When we are born, we open our eyes to the unknown. Our senses barely manage to weave together the whispers of consciousness, which will take several years to build up solidly. In that primordial origin, which no one can vividly remember, the attitude towards the world around us, including our fellow human beings, is neutrality [i]. Well thought out, it cannot be otherwise, because the practice of good requires a conscious effort to discern what is right to do at each moment of our life, while harmful and negative actions always come from the same source: the failure to understand the nature of the reality to which each of us belongs is a sufficient degree to do good.

There is a small daily miracle that almost always goes unnoticed, but which supports the structure of society in the same way that the thick and extensive roots of a tree hold it upright: the altruistic gesture, the generous support of our fellow human beings. More than ever, now that we live in an age when social media alerts, digital platforms and media, and the pace of life constantly demand our attention, placing us in a context that is increasingly alienated from our spiritual truth, while at the same time this situation awakens narcissistic behaviors in us, the abandonment of selfhood in order to focus on the needs of our fellow human beings and give them the right support allows for a silent and complicit exchange: we acknowledge ourselves as human, not despite our apparent fragility, our mistakes or our stumbles, but because we are human, with all the burdens of our daily hostilities. In other words, our humanity is illuminated when we put ourselves at the service of others. It is only acts of kindness –generosity, gratitude, selfless support, help, well-founded trust, etc.– that can turn our gaze inward.

How is this possible? There is a philosophical, rational and analytical, explanation. The nature of what exists is definite, concrete and independent for each entity that makes it up. This fact, which is the Principle of Existence [ii], contains several truths. One of them is that, since each existing thing possesses an individual, objective truth, accessible through a possible way of knowledge, the truth understood as universal not only exists, but we have the natural duty to try to assimilate it within ourselves, as beings endowed with intelligence and the capacity for reflection that each one of us has. Another of the main truths that emerges from the Principle of Existence is that everything that exists, and by extension everything in general, must have a certain order of being, a way of being in its concrete and definite nature that allows it to be one thing and not another. For this reason, the categorical dream of observing a universal ethics, as conceived in the Western philosophical tradition from Plato to Kant, has a certain basis: the alteration of this order of being represents an imbalance in reality, a measurable damage beyond individual perception, as in the case of living beings in the way dictated by their biology. Therefore, for every entity that exists, for every circumstance that occurs (interactions between existing things), there is almost always a way that preserves the order of being: discerning this tortuous path is the object of ethics.

In the same way, doing good means respecting the right order of things through our actions [iii]. In other words, this involves respect for life, respect for the health of others, respect for their ideas, and even respect for evil when it occurs. Our human duty on the basis of these principles is limited to helping to correct the imbalance when it occurs, simply because it is not appropriate, because it is senseless. It is this irruption of meaninglessness that underpins the practice of kindness.

Nevertheless, there is not just one way to achieve goodness, but at least two, though both converge in their horizons. A very effective one, proposed by most positive religions –by positive I mean those that are oriented towards an ethics, distancing themselves from all identity fundamentalism, not just the Hegelian concept in his essay Life of Jesus– such as Christianity, is that of direct experience. To be good, one must strive to do good. To practice goodness, one must sooner rather than later give up all the boasts of speech and concentrate on offering oneself to this higher purpose to the extent possible. The experience of goodness does not require one to become an anchorite or a person who rejects the zeitgeist, although this person will have to cultivate a certain individualism and judgement in order to construct a way of life that is balanced between the historical time in which they live and their transcendent commitment.

The problem with the path of practicing goodness is that, just like our New Year’s resolutions or our promises to make amends when we are otherwise faced with some daily catastrophe, they quickly fade away in our will for the simple reason that they have a circumstantial framework linked to the moment in which the decision is made. In other words, the blind conviction of an exclusively pragmatic practice, based solely on faith, has only one end, and that is its abandonment. Kindness, not only in our times, but since the beginnings of civilization, is confronted with a very strong feeling of fear in the face of life, which is variable and beyond our control and power. Or is it not the first reproach which we receive from others, and which we ourselves have made at various points in our lives, that we expose ourselves too much to an economic, social or political landscape that lacks mercy? Those who develop the qualities that their society and their epoch consider to be of strong men and women have a greater chance of gaining the kind of respect, goods and gifts that those same societies, at every historical moment, consider to be the fruits of success. The risk is high for those who deviate from the prevailing way of thinking, from the conviviality and communion with the mentality of their era: they may end up unhappy [iv].

