Podcast Transcript | EP. 65

The Practice of Virtue: A Universal Pursuit

The Practice of Virtue: A Universal Pursuit | Ep. 65

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to Order Within, navigating a world of endless chaos and crisis. Many of us are experiencing inner turmoil, insecurity, anxiety, fears, and isolation. These feelings are only being amplified by new cycles social media, and never ending political madness. How do we find our way out of the chaos?

[00:00:24] How do we find strength within ourselves? How do we find meaning in a world driven by materialism? These questions and many more I aim to answer on the show. My goal is to be a trusted guide on your journey to selfhood. May you find what you seek. Hello and welcome everyone. Now I'm your host, Brandon Ward back with another episode of order within.

[00:00:53] Episode 65 today. Today's episode is called the practice of virtue, [00:01:00] a universal pursuit. So last week's episode covered. Virtue signaling and performance-based. Virtuous living, which is effectively. Portraying virtue without actually being virtuous. We covered why that's problematic for our society, the divisiveness that it can create, the tension that it can create and the lack of trust that it creates in our society.

[00:01:25] This week's episode is a bridge from that one to today. And we're going to talk about the practice of virtue. So what does genuine virtue look like? And we're going to explore this by discussing the variety. A variety of world religions and philosophies. I'm going to talk about. Common virtues within those religions and philosophies, and then focus in on a few key.

[00:01:50] Common virtues that exist across. The multitudinous, religions and philosophies. And the purpose of this is to [00:02:00] really understand what does virtuous living even mean? What does that mean to each of us and how we can define that? And how we can make that pursuit. One that something that we dedicate and commit our lives to and why it's so important to doing that.

[00:02:15] So there are. Universal. Values and virtues that exist in a variety of religions. And philosophies.

[00:02:25] And it's important to note here. That, when we're looking at virtuous, living, how it impacts our personal growth, our moral development. And fostering a more harmonious society. And the reason that is is because one. Living virtuously is a choice. And it's a hard one. Society. Is pushing us consistently towards a path of self-interest. Now we're all interested in.

[00:02:51] Ourselves and looking out for ourselves, we all have needs. So there's a recognition of the needs that each of us have, but society is [00:03:00] pushing us way beyond our basic needs. And we're in this materialistic.

[00:03:06] Consumption-based society.

[00:03:10] It's like the matrix. If you've seen those movies, we effectively live in a matrix. And bye. Understanding virtue. And understanding that it's hard and that it's a choice we have to make to go against the materialistic pursuits that we are constantly. Presented with. We can rise to a virtuous life.

[00:03:32] It's hard because it goes against the grain of society. Society is pushing us to consumption, to not ask questions, to do, as we're told to simply follow along without challenging ideas or concepts, as they are told to us. That's very difficult for many of us is to go against the grain of society. Challenge authorities challenge cultures.

[00:03:53] And challenged the way that we live as individuals. That is a very difficult path. And it's far [00:04:00] easier to fall in line. With the way that life is being proposed to us than it is to live a virtuous life to develop and cultivate these skills. And these virtues within ourselves, it's far easier to just simply go along with things the way they are.

[00:04:17] So that's why this is difficult and challenging for us. And that's also though. What makes it so valuable? Because of the path to strength is one of resistance. We become stronger and more powerful by experiencing resistance in our life. And we can become inwardly strong. And self strong soulfully strong by living a virtuous path because it requires internal discipline and choice to make, to go against the grain of things that creates resistance within ourselves. And that carries and builds this incredible knowledge.

[00:04:52] And experience that we can carry with us beyond this life. Towards our path of becoming universal beings.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] So we're going to talk about the overview of virtues. We're going to look at virtues across traditions. We're going to look at those universal virtues. We're going to look at cultivating virtue in our life, and then we're going to wrap the episode. So I want to start with an overview of some of the.

[00:05:15] The religions and philosophies that I'm pulling from here and point to. Some of these virtues that exist within these ideologies. So the ideologies that we're looking at are Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, Confucianism, stoicism. Aristotle and ethics, Plato, ism, and. Judaism. So Christianity focuses on seven virtues.

[00:05:41] The Tricia traditions are faith, hope, charity or love. Prudence justice, fortitude and temperance. Now I'm going to get in, I'm going to share some examples of these in a bit about the specifics for each kind of culture. Give some examples of that. We're going to dive deeper. Once we get into the universal virtues here.

[00:05:58] Buddhism the [00:06:00] purpose of this though, is to show. That our objective is to become universal beings and therefore we're incorporating. All of these pieces from a variety of philosophies and religions around the world, and also highlights the commonality that exists within all of these religions and philosophies, or a lot more like than we are different.

