- Stages of Morality and its Effects: Lawrence Kohlberg's research identified three stages of moral development: preconventional, conventional, and post-conventional. At the preconventional stage, individuals either act to avoid punishment or seek rewards. In the conventional stage, morality is driven by conformity to societal norms and obedience to authority. The post-conventional stage includes social contract morality and principle-based morality, where individuals act based on their own conscience and intuition. Leo Gura adds a fourth stage, transcendent morality, where individuals fully conscious or enlightened perceive the world as themselves, and approach reality with unconditional love.
- Unconscious Obedience and Moralization: Traditional morality fosters unconscious obedience to rules or authorities, leading to moralization where the reality is divided into good, evil, and neutral. This causes a black-and-white outlook, generating counterproductive behavior such as guilt, shame, victim mentality, righteousness, and anger.
- Not Limited to Religion: Moralization does not just concern religious individuals but atheists or secular individuals too. It is a rigid set of do's and don'ts and a judgmental attitude towards reality. Examples of moralistic sources include Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, political and cultural conservatism, and certain liberal and environmentalist ideologies.
- Moralism in Family, Relationships, and Cultures: Secular forms of moralizing exist in family dynamics - rules laid down by parents create tension and impact adult behaviors. Similarly, partners' differing ideas about rules and fairness lead to conflicts and potentially divorces in relationships. Moralism is also observed in cultural etiquette.
- Consequences of Moralism: Following rigid rules can lead to acting against one's own values and result in anger, suffering, and self-judgment. An individual's reality and morality model is tied to their ego, which defends its identity leading to a rigid and inflexible mindset reluctant to investigate reality. Morality sometimes reinforces this identity and creates barriers, leading to suffering and struggle to maintain a coherent identity.
- Negative Impacts of External Rules and Motivations: External rules and motivations create a fragmented sense of self and denial of one's true desires leading to neurotic motivations and passion deficit in actions. This issue is not limited to religion but pertains to all life areas. Rules and beliefs should be examined and adapted to real situations instead of being blindly followed.
- Ego-driven Morality: Ego derives pleasure from acting moral that feeds the sense of self-righteousness. This escalates the problems associated with ego. Moralizing often leads to hypocrisy seen in religious figures and politicians.
- Effects of Greed and Moralism: Moralizing leads to guilt, shame, judgment, and self-hatred. Unacknowledged greed deteriorates over time rather than improving. The constant judgment of ourselves and others affects our self-esteem and hinders our motivation and actions. Letting go of moralizing is essential for personal development.
- Fragmentation of Society and Chaos: Moralizing results in anxiety, fear, stress, and a victim mentality. It dehumanizes others and prevents moral treatment, contributing to the fragmentation of society and creation of chaos. The opposite of moralizing, integrity, unifies the light and dark aspects of the self, allowing for natural and spontaneous action.
- Transcendent Morality and Reality Acceptance: Transcendent morality moves beyond good and evil, viewing them as part of a childish game. It comes with emotional maturity and is centered on being fully open to reality devoid of human contrivances. Realizing the universe and reality as it is, without the rules of good and evil, helps reduce suffering and acknowledge the unity of the universe.
- Surrendering Control and Illusion of Ego: Giving up the illusion of control over reality and surrendering to it results in the dissolution of the ego, development of universal love and leads to freedom.
- Radical Freedom and No Rules: True freedom means anything goes, and true morality involves no rules, requiring individuals to be conscious of their actions. Religious morality is an imitation of transcendent morality. Conscious individuals do not need mechanical rules while unconscious people require them to prevent chaos.
- Emotions, Neurosis, and Acceptance: Traditional morality has been argued to be based on neurosis causing more harm than good. Shifting from external rules and authoritative figures, a person's own conscience eventually defines their morality. Leading to unconditional love for everything without any ego-driven balances, this narrative proposes discarding old paradigms and embracing new possibilities.
- Moralization in Different Aspects of Life: In the transcript, Leo furthers the discussion of moralism by exploring numerous examples of where these behaviors can manifest. Moralism driven by societal norms, familial obligations, intimate relationships, and self-imposed rules all contribute to creating a rigid framework, which many individuals feel compelled to either conform to or rebel against. These rules begin to take shape in our formative years under the influence of our parents and evolve as we form our own opinions and relationships.
- Moralization in Family: Leo asserts that moralizing in families can create tensions and severely impact one's life. He suggests that rules laid down by parents during our upbringing can carry into adulthood, with individuals either acting in accordance with them or rebelliously refusing to acknowledge them.
- Moralization in Intimate Relationships: According to Leo, moralizing poses severe problems in intimate relationships, with both partners disagreeing on the imposed rules and possibly leading to arguments, frustration, and even jeopardizing the longevity of the relationship.