The practice of kindness challenges the very fear for our own lives that makes us place our perception of the cosmos and invites us to be fully ourselves as we are. It also invites us to build an identity (i.e., the self-perception we have of our true nature) that is aligned with our essence. The cliché that to do good for others is to do good for ourselves is proven true: by abandoning the fear for our life and being fully ourselves, we maintain our existential balance and help maintain the balance of others.

Thus, one who begins his experience of goodness by the path of direct experience, in order not to become bored by finding no rewards but rather problems in his endeavor, requires a parallel process of reflection. This is the other way of practicing goodness. By striving to know the nature of things and situations, and to discern what is right in the most measured way possible, we understand our surroundings and ontologically unite ourselves, step by step, with the totality of what exists. Mystical experience, as a profound spiritual practice, has everything to do with this process. Knowledge is union with reality, and this is what we call love, understood as the unconditional bond with others. To know, then, is not to accumulate data like someone counting sheep behind a train window, but to integrate the assimilated experience of what we know.

In this process we inevitably find ourselves as Being and Essence. This is why the processes of knowing ourselves and of knowing as such are ultimately one and the same effort. And it is also the reason why, as we come to know reality deeply, we come to understand what is right and discover ethical principles. The practice of goodness is the result of this knowledge as a cumulative and iterative process. The more deeply we understand the mechanisms by which things work, the greater our need to act in accordance with what we have understood them to be, that is, with greater justice, with the desire to maintain them in their proper balance, with goodness. On this intellectual path, the realization of the good builds the need to do that good, because we understand that it is the only way to be in the world. I must remember that every need arises from the recognition of a state of affairs, even if our needs are physiological and childish.

However, there is a third and very Aristotelian middle way: goodness as the fruit of a minimal effort to discern and distinguish the immediate reality that surrounds us, which leads to a certain conscious degree of its practice. The sum of these two ways makes possible the practice of authentic goodness. Happiness resides in the balance of reality, in the practice of maintaining that order which is goodness. Kindness is its own tautological reward.

It is in times of upheaval, political instability and social crisis that goodness becomes a revolutionary practice. As a child of silence, the commitment to maintain an effort of charity, piety, honesty and willingness to help our fellow human beings offers us a perspective of fraternity that evokes the very essence of the human condition. It is the recognition that the cultural, religious or racial differences, to which we attach so much importance, are only a mirage. Beneath the skin of every human being there is only one being who, from his or her natural and comfortable intimate solitude, is searching for his or her place in the world and the fit of his or her nature in a changing context.

Instead of seeing frailty as an enemy to be defeated, we must accept our perceived weaknesses for what they are, the result of comparative judgment. Every human being possesses an individual nature that differentiates us from every other being in existence. No two people are identical, even in attitude. For that reason, just as a hammer is a useless tool if we want to cut wood and a saw is useless if we want to drive nails into a wall, the acceptance of our “strengths” and “weaknesses” is key. Nothing and no one is superior or inferior to anything else by the fact of existing according to the nature it possesses. Depending on the circumstances in which we live, those traits that we consider as fragilities become strengths, and those others that we had assumed as strengths are revealed, in another existential context, as weaknesses. This perception being relative and puerile, why should we constantly measure ourselves against each other, when the measure of all things is found, with respect to our existence, in our own essence, and with respect to reality in its totality, under an objective gaze, through our intellect? Acceptance of our individual nature leads to reflection on ourselves first, and then on other things. Reflection produces knowledge, and that knowledge, union with things; consequently, a sense of justice.

