What you can do to maintain uprightness

[David Jamieson]

So, it seems that we live in a different world. We certainly have more access to information and so we can see just what said shape our society and our civilization is falling into.

We collectively practice apathy on almost every item of import and within our own communities.

So, as Kungfu people, what can we do to stem this tide and perhaps even turn it around?

Here are my suggestions.

- Interact with your children and refuse to let someone else handle them or deal with their issues and problems. Get involved with them on each and every level f their being from school to their friends to what they watch or listen to.

- Be upright in all you do. Keep your promises, be charitable, be kind, do no harm, do not speak harshly of others and help those in need in an immediate sense. Participate in your community and contribute to it's positive growth.

- Be upright in all your relationships, do not lie, do not cheat and do not steal.

- refuse to participate in the status quo if it is inherently incorrect. Just because everyone is doing something doesn't make it right.

- question with assertiveness the unethical and immoral actions of others. Make it known that you will not accept those actions that harm others in any fashion.

- Have gratitude for everything even the small things.

- say please and say thank you when you are being served, even by a complete stranger and especially to someone who is being rude.

Your example is going to be what changes you and what changes your immediate surroundings. Enjoy it as your positive sense of being rubs off on others and you can see the rewards.

Understand that external influences DO influence. Especially younger under construction minds. Be very careful of your behaviours around teh young. Demonstrate the upright way to each and every person you have the opportunity to do so.

anything to add?
By all means!

:)

[bodhitree]

People have always lied, cheated, and stole, and others have always been apathetic. The only difference is with all the info available, people are apathetic about more things. Nothing really different though....

[SPJ]

internets do change us and the way we live.

actually, on some level we are more isolated.

yes, we may e mail, cell phone, and well connected.

which means may be fewer people to people interaction.

when people may not make it to the church, they may watch the sermon on TV.

now with the internet, we may read the sermon 24/7 and send prayer request via e mail.

without actually going to the church.

--

I still prefer going to the church physically and not in the electronical world.

--

:D;)

[WinterPalm]

If a BJJ guy wants to get you to the ground, there's no way you can stay upright especially if he's a good grappler...oops...wrong thread!:D

Seriously though, doing nice things to people with no expectation of any return whatsoever in any way, done so as to enrich and aid their lives, that is the selfless helping of others.
People can talk all they want on and on and on, but then refuse to give a squigee kid a buck for washing their windows.
Being upright, in my opinion, is helping others and expecting nothing in return as well as holding nothing against them. Doing things for others because you can and you want to as a logical extension of your ability to do something.

I disagree with people that are rude however, I'll just return it to them. I treat others how I want to be treated, and if they treat me poorly, then I will do the same.

[David Jamieson]

It is my experience that when you treat someone who is being rude with kindness, it can effect them to the positive. Of course, this is not always the case, but quite often it is.

If we are to treat those who treat us badly in kind, then we in fact are perpetuating the negative.

[WinterPalm]

It is my experience that when you treat someone who is being rude with kindness, it can effect them to the positive. Of course, this is not always the case, but quite often it is.

If we are to treat those who treat us badly in kind, then we in fact are perpetuating the negative.

Although I tend to agree...to what point is too much, too much? If someone attacks me and I return the violence and defend myself, am I perpetuating the violence as well?
I think if people stand up for themselves and refuse to let people get away with rudeness, etc, then maybe they will change for the better or at least know that maybe they shouldn't treat people that way.

[David Jamieson]

well, as you already know, not everything is black and white and there is mostly shades of grey.

so, we gotta deal with others from the mildly tactless to the completely beligerant in the manner most suitable to each situation.

violence is entirely different from someone being rude to you and of course, again, there are degrees involved to rectifying a situation.

in buddhist tenets, it is acceptable to return, in full, that which you did not ask for, be it a gift or an act of violence. In Christianity, there are many arguments about what to do, but for the greater part, pacifism is where the answer lies.

having said that, compassion shouldn't be beyond anyone, barring psychopaths and sociopaths who are in actuality incapable of empathy on any level because their brains are malfunctioning.

[SPJ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXl5UjSe5sA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf0vJiyeLIo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_e1aVH91Ro&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2jdVeqXQNs&feature=related

music is always a big part.

;):)

[RickMatz]

So, it seems that we live in a different world. We certainly have more access to information and so we can see just what said shape our society and our civilization is falling into.

We collectively practice apathy on almost every item of import and within our own communities.

So, as Kungfu people, what can we do to stem this tide and perhaps even turn it around?

Here are my suggestions.

- Interact with your children and refuse to let someone else handle them or deal with their issues and problems. Get involved with them on each and every level f their being from school to their friends to what they watch or listen to.

- Be upright in all you do. Keep your promises, be charitable, be kind, do no harm, do not speak harshly of others and help those in need in an immediate sense. Participate in your community and contribute to it's positive growth.

- Be upright in all your relationships, do not lie, do not cheat and do not steal.

- refuse to participate in the status quo if it is inherently incorrect. Just because everyone is doing something doesn't make it right.

- question with assertiveness the unethical and immoral actions of others. Make it known that you will not accept those actions that harm others in any fashion.

- Have gratitude for everything even the small things.

- say please and say thank you when you are being served, even by a complete stranger and especially to someone who is being rude.

Your example is going to be what changes you and what changes your immediate surroundings. Enjoy it as your positive sense of being rubs off on others and you can see the rewards.

