NOBILITY

Nobility is purposeful and unconditional abstinence, which manifests as deliberately shying away from all wrongdoing under all circumstances, including ethically and morally challenging situations and dilemmas such as having to kill someone in self defense or having to lie to save someone's life.

When we develop nobility, we become increasingly intuitive, and creative, and learn to handle most challenging situations. We begin to understand that in reality, there are no dilemmas, only artificial difficulties. We begin to keep our minds open to all possibilities instead of simply assuming that there are no options but to kill or to lie in some situations.

Nobility is the highest degree of courageous intention and greatest will.

The courage required for purposeful abstinence from wrongdoing (such as killing or lying) cannot be matched by any amount of courage required for worldly achievement.

Refraining from fighting for any cause—even the cause of justice—is an example of a noble action. Tremendous bravery and courage is needed.

We cannot fight a cause without bravery and courage. That is true. But the degree of bravery and courage we require to refrain from fighting is significantly greater. It is easy to be brave and fight another person who is unjust. Self-defense is even protected by law. However, in most cases fighting is driven by the emotions of anger and fear, which are rooted in ego. A worldly person cannot fight an unjust person without feeling angry or restless. Even if the fight is won from a physical, monetary, or social perspective, it is never won from a spiritual perspective because of the mental impurities caused by the fight. Therefore, for a spiritual seeker, such victories are a loss.

Whenever the ego is involved, no real victory is possible.

Only a noble person can arouse enough bravery and courage to refrain from fighting, because the ego desperately wants to fight. The ego cannot tolerate injustice. It wants fairness and recognition. By purposefully abstaining from doing what the ego wants, the noble person does not let the ego have its way. Overriding the ego’s wishes requires courage. Therefore, refraining from fighting is possible only for the noble ones who, in my opinion, are greater than the greatest warriors.

It is not at all easy to face someone who is inflicting pain without fighting back. It also requires tremendous bravery to endure physical pain without fighting back. It needs nobility to maintain composure and compassion while being mistreated or mishandled by others.

Noble ones neither fight nor give up. They serve.

When we fight, it is always us versus another person or us versus some organization. When we serve, this is not the case. We simply serve a cause or a principle. For example, if you are living in a city where the municipality is corrupt and you want to do something about it, instead of fighting directly with the municipality or with corrupt officials, simply serve the cause of anti-corruption by writing articles in the newspaper, conducting seminars, arousing grassroots activism, developing social awareness, taking part in lobbying for anti-corruption legislation, and so on. In this way, you avoid directly fighting with specific individuals and there is much less opportunity for the development of anger, hatred, animosity, and so on.

In this way, the ills of the world can be removed: by not directly fighting another person but by serving the cause for one and all.

In order to respond in this manner, first we have to develop the four elements of love: loving-kindness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity to some extent. Then we have to arouse nobility in situations where we must refrain from wrongdoing. In this way, we become fit to serve the world. After we train ourselves in loving-kindness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity and we train ourselves to refrain from wrongdoing by speech, action, and vocation only then we should serve for the deliverance of all beings.

Understanding love is a good beginning, if your goal is to develop nobility. (Pl click on the link below)

http://www.soulresearchinstitute.org/love.html

The Virtue of Truthfulness
Truthfulness simply means being grounded in reality and upholding it. It means not lying. It also means expressing the facts as they are.
People who lie have the tendency to be greedy, fearful, weak, lazy, and worrisome. They are not courageous or patient enough to face the truth. They are not audacious enough to face unfavorable situations. By lying, they find an easy way out. But they harm themselves by lying, because they reinforce in their consciousness unwholesome mental elements, such as greed, hatred, delusion, sloth, torpor, and restlessness. The more people lie the more fearful, greedy, weak, lazy, and worrisome they become, which in turn leads them to lie again.
Lying is a vicious cycle. It’s important to break out of this cycle as soon as possible. Otherwise, it soon becomes a disease of consciousness.
Nothing else strains and disturbs the consciousness as much as lying does. Nothing else increases the chances of developing illusion, delusion, or ignorance more than lying does. People who lie fool themselves, because truth actually cannot be hidden. Therefore, lying must be abandoned completely by developing the virtue of truthfulness as follows.
· Doing what you say you will do
· Saying what you mean or intend
· Neither exaggerating nor understating facts, which means expressing facts as they are
· Not speaking cleverly or scholarly or vaguely to intentionally hide the truth
· Not speaking too much
· Speaking only the truth, and standing up for it at all times in all situations

In addition, the virtue of truthfulness can be developed through the practice of soul meditation as follows.
· Remaining mindful of every word of your speech
· Not reacting to the greedy, fearful, or unwholesome thoughts that generate the tendency of lying
· Giving wise attention to the impermanent and impersonal nature of such tendencies, and allowing them to subside in mind on their own before they gain enough strength to turn into the verbal action of lying
· Concentrating on upholding the truth unconditionally, at any cost

The consistent practicing of truthfulness makes us courageous, fearless, decisive, energetic, zestful, intuitive, and carefree. Truthfulness effectively boosts the energy we have available for action. Truthfulness is the fastest way to achieve perfection in our actions, and the easiest and surest way we can feel good about ourselves is to speak the truth. The quickest way to get rid of hatred, envy, avarice, worry, and doubt is to wholeheartedly embrace the truth. When we speak truthfully, we purify our communication. Also, we make many friends since we are perceived as trustworthy.
Developing the virtue of truthfulness is especially useful for those who are lazy, greedy, possessive, weak, and delusive in temperament.

The Virtue of Non-violence
Non-violence means not hurting or harming another living being in any manner, and not violating the peace of others. It means becoming non-resistant. In daily life, if you consider this not as a philosophical view, but as a pragmatic definition, it will be of great benefit to you.
Violence generally results from a strong sense of separation between the world and us. Practicing non-violence slowly removes the sense of separation by loosening the grip of the ego. As we loosen up this grip, we become more inclined towards developing loving-kindness and compassion. Ultimately, these two divine qualities no longer remain a mystery. Due to the practice of non-violence, they start making sense as we experience their power in our life.
The virtue of non-violence can be developed through the following practices.
· Not killing another living being
· Not hurting or harming anyone in any way, either by speech or by physical actions
· Not intentionally disturbing others’ peace of mind
· Not encroaching upon others’ space, but rather giving space to all to live and evolve
· Not forcing or pushing anyone for anything, even with good intentions
· Accepting circumstances and situations as they are without resistance and without losing your ground. Be like a bamboo tree, which neither resists strong winds, nor gives up its ground. A bamboo tree simply bends when the wind is strong and stands upright when the wind abates. It “wins” without fighting

In addition, the virtue of non-violence can be developed through the practice of soul meditation as follows.
· Remaining mindful of all physical and verbal actions
· Not reacting to the fearful, hateful, or unwholesome thoughts that generate violent tendencies
· Giving wise attention to the impermanent and impersonal nature of such tendencies, and allowing them to subside in mind on their own before they gain enough strength and turn into violent physical or verbal actions
· Concentrating on developing the divine qualities of loving-kindness and compassion

Developing the virtue of non-violence is especially useful for those who are aggressive, possessive, passionate, or hateful in temperament.