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Originally Posted by happy soul
According to Socrates, Plato, and J. Krishnamurti, what's necessary is the apprehension of virtue, or to put it another way, knowing what love is.
They believed that if we really knew what love and virtue are, we would naturally and automatically CHOOSE them. Socrates said, 'To know the good is to do the good,' and Krishnamurti said, 'The seeing is the doing.'
Kant on the other hand thought that we ALREADY know what's right, but that most people just don't follow through and consistently choose the good.
Jesus seemed to believe the former of these, as he said on the cross, 'Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.'
And of course, much of Jesus's teaching was centered on clarifying what love is, and what the will of God is. The sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5 is where his main teachings about love and virtue are.
I believe that 'everyone always does their best' and that we always make the choices that we think or believe are the right choices. So I agree that what we (btw I'm including myself in this - I definitely stand great room for improvement in my apprehension of love) need is to really know what love is - to 'find out what love is', as Krishnamurti often put it.
An example of this is when I attended a cookout party at a lake for the black belts at my Tae Kwon Do school. The main Tae Kwon Do instructor threatened to give his 3 year old son a 'whoopin' because the kid was being rambunctious. The guy was 6 foot 4, probably 250 pounds of mostly muscle (of course even if he was much physically weaker it wouldn't really matter as any adult would be far stronger than a 3 year old), and I can only imagine the hell the poor kid went through getting 'whoopins' from his dad.
My point is that the man thought, he BELIEVED, he was doing the right thing by spanking his child. Imo he was definitely mistaken. But if the man really 'knew what love is', if he KNEW the right thing to do, he would have done it.
Krishnamurti asked, 'Can you put your whole being into finding out what love is?'
Can we see and admit to ourselves that we DON'T KNOW, and then take Krishnamurti's advice and devote ourselves to 'remembering', to really 'seeing the light' and finding out what love is?
HOW can we do this? I don't know, but I believe we have to really have the desire to, and make an effort. It may mean facing our fear. It may mean admitting we've been wrong. It may take courage, but it's surely worth it.
It's your life. Love yourself enough to be utterly honest with yourself. Be the best you can be. You're worth it and it matters.
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