Virtue

At some point in our lives most of us realise that we are not going to achieve our childhood fantasies of fame, power or wealth. Nor are our lives going to be a never ending adventure or romantic novel.

Its at this point that we really need to remember that we shouldn't be disappointed - our final goal should not be about wealth or self gratification. Genuine contentment and lasting happiness don't come from fulfilling all our desires - it comes from reaching high levels of understanding and exercising virtue in our every day lives.

Like anything this requires work and practice. Our behaviours quickly become habits - good behaviours - virtues - bad behaviours - vices. Aristotle said that peace of mind is only achieved through reason, temperance and noble character. Confucius also said that having virtue wasn't just knowing what was right and wrong but it was living your life by what you know to be right.

Charles Murray asked a really good question in his book - "If your children grow up to be courageous, temperate, able to think clearly about the consequences of their actions, to be concerned with the welfare of others, with a sense of obligation to set a good example for others in their own behavior and to accord to others their rightful due, do you really care whether they were raised to be good Christians or Buddhists?"

Sometimes we need to get our children back to basics as Charles Murray also points out - we used to encourage children to play sports so that they learned "fair play, courage in adversity, loyalty to teammates, modesty in victory, dignity in defeat." - certainly gives food for thought .......