Seven Virtues To Liberate and Heal The World

The following is a seed thought, a note to myself, for further elaboration in the future, and it is a note I will share with others, because it is a seed thought which is powerful, healing, and liberating. I will not go into any lengthy discussion, meditation or exposition of the core thought, which will be presented here, nakedly and simply, for reflection. But do not mistake pithiness for lack of importance, gravity or depth. The most important truths are the simplest: love thy neighbour – it is not only virtuous, but it is also a matter of intelligence, and enlightened self-interest, for no man is an island; all things are impermanent – change is the one unchanging, permanent reality; all phenomena are interdependent; and, the nature of being is non-dual, One. To these four cardinal points of wisdom-awareness, I add the following, as the heart centre.

The seven virtues listed here are not picked randomly. This is the fruit of four decades and tens of thousands of hours of reading, reflection, study and meditation. We could list dozens or even hundreds of positive human traits which we could call virtues; but all of them, stem from, arise from, and are born from these seven, which are their root, and their foundation.

People may say that these seven traits, or seven virtues, are lacking in our world today, and maybe profoundly so. But I would say in response, that these seven traits or virtues are inherent to human nature, and our history on Earth has proven it so. Moreover, whenever we are faced with a great and terrible crisis, when we are challenged the most, we find ourselves thrown back upon our depths, and we reach into our depths, and rediscover, and draw forth, precisely these seven virtues, or at least, as many of them and as much of them as we can. And in virtually every crisis, sooner or later, if not immediately, we bring forth these inner treasures, to rescue ourselves, and our loved ones, our homes, our communities, and the land itself, which is not ours, but to which we belong, from danger. These traits, these seven virtues, are ours to discover, from within, and they are always there, deep inside, waiting to be released and to be reclaimed. We need them now, and urgently so. Let the new Renaissance begin. The world needs us, and needs our healing hands, hearts, spirits and minds, and now.

Some will have a bounty of one of the seven. Some will have a bounty of another of the seven. Some will have a bounty of more than one. A few will have all of them in abundance, though that is rare. But together, when we unite – and unite in all our wondrous and rich diversity, as we must, if we are to succeed, if we are to heal or to liberate ourselves or our world, or if we are even to survive – then, together, we will have and will bring forth all seven of these magnificent, and deeply precious human traits.

The seven virtues that will liberate and heal our world are these:

Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom – and they are each different things, though they are complimentary, of course. These represent the best of the human mind. And we need all three, and not just one. Moreover, even the least of these, which is knowledge, must be distinguished from mere data. Everyone is in love with data, lately, in this digitally entranced, media-saturated, virtually lobotomized, late-industrial, technology-addicted, and technology-addled, modern society. But while data is valuable, it is nothing compared to knowledge. And even knowledge is trivial compared to understanding – which itself, is fly droppings compared to wisdom.

(Ok, I elaborated here slightly. My apologies. Remember always, something that Emerson said: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Let us be adaptable, or we will perish slowly, as idiots, unable to face or accept the necessity of change. But that too, is a matter of understanding, which is contained in that little piece of advice from one of America’s greatest philosophers. And so, even that excursion into a slight bit of elaboration, proves the point: these seven virtues are the well-spring for everything we truly need.)

Along with knowledge, understanding and wisdom, there are four more, invaluable, and irreplaceable, essential traits, or virtues, that we need now – or at any time of crisis, or any time of peace – in order to survive, and in order to thrive. Among them are:

Courage, compassion and determination – and yes, we need all three. In fact, without courage, compassion withers, atrophies, and dies. And without determination, our courage will falter, and then our compassion, leaving us as hollow shells, wooden, lifeless, and inert. These three virtues represent the best of the human heart. Without them, no amount of data, or even knowledge or understanding, will save us; and certainly, no amount of money, wealth, technology, material possessions, status, worldly power or fame, can possibly save us, since all of these are weaker and far more feeble than knowledge or understanding, to say nothing of wisdom. We need the gifts of the heart, just as we need the gifts of the mind; and we need to unite and embrace them both. We have been top heavy and lop-sided, at least since the beginning of the modern world, when the head was elevated to supreme status over the body, the spirit and the heart, and the left brain mode of cold analytical reason was elevated as supreme over the right brain holistic, gestalt or intuitive mode of perceiving and of synthesis. We need to re-unite the left and the right, the masculine and feminine, the head and the heart, and the body, the spiritual and the worldly, consciousness and matter. And these three virtues of the heart, are at the heart of this reclamation, re-uniting, re-balancing, re-integration, and re-awakening, or Renaissance, which is urgently needed now, and is thankfully unfolding, and being born.

