Ethics & the Mulberry Path

There are a lot of approaches to ethics. Some consider the consequences of our actions to be the primary determinant of whether they are ethical or unethical. This includes the famous utilitarianism, which judges the ethical nature of acts based on that which maximizes happiness or welfare.

Other approaches try to understand and define logically consistent rule systems for what is ethical (be they derived from reason, authority, or some other source). This is called deontological ethics. Immanuel Kant is famous for his ethical system, which shares some aspects with Stoicism (though Stoicism is not deontological), but deontological (rule-based) ethics can also include other sources of rules, such as Divine Command Theory¹.

There are those who say ethics is inherently unknowable or doesn’t exist, and those who say ethics can be known intuitively². All of these approaches (consequentialism, deontology, postmodernism, ethical skepticism, ethical intuitionism) have areas of overlap³. I will try to cover some responses to these approaches from the perspective of the Mulberry Path, and describe how they interconnect within this practice.

In previous chapters we have touched on some elementary components that will be relevant to ethics. Recall in “The Is & The Ought”, the case was made that facts about the world are not only a legitimate source of determining what we ought to do, but indeed are the only reasonable way to establish an ‘ought’ (talking about what we ought to do is another way to talk about ethics). It was also stated that this requires the linchpin: that human flourishing is the goal; and it is by this which we can evaluate ethics.

This places the Mulberry Path’s ethics clearly in the camp that says - yes, there are objectively correct answers to ethical questions. These answers are based on the objective effects of our actions on human flourishing.

With human flourishing as the goal, this would seem to also place us in close proximity to utilitarianism. However, the ethics of the Mulberry Path are not a kind of utilitarianism, or even consequentialism, for several reasons.

While the behaviors likely to result in flourishing are a guide in our moral reasoning, the actual results of actions on flourishing do not define whether the acts themselves were ethical or unethical. One reason for this is because of the important distinction between saying ethics is objective, and saying we know with perfection what those true ethics are.

As stated, there are right answers to ethical questions because acts will have some kind of effect on flourishing. However, we are limited and imperfect in knowing what those effects will be. In addition, recall “Understanding Control”. Not only do we have imperfect knowledge of the effects of all actions, but we also lack control over the outcomes of our various attempts. This creates a break between the agent, and the whole reason for determining whether the agent acted ethically. Were we to base the ethical value of an act by its individual results, we would be removing moral responsibility from the agency of the actor. This results in an inability to ever be truly at fault for a whole class of actions, and makes the endeavor of thinking about the ethics of past events lose all practical application.

So, when we say that the objective effects of actions on flourishing determine whether we ought to do them, this is talking about the objectively true state of affairs. This is what we try to infer in our moral reasoning, regarding our own acts in the future.

But when we judge whether another person acted ethically after-the-fact, we are engaging in a different kind of activity for different purposes. Here, we are looking for who is responsible - and responsibility requires we look at what the agent knew and what was in their power. In this endeavor, we can look at whether the agent responsibly considered the likely outcomes of their actions. But the information they had at the time, and the reasonableness of those assessments in that light are what determine moral responsibility.

The ethics of the Mulberry Path can also not be said to be deontological (rule-based). Yes, we can utilize rule-based models to help shed light and insight on a situation. They can help us evaluate rights, responsibilities, and the relationships between other important principles of an ethical conundrum.

But in reality, these often complex models prove to be impractical in real-world situations. These systems often require us to know all the facts of a situation, and be able to calculate everything according to these rules in real-time. They sometimes even require more than one agent act in certain ways, whereas the agents other than ourselves are outside our control. Again, lack of control, lack of time, and lack of knowledge creates a separation between the agent and moral responsibility.

This is why we must make a clear distinction between when we are doing moral reasoning to evaluate the ethics of options for a pending decision, and when we are judging the ethical character of an act (by ourselves or others) after the fact. In the moment, we want to take into account the effects on happiness and well-being. In the moment we also want to consider rights, responsibilities, duties, and other rule-based good principles.

But ultimately, the truth of whether we acted ethically is not synonymous with whether we correctly perceived and successfully executed the objectively ethical option. Rather, it is based on our intention and application of what was in our power at that time. And this chiefly comes from our character.

