Finding Your Virtue: Bonus Material
Finding Your Virtue: Bonus Material
So you want to dive deeper into the world of Virtue. I don’t blame you.
I’ve been captivated by this idea for months. Trying to fit everything that I’ve been thinking about, into a tiny article has been quite difficult. In the editing process, a lot was removed for clarity’s sake. But there is an entire universe to Virtue.
The way I wrote this essay was backwards from how I normally approach it. What I normally do is: read widely, collect information and ideas, and then synthesize them with my own narrative twist. For this essay, I decided that I wanted to intuit my way to a conclusion. So I intentionally avoided all research on the subject, and simply pulled from observations in my own life, and conversations with other people. Only then—after the piece was 90% finished—did I begin to check my work against history. To my surprise, I had articulated some ideas—and even sentences—that seemed to be borderline plagiarism. As it turns out, this is a very ancient idea.
I have a feeling I’ll be writing about this a lot more in the future. In the meantime, I decided to create a dynamic resource for those who are interested in learning more with me. Everything that follows is research, or written blurbs, that informed the original article, yet never made it in.
DEFINITION OF VIRTUE
“A virtue is a trait of excellence, including traits that may be: moral, social, or intellectual. The cultivation and refinement of virtue is held to be the ‘good of humanity’ and thus is valued as an end purpose of life or a foundational principle of being.”
How to articulate your virtue
Your virtue should be one word—not two—and not a phrase. It should be incredibly simple. You should be able to describe it easily, and without jargon. If a small child asked you what Virtue you live in service of, they should be able to easily understand your answer.
Why?
Because your Virtue is your compass. It is a lantern that illuminates your way forward in the darkness of uncertainty. When you are feeling lost, or alone, and unsure what to do next, it is your guide. If there’s any ambiguity, it will be exploited by your lower self. Your Virtue needs to direct you in no uncertain terms.
Quotes
“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” —Matthew 7:14
“Although no single-word translation exists for dharma in English the term is commonly understood as referring to behaviors that are in harmony with the order and custom that sustain life; virtue.”
“The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement.”
― Aristotle
“And if anyone loves righteousness, her labours are virtues; for she teaches self-control and prudence, justice and courage; nothing in life is more profitable for mortals than these.” —Solomon 8:7
"I went to Messenger of God and he asked me: 'Have you come to inquire about virtue?' I replied in the affirmative. Then he said: 'Ask your heart regarding it. Virtue is that which contents the soul and comforts the heart, and sin is that which causes doubts and perturbs the heart”
— Sunan al-Darimi, 2533
“Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.”
― Joseph Smith
LIST OF NOBLE VIRTUES
Curiosity
Humor
Inquisitiveness
Truth
Generosity
Honesty
Wisdom
Justice
Hospitality
Compassion
Ingenuity
Preservation
Instances of Virtue in Culture
7 virtues of the Bushido code
Aristotle's Rhetoric: Cardinal Virtues
7 Heavenly virtues
5 Junzi virtues
Buddhism's 4 Divine States
5 virtues of Sikhism
When desires vanish the state of contentment is reached, "Sat Santokh".
Desires are the reason for our sorrows and pains; it is a search for an escape from these sorrows and pains.
In fulfilling desires the person gets momentary happiness; unfulfilled desires bring disappointment. A continuous string of disappointments leads to depression and to mental and physical sicknesses.
Desires lead to mental and physical distortion of the mind, whereas contentment brings peace and calmness to the mind.
Trimming and Thoughts
Personhood—when you really get down to its essence—is repeatedly asking yourself these three questions: What am I doing, where am I going, and why?
I want to be able to travel whenever I want. So I choose to get a high paying remote job. Why? I don’t know. And the problem is, we don’t ask ourselves the why until we’ve achieved the thing.
💡 BREAK THROUGH! We ask these questions in this order.
WHAT am I doing? WHERE am I going? And then WHY?
To live in service of Virtue is flip the arrow. To first answer the question of WHY, then WHERE, then WHAT.
But by acting in pursuit of our desires, we are afforded the opportunity to illuminate much more of our understanding of reality, than we would have if we simply stayed at home. Aims, therefore, help us place ourselves in the world. By understanding where we’ve been, and where we still have to go, we can better understand where we are. Which means for a moment, we are less lost and less afraid.
It’s challenging to accept that, with more experience we do not, in fact, gain more clarity. Which means that, just because you’ve worked a job longer, or read more books, or been married for decades—doesn’t mean that you are immune to the existential threats we all feel. Just because you are a CEO doesn’t mean you know what the point of it all is. Just because you have been married for 40 years, doesn’t mean you can’t be blindsided by the chaos of divorce.
This is the great paradox. We desire deeply for our lives to amount to something, while being completely ignorant to what that something actually is.
So if more knowledge, and more experience don’t make us immune to these pains, what are we to do? Well, we must proceed in the dark. We must come to life’s obstacles as they present themselves. We must choose an immutable cardinal direction—one that resonates deeply with us—and move towards it.
Some days we will only be able to travel a few steps, other days we will travel a few hundred miles. The distance is irrelevant. All that matters is that we just keep moving. Keep serving, despite the darkness.
If only I could make enough money to retire to Italy, then I’d be happy. If only I was the CEO, then this company would run right, and I’d love my job. If only there were good men in this city, I’d be in a relationship, and everything would be better. If only one thing was different, then everything would be fixed.
When you live a life in service of a Virtue, there is no end goal. Which means there is no final destination, and therefore, no distraction. You must walk through life with eyes wide open, alive and aware, undistracted, to know what direction to take your life. You must always be conscious, asking yourself: Is this action in accordance with the Virtue I wish to serve?
So much of the apathy, and doubt, and nihilism that we feel today, is the byproduct of how we think about ourselves, in relation to how we spend our time, money, and energy.
You don’t need to spend more than 5 minutes with your headphones off in a coffee shop to hear how indifferent people are to the lives they lead. They don’t actually care about their job, or their business, or the person they’re dating. They feel a lackluster indifference to just about everything. And because of this, they’re ready at a moment’s notice to pick up everything and leave.
I think what troubles us the most is the feeling that, there is no cohesive through-line to what we’re doing. Our hobbies don’t align with our careers. Our friends don’t align with our co-workers. Our actions don’t align with our interests.
These are the actions of someone deeply, and hopelessly lost. Someone who lives in fear and doubt.
When we were young, our parents guided us. They showed us how to think, how to act, and how to contribute our unique skills to the greater whole of society. They also taught us to some of life’s most fundamental rudiments—the building blocks of society and personhood. One such rudiment, was how to focus our desire.
Our initial desires—bestowed, forced, or inferred—were instructive in nature. And in a way, were transmissions of culture between generations. They were useful insights from the past. Maps of the lands our parents and grandparents traversed before us. Their aims became our aims, and in doing so, we felt a little less lost.
While desire can spur us into action, it is also the harbinger of something much darker. Something we’ve all become quiet accustomed to by now. Desire is the seed of sadness and sorrow.
Choosing what to want is a curious thing. In fact, even the phrasing of that sentence feels a little uneasy—choosing what to want. That’s because on some level, we desperately wish our desires were our own. But deep down, we know better. We know that people, places, and armies of marketers, have an immeasurable effect on who we are, and what we want.