The final trait or virtue which is essential to our survival, as well as our flourishing, our healing of the world, and our liberation, is the spirit of freedom.

Some foolishly think that this natural spirit of freedom in human beings, which has never been suppressed permanently, but always bursts forth again and again, and never dies, is a spirit which can and should be killed. It cannot; and it even if it were possible, which it is not, the result of that death of freedom would be beyond tragic – it would be a nightmare world that no sane person would ever want to live in.

The fascists are at it again, trying to banish freedom for the many, so that the few can live as Gods on Earth. But they will not succeed. They will fail. Their empire will fall, as all empires in the past have fallen. The prophet Daniel has seen it, and he is right: the world will be free of empires, and we will shatter the mould.

The spirit of freedom cannot be killed in humanity, without killing humanity itself. We will see the spirit of freedom flourish again, as it did in the first Renaissance, and at all our best moments – as led by Martin Luther King Jr., in the triumphant struggle for Civil Rights; as led by Mahatma Gandhi, to bring freedom, democracy and self-rule to the people of India – which is now the world’s largest democracy; as led by Henry David Thoreau and others in the movement to abolish slavery; as led by Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and the revolutionaries of 1776, in America, and in 1789, in France, to overthrow feudalism, and to successfully create the first constitutional democracies of the modern world.

The spirit of freedom will win out, and we will be free. The world will be reborn, and ourselves along with it – as we must, since we must shake off the delusions and the illusions, the mind-forged manacles, as the great prophet and poet William Blake called them, in order to be free, and in order to heal and to liberate our world. But we must not forget the vital importance of the other six virtues, or else, even the spirit of freedom, powerful as she may be, cannot possibly save us from our dark fate, which we currently walk toward, asleep, and knowing not what we do.

We will need all seven virtues to save ourselves from this present great peril, which is a three-fold peril: the danger of division, based in ignorance, fear and hate, which is setting the people against themselves; the danger of ecological crisis, which mounts every day, and which is driven by a combination of ignorance, stubborn blind habit, and elite vested interests; and the danger posed by the new empire of global corporate oligarchy, which is in truth undeniably fascist in nature, and which is at the very heart of all our troubles and all our crises.

Bring forth these seven virtues from within the hearts and minds, and spirit of humanity – as we will, because we simply must – and the world will be reborn. That is our path, that is our duty, that is our mission – that is the crisis of our time, and that is what we need to do, to overcome it.

And to speak with some lightness, which is also necessary, at times, and especially in the midst of dark and ominous crisis, I say, bring in and enlist the support, the allies, and the inspiration, from all corners. We can and should, and must, cite and call forth the inspiration of people like Gandhi, Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. And yes – why not? – we can also be both serious, and at times light, and call forth inspiring figures, also, from fiction. In this case, from a great fictional hero, who is no less inspiring simply because he comes from fiction: Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

And I say to you now, quite simply, and certainly not in jest, but in all seriousness:

Make it so.

The seriousness and the gravity of the situation facing humanity could not be more stark or more clear. But we will need to meet it with a combination of seriousness and gravity, and also, with some degree of lightness, or we shall not survive, because we will not be able to rally the people sufficiently through a dark and sombre message of grim reality – that method is clearly failing, and has failed – and because the burn-out rate will be far too high, and our determination and resolve will waiver as a result, and fall, if we fail to bring in a little light, to counterbalance the darkness of the time.

“These are the times that try men’s souls”, wrote Thomas Paine, in the heat of the American Revolution, or rather, the cold dark winter, when all seemed lost, and hope turned to despair. We must unite these seven virtues, collectively, though we each do not necessarily have them all; and we must unite a spirit of earnestness and sobriety, of dealing with the gravity of the situation with all honesty, with a compliment of lightness – or else, we will be lost, and all will be lost.

Inspire and unite the people, as we must also inspire and unite ourselves within. This is the path ahead. This is the challenge, and the answer. And these are the seven virtues which will allow and enable and empower us to do just that, and which will liberate and heal our world, and ourselves.

J. Todd Ring,

Author of, Enlightened Democracy,

and,

The People vs The Elite

March 8, 2021