[00:06:19] And the same is true for our religions and philosophies. And so I want to highlight that because it's very important. No matter what you may resonate with the point is, is if you register Nate, would you resonate with a specific religion or ideology? There's still common virtues and common ground. And all of these beliefs that we can all build from.

[00:06:38] So we just covered Christianity. I'm going to talk about Buddhism as well. So the Buddhist tradition emphasizes virtues like compassion, mindfulness, wisdom patients. Generosity and equanimity. Hinduism. The Hindu tradition has virtues like truth, Satya nonviolence. Uh, himsa righteousness, which is Dharma love [00:07:00] Prema and self restraint.

[00:07:02] Brock Machara, I'm probably messing these words up in their original form. So again, More virtue, more connection here. I'm gonna talk about the commonalities here. We're moving on to Islam. The Islamic tradition, emphasizes virtues like honesty, humility, patience, gratitude, forgiveness, and generosity.

[00:07:21] Daoism. This tradition, the Dallas tradition emphasizes virtues like simplicity, patience, and compassion. Confucianism the Confucian tradition emphasizes virtues, like fill out piety, righteousness, loyalty, benevolence, and wisdom. Stoicism, the stoic tradition, emphasizes virtues like wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance.

[00:07:46] Aristotle and ethics. The Aristotle's perspective and ethics emphasizes virtues like. Courage, temperance, liberality, magnificence, magnanimity, and patience. [00:08:00] Play-Doh ism. Plato's Republic, emphasizes virtues like wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. And then finally Judaism, the Jewish tradition emphasizes virtues, like kindness just said.

[00:08:12] Righteousness. Humility. And peace.

[00:08:17] I don't want to mess up the Judy. Ju the.

[00:08:23] The F the language, the Judah. Did Jewish language there. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to butcher it. I'm not even going to do it. And then, so that's a lot of different virtues across 10 different religions and ideologies. These are the most prominent. Ideologies around the globe in terms of religions and philosophies.

[00:08:42] You probably could have threw a couple more in there, like a Wiccan ism, maybe. Narcissism, maybe another one too, but that's 10 big religions and philosophies that are, that, that share virtues and have a variety of verges across their belief systems. So virtue is inherent in all of [00:09:00] these philosophies and.

[00:09:02] And a lot of this is the whole point of becoming religious is that you're committing to those virtues. You're committing to that path and the religious structure can give you support and help along the way to continue to live a virtuous life because virtue living is not easy. That's why it's also so valuable though.

[00:09:20] But the common. Virtues shared among these traditions. There's a variety of them, but the five that I highlight here, Our compassion, wisdom, justice, temperance, and patients. So we're going to get into that in more detail here in a moment, but just at a high level, those are the five common virtues that span across a wide variety of religions and philosophy. So there's universality to these pieces. And to me, that's cultivating that universal citizenship that we're all striving towards.

[00:09:52] Not all of us, but in my mind, that's the ultimate aim for us as humans is to become universal beings. How do we reach [00:10:00] a heightened state of existence? How do we incorporate our animal nature with our spiritual nature? How do we become the conscious bridge from eternity to now? And in my mind, that's why we're here.

[00:10:12] We're healed here to be those bridges here to be those doorways. To the infinite. And to live as examples to learn, to grow and to become more full expressions of that universal self. The infinite and endless variety of expression of selfhood.

[00:10:31] But now we're going to look a little more into. Some of these traditions, some of their meanings and significance and each of the different religions. And talk a little bit about that. So first, thinking about Christians. Christian's practice faith, hope and charity through acts of devotion, prayer, and helping others. So that's a huge component of the Christian faith.

[00:10:52] And the cruddy Christian religion is that you're going to be faithful, hopeful and charities through acts of devotion, prayer, and [00:11:00] helping others. So that's a guiding principle. Those are large guiding principles. In the Christian faith. Now, whether you're Christian or not. You can absolutely benefit from those values by incorporating those virtues in your life. By being devout, by being prayerful and helping others, you're helping your human brothers and sisters, whether you're religious or not, you can't deny the fact that we are human family. We all exist here and have come from the earth.

[00:11:25] We come from. The same. Material, the physical material that we are made up of all of us are born of the earth who are living today. So there's a connection to us, whether you believe in the life beyond that or not is up to you, but there is absolutely a connection between all of us that can't be denied.

