Contemplation 5 – The ethical life

We very soon realise that the prayer of silence and our way of life need to be in harmony with each other. Alexander Ryrie explains in Wonderful Exchange (Canterbury Press, 2003) that our lives will demonstrate simplicity and detachment – not thinking much about possessions and not setting our heart on them, because this only gets in the way of the work of prayer.

In Coming to God in the Stillness (Augsburg Books, 2020), Jim Borst relates the prayer-led life to the life of Jesus:

Prayer and life go together. They cannot be separated. We must be as firmly committed to live a peaceful life as to experience the peace of God in prayer. This is a precondition of contemplative prayer, as well as its fruit.

Among other things, this means that we must be wholeheartedly committed to follow the example of Jesus that we are shown in the Gospels – particularly in the Sermon on the Mount:

• No violence,
• No hatred,
• No evil desire,
• No revenge, and
• No judging,

But instead,

• Gentleness,
• Compassion,
• Willingness to give and share, and
• An outgoing love and forgiveness for those who harm us.

He goes on to describe this in terms of a movement in our lives, a movement which is all in one direction and which demonstrates the fruits of the Holy Spirit as we open ourselves to the working of the Spirit through prayer:

We must endeavour to express our continued surrender by moving from violence to nonviolent and peaceful ways; from any kind of falsehood to utter truthfulness and inner harmony; from self-assertion to greater sensitivity to the needs, rights and feelings of others; from self-indulgence to an instinct for purity of heart and mind; from possessiveness and greed to giving and sharing.

And all this happens when we place God at the centre of our lives.

Now all this should make perfect sense to a Christian who takes his or her faith seriously. What about serious people of other faiths or no faith at all? Do we find a moral void in their lives? No we don’t. In fact, the same kind of ethical life is lived by people whose religion (if any) is quite different from our own.

We might draw two conclusions from this. First, that morality is different from, and wider than, any particular form of religious expression. Second, given the ethical similarities, that the ground of life in all cases might proceed from the same transcendental fact or force.

So let’s start with the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. Plato and Aristotle laid the foundations of an ethical understanding of life. The Ancients developed the concept of ‘the good life’ – a life devoted not to the pursuit of pleasure, but to realising one’s full potential as a human being and developing a nobility of character based on courage, moderation, fairness, and generosity, among other things. In other words, to be virtuous is to be happy.

A few hundred years later, the Stoic philosophers of ancient Rome reached very similar conclusions. Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius understood that life was a difficult business and found meaning in detachment – in letting go of their desire for things which were often unattainable anyway. Their ultimate goal was a state of tranquillity where nothing in the world around them could disturb their inner peace and contentment.

The best modern formulation of Stoic principles is by the Australian journalist Brigid Delaney in Reasons Not To Worry: How to be Stoic in Chaotic Times (Piatkus, 2023). She sets out five principles of the Stoic life. You don’t have to be a Christian to see how important these are even today:

1. Acknowledge that you can’t control much of what goes on in your life.
2. See that your emotions are the product of how you think about the world.
3. Accept that bad things are bound to happen to you from time to time, just as they do to everyone else.
4. See yourself as part of a larger whole, not an isolated individual; part of the human race, part of nature.
5. Think of everything you have as not your own, but simply on loan, that one day will be taken back.

My final example of the similarity of difference is from a philosophy or religion which is older than any of these – Buddhism. Although its understanding of the world is very different, Buddhism features an ethical system which is consistent with the Christian view of how we should live our lives. This is described as the Noble Eightfold Path (here ‘noble’ refers not to the path itself, but the characteristic quality of the person who follows it).

There are various summaries of this ethical system. This one is based on the website Lion’s Roar: Buddhist Wisdom for Our Time:

1. Right View – a correct understanding of Buddhist principles: our actions have consequences, and all things are impermanent and interconnected.
2. Right Resolve – cultivating wholesome and ethical intentions. This includes our intentions to renounce harmful actions, to develop goodwill and compassion toward all beings, and to cultivate non-attachment or non-harming.
3. Right Speech – false speech, divisive speech, harsh speech, and idle chatter are all considered unskilful and harmful and should be avoided. Instead, we should use our words to promote truth, harmony, and understanding.
4. Right Action – emphasising ethical conduct and the importance of leading a life that is aligned with moral principles. This means refraining from harmful actions, including killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and so on.
5. Right Livelihood – choosing work that is in harmony with the principles of ethical conduct and does not harm others. For example, this would include avoiding professions that involve harming sentient beings or engaging in dishonesty.
6. Right Effort – making a persistent and diligent effort to cultivate wholesome qualities and eliminate unwholesome ones, abandon negative mental states, and nurture positive ones.
7. Right Mindfulness – the practice of being fully aware and present in the moment: observing our body, feelings, mind, and mental phenomena with clear and non-judgmental awareness. 
8. Right Concentration – the development of a one-pointed, focused mind. This is achieved through meditation practices that allow the mind to become absorbed in a single object of concentration, leading to states of mental tranquility and insight.

It is artificial, but possible, to isolate this ethical system from the belief system that gave birth to it. One can accept the system as a basis for leading a good life without at the same time believing in reincarnation or the non-existence of the self as a concept. Stephen Batchelor attempts to do this in Buddhism Without Beliefs: a Contemporary Guide to Awakening (Bloomsbury, 1997).

It would be harder for a Christian to do that, since the Christian worldview is much more aligned to the understanding a divine being who created the world and who loves the world and who intervened in the world in a decisive way at a particular point in time. Buddhism has no concept of a divine being and arguably is not a religion at all.

And yet, Buddhism makes the same connection between the inner orientation towards the ultimate fact of life, and the way you live your life. I was struck by the observation of Subhadramati in Not About Being Good: a practical guide to Buddhist ethics (Windhorse Publications, 2015) that ‘being ethical means learning to act more and more in accordance with your values.’ You cannot meditate and change your inner state without having to change what goes on in your life as well.

Does this mean that your choice of religious or philosophical belief system does not matter? No. Your choice is determined by a range of factors: subjective, objective, and historical or cultural (being brought up in a Christian family in a part of the world that used to operate on the basis of Christian values). The important thing is to live ethically in accordance with the belief system that surrounds you. That is compatible with the desire to share your own worldview with other people, to enlarge both their understanding and yours. Modern ecumenical endeavour recognises the validity of other points of view without compromising the belief that your view makes the most sense to you yourself.

Tags: Contemplative prayer, Stoicism