torstai 14. kesäkuuta 2012

Is my conscience really mine?



It is often said that conscience is a voice of god, or at least a universal voice which is loudly or quietly whispering the right kind of advice and warnings that no outsider can experience. But what is the origin of that voice, or most often thoughts that come up without invitation to interfere one’s behavior? Is it an inborn quality in all people, or just a result of upbringing and education within a certain environment? Also are these inner messages always right?
By looking at the behavior of people in a districted environment we could make a conclusion that there are really some common patterns in people’s ways of thinking: what they for example consider as good or bad. So, we could take that as a token of universal, even divine quality in human beings. But it is easy to see that the ways of thinking differ much among nations. Furthermore, the ways tend to change in time even in a community, so we have a reason to drop divinity with its unchangeable qualities aside. 
Now, if the conscience is but a result of culture: why is its role often emphasized in religious life? Is the role of religion merely to stand by the common behavioral patterns of a community? Unfortunately the situation sometimes looks like that, because strict religious rules have proved to be excellent tools for rulers – whether spiritual or secular. In combining religious and secular administration it is necessary to effect on people’s ways of thinking. 
The most useful tool is to claim that a certain pattern comes directly from god. If somebody has courage to propose counter-arguments they are ruled over with Holy Scriptures. Very few people dare to stand against that sort of evidence by claiming that all written texts have certainly come forth through human brains and hands, clean or dirty – who can judge and tell us for sure?
This is by no means to be understood as a request to throw away all scriptures and religious and social rules based or not based on them, but to think carefully about all the ideas that are given us as ultimate truths, and even rethink all one’s own thoughts about things that are vital in understanding the meaning and function of life in general. 
We might find out that many ideas aim just at social stability, they are a result of practical experience in human communities. Such regulations can make social life more stable and safe; they give some predictability which is important both for politicians as well as for common people.
It is also seen that there are individuals who in their thinking and ideas differ very much from ordinary ways although they have probably in their youth been given the same values as the majority. These people are often considered as apostates or troublemakers who are not willing to accept necessary boundaries. Others may say that they have got a weak and unsettled conscience that they ignore or silence if it causes trouble or inconvenience. Of course this is the case among many criminals – their mind is unable or unwilling to adapt to social standards. But in time they will certainly learn by doing, by bearing all the consequences of their doings.
But not all renegades stand below the common moral and ethical rules. There are also some people whose conscience and even consciousness lies far beyond the average. They seem to know for sure which part of common rules are but human inventions with very little value to the development and evolution of mankind and its single individuals.
Somehow a conscience is like all other human skills – it develops in practice. Some of you might say that this is not the case – it becomes worse if a person conceives a multitude of means to ignore it. Exceptions confirm the rule, in most cases the conscience of an adult tells much more than that of a child. 
But how is it that some little children seem to be very sensitive in moral affairs before they really have come in touch to their social environment? Have they inherited their qualities from their parents? We know that sometimes talented parents have talented children, but that cannot be taken as a law even in common skills, not to talk about innermost qualities.
It is very hard to determine what qualities a human being brings along in birth. Some scholars say that a child is a tabula rasa, an empty table, on which life writes its whole story. But this kind of theory does not stand even in the light of common human experience. People are different even at the beginning of their journey. 
Some people might claim that god himself makes us all different. We know very well that every single snowflake is different – why not every one of us humans? But is this the final truth, or is there a secret resource of ripened experience hidden in some unseen layers of human consciousness? The answer here depends upon what kind of period we understand the human life to consist of – of just a short run of few decades or of a much further period: starting from a living soul and ending up as a life-giving spirit, as St. Paul once wrote!
In conclusion we could say that a conscience seems to be a mixture of inborn, learnt and individually developed qualities which very seldom can be defined and testified as ultimate truths. Anyway they serve as useful means of guidance and help to maintain a peace of mind in relation to the community or to oneself.
In most cases the conscience blames and accuses us for breaking the common rules of our community, especially those that are defined as divine. In these cases, it often cries out very loud for somehow it certainly is the voice of masses.
Very seldom it reminds us of all forms of mental uncleanliness and selfish ideas that we are not even going to realize. This sort of highly sophisticated conscience is evidently presented in the so called Sermon on the Mount. It depicts a mind where any sort of unclean ideas are impossible to arise. It is not a question of self-discipline anymore, but a firm state due to a very long process – “a restricted way that leads to life” – if we once again choose to use a biblical expression.
Some of us might think how a person can be led from life to life? The biblical message evidently talks about the kind change in one’s consciousness that leads to an everlasting unbreakable knowledge of one’s ultimate spiritual being which has a clear and sound continuance even after one’s physical death. This kind of consciousness must of course stand above all those things that are dependent on dissolving layers of a human being such as physical body and lower mental activities: common automatic feelings and everyday thinking.
You might say that it is not possible for a human being to exceed one’s feelings and thinking without totally losing one’s mental health. But think again! Maybe a human being is just a bridge which must sooner or later be crossed over – into a far more brilliant way of consciousness and conscience that never again fails for it has found the roots and essence of all. Until then, let us gently watch our conscience so that it brings or shouts us not just the obvious fixed ideas based on our culture but also gives an intuition or a whisper of some deeper knowledge that is to be searched and found from the innermost layers of our soul.





Ei kommentteja:

Lähetä kommentti