[00:11:44] Now Buddhist practice, patience, generosity, and equanimity in their interactions with others and their approach to life's challenges. It's interesting because patients generosity and equanimity. The patient's piece is huge in the [00:12:00] Buddhist philosophy. As well as generosity being kind and caring towards others. If you have, if you are wealthy or abundant in your life being generous to others and being kind to others, treating them with respect and that last piece there, equanimity.

[00:12:15] Tricky treating equal treating each other as equals treating either each other, as companions in life, being kind to one another, because we are on the same playing field. We all come from the same source. And again, whether you believe that is. Material or beyond that. The reality is that all of us come from the earth and there isn't equity to that. An equal quality to that, that all of us carry. We all bleed red, right? We all have the same organs and.

[00:12:41] For the most part. There's obviously some people that are born with or without things, but the majority of us. Coming to the world with the same makeup, genetic makeup, and it's hours to work with. In the world. Now Hinduism. Leverages how they [00:13:00] discover how truth is practice. Satya is practiced through honest speech and living in alignment with one's inner values and they also explore how self restraint.

[00:13:10] His practice through moderation and self-control and various aspects of life. Again, very high value, high quality virtues to pursue being honest and truthful in your day to day lives. Honoring your inner life with your external world. So ensuring that your inner values are aligned with your speech and the way you're interacting with others.

[00:13:30] And then restraining ourselves through moderation. And self-control and not allowing our desires to consume us, which is what much has so much of that happens in our world. Today is we are consumed by our desires. Now Islam. Islam leverages humility and leans into humility. And is expressed through acknowledging one's dependence on God and treating others with respect, that same commonality that comes from all of us as children [00:14:00] of God.

[00:14:02] It explores how patience is cultivated through endurance during challenging times as well. So they lean into a humble approach by leaning into God, and that comes through being patient and trusting of God during challenging times as well. So when you lean in and you take a humble place, recognizing that we depend upon our creator and again,

[00:14:22] If you don't. Share those spiritual beliefs. Our creator could be seen as the earth and how we have to depend on her for all the sources of life that we have here and honoring the earth in that way, it could be a similar approach, but humility is a key practice here and something that we can all benefit from.

[00:14:40] As, as well as patients. To leverage during challenging times to endure challenging times. So the idea here is we're looking at some of these specific virtues from each of these practices and giving examples of what they are. And then next year I'm gonna move into some inspiring stories that we can talk about. And then we'll get into the universal [00:15:00] virtues that I speak to.

[00:15:01] I spoke about earlier.

[00:15:04] In Daoism. Virtues are seen as the natural expression of harmonizing with the Dao. Simplicity is practice through embracing a frugal and uncomplicated lifestyle. That Taoism is a very simple, but also wonderfully powerful philosophy in that, through that simplicity, they find harmony. They see the balance of energies in the world, the negative and the positive, the polarity, the duality that we live within.

[00:15:31] So living a simple and frugal life uncomplicated can benefit many of us, especially if we're stuck in that he Dominic. Treadmill. Cycle, which is the endless consumption path, trying to fill that inner void. Now virtues and Confucianism are focused on ethical conduct and harmonious relationships. Righteousness is upheld through acting in accordance with moral prints principles.

[00:15:59] So [00:16:00] at the goal conduct. And aligning our righteousness. By understanding our moral principles and living true to that is a way that Confucianism could be. Implemented in our lives. And we could all benefit from ethical conduct and harmonious relationships is absolutely something that the earth needs more of.

[00:16:18] And that comes from being righteous and honest and open and transparent in our way of living and the things that we believe in and aligning that life with our actions. That's a wonderful thing to strive towards as well. And stoicism. Virtues are seen as the foundation of leading a virtuous life. Wisdom is practiced through seeking, understanding and aligning one's actions with reason.

[00:16:43] Courage is cultivated by facing fears and embracing challenges with resilience. Now stoicism again, like it's so cool. How you can look at these different philosophies and if you were to remove stoicism, And talk about it in a way based on the list that we've just shared, the things that [00:17:00] I've been talking about, how would you know which religion or philosophy it was based on some of the things that we talked about as an example, Islam earlier,

[00:17:08] I was talking about resilience during tough times. That could also is an embracing fears. And challenges with resilience. And in an Islamic perspective, it's driven by faith. But being strong and patient in challenging times, whereas. Stoicism looks at this as being resilient and facing our fears. By embracing resilience.

[00:17:31] And I'm sorry about the trash truck here outside. But so the cool thing here is that by highlighting these virtues from each of these philosophies and religions, You wouldn't know. Which ones are, which unless I tell you, and that's the point here is that there is a universal component to all this. So I've got two more.