So, the Mulberry Path falls most closely in line with what is called virtue ethics. Here, the focus is not on elaborate rule-systems or consequences, but on character traits we try to develop. These character traits will better allow us to act with pure motivation. And, that includes applying our mindfulness, compassion, and rationality to assess principles and possible consequences as earnestly as one can.

When I first began to learn about contemplative approaches like Stoicism I kept seeing all this talk of virtue. And, being a product of later-centuries of Western thought (utilitarianism, Kantianism, etc) I kept thinking, “Ok, so what do the Stoics say is virtuous and what is vicious!?” I wanted a list of commandments - or better, a detailed rational calculus that would allow one to ‘compute’ whether something was virtuous or not.

When I learned the answer to my question, I was completely unsatisfied. The idea was that, because our true nature is that of a moral-rational being, we can intuitively perceive what is virtuous. That is, if… we are free of delusion⁴.

The reason I was dissatisfied is that intuition, I thought, is imperfect and puts us back into subjectivity. But then I had a series of difficult family situations arise. Members of the family were taking sides and it was unclear who was right, wrong, etc. The matter became so complex and this is when I learned how impractical and useless all my moral theorizing had been.

Fortunately, I had been reading a lot about compassion in Buddhist sutras, and had started becoming convinced of its power, which is not always obvious. Regarding the family drama, I had been trying to figure out all of the if/then’s and it just resulted in me spinning my mental wheels over and over. I decided it couldn’t be ‘figured out’. Instead, I would simply fall back on compassion. At every turn, I would try to ‘act and think as a compassionate being’ toward everyone. I found myself happier and navigating the entire family drama with far more skill than I ever had handled such things before.

But it is true that intuition can be mistaken or misguided. This is the effect of having our vision clouded by delusion. By delusion I mean all of those big (consciously believed) and little (microscopic subconscious) judgments we are constantly making which are not in accord with Nature/reality/truth. Spiritual wisdom teachings are about deconstructing these false ideas which fail to recognize interconnectedness, interdependence, impermanence, true harm and true benefit, the Aggregate nature of self, and so on.

Even more important, spiritual practice is all about becoming deeply aware of these truths such that our natural responses (judgments) will easily and readily be more consistent with them. Then, we will have wiped away the mud from our windshield, and the moral-rational being will be free to see the truth of virtue directly and self-evidently.

This approach may overlap somewhat with forms of ethical intuitionism, but with the important caveat that our intuition can be, and almost always is, clouded to some degree. This is ignorance, and results in false judgments, which results in emotional responses inconsistent with truth. This means they will be unhelpful and unhealthy emotional responses such as greed, fear, hate, and so on. These create strong bias that shades and filters what would otherwise be our natural perceptions and empathy as moral-rational beings. This impedes our ability to enjoy joyfulness and equanimity - True Happiness, regardless of, and independent of, external circumstance.

Piercing Delusion

One part of getting that mud off of our windshield is in learning to reformat how we label and categorize our feelings and their sources and nature. That is, adjusting our conception of things to be more consistent with what we now know about control, judgment, good/evil, virtue/vice, cosmic nature, and the implications of all this. Let’s do some categorizing...

In talking about our emotions, I have mentioned that there are healthy emotions and unhealthy emotions⁵. There are also positive and negative emotions. That is, emotions which have a pleasing or displeasing feel to them. This is not the same as being healthy or unhealthy.

There are plenty of negative (unpleasant) but healthy emotions. And, there are plenty of positive (pleasant) but unhealthy emotions. So, let us imagine these in a grid, where healthy and unhealthy are columns, and positive and negative are rows.

Within each quadrant, we have our emotions as they pertain to the past, present, and future. Here, we will use some common words, but in this framing or lexicon, these words will have very specific, technical, and non-overlapping definitions (unlike their use in casual conversation). These definitions will be explained later⁶...

Before we get to the specifics within the boxes, it is important to understand why an emotion is healthy or unhealthy, how these distinct kinds of emotions arise, and what are their effects. It might be easiest to imagine that healthy emotions are those with healthy outcomes. This is true, but there is a distinct difference in the way these two classes of emotion work, and it has to do with the Judgment Nexus described earlier in this book.

