It seems these days that, more and more, the world runs by the attitude "the end justifies the means". This sounds so familiar and appears to make some sense... but it is incredibly dangerous thinking. When we fall into the trap of "end justifies the means" thinking, we tend to make everything outside of ourselves (objects, money, deals, projects, etc.) more important than we are as people.
At first this may appear to have a cast of altruism or even selflessness. But the danger lies not in the positive action of putting our needs aside temporarily in pursuit of something of value, but in forgetting that "the means" is where life actually happens - where we are actually creating and experiencing our lives. Who we are as we move forward in the pursuit of our dreams, our projects, our work, is what actually creates our life and affects the world around us.
What we believe to be the end product of what we are doing is not the real product - we ourselves are the actual end product! Our characters, our hearts, our souls... what value can there be in any seemingly worthwhile project if in the pursuit of that we damage our characters? How can good come from anything we do if there is no good, no compassion, no tolerance, no honesty, no love in the heart? The goal of life is transformation, which is an every-moment-of-every-day process of awareness, refining and purifying ... and we ourselves are the fruit of our endeavors - will that fruit be sweet?
At first this may appear to have a cast of altruism or even selflessness. But the danger lies not in the positive action of putting our needs aside temporarily in pursuit of something of value, but in forgetting that "the means" is where life actually happens - where we are actually creating and experiencing our lives. Who we are as we move forward in the pursuit of our dreams, our projects, our work, is what actually creates our life and affects the world around us.
What we believe to be the end product of what we are doing is not the real product - we ourselves are the actual end product! Our characters, our hearts, our souls... what value can there be in any seemingly worthwhile project if in the pursuit of that we damage our characters? How can good come from anything we do if there is no good, no compassion, no tolerance, no honesty, no love in the heart? The goal of life is transformation, which is an every-moment-of-every-day process of awareness, refining and purifying ... and we ourselves are the fruit of our endeavors - will that fruit be sweet?
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