Remember the Days of Your Childhood... and SMILE!

Remember the Days of Your Childhood... 

and SMILE!

Ok, that was weird.  I was going over some past blogs (and I've written so little lately that most of my blogs are well in the past) and I noticed that sometimes I didn't recognize the writer.  All my blogs have been written by me (unless I note otherwise) but they either made me chuckle or smile in a way that I didn't realize I could make anyone do, let alone myself.  So that was a fun realization.  

I also noticed that I enjoyed the fun blogs with the funny pictures more - but that might just be me.  I particularly liked Duvet Day Revisited with all the monkeys, but now most of the monkey picture links are broken.  Sorry.  But it did make me think I could use more animals in my blogs - does that go against Vegan principals to use animals for their pictures? 

Anyway, I thought as this blog is called SMILE, perhaps I should stick with the light stuff, the fun stuff, the monkey stuff.  Don't worry, you will still get something to think about - but it will be cleverly disguised as something fun.  Well, that is the aim anyway.  

Until then, smile!

Thank you for reading. For more information on Raja Yoga philosophy see www.brahmakumaris.org.

Is there profit in ethics? Should we care?

I read a business article recently which touted a moral stance but only because it would hurt the bottom line not to do so.  Another reader pointed out this flaw of character in a letter to the editor - that it wasn't moral principles that precipitated the decision but potential profit loss.  It made me take a hard look at myself.  Do I tow the line for morality because it's profitable?  

If I'm to be brutally honest, I can hear my arguments for taking a moral stance in various situations.  There is always a good reason, and the reason is never, 'Because it's the right thing to do.'  I've grown up justifying morality.  I think it started when at some point in my life it was uncool to be moral and I needed to justify my prudishness.  After a while it became habit - as if morality should ever need justification!  But having never grown out of the habit, I continued along that way of thinking until I read that letter to the editor.

Morality for the sake of gain might be a step in the right direction - but to stop there and not consider the prospect of morality for the sake of morality or morality for the sake of the greater good, we sell ourselves short.  Greatness comes when we do things not for our own gain, but for the gain of the world at large.

Should we care about profits?  If our aim is to grow our business, then, yes, we have to care.  If our aim is to uphold the highest principles then we don't need a second rate justification.

Thank you for reading. For more information on Raja Yoga philosophy see www.brahmakumaris.org.