[00:17:53] And then we're going to move on to something examples from each of these religions and philosophies. And Platonism. [00:18:00]

[00:18:00] Virtues are seen as essential for achieving justice and harmony within oneself and society. Wisdom is pursued through seeking knowledge and contemplating the true nature of reality and play Plato. Ism is one of those very deep thinking. Uh, philosophies. And achieving justice and harmony within one's self. And then that reflects out into society.

[00:18:24] And then using wisdom. As a means to pursue knowledge. And contemplate the true nature of our reality and our place within it. Those are wonderful things to pursue. So that's the idea here is that to become universal beings. We can leverage these wonderful virtues from all of these different religions and philosophies. And then the last one here.

[00:18:45] Is Judaism.

[00:18:47] Virtues in Judaism. Are intrinsically linked to practical actions and living a righteous life. Explore how kindness is expressed through acts of compassion, hospitality, and [00:19:00] charitable deeds. So kindness is expressed there by being compassionate towards our fellow humans. Being hospitable towards them and being charitable with our deeds being kind and caring.

[00:19:11] And nurturing towards our fellow brothers and sisters of life. Righteousness. Is upheld through acts of justice, fairness and ethical behavior. Again, this all comes from aligning our internal virtues and values with the way we're living in the world and the way we're treating other people. It's such a powerful way to live when we take that righteousness and we align it to our world within and we align those actions externally.

[00:19:39] The goal is to align our inner and external lives. The more of a gap between those two things. The more disharmony is created in our lives. And the more it is. Disharmonies created in our world. So to overcome that disharmony. Requires us to. Understand these things and be aware of the [00:20:00] values that we hold within and the values that we're living through our actions.

[00:20:05] So that's why I wanted to share some examples from each of these different religions and philosophies discussing the virtues of these, of the specific discussing the value of these virtues and the different framing points of them. So now though, I want to go through. And share some examples and stories that illustrate the embodiment of these virtues from each of these.

[00:20:28] Philosophy. So Christianity. The parable of the good Samaritan. Which is Luke 10, 25 to 37 in the new Testament is often cited as an example of charity and compassion. Uh, Samaritan helps a man who was robbed and beaten. By showing kindness and love to a stranger. And ultimately Christ as the ultimate example in that religion, the way he lived his life, the way he treated others, the way that he was always kind to the lowest of low in society, he viewed everyone as a brother and sister [00:21:00] of life of.

[00:21:01] As a spiritual family. But this example in this pair of parable, The man who helps someone who was robbed and beaten. By showing them kindness and love as a stranger and lifting them up after they went through a hard time is an example of charity and compassion. And Buddhism. The story of Buddha giving away his possessions, including his kingdom and even his children to understand the nature of suffering and to attain enlightenment.

[00:21:31] As an example of compassion and generosity, Buddha came from an extremely wealthy family. He did not know suffering. He was insulated from suffering. Throughout his life. And then one day now it may be told differently, but I know one day. He saw a person who had passed away being taken out of the kingdom. And he saw that, I guess his father had tried to, had prevented him from seeing that.

[00:21:57] His whole life. And then one day he saw that [00:22:00] and then started asking what that was and realized that person had passed away. And then he started to. That was his first experience of true suffering. And so from that point, It led to him surrendering the entire kingdom. That was his, all of his possessions.

[00:22:15] And he pursues a life. Of. Of reflection and meditation to understand what enlightenment was and understand the nature of suffering so that he could share that wisdom with his people and many people beyond his life. And he has done an incredible example of that, of compassion and generosity by surrendering all that material wealth.

[00:22:39] Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita. It's a 700 verse Hindu script is a conversation between prince Aroona and the God Krishna. Who serves as his chair tear. In this conversation, Krishna provides insights on Dharma, which is the duty and righteousness that we must live. Yoga [00:23:00] the path to realization and then most gum.

[00:23:02] Which is the liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Exemplifying the virtues of truth, righteousness and love. Hinduism is epic. And the stories that they tell in that, in there in the Bhagavad Gita, it's wild. But. I think one of the. One of the most empowering components of this is the liberation Mo milkshake.

[00:23:25] Which is liberation from the cycle of birth and death. And that means we are able to transform. Our understanding of duality and seeing ourselves stuck in a dual world and realizing that we move outside of that cycle of Burton death. When we recognize that we are both. The material and spiritual, and we are much more than this world.

