Revolution Towards Virtues E-Book

Edu Casão

• Herausgeber: CASÃO
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 209

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Casarotto delivers to his reader something really powerful: an opportunity of awareness, self-discovery, and evaluation, capable of enhancing those who already were seeking changes, as well as awakening to the virtues those who were asleep. In both cases, it delivers the state of surveillance with regard to the attitudes we print every day in the universe around us, making us critics of ourselves and aware about how much we need to evolve, which is already worth it. From the day I made contact with this content, many things changed direction, while others became irrelevant. This is a book for who seeks "tiding their closets" by getting rid of everything that has been built up during years of conditioning and addictions and that is heavy, superfluous, takes up space and needs to be disposed of, resting what really matters: a state of lightness capable of enriching the way we see and deal with the other and the world. When we really work hard on this cleaning, what is left is the understanding that we are privileged by the simple fact that we have a life, which is something great and invaluable. Casarotto directs his years of research, studies, and conclusions to people who are humble to recognize that they have a little knowledge, that they have much to learn, and that they will help to build a new world that day by day becomes more necessary and urgent. I hope that they are many. Ari Nicolosi

Leseprobe

Author: Eduardo Casarotto (Casão)

Cover: Rafael Amarante

Layout: Eduardo Casarotto (Casão)

Editing: Bêtania Monteiro Cielo

Printer: AgitPrint

Dados Internacionais de Catalogação na Publicação (CIP)(Câmara Brasileira do Livro, SP, Brasil)

Casarotto, Eduardo

Revolution towards virtues [livro eletrônico]: being more human / Eduardo Casarotto; [adaptação Bêtania Monteiro Cielo; ilustrações Rafael Amarante; tradução Smart Traduções]. -- Bragança Paulista, SP: Ed. do Autor, 2019.

15 Mb; ePub

Título original: Revolução das virtudes.BibliografiaISBN 978-85-918906-4-4

1. Crescimento espiritual 2. Desenvolvimento pessoal 3. Ética 4. Evolução humana - Filosofia 5. Moral 6. Teoria do conhecimento 7. Valores 8. Virtudes I. Cielo, Bêtania Monteiro. III. Amarante, Rafael. IV. Título.

19-28458 CDD-179.9

Índices para catálogo sistemático:

1. Virtudes: Ética     179.9

Maria Alice Ferreira - Bibliotecária - CRB-8/7964

Revolution Towards Virtues. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Under the terms of copyright laws, it is prohibited to reproduce this book, either totally or partially, as well as to produce booklets from its content, either digitally or physically, without the written consent of the author.

SÚMARIO

INTRODUCTION

WHY “EVOLUTION TOWARDS VIRTUES”?

THE MANKIND’S EVOLUTION RANGES

RESISTANCE MECHANISMS

THE FOUR SENTIMENTS

MORAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

INDIVIDUATION

HUMILITY

ACCEPTANCE

ETERNITY

PERSEVERANCE

FAITH

HELPING OTHER PEOPLE

A POSITIVE EXAMPLE

WE ARE ALL ONE

PURENESS OF HEART

ABNEGATION

MEEKNESS

PATIENCE

RECONCILIATION

NON-JUDGMENT

FORGIVENESS

BROTHERLY LOVE

HONESTY

RETURNING GOOD FOR EVIL

HONORING YOUR FAMILY

DETACHMENT

SEARCH FOR IMPROVEMENT

TAKING CARE OF YOUR BODY

FLEXIBILITY

EQUALITY

OPTIMISM

GOOD MOOD

LOVE TO NATURE AND ANIMALS

USEFULNESS

BROTHERHOOD

RESPONSIBILITY

TRUTHFULNESS

GRATITUDE

SKILLS PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

FEAR OF CHANGE

FEAR OF HAPPINESS

THE MATHEMATICS OF UNIVERSE

HUMANIZATION

THE THIRD SKILL

TO THE WORLD LEADERS

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

THE WORLD IS GETTING BETTER

REFERENCES

Grattitude

I am grateful I am aware of being just an instrument.

I thank my dear wife and my son for giving me the greatest happiness I could feel: their presence in my life.

I thank every person who was on my side throughoutthe production of this work: your help was essential.

Thank you!

