Here we will talk about spiritual values ​​in human life, what they are and why they are so important.

Each person grows up with their own set of values. The most interesting thing is that they do not always serve a person, but on the contrary, they can even harm him.

Values ​​are passed on to us from birth by our parents, teachers, educators, friends.

We cannot always immediately understand which of the values ​​harm us and which benefit us. Let's take a closer look at this!

What are values

Values ​​are internal principles, beliefs in which a person believes and holds on to them, he considers his values ​​important and, if necessary, is ready to defend them.

Values ​​can be both positive and negative.

Naturally, negative values ​​are harmful to a person. One can give an example of many values. For example, cigarettes, and even narcotic substances can become valuables for a person who will even look for pluses in them and protect them.

Those who drink alcohol believe that it is good for the body, sterilizes it from infections of various kinds, and that it is necessary to drink alcohol from time to time. Vodka sterilizes, wine dilates blood vessels, alcohol helps to relax and get away from problems. Although this is of course nonsense, alcohol is a poison to the body.

Cigarettes are the best remedy for calming and from nerves, stress, but at what cost.

It is important to see things in a real light, not in an illusory one. In this article, I propose to discuss spiritual values, not religious ones.

Spiritual values

Spiritual values ​​imply the presence of the Spirit in them. Development and strengthening of your inner Spirit, spiritual body.

The realization that you discover these values ​​within yourself, primarily for yourself and your own good, and not for the eyes of others. You choose to be that way for yourself.

Here are examples of spiritual values:

• honesty;
• awareness;
• a responsibility;
• love first of all for yourself, and then for others;
• Believe in yourself;
• sympathy;
• sincerity;
• love for one's parents;
• respect for any form of life;
• peacefulness;
• resistance to stress;
• Adoption;
• fidelity (meaning to his wife);
• love for family.

So you can list for a long time. The main thing is that each value makes you stronger. By practicing these values ​​within yourself, by sticking to them simply because you choose to do so, you become a spiritually strong or spiritual person. It is not known why this is so. It just is.

Naturally, in order to be honest with the people around you, you must first be honest with yourself; in order to be sincere with others, you must learn not to lie to yourself. To love people, you must first love yourself.

It all starts with you, with your relationship with yourself. If you hate yourself and do not accept yourself, you do not like yourself, then do not think that the attitude of those around you will be different or that you will suddenly burn with ardent love for others. This is an illusion.

All these values, if you practice them, make you stronger.

current society

Now in society, lying is normal, promiscuity is also normal, being insincere and two-faced, hating yourself and others, wearing masks, not respecting parents, smoking and drinking are all normal, but not natural.

It doesn't grow the human spirit, it destroys it. A person feels internally flawed, unable to change anything in his life.

Chasing external ideals or putting money and fame first is not normal either.

To be wealthy and with money, to live in luxury is a good desire, but when only this is important for you, when you strive for this, in order to prove to everyone what you are, that being higher in the eyes of others is already abnormal.

The inner always creates the outer. The outside world is just a reflection of the inside. What is the point of chasing a reflection when the easiest way to influence it is by working with the inner world. It is for this that inner spiritual values ​​are needed, in order to feel the inner core, in order to have the ability to create your life the way you choose it.

I'm not asking you to believe it, you can just check it out. Practice and you will learn everything, only it should not be the upbringing of parents, to use and be guided by spiritual values ​​is a conscious choice of everyone, and not hammered v programs from parents and others.

Thank you for attention!!!

See you next time!

Yes, you can also, and leave a positive comment under this article.

Always yours: Zaur Mammadov

PHILOSOPHY OF VALUES (AXIOLOGY)

Socrates was one of the first thinkers-philosophers who raised the question of the essence and value of the good. This was due to the crisis of Athenian democracy, the change in cultural models of the organization of the existence of man and society, the loss of guidelines in the spiritual life of people.

In the future, philosophy began to develop and assert doctrine about the nature of values, the patterns of their emergence, formation and functioning, their place and role in the life of a person and society, about the relationship of values ​​with other phenomena of people's lives, about the classification of values ​​and their development. It got the name axiology (from Greek. axia- value and logos- word, doctrine). For the first time this concept was applied by the French thinker P. Lapi in 1902, and then by the German philosopher E. Hartmann in 1908.

