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Today's
Meditation:
It
seems that more and more, principles are becoming relative
and rather temporary--we like to change our principles with
each new wind that blows in a new set of ideas. What
we don't seem to realize is that if our principles guide our
lives as a rudder guides a ship, then our lives are going to
be inconsistent and somewhat difficult if we don't stick to
principles that we know are valid and valuable, such as
compassion, love, sharing, honesty and integrity.
We
do have to be careful of adopting principles that are
harmful to others. I just watched an interview with a
man who was sure that his job as a father was to be strict
and forceful; he's since come to see, though, the damage
that he caused to his spouse and children by acting that
way. There's not necessarily anything wrong with
certain types of strictness, but if it leads you to harm
others then it's a principle that should definitely be
abandoned in favor of something else that shows more love
and compassion than an attempt at control.
My
principles aren't perfect, and sometimes they're hard to
balance. As a teacher I try to be uncompromising in my
attempts to challenge my students. If they're going to
learn, it's up to me to help them to do so, and being too
lenient doesn't necessarily help them. On the other
hand, life happens, and my students are going through
struggles and problems of their own, so if I am completely
uncompromising, I may alienate and discourage students
rather than actually help them to learn.
We
have to decide on the principles that are going to guide our
lives, and it's important that we do so consciously, and
that we actually think about them from time to time; that we
examine what they are and the results they're having so that
we can know if they're actually being helpful or not.
Because none of us want a guiding principle to lead us off a
cliff's edge to our own demise.
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