We all have our set of moral, social, psychological, ethical and aesthetical values which we developed along our life time. Some people are very passionate about their principles, and will do whatever it takes to protect and defend them. Others don’t have strong feelings regarding their principles, but we all, appreciate some things more than others and have ideas about something in one direction or another.
How did we come to care about something and not another? What played a role in our appreciation towards something? How do we attribute value to something and disregard another?
Our way of understanding and perceiving something as valuable, depends on a lot of factors. Values are difficult to define, for they are as comprehensive as our human nature. But the way we perceive something as worthy is definitely influenced by society. Every day we are saturated by thousands of advertisements, which try to sell us something. We give value to products, and by acquiring them, we think we will have more value. We define ourselves by the things that we own.
Just the other day I heard a man singing something on the street, something about his value and that it could be found in his pocket and wallet, and made me a little sad. I started to think about society’s influence on our whole morality, our set of principles and that almost all of us have some twisted way of perceiving and interpreting what is good or bad. I do not know what is good or bad, but I really think and believe that the measure of a human being is not defined by the things that he owns and possess.
We should try to analyze our values and principles, and if they benefit others and not only ourselves we should reinforce them. Being so hard to measure them it is difficult to discern from right and wrong, and sometimes we cannot turn to our heart and discern from there because we aren’t really used to listen to it.
We should try to overcome our selfish, egoistic way of perceiving reality by encompassing everything within ourselves.
Most of us judge the rest of people and their behavior, but we should keep in mind that we are not better than the other, it’s just the way we developed. We had access to education and knowledge in different proportions; we were influenced by other environmental factors and other people, so we perceive reality in many ways and not in its true form. We can perceive only what enters and it’s analyzed by our five senses, which is very limited.
Culture plays a very important role in our understanding and interpreting good or bad. We are influenced by society, environment and by the people that surround us. People that spend time together tend to have similar set of values and ideas.
I think that a healthy, evolving life would be one in which we are continuously analyzing ourselves, our concepts and ideas concerning life and the whole human experience. We should be mindful about our moral choices throughout the day, even the apparently trivial ones and chose according to virtues. We should actively cultivate a concern not only for ourselves and family, but for the whole humanity.
In order for our society to evolve and to return to what truly matters, there has to be a revolution, but it has to be a revolution of consciousness!
Universal human values are defined as those values which help man to live in harmony with the world. For realization and maintaining our highest values are needed our most important human virtues. These virtues should guide us in our relationships with each other.
Love, compassion and the search for truth should be in everyone’s heart and mind. The cultivation of human values alone can guide us into a more conscious, aware state of mind.
Self-education of human values is also possible by meeting, learning, and reading about, great individuals living a holistic life. We can feel the writer’s, the artist’s, the creator’s intention in everything just by listening carefully, tuning to the right frequency.
We can connect to a higher consciousness, the consciousness that manifests itself through everything and in every possible way. We need to tune in and connect to it, making ourselves vessels for proper reception of the light.
