As human beings, we all struggle with three moral
realms. These three moral standards
occupy portions of our lives, of our thinking, of our actions, of our
opinions. And they all take up
permanent residence, resisting any change.
The first moral realm is karma, or justice. This is the sense that everyone gets what
they deserve, and that everyone should get what they deserve. We work for pay, the good is praised, the
criminal goes to jail. What we do has a
direct correlation to what we receive.
We know that life doesn’t always work out this way, but in some sense we
think that it should always be this way.
The second moral realm is mercy. This is the necessary putting aside of karma,
to give what isn’t deserved. Whether
children are good or bad, we give them presents at Christmas. We do nice things for our family, whether
they deserve them or not. We see someone
in trouble, and we give them help, even if they can do nothing for us.
Most spiritualities claim that the realm of mercy is
superior to that of karma.
But there is a third moral realm which is older than either
karma or mercy—the moral realm of Ritual.
Ritual is based on the idea that you are, and you become, what you
do. We learn to cook and we make a lot
of mistakes at first, we might even burn some pans to oblivion. As we keep at it, though, especially under
guidance of an experience cook, we get better and then we become a cook. We didn’t become a cook because we were
naturally talented at it, but because we kept at it until people wanted to eat
our food.
The Spiritual life is the regular practice of seeking the
Spirit, a set of rituals we use to meet the Divine. At first, our spiritual practice is like a
toddler taking her first steps—wobbly and without much hope for the
future. But as we persist, the spiritual
life becomes easier and we become a spiritual person. Not by ignoring the other two moralities,
but by having all three moral realms—karma, mercy and ritual be woven together
into our lives, giving us a spiritual whole.
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