For legal sciences and legal practice, the phenomenon of "value" is of great importance, since in context understanding and interpretation values normative acts are adopted in the country, the acts of subjects in litigation are characterized. In the activities of the courts, the phenomenon of value is always present in everything.

It is also impossible to exclude value from the goal-setting of people, from the formulation of concepts of the future, from relations between people and countries, from the processes of continuity of traditions, customs, ways, cultures in the life of ethnic groups, nationalities and nations.

VALUES IN HUMAN LIFE AND SOCIETY

As a result of studying the material in this chapter, the student should: know

• causes and sources of values ​​in the life of man and society;
• criteria for classifying values;
• classification of values;
• representatives of philosophical thought who developed the problem of values;
• content and features of values ​​in modern Russia; be able to
• comprehend the place and role of values ​​in legal activity;
• apply knowledge about values ​​in determining the role of law and law in human life and society;
• analyze value aspects in legal theory and practice;
• predict the development of values ​​in modern Russia; master the skills
• using the provisions of axiology in the assessment of illegal acts;
• application of the value approach in the practice of a lawyer;
• inclusion of value regulators in the formation of a lawyer's personality;
• development of normative documents from the standpoint of the value approach.

The essence of values ​​and their classification

After axiology was singled out as an independent area of ​​philosophical research, several types of value concepts appeared: naturalistic psychologism, transcendentalism, personalistic ontologism, cultural-historical relativism, and sociologism.

Naturalistic psychologism was formed as a result of the studies of A. Meinong, R. B. Perry, J. Dewey, C. I. Lewis and others. According to them, the source of values ​​is in the biopsychologically interpreted human needs. The values ​​themselves can be empirically fixed as specific facts of observable reality. Within the framework of this approach, the phenomenon of "standardization of values" is used, i.e. To values can be attributed to any items that satisfy needs person.

Concept axiological transcendentalism , created by the Baden school of neo-Kantianism, treats value like perfect being the norm , which refers not to the empirical, but to the "pure", transcendental, or normative, consciousness. Being ideal objects, values

ns depend on human needs and desires. As a result, the supporters of this concept of values ​​take the position of spiritualism postulating a superhuman "logos". As an option, N. Hartmann substantiates the phenomenon of the independent existence of the sphere of values ​​in order to free axiology from religious premises.

Concept personalistic ontologism was formed in the depths of axiological transcendentalism as a way to justify the existence of values ​​outside of reality. The most prominent representative of these views, Max Scheler (1874-1928), argued that the reality of the value world is guaranteed by the "timeless axiological series in God", an imperfect reflection of which is the structure of the human personality. Moreover, the personality type itself is determined by its inherent hierarchy of values, which forms the ontological basis of personality. According to M. Scheler value exists in the individual and has a certain hierarchy, the bottom rung of which is occupied by values ​​associated with the satisfaction of sensual desires. Higher values ​​are the image of beauty and knowledge. The highest value is the sacred and the idea of ​​God.

For cultural-historical relativism , at the origins of which stood

V. Dilthey, the idea is characteristic axiological pluralism , which was understood as a plurality of equal value systems, identified with the help of the historical method. In essence, this approach meant criticism of attempts to create an absolute, the only correct concept of values, which would be abstracted from the real cultural and historical context.

An interesting fact is that many followers of W. Dilthey, for example O. Spengler, A. J. Toynbee, II. Sorokin and others, revealed the content of the value meaning of cultures through intuitive approach.

Concerning sociological concept of values , whose ancestor was Max Weber (1864-1920), then in it the value is interpreted as norm , whose way of being is significance for the subject. M. Weber used this approach to interpret social action and social knowledge. Subsequently, the position of M. Weber was developed. Thus, in F. Znaniecki (1882-1958) and especially in the school of structural-functional analysis, the concept of "value" acquired a generalized methodological meaning as a means of identifying social ties and the functioning of social institutions. According to scientists, value is any thing, which the has definable content and value for members of any social group. Attitudes are the subjective orientation of group members in relation to value.

In materialistic philosophy, the interpretation of values ​​is approached from the standpoint of their socio-historical, economic, spiritual and dialectical conditionality. Real values for a person, communities are specific, historical and conditioned by the nature of people's activities, the level of development of society and the direction of development of these subjects, they are of a specific historical nature, and to identify them nature and entities should use a dialectical-materialist approach and such criterion, how measure, which characterizes the transition of quantitative indicators to qualitative ones.

