Hello my friends,

This week’s verse is on a subject that permeates throughout all of the verses, and indeed throughout all of our lives.

Verse 8 – The Highest Good
The highest good is like water,
nourishing life effortlessly,
flowing without prejudice
to the lowliest places.

It springs from all
who nourish their community
with a benevolent heart
as deep as an abyss,
who are incapable of lies and injustices,
who are rooted in the earth,
and whose natural rhythms of action
play midwife to the highest good
of each joyful moment. (Translation Ralph Alan Dale)

The first thing that seems apparent from this verse is its implication that ‘good’ is actually more natural to us than the effort it takes to be ‘bad’. The right behaviour flows through us like water and we are naturally drawn to being a useful part of our community – in whatever way this feels comfortable to us. (Some people are very good at doing things in a very overt way, actively leading their community, but this is not necessarily of any more use than those who contribute in their own quiet way. Society needs all of us.) Being nasty to people often takes a great deal of effort. We have to go out of our way to cause hurt and upset, whereas a smile takes no effort at all.

The ‘highest good’ does not necessarily fall in with our idea of good and bad as it stands in our (or indeed any) culture or society currently. It transcends this, being for the good of all – bringing peace, contentment and the absence of conflict in its wake. It is only when we stop acting for our own good all the time and remember that we are part of a far larger entity that the ‘highest good’ will be achieved. This is something of a paradox as often if we do what feels best and right for ourselves – and I am talking about gut reaction here, not acting to get ‘stuff’ at the expense of others, but truly acting in a way that makes our souls feel happy – we contribute to the highest good naturally.

I have recently re-read ‘The Restaurant at the End of the Universe’ by Douglas Adams and as I was thinking about this verse a scene came back to me. Zaphod Beeblebrox is taken to face the ultimate punishment inflicted by the universe – he is to be placed in the ‘Total Perspective Vortex’. This machine shows the incumbent just how totally insignificant their life is in the scheme of things. How true this is. We are all so busy thinking that we are the centre of the universe, when really our lives are no more, or less, important than that of any other creature. The only way we can be of any significance is by contributing, in whatever way we can, to the highest good.

This may be as simple as just doing our best everyday to live our lives without bringing harm to others. Each one of us has the ability to contribute towards world peace. Daisaku Ikeda, who is a great teacher of Nichiren Buddhism, says that: ‘A great revolution of character in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, a change in the destiny of all humankind’. This Human Revolution is like a Mexican wave. When one person starts to behave differently, those around them begin to take notice and so on. Regardless of our beliefs is this not a wonderful way to start working towards the ‘highest good’?

Another amazing teacher – Gandhi – said that ‘you must be the change you want to see in the world’. We can all moan about the unfairness and inequality of life but nothing will change if we do not change ourselves.

Another very well known quote, which I do not know the origin of, says ‘if not you, then who: if not now, then when?’ I have been guilty in my life, as have so many of us, of burying my head in the sand and thinking – or at least hoping – that someone else will sort it out. I have now realised that this is not so. The Kahuna of Hawaii (among many other Shamanic Cultures) are very clear that our outer world is a reflection of our inner world. This is also reflected in the Gnostic tenet of ‘as above, so below’ and the Buddhist tenet of ‘Esho Funi’ (the oneness of self and environment). There is an offshoot from the Kahuna known as Self-Identity Ho’opono’pono. This states categorically that we create and are thus responsible for everything we have in our lives and we can only change the ‘evil’ things by taking responsibility for them. They have a mantra of ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you’, which they use in daily life to alter that which is harmful to the ‘highest good’.

For this concept to have developed so widely across faiths and continents (I am sure it is reflected in other belief systems too, but I am sorry to say that I have not yet had time to study them all in depth, but hopefully that will be rectified in the future) there must be a grain of truth in it. I certainly believe that no one but myself is responsible for anything that happens in my life. I cannot blame anyone else for things which happen to me. As much as I would like to point the finger at others and say ‘they made me...’ or ‘if it hadn’t been for...’ I know that this does not help in any way. I also know that I am the only person who can do anything about it. Every choice I made in my life was made by me not anybody else.

This realisation also helps me to respect everyone I come into contact with – no matter how difficult I may find them and no doubt they find me. I know how amazing they are in their own rights. There is no one who does not contain an inner beauty – even the biggest despot loves his family or his pet – it is just a case of looking for it.

I know I still have an immense distance to travel on my journey to act only for the ‘highest good’, but then I am not sure if we ever reach the destination; and if we did I wonder what would happen. Do we just dissolve into nothingness; rejoin the collective consciousness and lose our ego entirely, or do we just start all over again. I think I may have a fair few lifetimes to go before I find that out!