimension of our lives where we must make difficult and complicated choices and nuanced judgments about what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, and quite often, unavoidably ambiguous. It’s where we must grapple with moral dilemmas, in politics, sexuality, health, relationships, work, money, and sometimes life and death situations. (Wilber, Patten, Leonard, Morelli, Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening, 2008, Boulder, CO: Integral, 255)
Every day the headlines scream about the serious lack of ethics being clearly displayed by President Donald Trump and associates in the political arena. Most recently, the Epstein Files have dominated news media, simply unethical behavior by many folks…DOJ meets with Epstein associate for second day; Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump his name appears in the so-called Epstein files during a May briefing; White House pushes back after reports Trump is named in Epstein files; The Epstein Files timeline raises real questions for Trump; House Democrats launch bid to subpoena Justice Department for Epstein files; White House tightens its grip on Jeffrey Epstein messaging; A timeline of how the Epstein controversy became a headache for Trump…and the unethical saga goes on…distractions, cover ups, lies, conspiracy, self-serving and certainly not ethical behavior, and simply not a single peep that will benefit the country.…
Wilber et al, offer,
The short-term costs of unethical behavior are unhappy, contracted, and unskillful states of mind and emotion. The long-term costs of unethical behavior are worse—a vicious cycle of lies, self-contempt, and denial that erodes the foundation of our integrity and virtue. (Wilber et al, Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening, 2008, Boulder, CO: Integral, 273)
Terrence Real offers relational counsel,
FIVE CORE SELF-SKILLS, relational skills, for a well-adjusted, well-functioning person.
- Self-Esteem
Dysfunction: shame grandiosity.
- Self-Awareness
Dysfunction: disassociation; perfectionism.
- Good Boundaries
Dysfunction: too porous (reactive); walled off (disengaged).
- Interdependence
Dysfunction: overdependence; antidependent; needless; wantless.
- Moderation
Dysfunction: immature (too “loose”); supermature (too “tight”).
(Terrence Real, How Can I Get Through to You, 2002. NY, NY: SCRIBNER, 203-204)
Ethics is an opportunity for joy, happiness, empathy, and freedom. And it is not a matter of recasting the entrenched sense into dutiful obedience. Synchronize the heart and the mind and reach out for others in a heartfelt, caring, helping, serving, and loving manner. Quality relational skills matter, and gratitude, trust, hope and compassion can become a way of life. Life is simply practice and every experience has a purpose.
