Why are we concerned with truth and ethics?

Vic Shayne
author
The Self is a Belief: The idea that causes suffering

In the scheme of things, speaking from consciousness, ethics and morality are merely ideas that the egoic mind latches onto. When we realize that everything, and everyone that exists is actually ourselves, then we also realize that there is really no doer — everything that happens happens due to the entire movement of consciousness. We are like drops of water in the ocean; we cannot determine the course of the entire ocean just because we believe we can. All that is being done is due to the entirety of consciousness, with nothing occurring in isolation or devoid of precedents or relationships. Whatever you think or do requires infinite predecessors that brought you to this point.

The creation of our sense of self
The egoic mind is created by psychological conditioning; it’s what Carl Jung called the persona, and what Vedantic sages have called the self or the “I” thought. The influences creating this self are teachers, authority figures, culture, society, parents, grandparents, religion, and so on. We take in their teachings as secondhand information and then form identities and attachments so that we lose sight of who we are as the entirety of consciousness. Thus, we believe that we are individuals just because we appear to have separate bodies, brains, and minds.

Fragmentation causes desire, and desire causes suffering
It is the belief in separation that causes suffering, because it brings about desire. We desire pleasure and try to avoid pain. We desire to be happy and complete. But the egoic mind fragments consciousness into duality. This includes hot and cold, lies and truth, tall and short, and good and bad, etc. The mind focuses upon these apparent opposites and complements because it is unable to apperceive the wholeness. The mind’s attention becomes caught up in the fragments even though the totality is our makeup — inside of us are all the dichotomies and conflicts, the good and bad, the ethical and unethical, the selfish and the unselfish.

Sam Harris on lying
Sam Harris discusses the idea of truth and lying in his book entitled Lying. Harris wrote, “People tell lies for many reasons. They lie to avoid embarrassment, to exaggerate their accomplishments, and to disguise wrongdoing. They make promises they do not intend to keep. They conceal defects in their products or services. They mislead competitors to gain
advantage. Many of us lie to our friends and family members to spare their feelings.

“Whatever our purpose in telling them, lies can be gross or subtle. Some entail elaborate ruses or forged documents. Others consist merely of euphemisms or tactical silences. But it is in believing one thing while intending to communicate another that every lie is born.”

Looking at this from the perspective of consciousness
Harris’ book is a wonderful read and he brings up many great ideas. However, what I am saying in this brief article has to do with the larger picture, which is consciousness itself and not the phenomena, including thoughts and ideas, that are fragments of consciousness.

While good and bad are really one unit, the mind makes it into two opposing forces. Thus, we say we need ethics and morality. But, if we were to shed this false notion of the egoic self then the idea of ethics would dissipate in favor of seeing the entire flow of things. When you realize you are the whole of consciousness then there is no need to try to do the right thing, to tell the truth, or to be kind. Such things occur as a matter of the movement of consciousness whether we realize it or not.

If you come away from reading this little article with the idea that you can do whatever you want because it really doesn’t matter, then you’ve entirely missed the point. This is because the one deciding that — deluded by the idea that — it doesn’t matter is the conditioned egoic mind.