Who am I in this crazy worldSomething is missing inside meWho is the true self inside meMy true self no longer lives hereThat’s the question that teases meNot everything is bad, many thingsAre all in my head

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever wondered what the meaning of life is? What is the reason why we are here? In this country? In this family? With this body and this appearance? Why do I have the difficulties I do? These are the most important questions you can ask yourself. In this book, I will answer it directly and quickly. The main reason is: we have to evolve, to become less primitive and more human through the development of human virtues. Most importantly, I commit myself to explain how and why!

I found that reason after I asked myself: "Which aspects do all religions in the world agree with?". The answer I found out after over 15 years of research was: we are on Earth in order to evolve our virtues. Because of it, every kind of situation happen to our lives. The neuroses and difficulties we have help us towards our evolution. This book is totally dedicated to helping you understand what virtues are, as well as the ways to improve each virtue, which we will call here "human skills".

All the problems in the world, hunger, social inequality, racism, environmental issues, war, poverty, and everything else you can imagine, are symptoms of the level of virtues of people who inhabit this planet. Fighting against everyone and everything and reaching a solution seemed the right thing to do. Not that fighting is wrong; on the contrary, but this does not solve the problem. When we became more human, these problems will no longer exist.

People seek happiness in the world, in objects, in social positions, in relationships; however, they still feel empty. What some people haven not understood yet: we killed our happiness at the moment we wish it. The source of our wishes is the search for being approved, or else, in our primitive instincts. This work shows the paths of human evolution towards a full, healthy, complete life.

The search for completeness and fullness, which is known as “happiness” in most cultures, consists on understanding that we are all one, on living connected with everyone and everything, on feeling that nothing is missing. If we are proud and selfish, we put people away and lose our capacity of staying connected. The search for peaks of emotion is not natural: the human path is the path of emotional stability and balance. The winner seeks to achieve a peak of emotion from the acknowledgment and self-confidence overestimated on himself. However, this peak of emotion has an end, so you need to seek another peak and so on. Happiness is far from that: happiness is fullness and completeness, and this is achieved by connecting yourself to everything in the universe. Happiness is not the search for something; it is the absence of search, the absence of internal and external conflicts.

We are exposed to a cruel system since the moment we are born. The system alienates you from your true SELF, imprisons you by selling you the idea of consumerism and success. You do not have TIME, the time to see yourself and the others, to see the simple things that really bring meaning to life. Meditate, be in contact with nature, listen to relaxing music, and seek self-reflection every day. The first thing that someone who is controlled by the system may think while listening to this advice is: "I don’t have time". This person prefers to spend about two hours on meaningless social networks instead of taking one hour of the day for making some self-reflection.

Much has been said about the Evolution Towards Virtues, known by religions as “moral evolution”. Even if you have heard about it in churches and temples, have you ever asked: “How much have I evolved until now? Besides, what and how much is expected for me to evolve? What are the points expected of me?" If you have asked yourself these questions, I imagine it has been hard to answer, isn’t it? What is the parameter for making an analysis like that? What, how much I evolved, and how much will I still have to evolve? These questions are not easy. Clarifying them is the main purpose of this work. But, I must say in advance that our evolution can be measured by our good actions.

The fullness of our heart comes in our actions: how I treat the leper, how I treat the dying person, how I treat the homeless. (Mother Teresa of Calcutta, No Greater Love, São Paulo, 2007)

I see people speaking of how evolved they are, but, who told them that? How did they reach this conclusion? What criteria did they use? In this book, you will find a detailed assessment of all points which should be improved in a person so that you can evolve. How can I be sure of what these points are? Our parameters were taken from religious texts of the biggest religions in the world such as Christianity, Kardecism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Hinduism, among others. We took canonic boks as a basis, from the Holy Bible to the Mahabharata. For who do not know this wonderful book, it is the literature’s longest epic poem which narrates the story of a dynastic dispute which ends in a terrifying battle. Written in Sanskrit, it was composed during a period of about 400 years, between II B.C. and II A.D. Some researchers still indicate a more remote period, from about 1,400 B.C. According to the Hindus: "If it is not in the Mahabharata, it is not anywhere".