Value is a set of social and natural objects (things, phenomena, processes, ideas, knowledge, samples, models, standards, etc.) that determine the life of a person, society within the framework of a measure of compliance with the objective laws of human or society development and expected ( planned) people goals, results.

Value comes from comparisons, expressed by means of inference in a certain judgment, objects of the real world (ideal images) that may and predetermine the development (progressive or regressive) of the individual and the community, with those who cannot, cannot, or contradict to this process. This can happen and often happens at the level of feelings, and not at the level of the known laws of development, for example, of the human body.

Values ​​are fixed in various forms, for example of good , if it refers to moral activity, moral behavior, attitude, consciousness, or in forms that reflect the content beautiful, perfect if it refers to the aesthetic side of public consciousness and activity, in the canons of specific religions, if it is connected with the confessional life of a person and society, in regulations, regulating public relations using state coercion, etc.

In other words, the category "value" reflects in qualitative terms degree of conformity, coincidence of real or conceivable phenomena (things, processes, thoughts, etc.) needs, goals, aspirations, plans, programs a specific individual, community, country, party, etc., which determine the process of harmonious and effective development of the previously listed subjects. That is why the objects of the real world, connections and interactions between people acquire features that translate samples, models, standards of human existence into the category of values.

Values ​​arise, are formed and affirmed in the mind of a particular person on the basis of his real activity, relationships with nature and with his own kind through a certain criteria which, from the standpoint of the philosophical and general scientific law of the development of nature, society, including the individual, according to the law of the mutual transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones, is measure of conformity. Any phenomena of being both an individual and society can be given the status of value. This criterion reveals the "limit", a kind of "boundary", beyond which the change quantity, those. content phenomena, processes, knowledge, formations, etc., entails a change in their quality or their "transition" into value.

Attention should be paid to the fact that this criterion not only allows people to determine the moment of transition of the phenomena of being of people into value, but at the same time with this moment "internally" turns on

into value, transforming the components of people's lives into their ego qualitative property.

On the one side, this criterion is specific , and on the other hand, relative , because for different people and communities it requires clarification, "filling" with quantitative content, since the real conditions of life of a person and society change. For example, if we take this component human life as water , then the criterion for its transition to value for the inhabitants of the middle lane and the desert will be different in content.

This criterion will also be meaningfully different for such a component of people's lives as right. So, if this component is included in the life of a society with a democratic regime, the content of the criterion "measure of conformity" will include extensive quantitative characteristics that will be completely different than in a country where totalitarianism takes place. Value can be classified in different ways. In the context of the philosophical approach, as such a basis, one can use the requirements contained in the regular connections of the categories "general - special - individual" (Fig. 11.1), i.e. originally by generic sign, then specific and further - but typical. Taking into account the fact that value is a social phenomenon, it is predetermined and determined by the objective laws of the development of a person and society, and measure of compliance with the laws of personality development , societies , its generic "carrier" will be all things in the real world , as well as spiritual education , which correspond objective laws development of man and society.

Rice. 11.1. Variant of classification of values

Since all our relations are reflected in the forms of social consciousness, the forms of manifestation of values ​​can be classified according to the forms of social consciousness. This approach allows us to distinguish the following forms of values: confessional (religious); moral (moral); legal ; political ; aesthetic ; economic ; environmental etc.

Types of values ​​are directly related to the main subjects of social existence: a person and communities of people. They may be due to factors such as level the impact of values ​​on the individual and society as a whole; character the impact of values ​​on society.

These signs reveal the content of the interaction of the individual with other subjects of social relations. Consequently, for each of the selected features in a particular kind of values, it will be possible to distinguish its subspecies.

By level impacts on the value development process can be classified according to the following indicators: revolutionary , evolutionary , counterrevolutionary.

By character impacts of value in each kind can be classified according to the following results: causing positive development; defiant negative development.

defiant positive development, or the so-called socially approved changes in the individual and society, are those values ​​that, according to character impact on society or personality give them the necessary, in accordance with the laws of development, conditionality and determination. Their list is quite extensive and includes super-intelligence, super-motivation, a lucky break, talent, genius, giftedness, etc.