[00:23:45] And this material world and we move beyond. That cycle of birth and death. And we become something greater than that, which is a universal being and in the Baha Bhagavad, Gita. This conversation between [00:24:00] Krishna is very enlightening and exemplifies truth, righteousness and love. Islam the life. Of the prophet Muhammad is using an example of many virtues. One story is that of Muhammad standing for hours and prayer at night.

[00:24:14] Until his feet would crack from prolonged standing. This is often used as an example of patience and devotion. So Mohammad praying for hours, standing and praying for hours at night until his feet would hurt and ache. Is to show the people of what patients in devotion can look like in action. And how we can devote our lives.

[00:24:35] To worship in a loving way and create an incredible energy and power within ourselves from that devotion in patients.

[00:24:44] Daoism that the doubty. Dao de Jing.

[00:24:48] Written by Lao-Tzu. Emphasizes living in harmony with the Dao, which is the way. Which includes. Leading a simple life being patient and showing [00:25:00] compassion to others. That thou deejaying thou I keep saying that wrong. That's one of my, I love. It's such a great spiritual text and it's so simple and short.

[00:25:09] And powerful. There's so much Y a wisdom in it. The Tao of Pooh is a great book as well, which talks about Daoism with Winnie the Pooh. Very powerful. Story. But ultimately the way. Is simple. Patients and compassionate towards others and living a balanced. Centered life. It's a very beautiful way of living and many of us could benefit from that type of pursuit in life.

[00:25:40] Confucianism the Analects of Confucius are filled with Phil owl piety. Piety and righteousness examples. One example is the story of Jing Zen. Zing shin, I'm sorry. A disciple of Confucius who is so full. I feel loudly. Allie Pius that he would examine himself and fear. Even [00:26:00] if his parents scolded him for something he did not do.

[00:26:04] So he was so aware of himself and so pious in this way of living in so honorable towards his parents.

[00:26:11] He would still look at himself, even if he didn't do the thing that his parents were accusing him of because he wanted to live that pious and that aware in that true. To this way of life, very dedicated and powerful way of living. But man, like that is an incredible dedication to go to examining yourself.

[00:26:32] Even if it's something that, you know, you didn't do just to make sure that you were truly living a virtuous life. That's an incredible example.

[00:26:40] Stoicism the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius. A practitioner of stoicism wrote in his meditation's about accepting the world as it is understanding the nature of life and death and folks. Focusing on improving oneself. All examples of wisdom and temperates stoicism is always something that I've been drawn to. And I think [00:27:00] there's a lot of that is because it's a very logical philosophy. It's very much facing the world as it is accepting the world as it is.

[00:27:08] All of us can benefit from that. Accepting the world as it is and what we see in front of us. That is a very powerful practice to observe the world, all of its warts, ugliness its beauty, all of the good and bad and embracing what is because when we embrace, what is. We're now actually in a place to change and transform things.

[00:27:32] And improve our state. By accepting what is not denying or running away or turning away. From the fee from the ugliness and the challenges that we face as a society and as a people.

[00:27:43] And Aristotle and ethics. Aristotle used the example of a man who stands firm in the face of fear, not for personal gain, but because it is the right thing to do, demonstrating courage and temperance. And again, that's the honorable path. [00:28:00] Not because you're trying to gain something, but because ultimately it is the honorable path.

[00:28:05] From the perspective of universal being when we elevate ourselves and we tr. And we transform our view of the world from duality. To unity, which is including, which is moving outside of time. We can look at life. And we can be courageous understanding that the pursuit is one of the universal perspective, not for our own personal selfish gain in a small once. And.

[00:28:32] Like in a small life here in the material world. By transcending and doing the right thing by transforming, I should say, because transcendence is a word that I'm a little weird about because I think sometimes transcendence can also be a nice flowery way of saying running away from things. And I don't think we get away from anything. We have to transform it. And we do that by hitting things, head on.

[00:28:54] And I think facing our fears, not for personal gain, but because it's the right thing to do as an [00:29:00] incredible motif to live by. And Aristotle taught that in his philosophy. Now Plato ism and Plato's Republic. The allegory of the cave is used to illustrate the virtue of wisdom as it depicts the journey from ignorance to knowledge. Now, the story of the cave is there are people who are stuck in the cave.

[00:29:19] Fascinated by the images on the wall. Not realizing that there are people behind the S the wall, creating those images and keeping us fascinated by the shadows on the wall instead of the world that's outside of the cave. Everyone is stuck in the cave. And there. Enthralled by the illusions, by the reflections, the shadows that are being cast onto the stones.