… The composer of the Mahabharata portrayed the actions of the warriors in both a heroic and moral context, and it should be understood as a re-enactment of a cosmic moral confrontation, not simply as an account of a battle. Unlike our Western historical philosophy, which looks for external causes - such as famine, population pressure, drought - to explain the phenomena of war and conquest, the epic bard views the events of the war as prompted by observances and violations of the laws of morality. The basic principle of cosmic or individual existence is dharma. It is the doctrine of the religious and ethical rights and duties of each individual, and refers generally to duty ordained by religion, but may also mean simply virtue, or right conduct. (Mahabharata: retold by William Buck, São Paulo, 2014)

It is undeniable that the greatest religious texts make clear what is expected from us. It is necessary just to pay attention and you will realize that all of them agree with all the points addressed in this book, which we will discuss now. Another guiding principle for this book was my studies on the greatest psychology, psychoanalysis, and philosophy thinkers in several lines such as: Freudian, Lacanian, Kleinian, Jungian, behaviorist, and neurology.

First of all, I have to say that understanding that people are not within the same evolution range is extremely important to grasp human relations. So, I dedicated a good part of my studies on variations on evolution ranges. In other words, what evolution ranges people fit in.

I made this effort because I realized that the search for yourself, that is, what SELF is and is not, is extremely important, since only the individual who is aware of his SELF can live his purpose, and then transcend and connect with the world.

It is very urgent for society to become more human, as a society without mankind will not exist in the future. We all should, as Confucius said, worry about our evolution:

The Master said, That I have not cultivated virtue, that I have learned but not explained, that I have heard what is right but failed to align with it, that what is not good in me I have been unable to change – these are my worries. (Confucius, Analects of Confucius of Confucius, Porto Alegre, 2012)

While reading religious texts, many people even do not realize how great these works are: people just read by opening the pages at random, like if they were consulting a mystical, protective supreme force which will help them open the book exactly on the page where there is the answer for what they need.

This really happens, but these works were not meant to be sources of quick answers for problems in life. We have to study religious texts even more deeply, we have to understand and practice what these sacred works offer us as guideline.

The role of being a father, mother, friend, neighbor, classmate, lover, brother, is actually a great opportunity to train all these virtues. We are still crawling like babies in terms of evolution because we worry about our daily survival and its related issues. Evolution needs to be a priority in our lives. Evolving requires much individual effort; thus, focus and dedication are essential for our development.

In this book, I will bring, besides the quotes taken from religious texts, quotes said by marvelous people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Chico Xavier, people who unquestionably made charity works and had much faith. I consider that these quotes are important to the reader so that he knows literally what was said by these wise people!

I wish from the bottom of my heart that this work may bring you all that it intends to. Good reading and good development!

If we undertake to improve ourselves and our own path, we can be sure that the Divine Providence will provide us the best. (Chico Xavier, Paciência, Brasília, 2013)

The mind lies to us So that reality doesn’t kill us I disconnect from the world and I wonder Inside here I can find myself

Human virtues are elements which build and complement the personality of individuals throughout life. Through the construction of values, we learn to grasp behaviors from the morally positive lessons and references within the environment we live in.

Guide them with virtue and align them with li and the people will have a sense of shame and fulfill their roles. (Confucius, Analects of Confucius, Porto Alegre, 2012)

Three fields of study took me to the same conclusion on human development path: this path starts in the Evolution Towards Virtues. The fields are:

• Religious studies (spirit);

• Neurological studies (body);

• Psyche studies (mind).

Religious studies have a very simple logic based on the following question: “Which points do all religions agree with?”. Even that this question is simple, the path to find a conclusion was very hard, starting from the large number of religions in the world: about five thousand.

This study excluded the doctrinal aspects in which religions differ from each other. I tried to focus on the question “What is the purpose of man on Earth?”. The answer I found was something that all religions agree with: the man in on Earth to evolve his virtues and become a better human being. Then, I made a second more detailed analysis on what virtues are taught on religious texts, that is, what are the virtues and what all religions agree with. The virtues I found on this process are substantiated the fifth chapter of this book, Moral Development Assessment Instrument. With this book, the reader will be sure on what religions really expect of us, and the instrument will be capable of measuring how evolved we are, thereby giving us a direction on what exactly we need to work on our evolution.

It is not man’s duty to develop all his faculties to perfection; his duty is to develop all his Godward faculties to perfection and to suppress completely those of contrary tendencies (Mahatma Gandhi, The Pathway to God, São Paulo, 2014).