- Moralization in Cultural Etiquette: Leo mentions that moralism extends into cultural etiquettes, thus governing our day-to-day interactions in micro ways like road behaviors, expressions of politeness, etc.
- Self-imposed Moralization: Leo highlights that the most significant form of moralization comes from within, through the rules we set for ourselves. Our internalized rules act as benchmarks against which we assess both our own actions and those of others.
- The Problem with Moralization: Further in the transcript, Leo identifies the core problem with moralism as not being religious but in its mechanical, unconscious nature. The issue lies with having black and white rules for life and expecting everything to adhere to them, without taking into consideration the nuances of real-life situations.
- Role of Fear and Ego: In defining our morality, Leo asserts that the rules we set are driven by fear, orchestrated by our egos. He likens the ego to a defensive protector of our identity, maintaining the boundaries of our sense of self against a unified reality.
- Impact of Parental Influence: Leo explains that moralistic manipulation starts at our birth, with parents using morality to control their children's actions. This deeply entrenched indoctrination happens at such a foundational level that it shapes our attitudes and responses toward life and people.
- Religion and Moralization: Leo also highlights that moralization isn't always religiousbasic family rules like "don't eat too much candy" or "watch less TV" are forms of moralization set by parents. These rules are initially used by parents to handle situations convenient to them, later evolving into personal beliefs.
- Adolescence and Formation of Morality: During adolescence, despite instances of rebellion, most individuals tend to adopt the majority of the values taught by their parents. These values embed deeply within an individuals mindset and often determine their sense of right and wrong.
- Role of External Rules in Moralization: Moral values taught by parents and society are often entrenched as rules that help achieve certain desired outcomes. However, these external rules can create internal conflicts and intrinsic motivations as individuals grow up, leading to suffering and the struggle to maintain personal identity.
- Implication of Moralization on Motivation and Behavior: Abiding by external rules can distort one's intrinsic motivations, leading them to perform actions out of obligation, fear, or societal norms. This suppression of personal desires and actions can result in psychological fragmentation and loss of self-integrity.
- Shadow Aspect of Ego and Denial of Reality: The ego also has a shadow side, encompassing all the aspects of oneself that individuals deny. Moralizing often leads to hypocrisy, where actions contradict stated beliefs. A denial of reality follows from this, leading to problems as reality inevitably prevails.
- Hidden Pleasure of Moralizing and Self-Righteousness: Moralizing individuals derive a secret pleasure from their actions, basking in self-righteousness. Labeling something as good or evil leads to inevitable actions or repressed desires that contradict the stated moral stance.
- Hypocrisy Inherent in Moralizing: Moralizing can lead to hypocrisy, as seen in several public figures who preach a set of moral values but engage in actions that contradict these. This hypocrisy stems from the denial of personal desires, worsening the very vices that are openly condemned.
- Negative Emotional Consequences of Moralization: Moralizing can result in guilt, shame, hatred, and judgment. Such moral judgments can be both external, towards other individuals, and internal, directed towards oneself. As a result, moralizing often hinders one's self-esteem and self-acceptance.
- Subtle Forms of Moralization: Moralization isn't limited to grand ethical proclamations but also includes small, everyday judgments or rules set for oneself or others. Constant judgment of oneself or others in minor matters of life is a form of moralization that could contribute towards governance of personal behavior and actions.
- Transcendent Morality and its Implications: Transcendent morality is about consciousness of the reality just as it is. The universe, being neutral and lawless, does not have any rules or laws. What is known as good or evil are human contrivances influenced largely by our egos. Leo points out that being open to the way things are helps us to realize that all that exists is what should exist, regardless of whether we perceive it as good or bad.
- Moralizing and its Negative Impacts: When individuals moralize, it leads to feelings of guilt, low self-esteem, and self-hatred because of not accepting certain aspects of oneself. It also causes self-sabotage and motivation issues, resulting from decisions made prior, and can cause feelings of anxiety and stress. This moralizing can take the form of self-righteousness or self-criticism, thereby leading further to the victim mentality.
- Link between Morality and Major Disasters in Human History: Many major disasters in human history, such as the Holocaust, Spanish Inquisition, terrorism, racism, slavery, and more, can be attributed to moralism. When people follow rules mechanically without a deep understanding, they tend to demonize the ones whom these rules are being applied to, leading to inhumane treatment and fractured societies.
- Reality Acceptance and Well-being: Embracing reality as it is, without judgments and labels and without fragmenting it into various categories of good and bad, can lead to emotional maturity and allow for true morality to arise naturally. Leo suggests that good or bad actions or being a good or bad person are constructs of the ego, but in reality, such categories do not exist.