When we get a stimulus (input from the environment) and we judge it correctly, a healthy emotional response will occur. But when we judge it incorrectly, the emotional response will be unhealthy. False judgments lead to unhealthy emotional responses. You will see examples of these judgments as the specific emotions in the boxes are explained below. But these judgments all revolve around a failure to recognize the truths pertaining to things described earlier about ourselves and the cosmos in Part 3.

Why and how do unhealthy emotions just ‘happen’ to line up with false judgments? Here’s why: not recognizing certain truths about Nature (reality), will lead us to form emotions that place us into situations where we will eventually confront the reality of our misjudgment. Because the function of emotional responses is to motivate action, we will find that the actions we are being motivated to take will not be productive. This will result in either unhelpful consequences to foolish actions, or inner frustration at being driven to do something we know we cannot or ought not. That frustration at not being able to act, or pain at having acted foolishly, is circumstance-dependent suffering.

Now to the emotions listed in the boxes in our chart. It may take some thought to get past the colloquial meaning of these words, so I will go over the technical meaning of each one (within this lexicon). By having specific definitions and categories for these emotions, we can begin to examine them. And, as we do so, this will help to keep us clear and consistent in our meaning. Such organizing of our thoughts will begin to shift how we think about the world and our life. It will also help prepare us to recognize when and why certain kinds of feelings are arising.

Unhealthy Negative Emotions

Guilt/Resent: These are ongoing or recurring pains regarding unfortunate past events. When we dwell on unfortunate events caused by ourselves, it takes the form of guilt. When it was something unfortunate that happened to us or those we care for, the emotion festers as resentment.

The first and foremost misjudgment we have made here, is that there is anything we can do to alter the past. Whether a decade, year, hour, minute, or microsecond ago, there is nothing we can do to change a past event. It is literally not within our control (and we have addressed how to understand control). Remember, the function of emotion is to provide motivation to do something. Some part of your mind has decided that these negative emotions of guilt or resentment are useful to your situation. That is, of course, irrational and false - and it is this misjudgment which has led to pathos.

Distress: This is anguish and emotional pain that comes from present unfortunate circumstances. We will never be able to escape all forms of physical suffering, but what is worse, is when we accompany it with emotional turmoil, non-acceptance, or anger. The misjudgment here is also that we have forgotten what we control. We have also forgotten the nature of living in an impermanent world.

Fear: This is anxiety or worry about possible future circumstances. If we have deeply internalized the truths of control and impermanence, we will be better able not to become attached to requiring certain outcomes for our deep happiness. Living without fear is possible. But it requires us to stay mindful of what is true harm and true benefit, rather than mistaking it for something more shallow.

Unhealthy Positive Emotions

It may seem odd to speak of any kind of positive, pleasant emotion as unhealthy. Indeed, this can be misunderstood to mean that we shouldn’t ever ‘lose ourselves’ or ‘feel too good’, which isn’t what we are saying at all. Instead, it is more like when we care for children and have to inform them that not everything you might want to do, or get pleasure from, is good for you.

Nostalgia: In common parlance, nostalgia can be good wholesome fun. We should be able to enjoy fond memories of the past, and even find times before we were born to be interesting and fun to learn about. But in the technical sense in this context, we refer to obsessive nostalgia: people who are ‘stuck in the past’ or always ‘looking back’. This may lead people to look on everything in the present or future as dystopian or without hope or interest because they are maintaining some kind of unrealistic ‘golden good-ole-days’ fantasy that never was. Their longing for a ‘simpler time’ (which only seemed simpler because they were a child) can be a form of escapism. This will not lead to True Happiness.

Delight: Again, referring to a particular use of this word. For our purposes here, delight means a kind of relishing within pleasure to the extent that we forget all other realities. In the midst of it, we lose all perspective; we forget about the fleeting nature of the current thing, person, or experience. We begin to want to stay in this place forever and start to convince ourselves that such is possible. We shy away from any thought or notion that life will include other moments. This is practicing and forming a habit of attachment, as we think to ourselves that no sense of meaning, purpose, or happiness can ever be had without that source of pleasure. You might think this is referring only to obvious gluttonous behaviors, but it also applies to things we consider good and noble - such as friends, family, our children, our noble and compassionate projects, and more. Ironically, this kind of emotion actually limits our true appreciation of the source of pleasure. When we forget impermanence, and the source or real meaning and value in life, we become selfish and take things for granted. We also set ourselves up for inevitable additional pain when that thing is no longer available to us.