Negative , or the so-called socially disapproved, values ​​are those values ​​that, in their own way, character impact on society or personality give them unnecessary , often, perhaps even directly opposite, in accordance with the laws of development, conditionality and determination. In the context of this approach, they can be subdivided as follows. First, they can be purely personal direction. Secondly, along with personal negative influences, they can include antisocial action (protesting, rude), which manifests itself only at home in relationships with parents and relatives, close ones. Thirdly, they can be characterized by a combination of persistent antisocial actions of the individual with a violation of social norms and with significant violations of relationships with other individuals. Fourth, they can be completely anti-social.

Recognized and quite in demand in the scientific literature is the classification of values ​​developed by V. P. Tugarinov. It contains three steps.

At the first stage, the author divides values ​​into positive and negative depending on the the nature of their assessments. He refers to the former values ​​that evoke positive emotions and receive positive evaluations within the framework of the forms of social consciousness, to the latter - those that evoke negative emotions and receive negative evaluations.

At the second stage, depending on belonging of values ​​to specific subjects of being , the author divides them into individual , group and universal. Everything is obvious here. Individual values ​​include those values ​​that are significant for one person (individual), group values ​​are those that are significant for a group of people. Finally, universal values ​​include those values ​​that are significant for all mankind.

life values, for they are predetermined by man's biological existence, his physiological being;

- cultural values, for they are conditioned by the results of man's spiritual and transformative activity, by his creation of a "second nature" of his being.

In turn, life values include the following phenomena: a) human life itself, because only its presence makes it possible to identify other values ​​and use them; b) human health; c) labor as a way of existence of society and the basis for the formation of man himself;

• d) the meaning of life as a goal that gives this life the highest value;
• e) happiness and responsibility to be a person; f) public life as a form and way of being a person; g) the world as a level of relations between people and a form of value being of people; h) love as the highest level of manifestation of human feelings of a person to a person and to society, which is the basis of patriotism and heroism; i) friendship as the highest form of collective relationships between people; j) motherhood and fatherhood as the highest forms of manifestation of people's responsibility to their future.

Concerning cultural values, then V.P. Tugarinov divides them into three subgroups: 1) material values; 2) spiritual values; 3) socio-political values.

TO material values, or material goods, include objects that satisfy the material needs of people and have two important properties: a) they provide the basis for people's real activity, life; b) are significant in themselves, because without them there can be no life either for a person or for society.

TO spiritual values ​​include those phenomena of real life that satisfy the needs of the spiritual life of people. The ego is quite a multi-aspect phenomenon that is in demand by human thinking and at the same time develops the spiritual life of society: a) the results of people's spiritual creativity; b) various types and forms of this creativity (literature, theater, morality, religion, etc.).

TO socio-political The scientist refers to values ​​everything that serves the needs of the social and political life of people. These are: a) various social institutions (state, family, socio-political movements, etc.);

b) norms of public life (law, morality, customs, traditions, way of life, etc.); v) ideas, conditioning aspirations people (freedom, equality, brotherhood, justice, etc.).

A feature of socio-political values ​​is that they are related to both the material and spiritual life of a person. Their absence is perceived by people as violence both over the body and over the spirit. They have a dual character. They are the result of the creativity of both man and society with its institutions.

The author gives a special place in such a classification of values ​​to education, or enlightenment, which occupies an intermediate position between spiritual and social values, although in terms of its role in society it is a social value, and in terms of content it is spiritual.

There are other options for classifying values ​​in modern philosophical thought. However, all available approaches to some extent refine or supplement the options already outlined.

• Cm.: Tugarinov V.P. On the values ​​of life and culture. L.. 1960.
• In some cultures, such as Buddhism, life is not regarded as the highest value.

Along with material production and material culture, spiritual production and the spiritual culture of society and man stand out. Spiritual production characterizes a person and society.

The spiritual production of a person is a type of social production associated with the activity of consciousness, subconsciousness and superconsciousness (creative intuition) of a person. The result is the production of individual values. They have a value character, first of all, for the person who created them.

The sphere of consciousness can include those products that have a spiritual form and are associated with the production of knowledge, practical skills, ideas, images, and other products. These products can be objectified and communicated to others through language, speech, mathematical symbols, drawings, technical models, etc.

