From Righteousness to Principled Living

Last summer was a very difficult one for me. Although it wasn’t as bad as the one I spent in the summer of 83 on a dirty old ship called the USS Lamoure County, the energetic parallels that I experienced were of a similar hellish nature. Back then, I was curious and all I wanted was to explore this reality freely  without the constraints of any authority. Basically, I would say that I was like an innocent nineteen year old child with and extremely capable mind and body, the will to explore and a fierce desire to be free. 

In short, I ended up fighting against the authority on that ship, losing the battle and having to bow down just to save my and be permitted to walk away. From my perspective at the time, I knew that there was just something wrong with that whole operation. A huge amount of weapons heading down to Nicaragua,  the CIA and so on. As it turns out, I was right about the operation being a dirty one - part of the Iran Contra affair. However, in focusing only on my perceived rights, I veiled myself from seeing the bigger picture, the one of me walking through the system, while not getting entangled in it. 

My problem was that I just couldn’t stand taking orders from people whom I knew to be in the wrong. And  back then, even though I wasn’t able to pinpoint the specifics of their wrongs, I believed that I was right and that this was something worth fighting for. Fast forward to last summer and even though I had been walking the process of changing myself for several years, I still had not fully addressed and changed myself in relation this point of righteousness and the belief that, people had the right as well as the obligation to stand against those in the wrong. This point was so ingrained into and as me as a self definition, that even when it was pointed out to me, I didn’t see it. It was as though all I could see were the poles of right and wrong with me having no option but to choose a side on which to make a stand. Of course, as I believed that I was right and they were wrong, I chose the side of righteousness.

Essentially, when I got stuck on that one point of righteousness, I veiled myself from seeing the bigger picture of consequential outflows that I would end up creating by fighting for my rights. In walking a long process of self-forgiveness on this point, what I have essentially come to realize about righteousness is that it tends to focus one’s attention only on one point, leading them to disregard the bigger picture (of for example, peaceful coexistence) in favor of a bloody war. It is the same age old war now playing out once again between the left and the right all over the planet. Both sides essentially want  the same thing, peaceful coexistence and they’re all also righteously willing to fight, kill and die for peaceful coexistence. In focusing only on what we believe to be right, we veil ourselves from considering a compromise to achieve a mutually agreeable outcome.

I now see this point because I’ve been walking through it. What I now practice is letting go of the definitions of right and wrong (for they are both one in the same point divided into and as polar opposites) to then expand my perspective and intention (beyond the righteousness of the small) to create beneficial outcomes that are acceptable to all. Thus, whenever I face a point wherein I am certain that I am right, I immediately  let go of my definitions of right and wrong and the energy/emotion associated with such points to then expand my view or imagination and intention to create and walk a path to create outflows that will be best for all involved, herein redefining the word, righteousness to a kind of principled living. I’m still in the process of walking this point.