Lust: This is an unhealthy craving for some future thing or condition. Like all of the unhealthy emotions, it comes from forgetting what we control and what we do not. But it also involves a forgetting of true value and the false belief they we can only be happy by procuring the object of our lust. Lust causes us to live in the future, which is only a dream, and makes us miss the only thing we have, which is the present and which will never come again.

Healthy Negative Emotions

Like unhealthy positive emotions, these too may seem odd to suggest. Healthy emotions are responses to true judgments. And it is natural for a moral-rational being to prefer or not prefer various external conditions, even if we do not label those as good or evil (since only my vicious choices are evil). When it comes to a negative but healthy emotion, this means an emotion that is not pleasant, but which is nonetheless a helpful and healthy response because it is based on wise understanding of truth, and because it inspires productive and helpful action. As such, it is perfectly possible to have True Happiness - inner fortitude and peace - in a life that must, necessarily, include unpleasant moments.

Consideration: In this context the word refers to a wise impulse to reflect on the past for illuminating or instructive purposes. We might think about some past event which happened to us or not, but which may have something to teach us. Often, we may feel the need to consider our own past actions, good or bad. Unlike the feeling of guilt or resentment, consideration does not linger longer than it is useful, and it does not feel like self punishment. It instead is a constructive critique of ourselves or others for the purposes of guiding our future ways of thinking or acting. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end; and it results in greater wisdom for having considered a past learning experience.

Devotion: Here, devotion (or possibly discipline) is the feeling or impulse to maintain our course of present virtuous action despite temptations to the opposite. Knowing we are doing, or have done, what is right can be a source of Joy. But this feeling is not always pleasant because we are denying ourselves the of the pleasures that stopping or doing something else might bring. This is a healthy emotion because it is based on the true judgment that virtuous action is worth doing, even if it may be in conflict with mere pleasure. It is also healthy because it helps us to take those virtuous actions⁷.

Caution: This is the feeling of reservation one has to a future event or condition that is natural, healthy, and/or virtuous to attempt to avoid. The feeling gives us motive to stop and pay higher attention. But unlike fear, anxiety, or worry, this feeling inspires us to consider future possibilities in a constructive way that takes into account what we can or will be able to control. It does not run us around in circles, going over the same unpleasant possibilities repeatedly. It is more like making a plan - it too has a beginning, middle, and satisfactory conclusion. Looking at what we can do, the appropriate plans are made to take effective actions. And, for those things where no action is possible or required on our part, an acceptance is made, emotional preparation for that possibility begins, and we are now ready for what comes. This is a healthy emotion because it is based on the truth that moral-rational beings need to consider future possibilities, but only in ways that allow them to make plans that can actually work - and in ways that allow them to be emotionally prepared for unpleasant possibilities beyond their control. While unpleasant to think about negative possibilities, this kind of caution ultimately brings greater peace of mind.

Healthy Positive Emotions

Contentment: This is the wise appreciation and pleasant feelings regarding past events. If they are about others, then they are an expression of our compassion and empathy. If they are about ourselves, then they are the fruits of virtuous choices and can help reinforce continuation of future virtuous action, thus strengthening character. Unlike nostalgia, this feeling does not trap us in the past or get in the way of living in the present. It does not create pain for the past having gone, but is deeply cognizant of life as an ever-changing flow. The memory is enjoyed as a memory with value in itself; not as lust for the past.

Joy: This is one of the chief emotions of the Good Life. True Happiness is about a joyful life. Joy is the healthy emotion that comes from living virtuously, and all the deep inner rewards that comes from that. Even for those who remain ignorant their whole life, and who are lucky to have external pleasures only - they are still harmed in that they never realize what they are missing with the absence of virtuous joy.

Wish: This feeling is an intention to bring about certain conditions in the future. But, unlike lust, wish is a plan that a wise and virtuous person would make for action. Wishes of this kind are based on a virtuous value system. They are also intimately aware and mindful of the fact that they may not come to pass. These wishes help form the basis of virtuous action, but the outcomes of those actions are not attached to as a requirement for True Happiness. They are chosen, instead, because these are the things that a moral-rational being would choose. It is therefore more about “what kind of person we are to be” than about requiring our efforts to come to fruition.