[00:29:45] By the ruling class, by the hidden rulers. And instead of going out and saying, wait a second, that's not what, that's just a reflection. That's a shadow. I want the whole world. I want to see what life fully is. And that's. Exiting the cave. [00:30:00] So when we go from a journey, when we journey to wisdom and we remove our ignorance, it's by embracing what is, and also recognizing the illusions that we've accepted. And part of that is realizing that the world that we're living in.

[00:30:14] Is an illusion in some facets and that we are experiencing a world. That's not the true reality. It's a world that it's a reality that's imposed upon the infinite reality. This allegory of the cave. Reflects that journey in that. Journey from it. Ignorance to wisdom and the virtue, or I'm sorry, journey from ignorance to knowledge in the virtue of wisdom.

[00:30:38] It's a great story.

[00:30:39] And then finally in Judaism. And the Jewish tradition, the story of Abraham arguing with God to spare the city of Saddam. Saddam. Genesis 18, 16 to 33 is often seen as an example of righteousness and justice. Man, you want to talk about being a righteous and just character? [00:31:00] Abraham arguing with God. That's insane to think about arguing with the creator, taking that stance.

[00:31:06] Taking your position. Of what you believe to be right. And just. In order to save your people in order to spare the city and the people that you care for. That takes a tremendous amount of strength and power and courage to live that way to stand up to our creator in that sense. And it's a great example of righteousness and justice in action.

[00:31:29] So those were some specific examples from the traditions that we discussed, how those virtues could be exemplified in some stories that are common. And the variety of stories and examples throughout those philosophies and religions. But now we're going to move into the universal virtues. And talk a little bit of more about this.

[00:31:49] The five that we covered. Uh, our compassion, wisdom, justice, temperance, and patients. These are all very common across the spectrum there. And [00:32:00] we want to look at how these virtues can serve as a guiding principle for individuals. Regardless of your religious or philosophical backgrounds and it points to what I've been discussing and mentioning throughout the show is this concept of becoming universal beings.

[00:32:16] Virtues religions philosophies are all just trails crumbs to take us back to our center, our source. And that source is the universal spirit and assets that lives in all of us. That's what drives each of us. It's what creates the world that we live with them. And it's the call that we all feel pulled towards from within.

[00:32:37] So these virtues allow us to become universal beings. When we live with compassion. When we seek wisdom and justice. And temperance and patients. So those are all representing balance harmony. Managing the polarizing elements of reality, the dual world that we find ourselves in. [00:33:00] When we can master these things, we become truly universal beings. And so leveraging compassion, wisdom, Justin's temperance and patients, and our life is a means to become universal beings.

[00:33:13] It's also answering a higher calling through virtuous living. Virtuous living is not for everyone. It could be, and it's there for everyone, but it's not for everyone. Not everyone will choose this path. And that's what makes it such a beautiful thing is that it's our choice to answer this call, to live a virtuous life.

[00:33:32] We can turn away from the call. But fulfillment, glory power all comes from those who answer the call, a virtuous living. And that's what I encourage you. That's what I'm doing with my life. I'm doing the best that I can to live a virtuous. Universal being type life. That's what I want from you. That's what I want from my own life. And that's what I want to see the world move more into because it's a higher calling and it's going to be incorporating that universal energy.

[00:33:58] That is birthing itself [00:34:00] now on earth.

[00:34:02] And the greatest pursuit is the pursuit of self-mastery because ultimately that changed that power, that, that force that lives within each of us. Is generated from the pursuit of self-mastery. The self is the spark of creation. It's the spark of our creator. All of us carry the essence of our creator within us. So when we master ourselves, we are cultivating that energy and that power of our creator and our own lives and allowing it to manifest in the infinite ways that it can.

[00:34:32] Self-mastery allows us to live unique individualized lives. Built and expressed from the place of spirituality, our creator that lives within each of us. Self-mastery enables that. And it's not everyone being the same self-mastery will be unique to each of us, but the components of self-mastery managing our mind, reflecting on our thoughts, managing our emotions, managing our desires, understanding what is true and [00:35:00] what is falsehood, what we truly desire and what we do not desire.

[00:35:03] The values that we hold that matter to us and the values that were given to us that we do not care for. All of that goes into mastery of self, but it's different and unique for each of us. That's the beauty of it.

[00:35:15] And then that leads into that next point, which is the spark of creation is within all of us. This is what cultivates that power. We all have this power within us and it's our choice to cultivate it. That's the beauty of this. We are not required to do this. It is our choice free will is what makes this so unique.

