The Second Principle: Live for the greater whole

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LESSON 8: The "Vertical Ethic"

A. Goodness means to live for the sake of the whole

One important purpose of the family is that through the family, the individual is drawn to live for the greater whole. This is expressed in what we call the "vertical ethic." The vertical ethic teaches that goodness means to live for the sake of the whole.

1. Obligation to the whole is the center of true family ethics.

• This means to serve the whole, even at the sacrifice of the self.
• The whole means the greater collective, which has higher value than the individual.
• We in turn become people of value to the whole.
• And we participate in and inherit the value of the whole.

2. In a family, the parents represent the whole.

• They are concerned about the whole. They know what happened before the children were born, and they prepared for the children to come into the world.
• They are responsible for the whole. In the family, the parents are the "central point" of the whole.
• Growing children have a focus of concern and responsibility narrower than that of their parents.
• Therefore, filial piety means the ethic of serving the whole through serving the parents, the central point.
• This is the root of what is called "vertical ethics," that is, the norms of vertical relationship.

3. Likewise, in every context, the primary ethics involve vertical relationships.

• Loyalty to state, company, community, team.
  • To support the greater purpose that they serve.
  • To accomplish the greater results by working together.
• In this way, filial piety expands its horizon without limit.
  • Love my nation as I love my parents.
  • Love the whole world as I love my parents.
  • Love God as I love my parents.
• The vertical ethic is one of sacrifice for the greater whole.
  • Buddha sacrificed life in his father's palace, as did Moses.
  • St. Francis left his wealthy family for a life of poverty.
  • George Washington gave up a comfortable life on his farm to serve his country.
  • Albert Schweitzer left the university and lived simply in the jungle.
  • Confucius wandered about in search of an honest ruler who could be taught.

4. Vertical ethics is a universal principle; it is the pattern by which the cosmos expanded.

• Entities on each level contribute to the higher level and thereby come to have the value of that higher level.
• A hydrogen atom participates in sugar.
• The sugar becomes part of a rice plant.
• The rice becomes part of a human who eats it.
• Thus the hydrogen atom participates in the value of a human being. The human being may care very much about the condition of an organ containing that hydrogen atom!

5. We should not commit the error of stopping at a partial level.

• Nepotism and oligarchy: family level selfishness.
• Nationalism: national-level selfishness.
• Racism: racial level selfishness.
• Atheism, humanism, materialism, hatred in the name of religion: world-level selfishness.

6. Through the vertical ethic, we feel as if the whole is my family.

• The vertical ethic means taking ownership of, participating in, and inheriting the value of the whole.
• The vertical ethic makes us feel emotions of love, sympathy, self-forgetfulness, excitement, and so forth.
• These emotions create unity.
• This leads to character development.

7. Practicing this ethic, we can overcome individualism and excessive competition.

• These are transformed into the spirit of teamwork and shared benefit.
• The vertical ethic begins with one's relationship to one's parents. We will explore this relationship in the next lesson.

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MEANINGFULL ENCOUNTERS