The subconscious includes everything that was previously conscious or can become conscious under certain conditions, these are skills, archetypes, stereotypes, social norms deeply learned by a person, the regulatory function of which is experienced as the “voice of conscience”, “call of the heart”, “demand of duty” . Conscience occupies a proper place in human behavior only when its commands are executed as an imperative, as a duty that does not require logical arguments. The same applies to the feeling of upbringing, responsibility, honesty, so firmly assimilated by a person that he does not detect their influence, which have turned into the inner world of a person.

Superconsciousness in the form of creative intuition reveals itself at the initial stages of creativity, not controlled by consciousness and will. The neurolinguistic basis of superconsciousness is made up of transformations and recombinations of traces (engrams) stored in a person’s memory, the closure of new neural connections, whose correspondence or non-correspondence to reality is clarified only in the future.

The formation of the individual consciousness of a person, his spiritual production, is influenced by both the conditions of his life and those forms of spirituality that are determined by society. Therefore, the spiritual production produced by man will take the form of value only when correlated with the spiritual production of society, without the recognition of which it turns out to be powerless.

The heroes of Ilf and Petrov are spiritually different people. They also have different ideas about values. So, O. Bender dreamed of a million served “on a silver platter”, Shura Balaganov was ready to limit himself to five thousand rubles, Ellochka Ogre dreamed of a “Mexican jerboa”, which would allow her to compare with Vanderbildikha. Everyone has their own ideas about values, as everyone has their own culture.

Thus, spiritual culture sets spiritual values, benefits and human needs. For each individual person, the products of his spiritual creativity are, on the one hand, individual in nature, they are unique, unrepeatable. On the other hand, they have a social, universal nature, since consciousness is originally a social product.

Spiritual values ​​arise as a result of the spiritual activity of society, the individual. Sometimes some researchers identify these phenomena. So, we can meet this kind of statement that “Spiritual activity is a social activity aimed at creating spiritual values ​​and assimilating them by people”. This is not true. Spiritual activity is an activity for the production of a spiritual product. Any activity ends in its result, any production ends with the creation of a product. Practice shows that not every product of spiritual activity is a value of society or an individual. Therefore, not every spiritual activity produces values. An activity that has not found its completion in a product does not create values; a spiritual activity that has not ended with a result remains in the realm of the possible and does not intrude into the realm of the real, and hence the active. Therefore, whether spiritual activity will lead to obtaining a spiritual product is a question. And since the activity is not completed, then it does not become a value in this case.

But even if we receive a certain spiritual product, the question of its value also requires its own special study and practical application. In civilization, there is a social division of labor, sometimes different, and even opposite forms of ownership function. This leads to the emergence of not only alien, but sometimes hostile interests and products of spiritual culture. This leads to the fact that the products of spiritual culture, alien to some groups of the population, are not perceived by them as values, since they were not produced by them and these products do not correspond to their interests. There is no self-identification between a given spiritual culture and the spiritual values ​​of a collective alien to it. But alien social or ethnic values ​​can be mastered and turned into their own.

In civilization, the products of an elite spiritual culture remain alien to the majority of the population. But the assertion of the social nature of production leads to the fact that they begin to be mastered by society, its lower classes. Thus, the noble culture of Russia in the 19th century remained a phenomenon alien to the peasant and proletarian masses. The change in social conditions in post-revolutionary Russia led to the fact that the development of the Russian spiritual heritage became a mass phenomenon. Many norms of etiquette, living conditions, forms of morality, aesthetic ideals began to be mastered by society and become a component of its mass culture.

The situation is more complicated when mastering spiritual values ​​that are hostile to a given subject. Hostile values ​​cannot be assimilated in principle, since they lead to the destruction of the subject of spiritual production, to the destruction of those values ​​that meet his interests. Therefore, spiritual activity, culminating in the production of products that are hostile to a given social subject, does not and cannot act as a value.

Spiritual culture as a value has a number of features compared to material values.

Spiritual production has a directly social character. The products of spiritual activity themselves are originally of a social nature. Therefore, they do not need the approval of their cultural form in terms of value, market relations. But in the conditions of civilization, the spiritual products of culture forcibly and contradictorily acquire value functions and appear in a commodity form. This leads to the fact that in civilization a contradiction is reproduced between the directly social nature of spiritual products and those limited forms of their existence that market production imposes on them.

A word, an idea, an ideal, a norm, no matter in what individual form they exist, are initially products of society and have a directly social character.

Material values ​​in the conditions of civilization cannot establish their social, universal form, bypassing the market. The market is an organic form for asserting the value character of the products of material culture.

