What Is Natural Law? Part I

Individual Value, Right Action, Cause and Effect and Objective Truth.

Natural Law is a foundational, monumental and kaleidoscopic subject. A defining characteristic of reality that can be explained in a brief paragraph and summed up in a few words, yet which brings with it such a wealth of implication and explanatory power that it is a challenge to know where to start and end. To claim adequate knowledge and wisdom to explain what Natural Law 'is', while my own understanding is constantly evolving, seems hasty at best. And yet, Nature has furnished me with a deep longing for Truth and freedom, some degree of insight, a voice, and - as you’ll read - an imperative to use it. Take whatever here is True, and leave the rest.

Everything that is evil teaches people that they have limited value.

~ Jeremy Locke

I’ll begin with a bold claim intended to refute the paradigm of you and I as limited beings:

The ultimate achievement of the individual conscience is universal enlightenment.

By which I mean: the end of falsity; the freedom of all; the elevation of humanity to our highest potential; heaven on Earth. As I see it, this is the only worthwhile reason for philosophical endeavour and for the study of Natural Law: to end delusion and man-made suffering. To collectively perceive reality accurately and to act in alignment with that perception. The idea that heaven on Earth is impossible or impossibly distant is just an idea - and a crappy one. We define the limits of our imaginative capacity. For myself, I choose the highest goal I can conceive of.

Only through coming to understand - to stand under - The Law of reality, can we align our actions with it and help others along the path toward a world of reason, manifesting the free and moral existence that children and humane beings innately understand is only a mindset away.

The understanding of Natural Law is centred on bringing our own conscience into alignment with objective morality. This means definitively knowing which behaviours are rights because they do not cause harm to other sentient beings, and which behaviours are wrongs because they do.

~ Mark Passio

But the avoidance of wrong action is only one aspect of Right Action. I consider there to be a lower and a higher realm of Right Action, both of which have a feminine and masculine aspect.

The lower realm, relating to the ego, or lower self, consists of refraining from doing harm (the feminine aspect) and of defending the natural Right of oneself and others (the masculine aspect). The higher realm, relating to the higher Self, extends both these reponse abilities to the full extent of their capacity, requiring the True seeker of enlightenment or spiritual advancement to broaden their sphere of enquiry and ambition: they must employ the feminine aspect in acknowledging and seeking to understand how and why delusion and immorality persist. They must employ the masculine aspect in determining - and taking - those actions which will be most effective in dispelling delusion and initiating a return to moral living.

This highest expression of Right Action consists in genuinely perceiving - and acting in accord with - the responsibility (response ability) inherent in the possession of material form and a conscience. Sadly, at present, this response ability is utterly lost on most.

Our actions determine the result. But humanity inhabits such a delusion of victimhood that this irrefutable Truth rings hollow. “What can I do?” is the familiar refrain. The answer is simple: choose as your prime motivations:

1. The accurate comprehension of reality.

2. The implementation of all actions inspired or impelled by such comprehension.

   This is the way to enlightenment. This is the way to heaven on Earth.

The world is simpler than it pretends.

~ Jeremy Locke

So, what is Natural Law?

Things change. Natural Law does not. It is the framework in which change takes place; the way that temporospatial change occurs; the defining pattern of change itself.

Without exception, man’s ‘laws’ are arbitrary and false. Whether they occasionally align with Natural Law is irrelevant. Nature’s Law is THE unbreakable LAW; that which determines the consequence.

It is called God's Law; Moral Law; Universal Law; The Mystic Law; The Real Law; Karma; The Tao; The Law of Freedom; The Law of Consequence, and simply; Cause and effect.

If it can be defined as simply as ‘cause and effect’, one might wonder why it is so crucial to contemplate and deepen our understanding of it. Isn’t cause and effect a banal fact of life?

The reason is that the effect of an action extends beyond that which is immediately evident. This broader effect may be referred to as the hidden, moral, spiritual, or latent effect. In the lower realm described above, the latent effect can be measured in terms of harm caused or averted. In the higher realm, it is rightly measured in terms of the delusion ultimately reduced or increased by a given action.

Note that these are practical considerations. The common misconception of the spiritual as that which transcends the crude material world is a key and toxic aspect of humanity’s delusion. It is one’s physical actions which determine one’s moral or spiritual standing, not one’s intentions - no matter how well meaning and ‘spiritual’ those might be. Avoiding the initiation of actual harm and minimising collusion with preestablished immoral (harmful) conditions in the real world are the primary concerns of the conscientious humane being. The second of these is by far the most challenging, since we inhabit a world in which grotesquely immoral preconditions make up the structure and substance of the familiar world - the very ground we walk on. To establish a path of Truth in a world of lies is to embark on an arduous journey of deep deprogramming, setting a permanent course that is diametrically opposed to the tide of society, provoking its profound discomfort and inviting outrage, ostracisation and ridicule. Of course, this is not to imply that wisdom lies in contrarianism, but that, as Brecht wrote, “Truth is, by its very nature, at war with the forces of falsehood and deceit.”

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti.

While strong feelings commonly accompany questions of wrong, right, good and evil, it is important to understand that emotions have no bearing on the objective morality of a given action. Strong emotions may or may not accompany both moral and immoral actions. They are certainly not reliable indicators of the Truth. It is encumbent on us to discern and to seek alignment with objective morality, and to reject emotional appeal as the basis for action. This is not to suggest that emotion is worthless. On the contrary, it is an invaluable aspect of discernment - when assimilated in alignment with reason and tempered with self reflection and consideration of the subconscious.

In the next installment I’ll clarify my understanding of objective moral principles, endeavour to diagnose the prevailing insanity of humanity and ask why Truth is so uncomfortable.

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