Each religion proposes a path to develop these virtues and, so I could conclude on which would be the best path, I tried to substantiate my studies and scientific methods. Neurological studies, especially concerning the frontal lobe, were essential for my research. Even that spiritual world knows much more than what was discovered by science when we find convergence points, that is, when we find out when science and spirituality agree with each other, we feel more safe with the information.

It is important, first of all, to understand a little more in some brain areas so that we understand human virtues more clearly.

We will start from the most primitive brain structures to the most evolved ones. Let’s start with the brain stem, or reptilian brain, responsible for the input and output of afferent and efferent information, and responsible for self-preservation and species preservation behaviors.

That is the origin of our instincts, whereas the four main instincts are: survival, sexual desire, competition, and protection.

Do you think that you are well-evolved and no longer has the instinct of competition? Well, I’ll give you an example… In a parallel with the Oedipus complex and the corporate world, let’s suppose that a father has the primitiveness of competing with his son due to his instinct of competition. Now, imagine what he is capable of doing if he takes on a leading position at a company. If a mother, for the same reason, competes with her daughter, imagine what she can do to a workmate.

Let’s continue with the limbic system: the limbic lobe constitutes the core which motivates our tendencies, desires, and emotions. Neurologist Raul Marino states in his book A religião do cérebro that this part “connects us to the Creator and the meaning of the world.

Next, we have the neocortex, which is constituted, among other structures, of frontal and temporal lobes and their adjacent connections. It is responsible for the synthesis of all information consciously processed by the reptilian brain and the limbic system. The frontal lobe allows us to think abstractly, making us different from animals. The frontal lobe is responsible for philosophical, ethical, or religious thoughts. Dr. Raul Mariano describes that:

Brain functions responsible for the abstract thinking made us really human and allowed us to evaluate nature from each experience and to learn with it. These functions allow us to plan, foresee, and forecast the future, to make choices, to exercise our free will, and to make logic and symbolic answers for sensory Date. They even make us realize past and future, evaluate cause and effect, plan goals, and analyze the sense of things such as Spirituality, time, and eternity, by orchestrating everything I already showed you that makes us really human. We become human through interaction and relationship towards other people by loving those who we belove, wishing them spiritual growth and sympathizing with them when they are in pain. The frontal lobes can be considered one of the responsible for the sublime feeling of love, charity, faith, and hope. Love, in its highest form, would be a creative transformation of our answers towards the other. Brotherly love would be a way to exercise influence on the affection sentiment we feel. (Raul Marino, A Religião do Cérebro, São Paulo, 2005)

The frontal lobe was the last part of the brain to develop during the evolution process and to join the structure that already existed. It is worth emphasizing that it is the largest part, occupying one-third of the skull, and is the most important of the four lobes of the brain, due to its functions.

Besides the frontal lobe, we have the right and left temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes. It is said that the right temporal lobe is the part which communicates with the spirituality and the energy world; but, besides these affirmations, there is no reason why focusing this area only, even that its functions seem so attractive. I would rather focusing on the frontal lobe, as through it we can evolve and work on the evolution of our virtues. Towards evolution, we will automatically connect more intensely to the universe and the spiritual world. It is very important for people to understand that the path to connect and transcend is not by seeking mystical rituals and things like: only the development of virtues can lead to transcendence, not the contrary.

The path towards connection and transcendence is not in mystical rituals and things like: only the development of virtues can lead us to transcendence, not the contrary.

The frontal lobe performs an important function with regard to the future planning and the decision making, differently of the brain stem, responsible for the instincts: here, we are distinguished from animals. It is clear that the frontal lobe is responsible for our virtues, and when we stimulate and develop virtuous behaviors, we are stimulating and developing this area of the brain. The brain is kind of a muscle: the more you exercise an area, the stronger this area will become. In other words: you will build more neural connections and paths.

Our brain is a learning organ. Neuropsychology tells us that we can train our brains like we train our muscles. In this way we can be consciously recipient to the fine and the good, we can influence our brains positively and overcome what is negative. With the aid of mind and spirit, we can change our brains for the better. (Dalai Lama, Ethics is More Important than Religion. Rio de Janeiro, 2018)

In order to evolve, we have to stop being driven by our brain stem and the limbic system, so we can think and act by using our frontal lobe. In other words, we have to stop primitively and emotionally and act with what I call "moral intelligence", so we can employ the virtues. The term “moral intelligence” is being used by several thinkers and researchers of the area and is commonly used to define an intelligence linked to spirituality. The term itself is not important, as it is becoming common sense despite plenty of different meanings. It is important to understand that moral intelligence is achieved when our conduct is not primitive. When we have control of our primitive instincts and emotions, we can act with true love and charity. That way, we have the possibility to stop being proud and selfish and to think of others.