Understand that external influences DO influence. Especially younger under construction minds. Be very careful of your behaviours around teh young. Demonstrate the upright way to each and every person you have the opportunity to do so.

anything to add?
By all means!

:)

What you're asking isn't so difficult - the answer is to just be a man.

[David Jamieson]

What you're asking isn't so difficult - the answer is to just be a man.

well, this is somewhat true albeit vague. But, the symptoms and results in our society indicate that it is not easy for people either.

what does it mean to "be a man"?

[sanjuro_ronin]

well, this is somewhat true albeit vague. But, the symptoms and results in our society indicate that it is not easy for people either.

what does it mean to "be a man"?

Mean what you say and say what you mean.

[RickMatz]

Here, take a look at this:

What is a Man? by Waller Newel (http://www.amazon.com/What-Man-Years-Wisdom-Virtue/dp/B000GG4GTY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199797745&sr=1-2)

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
What is a man? Good question. According to Waller Newell, a professor of philosophy and political science and a contributor to The Weekly Standard, the last few generations have been "a bad dream" during which the answer to that question has been obscured. Modern representations of manhood as diverse as Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club and David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men are cited as proving his point.

Organizing excerpts from a variety of Western literary sources into eight broad sections--the Chivalrous Man, the Gentleman, the Wise Man, the Family Man, the Statesman, the Noble Man, the American Man, and the Invisible Man--Newell traces what he sees as "an unbroken pedigree in the Western conception of what it means to be a man." What Is a Man? promises to "inspire men and boys to reach for the seemingly lost ideals of honor, heroism and integrity," by providing "a source to which concerned readers could turn for guidance and inspiration, a path back to the wisdom of our shared traditions of manly virtue." This approach will work particularly well if your opinions are closely aligned with Newell's; the inclusions reflect his affection for the traditional conception of the masculine demonstrated by the likes of Sir Thomas Malory and Thomas Bulfinch. But even if your masculine ideal differs, the book still makes for a fascinating compendium. And the omissions are as interesting as the inclusions (definitely no Oscar Wilde, but no Norman Mailer and so little Ernest Hemingway?).

Newell sees the lost hero in all of today's apparently baffled and frustrated men (he even refers to a squeegee guy with a Mohawk as a "road warrior Achilles"). His response to this collective confusion is this book of virtues--a kind of literary companion to Susan Faludi's Stiffed--which he hopes will be not only interesting but instructive as well. --J.R. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Some time ago Shakespeare wrote, "What is a man?" The question remains, still somewhat of a mystery. Newell (political science and philosophy, Carleton Univ., Ottawa) offers countless responses in this highly diversified anthology featuring the opinions of the famousDHomer, Plato, Sir Thomas Mallory, Chaucer, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Aesop, Cicero, Tolstoy, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Hemingway, John F. Kennedy, Shakespeare, of course, and also Anonymous, to name a few. All possibilities of manliness are explored: bravery, chivalry, eroticism, sexuality, aggression, hostility, violence, morality, love, and being a boy, husband, and father. Newell's pithy commentary adds the necessary touch of irony and, yes, insight into the unending search for manliness. What it means to be a man (in any age), with all of its attendant virtues and vices, is a complex subject, not readily agreed upon, understood, or accepted. Newell, with his new collection, suggests persuasively that the quest should continue. Recommended for all public libraries.DRobert L. Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., IN
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

[Black Jack II]

The best way to maintain uprightness is not to tip strippers in loose change. Doing that tends to hurt there self esteem and when that happens the world tends to go downhill in a ball of sloopy chaos.

[richard sloan]

So, it seems that we live in a different world. We certainly have more access to information and so we can see just what said shape our society and our civilization is falling into....

...anything to add?
By all means!

:)

when I took my vows of discipleship, I took them very seriously and decided to make them come alive.

it's been very very difficult, and I would even say financially disastrous, but here is my project. when people fall it is due to two conditions, in my opinion, lack of self awareness and the connectivity of the self to the other...

anyway:

http://www.myspace.com/soulrebellionjamaica

[Shaolindynasty]

What you can do to maintain uprightness

Learn and practice the 4 noble truths and the Noble eightfold path

[SPJ]

we may discipline ourself but may be not others.

1. only noble man may do noble stuff.

confuscious only asked us not do to others that we dun want to be done to us.

we may not pay in kindness toward others, but we would not harm or do bad stuff to others.

2. one's good will and intent may come from nature or born with or upbringing.

meng zi was learning how to cry when they live near a funeral parlor.

so mom moved to a new place near a market, meng zi then learned how to count money and bargaining prices etc.

so mom moved again, this time near a school, so meng zi then learned to love to read and study books.

we may have a good nature but environment and learning or picking up good habits in tender age are also important. or education.

3. few laws may be better.

Qin had the toughest laws, the kingdom was strong and defeated the other 6 kingdoms and united China at the time.

however, the laws were too harsh and brought destruction to Qin empire, there were other factors, too.

simply, the people may not "follow" all the burdens of tons of laws.

so when Liu Bang entered Guang Zhong. Qin army surrendered. Liu was lenient. the first thing he did was to burn all the codes of Qin laws on bamboo sticks.

there were only 3 items of agreement.

no killing, no looting/stealing, and no--

the capital was not in chaos at all,.

--

just to add some thoughts.

;)