Consequently, the fellow human being in need is a reflection of ourselves. We too, when the time comes –and I assure you it will come to all of us many times in our lives– will find ourselves in situations of fragility. In addition to learning to live with it, shaping our character and embracing fragility as a positive part of human nature, the bond with our fellow human beings is maintained neither by interest– over which the possibility of betrayal constantly hangs –nor by necessity– which is prone to imminent ruptures when circumstances change –nor by fear– if it were, even the state could not exist: we would already have collapsed into a myriad of guerrilla bands struggling for power and neither America, nor Europe, nor the rest of the countries of the world would be possible– nor in the stupor of acquired habit, for if the latter were the case, we would find ourselves in a static society, without science or philosophy, but on the personal and discreet gestures that come from everyday kindness.

The first gesture of kindness we receive from our parents, when our mother decides to carry us and, after the traumatic process of childbirth, offers us her milk as nourishment, wrapping her delicate skin around us and keeping us warm pressed against her breast. Some time later, outside the family, we have the opportunity to make our first selfless gestures: by making friends; we love other people with whom we have not lived and who do not belong to our family clan. Friendship is the highest form of love, because it asks nothing of the friend, man or woman, except that he or she be a friend.

We grow up and enter the turbulent period of adolescence at a time of change, when we begin to detach ourselves from the protective hand of parents and grandparents and begin to seek our own independent space. From this separation from the original family clan comes the opportunity to reach a certain maturity as an adult. We discover our first romantic love, we get our hearts broken and move hundreds or thousands of miles away to study at university, and then to work. Our encounter with knowledge is made possible by our parents’ savings and a system that allows access to higher education not only for the very wealthy. Again, these are the expressions of kindness that build community.

And at the same pace we reach middle age. Work, marriage, children, duties to society, the clamor of a time in which we are constantly warned of dangers that, on reflection, are not there. This or that candidate could disintegrate the country, start a civil war. “End Times,” as the essayist Peter Turchin called it in his recent essay [v]. We are degraded by the dark deeds we have reaped from others during the various stages of our lives. Psychology has confirmed this in several studies, and it is astonishing: we remember the kick of a classmate at school or the betrayal of an old girlfriend more vividly than the affection of our parents, the financial support, the words of comfort, the hand extended to us on so many occasions that we no longer attach the slightest importance to them because of their frequency and triviality.

There are those who plead for a new savior who would be in charge of political, spiritual, religious or social power. Why don’t we dedicate ourselves to simply living instead? Is it so complicated to be ourselves without harming anyone or ourselves? To inhabit the cosmos, to try to gain as much awareness of it as possible, is the only way.

And the only way to do that is to be kind to ourselves and to others. To sow harmony where others call for hatred, to offer prosperity in response to those who call for exclusion, to remain calm in order to present our best disposition. Goodness is not innocent; it does not imply weakness, nor does it make us fools. On the contrary, in a world dominated by fear, it is easy to be driven by selfishness and vehemence. Goodness, on the other hand, implies conscience, will and courage: no one does good because they do not know how to do wrong, but because they have decided to defy fear, to go forward and do what is right, for the common good and for their own good.

 

 

Notes:

[i] When I state that the first human inclination is “neutrality” with respect to oneself and to reality, I am summarizing a first demonstration of my anthropology, which emanates directly from my ontological research.

 

[ii] I define the Principle of Existence as the necessary condition for something to exist.

 

[iii] When I write “doing good” I actually mean “actively and consciously collaborating, in whatever degree of consciousness, in preserving the existential order of the reality”. The good is not tradition or popular consensus, but taking care that what exists is not damaged. For example, in taking care of the environment, in taking care of our family, in helping our unemployed neighbor, if we can pave the way for him to find a job of his interest, etc. As for conduct in society, it means to comply with what is just, that is, with ethical designs over and above civil laws.

 

[iv] A conclusion with complex details, but one could take an epistemic shortcut through Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: the more we distance ourselves from the prevailing worldview of society, the more we are cut off from our fellow human beings. This effect generates, very often, an unwanted loneliness, which produces unhappiness in the individual. There is a directly proportional relationship: the greater the degree of knowledge, the greater the social isolation.

 

[v] Turchin, P. End Times. Allen Lane, United Kingdom, 2023.