[00:35:34] If it wasn't a choice, it would not be rewarding. It would not be virtuous. It would not be useful. But because it's a choice. And because we're choosing to align with that internal eternal creative force that lives with all of us within all of us. That's what makes this path possible by aligning our life with that internal, infinite power that exists within each of [00:36:00] us, that spark of creation.

[00:36:02] And this is how you ultimately become an elite being a being of universe and life of strength of heart and mind and spirit. That is what creates. The true elite being the masters of the universe, our goal is to become masters of our universe and we do that. By living from, within aligning our heart and our mind to pursue.

[00:36:28] The calling of our higher spirits, our higher self, whatever you want to call it, because at the end of the day, y'all spirit is our reality energy. That spiritual world is our reality. Whether we want to believe it or not, it's up to us, but the physical world is born. From that. Spiritual energy and all of us are spiritual in nature. The world that we live in is spiritual in

[00:36:51] Uh, everything that we see in experience is a reflection of that infinite spiritual reality. That we're a part of. So recognizing that is key. On our path of [00:37:00] growth and evolution.

[00:37:01] I'm sure you can get an idea of why this is relevant and important. And living true to these virtues and contemporary challenges and building a more virtuous society by living this way in our own lives, we create a more virtuous society. So through practicing these virtues individuals nurture our own moral character and contribute to a more virtuous and harmonious society. It all starts within us. That's what's so powerful about this. If each of us on the planet committed to living a virtuous self-mastery path, the world would transform.

[00:37:34] And it would happen one by one because we would be aligning with that energy within would be allowing its unique manifestation and expression of selfhood into the world. And things would become and created and born that we can't even fathom. Transform the world that we live in, it would be incredible. That's what we are striving towards. That's the aim.

[00:37:55] Is to live true to these virtues so that we may create a more harmonious and virtuous [00:38:00] society. It all begins within us. The more virtuous we become, the more virtuous the world becomes all the power resides within us. That's the key thing that you must know, and that's because you have a spark of creation within you. We all do.

[00:38:18] That is your higher guidance, your higher wisdom, whatever you want to call it, the spark of your soul, the spark of your creator, our creator, it lives within each of us. And that's where we cultivate our power.

[00:38:29] So now looking at cultivating these virtues. Practical guidance. On how we can cultivate these virtues in our own lives. And we're going to focus on those five common virtues of compassion, wisdom. Justice temperance and patients. And so in order to do that, it starts with one. Living authentically to who we are.

[00:38:49] That's and that begins with compassion of our, for ourselves, for the challenges that we faced. The hurt that we may feel the pain that we carry around us. That's being compassionate towards the [00:39:00] good and the bad within ourselves. So living authentically connects with compassion. That's also where wisdom comes from. Wisdom of self comes by living authentically to who we are. And from within ourselves.

[00:39:12] And from that a sense of justice is born understanding from the self that there is a justice. There is a just way of living and treating one another. When we connect with who we are from within. And again, they're your temperance, the type of temperance and energy that you bring. We'll express itself.

[00:39:33] Authentically when we connect with who we are, but knowing that temperance. Is it powerful? Is it mild? Is it mellow? Is it balanced? That's that component of it is understanding our temperance and being like I'm a high energy guy. I'm a hi, I'm a, I have a lot of force with who I am, but balance is critical. That's where temperance comes into play. And then ultimately patients layers into all of this. [00:40:00]

[00:40:00] By being patient with who we are. Being patient with others being patient with ourselves. And the work that we're doing and going through. That's how we transform ourselves by living authentically and aligning to those virtues. Another piece is going to be overcoming our animal urges. And desires to master our emotions.

[00:40:20] Mastering our emotions and urges and desires is critical to this work. That's how we cultivate these virtues. That doesn't mean we live a desirous. Life. Life has meant to be enjoyed deeply, deeply, enjoy life. There's so much here to enjoy and experience in this incredible pleasure in the world, but there is no greater pleasure.

[00:40:42] And then the connection of selfhood and connecting from within. So overcoming our instant and endless desires and urges because I know what that's like. I've lived that way. I lived that way for many years, and I was miserable when I was in California. That was the majority of the way that I was living. [00:41:00] I was consumed by my urges partying sex.

[00:41:03] Drugs money, all of that stuff. I was defined by it and I was miserable. But as we learn to overcome our animal urges and these desires and master our emotions. We can. Leverage. These virtues and begin to cultivate these Uh, by tempering. Those urges. Finding balance in our life and moving forward with a more aligned way of living in that moves into the third piece here, which is aligning our heart and mind to function as one. So many of us are divided. So many of us are chaotic with our own selves. Our minds are going off in a million directions.