Spiritual values ​​cannot be measured by working time, unlike material ones. Since spiritual values ​​are originally of a directly social nature, their production is based on the entire time of society. But in the conditions of civilization there is a certain contradiction between the activity and time carried out by the whole society, and labor time. This leads to the fact that the products of spiritual production also receive a form of existence limited by working time, and their production is carried out in society's free time.

The price of material assets is based on the amount of labor produced during working time. The price of spiritual values ​​is based on surplus labor and product. The totality of spiritual values ​​cannot be exchanged otherwise than for the surplus product of society.

During the exchange and distribution of cultural values, their total amount does not decrease, but does not remain unchanged - it increases. So literacy, a sign of written culture, arises as a local, limited phenomenon, it covers a limited circle of people. Gradually, it spreads among wider sections of the population, the number of literate people increases. But its cultural value in the course of exchange and distribution does not decrease and does not remain unchanged. Another thing is with the material product. Being produced in the course of its distribution, it is exchanged for services, products of mental labor, as a result of which it quantitatively decreases, is consumed, and if it is not reproduced again and again, it may disappear.

In the course of consumption, spiritual values, unlike material ones, do not disappear, but are preserved. Spiritual values ​​are replicated, copied and thus preserved. The assimilation of scientific knowledge by an individual, or by a society, does not detract from the total amount of scientific knowledge, but, moreover, creates better conditions for its production and dissemination. The assimilation of a cultural norm by an individual and by the community as a whole does not at all eliminate normativity from cultural life, but, on the contrary, creates better conditions for the functioning of cultural phenomena in society. The more widespread a moral norm is, the more stable it acquires.

An increase in the amount of material values ​​at the disposal of one person requires an increasing amount of labor and time for their preservation and reproduction, so that further assimilation of material wealth in an individual form becomes impossible. Those. individual consumption of material values ​​is limited at any given moment in time and space. A contradiction arises between living and past labor and the product.

An increase in the number of spiritual values, for example, knowledge, makes their owner more informed, "rich" in the production and consumption of new cultural values. So, a knowledgeable person, informed, receives more information from the same message than an unknowing person. A person who has mastered moral norms and values ​​can endlessly continue the process of his improvement. We can say that there is no limit in mastering spiritual values, but there is a limit in mastering material values. This allows us to say that the area of ​​spiritual values ​​has other properties and relationships than the sphere of material culture, and its laws are not reducible to the laws of material production. One could call a lot of spiritual values ​​a fractal-fractal sphere, different from systems of a different order - organic or holistic.

The values ​​of spiritual culture in modern conditions are increasingly of the author's nature. Karl Jaspers believed that it was the author's character that distinguished the "post-Axial" cultures. If we look at history, we find that authorship appears long before the "Axial Age". Already the laws of King Hammurabi, the sculptural portrait of Nefertiti are related to copyright, not anonymous cultures. But the ratio of these or those in history is changing. The closer to modernity, the faster the role of copyright cultures increases. This is connected, first of all, with the operation of the general sociological law of the increasing role of the individual in history. In the field of transmission and production of cultural values, this law manifests itself especially clearly.

In addition, another regularity of the historical development of culture is superimposed on it, associated with an increase in the role of a person's individuality, with its separation from tribal, family, social, professional ties and relationships. The rapid development of culture already today brings us to a situation in which the free, harmonious development of individuality, regardless of any external scale for a person, a measure of social, national, spiritual, it will turn into a law of social life and humanity.

In the field of production of spiritual values, their production bears the imprint of the personality of their creator, creator. In the field of material values, the product is mostly impersonal, anonymous.

The time of existence of material culture is limited by physical and moral deterioration. Material culture is constantly in need of renewal, renovation. Spiritual values ​​are not limited in time. Achievements of spiritual culture are imperishable. We admire the cultural monuments of the Antiquity era, for example, the Parthenon, the Colosseum.

Material culture has the maximum value insofar as it is useful. Spiritual culture can have value, being materially useless, spiritually illusory, and sometimes false. So, going west, the ships of Columbus sought to open new routes to the already known India. And when they discovered new lands, the team believed that these were unknown areas of India. So, as a result of illusions, the greatest geographical discovery was made and a new continent appeared on the maps - America.

