values and philosophy of life

Your philosophy of life is your guide for living. It always must include a set of values to live by, and a sense of which are more important than others.

Value relates to the intrinsic worth of something. And since everything has some intrinsic worth because of its soul, everything has value. But our set of values will be relative to the importance we give to something – that is, what it is worth to us.

Whatever we find of value is worth spending time and energy on. In fact, if we value something it demands our time and energy. Some things that we value conflict with other things that we value. For example, we might value our job which demands a lot of time and attention, and we also value our family which also demands a lot of time and attention. These are conflicts that need to be resolved. When we don't pay attention to the conflicts, our conditioning determines which values we give more time and energy.

There are three kinds of values we need to be aware of because they all influence us and if we do not recognize either their presence or their necessity in our life, we will experience conflict and not be able to do anything about it.

1. Universal values
2. Cultural values
3. Personal values

1. Universal Values

These values are common to all human beings by virtue of the fact that we all have a human soul and a spiritual soul. Universal values are aspects of consciousness, or are soul qualities that emanate from our essence. Because for most of us they are not easy to attain we think of them as ideals rather than as values we can actually live by. They are not easy to manifest consistently because they are universal and most often we are personal. When we are personal we are somewhat egotistical and frequently motivated by unconscious survival mechanisms. Cultural values also frequently contradict universal values.

Some universal values are:

Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Cooperation, Unity, Happiness, Peace, Love, Acceptance, Kindness, Justice, Courage, Honesty, Respect

2. Cultural Values

Cultural values are the values that people in a society or culture have in common. They are not typically universal nor personal, but collective. They are usually unconscious and therefore influence people without them being aware of it. A common example would be that success is a measure of an individual's worth, and success is measured by a person's ability to acquire wealth or wield power. So even if we have no personal tendency that reflects this cultural value, our subconscious is affected by it. We might feel that it is a preferred value, or that if we have conflicting values to this that there might be something wrong with us. It can undermine our efforts in other directions.

We need to become conscious of the cultural values that prevail in our society and how they might be affecting us – especially becoming aware of the universal values that they contradict or our personal values that might be in conflict with them.

3. Personal Values

Our personal values are a result of both conditioning and our level of consciousness. They are neither good nor bad, right nor wrong, unless they contradict a universal value. Personal values can be values of the personality or an emanation from soul. When they are only of the personality they can be egotistical, limited and conditional, whereas values emanating from soul, and therefore universal, are altruistic, unlimited and unconditional.

When we experience conflict between a personal value and a universal value, we are inwardly conflicted because we are pulled in opposite directions. The personality is pulling one way, the soul the other. The goal of all experience in our personality is integration with soul. When we inhibit this process, tension results.

When there is a value conflict in our life, we intuitively know it, and we intuitively know which value must prevail. Sometimes we choose not to listen to our inner guidance and deepen the conflict or tension. When we do this, we typically use some justification for our lesser choice – some defence mechanism – so that we can temporarily ease our guilt for making a decision for something of lesser value.

Summary

• Your philosophy of life is your guide to living your dreams and fulfilling your purpose.

• You must know what your personal values are and you must align them with universal values if you are to have inner peace or grow in consciousness.

• You also must know what cultural values are influencing you, when they are influencing you and to what extent they undermine your adherence to universal values.

• When you respond to preferences you have, become aware of what values are reflected in those preferences. Are they values that are most meaningful to you or are they part of your unconscious conditioning that ultimately inhibits your development of consciousness?

Exercises: 1. In the work that you do is there good opportunity to express your personal values? 2. Is there a conflict between the values of your work and your personal values? 3. Is there a conflict between the values of your work and universal values? (If you can't answer these questions regarding 'work' then substitute the word 'lifestyle.')