[00:41:43] Our hearts going off in a different direction, a million different directions. When we unify ourselves, we become very powerful beings and that's the goal is to align our heart and our minds. To harmonize. Every aspect of our life, relationships, health, work, [00:42:00] family, all of that. That is the key to doing that.

[00:42:03] Because it's so easy. To get too much in our head or our heart. To allow. Now, if you're going to be one way or the other. Being leading with your heart and allowing that to lead you is obviously the best path, but balancing these two energies, strengthening our intellect to align with our heart, allowing us to communicate the truths of our heart with our mind is the power of these two energies.

[00:42:28] The heart is the compass. It leads us. The head, the mind is the vehicle that we can leverage and use to travel through the universe. But it's key that we have to have our heart guiding us and have that balance between those two energies. It's far too easy though, to allow our feelings to roll our lives and not be contained.

[00:42:47] And it's also far too easy to allow our heads to disconnect us from our hearts and be feeling less. Androids. That's very much the society with which we're living in now. It's [00:43:00] living in those two extremes. The key is balance.

[00:43:04] And so the goal is from my perspective and what these ancient wisdoms and traditions are telling us is to become deep feeling and thinking individuals to claim our universal citizenship. The universal citizen is deeply aligned with their heart. They feel deeply. And all areas of life. They're not afraid to go into any deep feeling area.

[00:43:28] And they are. Empowered with their minds. Their minds are a tool that they leverage from their hearts. So they're their mind and hearts are aligned, going deep into our feeling and empowering our thinking minds, aligning ourselves, allows us to become. Universal citizens. That's the path that we are on. That's the objective that we are striving forwards.

[00:43:50] And that allows us to step into a higher order of life that allows us to transform our world. Our relationship to duality and move into timeless space, which [00:44:00] moved beyond this world, which allows us to exist beyond this world. Because there is no end of life. There are only cycles, only awareness. Transformations.

[00:44:12] This allows us to transform our waking conscious life into enlightened beings and live true to who we are today.

[00:44:19] And finally many do not take this path because it's too difficult. It is far easier to just go with the flow of society, go with the flow of culture and do what you're told, not challenge, anything, believe, everything that you're told and just go along with everything as it is. That's far easier. That is far easier to do.

[00:44:40] To not ruffle any feathers to not challenge anything that you're seeing. And to just go along with everything. That's the path of the that's, the tried and true path that many of us. Are pushed upon. And we choose to stay on that path because it's easier. It's the least resistance. The least resistance comes from following the path, cultivated by [00:45:00] society and culture.

[00:45:01] But we don't grow when we do that. And we're often miserable when we do that as well.

[00:45:05] That's why focusing on yourself and the virtue within to build a more meaningful and loving world is critical. That's how you can transform. The power. Of virtue and use it in your life. And. An impact your wellbeing and the wellbeing of others around you. And you can facilitate the change and a world.

[00:45:29] And our world in a meaningful way, starting from within. All true. Work comes from within us. This is where the work is. This is where the landscape is. The infinite. World of selfhood from within.

[00:45:43] The virtuous path is the way y'all not, everyone's going to do it, but that's what makes it powerful is because it's choice. It's a choice we all have. And I hope that more of us will take this path. We'll choose this path of virtuous living and will elevate ourselves to the highest possible expression of self and create a more [00:46:00] universal, compassionate balance and just world that's ultimately what it's about.

[00:46:04] Temperance compassion wisdom. Patients. And justice. Those are those five. Common virtues that exist across a multitude of religions and philosophies. Let us cultivate those five virtues. And leverage them in our lives, learn to lean into them and build them in our life. By doing the things. That we have available to us, which is reflection, meditation, thought prayer.

[00:46:30] Healing, all of those things, guys, all of that is possible within us. So I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I hope you're enjoying the show all around.

[00:46:40] Embracing this virtuous path is the way out of the chaos, developing a more moral just society, a more harmonious society. This is the path out y'all. This is the way we do it. Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. You can hit me on Twitter at Brandon Lee ward. You can hit me on LinkedIn at Brandon L. Ward, and I've got a website. [00:47:00] Brandon Lee, ward.com.

[00:47:01] So with that being said until next time y'all.

[00:47:05] Thank you for listening to Order Within. If you found the episode helpful, please consider sharing, rating, and subscribing. New episodes will be released every Thursday at 11am Eastern Standard Time. Until next time, y'all.