Think about it: if practicing moral intelligence consists of stimulating the frontal lobe, stimulating the frontal lobe is actually what religions have told us to do for thousands of years. We have a point of convergence and agreement: both science and religion agree that a human being evolves if he develops his virtues. We need to develop moral intelligence, but we will not make it from religion only.

Religion is no longer enough. Now, secular global ethics is more important than classical religions. (Dalai Lama, Ethics is More Important than Religion. Rio de Janeiro, 2018)

In addition to my studies on religion and the brain, I need to tell that I have researched psychoanalysis for some time, and I committed myself to research the impact of virtues on neuroses. That is when I had a fantastic surprise.

The individual is neuroticbecause he is still primitive.

I figured out that pride and selfishness and their variables and derivations are the center of all human hindrance and, consequently, are the cause of the majority of neuroses.

Practical example:

I’m going to ask you a question: can he heal a neurotic just by working on his virtues? Yes. I am going to give you an example that I give to my students who just began psychoanalysis. Do you know what oral-sadistic is? It is an attention sucker, an attention vampire. It is that person who makes itself dependent on the other, who loses the job, who does not thrive in life and gets dependent on someone else so that he feels cared and sheltered. Everything comes from maternal rejection. In classical psychoanalysis, the treatment would be by approaching such rejection. However, I believe that in this traditional approach, the attachment point is under treatment, that is, the emotional hole that rejection left on the individual.

The original hole cannot be reconstructed, holes are attachment points at where the individual is stopped; everything he does or does not is directly or indirectly associated with this attachment point.

From this hole, from this attachment point, the individual with this pathology created a personality: a selfish, manipulative, childish persona. The therapist who is aware of the virtues will deal with the patient’s issue by teaching the individual what attachment point is what their functions and effects are, but the therapist will never try to re-imagine scenes of rejection. He will never try to justify the maternal rejection to the patient with apologies such as: "your mother used to work a lot and did not have time to look after you and things alike". The client has to realize that his current childish needy behavior sucks the energy out of his family, his partner, etc., as he actually is a selfish person. If I, as his therapist, teach him moral intelligence for and that I help him donating himself towards the others, he stops sucking the energy out and forgives his mother as well. Then, he is getting free of being controlled by his attachment point. The individual has to say “I have to grow up so I can take care of my family. I cannot suck their energy out”. In my point of view, I understand that the therapist should not talk about the patient’s mother. Does it “fix” the neurosis? Yes, it does. We are not treating the patient by addressing his trauma towards his mother; instead, we are treating a system deep inside his primitive brain.

Within my theory, there are several clinical ways for treatment, and I realized that, if we work on the virtues, on charity, on love, we will eliminate pride and selfishness. If the individual has his conditions worked on, the majority of neuroses disappears. The great spiritual doctor Bezerra de Menezes said with regard to obsession-driven madness that his treatment would involve moral elevation.

By spiritual means, which makes us aware of the existence of obsession-driven madness, we can make a safe diagnosis of this species, still unknown to the Medicine, which confuses it with brain injury madness. And, once that diagnosis is made, it is necessary to heal that obsession through a special treatment, as usual. This treatment mixes moralirt and therapy. In principle, while the obsessor’s maleficent fluids have not been produced brain injury, we must elevate the obsessed’s sentiments by instilling him patience, endurance, and forgiveness towards his persecutor, and his humble wish to obtain it in the event that he has been the offender in another existence (Bezerra de Menezes, A loucura sob novo prisma, Rio de Janeiro, 1949).

Human primitive instincts are strong and lead people to kill, to betray, to make judgments, and so on. Imagine how human groups were before we had rules. A brother killed his sibling, had sexual intercourse with his mother, in other words: chaos. The institution of discipline in human societies became something necessary.

It is discipline and restraint that separates us from the brute. If we would be men walking with our heads erect and not walking on all fours, let us understand and put ourselves under voluntary discipline and restraint (Mahatma Gandhi, The Pathay to God. São Paulo, 2014).