Basic good conduct is a matter of common sense for the good of the community at large. The point is brought home by the following illustration.
To ensure harmonious relations between all the members of a community, a meeting was called and everybody attended.
A few elders of the community explained that the purpose of the meeting was to find ways and means of ensuring harmonious relations within the community and that, after due discussion, the meeting should decide what were the rules of good conduct by which all the members of the community should abide.
However, one of those present declared that he was willing to abide by every rule made by the community but unfortunately, if ever he were in a bad mood, he had a great urge, a great desire, to kill people, male or female, big or small, and that he must not be blamed if he were to kill anybody.
Another person got up and said that he had a terrific urge at time to rape women and children, and he took an inordinate delight in seducing young girls and married women. So he must be excused if he sometimes raped women and children and had sexual misconduct with young girls and married women.
Another person got up and said that he had a great urge to steal and that he must be excused if he stole other people’s property, directly or by way of cheating, embezzlement, etc.
Another person said that he had a leaning for telling lies, especially with a view to harming the reputation of others.
Another person said that he must be excused if he got drunk off and on, and if he committed some excesses whilst he was drunk, such as assaulting people or raping women or taking property forcibly.
The meeting considered the statements of these people. Many speeches were made to the effect that everybody in the community must conform.
Nobody must drink to excess or take narcotics in any form.
Nobody must steal the property, of another by whatsoever means.
Nobody must tell lies especially, with a view to character assassination, etc.
Nobody must kill.
Nobody must commit adultery or indulge in illicit sexual intercourse.
The meeting considered that drunkenness could lead to other offences. A person in a drunken state could kill or assault another, and commit all sorts of other excesses. Therefore, if a person must drink, he must be temperate so that no excesses were committed.
As for the taking of narcotics, a person could go even to the extent of killing a person, and therefore all narcotics are banned from the point of view of mind development, it must be realized that a few drinks can deaden or put to sleep a person’s inhibitions.
Nobody wants to have his property stolen, and so everybody must respect the rights of another in respect of his property, both moveable and immovable You should not cheat nor embezzle nor misappropriate nor otherwise obtain the property of another illegally or illegitimately. You should avoid all dishonest dealings.
Do not lie, for lies always in the long run lead to the injury of another. You should also avoid backbiting and any other form of bringing disharmony within the community and causing enmity and hatred.
Everybody is afraid of pain; everybody is afraid of death. All animals are also afraid of pain and all animals are afraid of death; you will come to realise this if ever you hear the cries of animals that are being led to the slaughter-house. It is this common experience of suffering that unites the human and the animal kingdom. The concept of universal brotherhood emanates from this experience of common suffering. In the spirit of compassion for all sentient things, you shou1d not kill.
Adultery has been the cause of so much trouble since the beginning of mankind, and you should nip in the bud any adulterous ideas that may start inside you. Adultery begins with the mind and has even led to wars between tribes and nations.
These rules of good conduct lead to peace and harmony in the community, but subjectively they also avoid or eliminate remorse; the benefit of non-remorse is incalculable. In the same way you should not break any of the penal laws of your country. Breaking them can lead to punishment, but most of all it leads to remorse.
In cultured societies, good conduct is based upon what "is done" and what "is not done". If you have any shame in wrong doing and fear the consequences of wrong doing, all is well with you. The difficulty is that many people in the community have no pangs of shame in wrong doing nor do they have any fear of the consequence of wrong doing.
You should cultivate a spirit of loving-kindness and a spirit of charitableness, especially charitableness towards the feelings of others.
If you do any Transcendental Concentration at the end of each period of concentration you should orally offer loving kindness to all beings in general, as mentioned in the Chapter on Loving-Kindness (p. 107). This has a reflex action on your own mind, and day by day builds up a snowball action.
Moreover you can, if you want, name specifically these persons, relatives or non-relatives, to whom you particularly want to extend your loving-kindness. If you were sincerely to include the names; of those whom you think are inimical to you or to your interest, you will be surprised how in course of time they will veer around to your side, because you yourself will react and act differently towards them.
Those without basic good conduct can still achieve good concentration but not so easily as those with basic good conduct. For those without basic good conduct, there may be a tendency to use their psychic powers for their selfish ends, and it is the common experience all over the world that such persons soon lose their psychic powers and are even led to their physical and mental destruction.
The Superconscious Mind blossoms best in a person who lives by correct ethical conduct.
The aim of most human beings is to achieve happiness. However, the real basis of happiness is the elimination of selfish desire. Try and reduce your selfish desires as much as possible.
Let us study the following fraction:
If for example the denominator, namely, the sum of total of desires, is 100. and the numerator, namely the desires fulfilled, is 40, you have the fraction:
or 40 percent fulfilled. You will still be unhappy because of desires that are not yet fulfilled.
If however you reduce the quantum of desires, if you reduce the denominator to 50, you get the fraction
which represents the fulfillment of 80 percent of your desires.
If you reduce your desires to 40, you get:
or complete happiness.
So your aim should be to reduce your selfish desires as much as possible.
