August 8, 2025
When the superficial brain thinks that it sees death as inevitable, a person may become irresponsible. But, if the innermost being sees the inevitability of death as clearly as you see this paper [or computer screen], then the pursuit of pleasure or power here on this earth becomes meaningless, too. You are not interested in heaven nor in a happy life in the next incarnation, but neither are you interested in the pursuit of pleasure here and now, as you see that death puts an end to all that. If you are not interested in doing what someone else considers good, you are also not interested in what that someone else considers as evil either. You are not interested in self-denial nor in self-indulgence. Self-indulgence is as meaningless as self-denial or service of others, though some people have asserted that the former is evil and the latter is good.
When you realize that death puts an end to all this, you live without being torn between these concepts of good and evil, right and wrong. Such a life is virtue. In it there is no violence, competition and all that has characterized the destructive life-style, miscalled civilization.