The Healthy Management of Reality - Stanford University

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what we both want.If we have a strong religious or spiritual belief, we can certainly use it tomake the concept of good more concrete. For a Christian, like Brother Lawrence,the practice of the presence of God can be used just as he described it. Yet even inthis case, it is important to add the concept of good to our consciousness. What Iam referring to here is the danger of using (usually mistakenly) religious beliefs inharmful ways. There are many examples of religion being used in ways whichbrought much suffering to communities or individuals: the Salem witch trials, theInquisition, the many religious wars which have plagued humanity, and thevictimization of many communities of the faithful through religious persecutionand oppression. At the more individual level, there is the danger of "holier thanthou" attitudes that can be used to devalue individuals who do not believe as we door who do not live as we do. This possible source of pain from what should be asource of goodness reminds me of the following saying: "Don't let your principlesget in the way of being a good person." What that statement means to me is thatthe ethical principles stemming from the good teachings of our religions or ourcultures can sometimes be used in evil ways.HMOR.July2005.Muñoz.doc 100
It is important, therefore, to appraise the consequences of acting on whatappear at first glance to be unassailable principles. If the consequences of ourbeliefs are likely to produce more harm than good, we need to reconsider ourbeliefs. We cannot abdicate our responsibility to judge our actions by relyingentirely on formulas of behavior (or, more accurately, our particular interpretationof these formulas).The difficulty with having to use our judgment on a continuous basis is thatwe know we are not perfect, and thus, our judgement could potentially lead usastray. Having an infallible source of moral certainty is certainly tempting. It cando away with the danger of everyone doing whatever they please, merely bydeclaring it the good, as they see it.As far as I can determine, there is more consensus about what is good thanwe usually realize. Those areas in which there is great controversy are often moresalient to us precisely because they are controversial. The vast areas that mostpeople and cultures agree on are taken for granted. If in our practice of thepresence of good, we focused only on the areas in which there is consensus, wewould be able to deal with the vast majority of the situations we face each day.But it is true that there would be a few areas that would be difficult to address.What about them?Here we return to the notion that reality is infinite, and we are finite. We asindividuals and we as a species have much to learn yet. It is not healthy to expectthat we will ever have all the answers. Just as in the areas of physical and socialscience, technology, and economics, we are constantly learning more andcorrecting errors from the past, so also in the areas of moral and ethical values wecan look forward to progress. I certainly hope that one thousand years from nowHMOR.July2005.Muñoz.doc 101
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The HealthyManagementof RealityRica
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The Healthy Management of RealityCo
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Preface: The Origins of This BookEv
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serious depression. The course was
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Introduction: Sculpting RealityIn m
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The people of the Andes found thems
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Chapter 1On Managing RealityThe uni
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To continue with the example: If ou
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But, given that we are finite and l
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The objective environment refers to
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Throughout the book, we will addres
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Chapter 2Choosing a Direction"If yo
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Choosing a direction for one's life
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Few Christians would support the re
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The "healthy" aspect of "the health
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It appears, then, that there is a r
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Once one becomes aware of oneself a
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are what I mean by necessary suffer
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unnecessary and can be prevented.Th
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the things that cause human sufferi
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past that we remember (that is our
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The objective past had not changed,
Page 50 and 51: The fact is that five years hence,
Page 52 and 53: - The meanings we have accepted or
Page 54 and 55: Molding the past of our childrenThe
Page 56 and 57: - The child's core beliefs. Though
Page 58 and 59: your favorite book afterwards") the
Page 60 and 61: making sure that one's daily realit
Page 62 and 63: Change can move us toward a healthi
Page 64 and 65: Similarly, behaving in an exemplary
Page 66 and 67: Similarly, it is true that certain
Page 68 and 69: Learning which thoughts and actions
Page 70 and 71: do what you wish. If you are able,
Page 72 and 73: Tips on increasing the probability
Page 74 and 75: influence on us on one side and tho
Page 76 and 77: Being your own coach involves decid
Page 78 and 79: Beliefs and ConsequencesThe third l
Page 80 and 81: Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist who deve
Page 82 and 83: We Are Meaning-MakersThe fourth lev
Page 84 and 85: Closing the Loop: The four levels a
Page 86 and 87: To manage our reality optimally, we
Page 88 and 89: If you are feeling down or depresse
Page 90 and 91: PeopleThe social environment is at
Page 92 and 93: stimulation just as they need their
Page 94 and 95: In Chapter 2, I talked about choosi
Page 96 and 97: As we enter the twenty-first centur
Page 98 and 99: years. As I trace back my thinking
Page 102 and 103: we will have progressed in terms of
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