One important thing to understand about this framing of emotions is that the difference between their healthy and unhealthy versions (between joy and delight, or between caution and fear, for example) is not a matter of degree. In other words, caution is not merely a less severe version of fear, and joy is not a tamed down version of delight. Instead, these are categorical differences. They arise from functionally different causes (correct vs incorrect judgments), they affect us in different ways (productive vs obsessive and destructive), and they have different kinds of effects on our well-being and True Happiness (sickness of the soul or pathos vs healthy soul, or eudaimonia).

These two classes of emotion feel very different in their impact on our happiness. You can tell the difference in their source by asking yourself, is this something within my control? You can tell the difference in their effects by noticing whether the emotion is leading you to productive action and whether it passes when it is no longer needed. Or, you can notice if the feeling is persistent, and leads to no productive action but only your mind running in circles. Ultimately, we all experience different positive and negative emotions, but if they are becoming as bad a challenge to your happiness as the external challenges that inspired them, this is a sign that they are unhealthy emotions.

At that point, do not compound it by adding any sense of guilt, shame, blame, regret, or frustration. Love and counsel yourself as you would a dear friend. Now you have taken a great step in recognizing this. The good news is, you can now begin to investigate what misjudgments your mind is harboring, which led to these unhelpful emotions. This inner investigation should not feel like fretting or have a circular pattern to it or feel like any kind of self punishment. You should proceed from one thought or question to another like a doctor investigating the causes of an affliction. Proceed with reason and balance, with self honesty, with deep awareness, and without wincing or looking away from anything uncomfortable. Denial is unhelpful to your friend, but so is ridicule or hostile admonition.

So, as you can see, Mulberry Path ethics is not a set of commandments or top-down rule system of rewards and punishments. Ethics is simply healthy living, and the results or consequences are naturally embedded within the cause-and-effect relationships of how Nature moves (the Logos).

These consequences are there whether we agree on them, know of them, or whether our entire culture says they are true or not. If we are mistaken, the suffering will follow as surely as condensation leads to rain.

Ethics are objective facts, but they are objective facts about human beings. As such, they are highly conditional, situational, complex, nuanced, and not known by us with perfection. This requires humility, tolerance, compassion, patience, and mercy in our approach - both regarding ourselves and others.

It is a dance with the cosmos and as such, more art than science. But like the art of surfing, there is an underlying natural mechanism of wave mechanics which is so complex that we need to learn how to feel the waves and know which way to move. Thinking about the mathematics of waves will not make us a good surfer in the moment. This is wisdom, and comes with good practice and experience.

Onward to Virtue

These emotions and feelings lead to further responses, which can form habits of thought and action. At that point, they are shaping our character. It is from the value systems and perspectives of our character that the split-second judgments between stimulus and response are made. Every time we act, or even think, in healthy or unhealthy ways, we are practicing being that kind of person.

In the case of unhealthy emotions: nostalgia, guilt, resentment, distress, delight, lust, and fear lead to patterns and responses of vice (anger, cruelty, hate, etc). In the case of healthy emotions: consideration, contentment, joy, devotion, wish, and caution lead to patterns and responses of virtue (empathy, compassion, diligence, wisdom, etc).

There are many ways to describe, categorize, or arrange lists of virtues. These are traits we seek to cultivate within our character through practice over time - both the practice of daily living, as well as the contemplative practices in which we consciously engage. None of the many lists and systems of virtue found within all of the worlds traditions are the “one true” or “correct” list⁸. At this point, these character traits are so complex and conditional, and intersect in so many different ways, that there is truth and utility in all these various lists. Therefore, it is better to think of lists of virtues as helpful footnotes and memory aids. These can be helpful in goal setting and habit building.

Different arrangements may be more or less helpful to any individual. You might even consider building your own list or system of virtues to be a part of your spiritual practice! Later I will propose a way of organizing them which I call the Primary Virtues. But first, it is important to discuss the important role of compassion as the foundation of spiritual practice, as that will surely affect any attempt to frame the virtues.

Continue >> Compassion As Foundation

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