- The Concept of Transcendent Morality: Unlike traditional morality which is based on external rule sets, transcendent morality is about the full acceptance of reality just as it is, without judgments or labels. This requires a radical shift in thinking and may seem threatening for those who have been engaged with traditional moralizing.
- Acceptance of Negative Aspects of Reality: Accepting parts of reality that one might consider 'bad', such as the existence of rape, murder, and other undesirable things or behaviors in society, is part of embracing reality without fragmenting it into good and bad. The reality is what exists and our constructs and fantasies about what should or shouldn't exist have no bearing on reality. Leo discusses the notion that if these things do exist, then they should, meaning that reality is as it should be, which brings about freedom and eliminates unnecessary suffering.
- Different Perspective on Morality: Leo asserts that anything negative or problematic in society, such as murderers, terrorists, pedophiles, etc, should exist because they do exist. The ego's arrogance, ignorant of reality, often gets offended and wants to change the reality based on personal preferences. To transcend towards a higher level of morality, one must recognize and accept what's real and divest their wants and preferences.
- Reality and Judgement: When one fully grasps reality, they will lose the ability to judge others, no matter how malevolent they might seem. Denying reality requires mental gymnastics, justifications, and is ultimately futile as it inevitably results in fighting against reality.
- Understanding of Free Will: According to Leo, there is no free will. Accepting this, one would see reality as it is, a single stream with no alternative options. Therefore, accepting that whatever happened, whether good or bad, is exactly how it should have been.
- Consequences of Struggling for Control: Fighting for control over reality, something one indeed has no control over, results in most of our suffering, stress, guilt, and victim mentality.
- Realization of Total and Radical Freedom: Leo purports that understanding this philosophy ushers in a state of radical freedom as there are no rules. Such a state requires constant consciousness and responsibility. It implies you have all the freedom to do as you please, but being conscious, you do not need rules to abstain from negative actions.
- Moralistic Behavior: Leo confesses that despite having no explicit morality, he considers himself more moral and ethical than most people he meets. He argues that strict rules arent necessary, particularly for conscious people. He believes in developing and raising one's consciousness for tapping into higher wisdom and self-actualization.
- Individual Perspective on Morality: Leo expresses that he does not have specific rules on morality. He lives his life based on his personal understanding of reality, stressing that he behaves morally despite not having an explicit set of rules to guide his actions.
- Leo Gura's personal adoption of transcendent morality: Leo Gura explains that he practices what he preaches, referring to his exploration and adoption of transcendent morality. He believes that he doesn't require fixed rules or commandments to guide his behavior and reports a lack of desire or impulse to harm others. He observes that his propensity to experience anger has substantially decreased compared to others who react negatively to minor inconveniences.
- Transcendent morality and societal acceptance: Leo Gura points out that transcendent morality is not widespread or acknowledged within mainstream society due to its need for a remarkably developed level of consciousness. This isn't a dogma or another set of rules to be mindlessly followed, but something that requires extensive self-actualization work, possibly even decades. He mentions that presenting such views in a public or political environment could lead to intense backlash due to their ego-threatening and counterintuitive nature.
- Objections to transcendent morality: Addressing some objections to transcendent morality, Leo explains that nothing can guarantee the absence of evil acts under any system, including the one he's advocating. He believes that evil is best minimized through integration of personal shortcomings or "sins," and not by outwardly condemning them. Calling something evil, he asserts, is a judgment made by the ego.
- Personal harm and emotional maturity: Gura acknowledges that he would naturally be saddened by someone causing harm to him or his loved ones, however he wouldn't demonize the person. He views this as a result of broader universal dynamics and sees maintaining a high level of acceptance in such situations as a demonstration of emotional maturity.
- Transitioning from traditional morality to transcendent morality: Leo suggests that traditional morality, which relies heavily on external rules and authorities, is based on neurosis and can do more harm than good. He encourages his listeners to open their minds to the new, counterintuitive possibilities presented by transcendent morality.
- Strength of morality and unconditional love: Examining the strength of one's moral compass, Leo challenges the audience to consider how weak their own morality must be if it relies on external rules, authorities, or logical reasonable principles. He establishes that the true source of morality is unconditional love for reality in its entirety, without any exclusions or arrogance.
- Promotion of Actualized.org and upcoming content: Towards the end, Leo encourages viewers to like, comment, and share the video as well as check out his website and signup for the newsletter. He previews the following episode where he plans to address the practical impact of moralizing and how it causes guilt, shame, and self-hatred. He positions this next episode as practical implementation of the abstract principles discussed in the current video to improve the quality of viewer's lives.