In spiritual culture, we can distinguish two types of activities:

1. Spiritually productive activity; 2. Spiritual and practical activity.

Accordingly, we can distinguish two types of values ​​of spiritual culture: spiritually productive and spiritually practical.

Spiritually productive activity is an activity aimed at the production of spiritual products - mental, psychic, rational and irrational, scientific and aesthetic, sign and symbolic, etc. Spiritually productive activity is a spiritual activity associated with the transformation of objective reality in the human mind or the processing of past products of spiritual production. The products, the results of this activity, have a spiritual, ideal form and reflect, first of all, the real world of a person. At the center of spiritually productive activity is the activity of cognition of this world and the production of knowledge about it. Although spiritual activity is considered primarily as a reflection of the real world surrounding a person, this process of reflection cannot be reduced only to cognitive activity, the production of knowledge. Reflection and cognition are not identical categories. The process of reflection also includes other types of spiritual activity - the production of moral norms, aesthetic ideals, etc. All knowledge is a reflection, but not all reflection is knowledge. Reflection is not limited to the knowledge of this world, but includes other forms of spirituality - adequately and inadequately reflecting the human world. A specific idea of ​​the value of an object may differ from knowledge about it. For example, we know that tobacco smoking harms not only smokers but also those around them. This is our knowledge. But the value of smoking, for some reason, persists for many people, despite the fact that they know that smoking is harmful to human health. Thus, the value attitude to the world has its own specifics. Reflection processes cover not only cognition, but also include other forms. For example, we admire, admire the sunset. During this period, we do not know it, but we experience it, feel it, rejoice. Accordingly, in consciousness we form mental images in which we reflect the state of our world of feelings, we are able to remember these mental images in order to reproduce them from memory over time. And the value here is the memory of the feelings that we experienced, but not the memory that we once looked at the sunset. Although, we can assume that admiring the sunset can be accompanied by the production of some element of knowledge for us. For us then it will be important to know and remember that on such and such a date, such and such a month, we admired the sunset. In this case, the experiences that we experienced at the same time are not important for us, but for us it is important, the date of the event that is of value. As we can see, one type of activity - spiritually productive, can produce different types of values ​​- sensual, in our case, aesthetic, and cognitive.

A feature of spiritually productive activity is the fact that at the end of it we have a spiritual product that has separated from its creator: a scientific discovery, invention, project, symbol, sign, poem, picture, etc. After that, the spiritual product begins to live its own independent life: visitors to the exhibition look at the picture, the writer's novel is sold and bought up, poems are memorized, etc.

The second type of values ​​is associated with spiritual and practical activities. This is an activity for the development and transfer of human experience, practice, accumulated elements of the values ​​of spiritual culture. This is an activity that is inseparable from human life, does not exist outside of it. Such are the spiritual values ​​that are created by actors, dancers, reciters, ballet dancers, orators, politicians, priests. Morality, art, law, politics, religion, and ideology also belong to the field of spiritual and practical activity. These are spiritual and practical types of relationships. They form spiritual and practical values. These values ​​are inextricably linked to the practical behavior of people. We can talk a lot about morality, morality, teach other people moral standards and behavior. But in practical life we ​​can commit immoral acts. In the first case, our values ​​will remain unrealized, they will exist in the realm of the possible, potential, mental. These values ​​will not receive a real and efficient existence. In the second case, spiritual values ​​will be realized, they, "mastering the masses", will turn into a material force capable of transforming the world.

In a person, both in his historical development (phylogeny) and in his individual life (ontogenesis), different values ​​and different attitudes towards them, value orientations are formed. Man has created a new huge world, unknown to nature. He developed technique and technology, created perfect vehicles and forms of communication, connection and communication. But how can they be used for the benefit of man and mankind, and not for evil? Today, more than ever, the question is: in the name of what does a person exist? What are the values ​​that he should be guided by? What should he aim for? Neither the most advanced technique, nor technology, nor economics can answer these questions; they do not tell us about the meaning of life. We learn about this from art, literature, philosophy, the spiritual sphere of society. People treat them differently.

We can distinguish various value orientations of culture.

1. Conformism. In this case, the individual adapts to that system of values, rules, norms, prohibitions, ideals that were not created by him, before him and which he must master. In this case, the experience of past and gone generations determines and limits the forms of behavior of the living and the living, dictates to them its own, limited, measure of development.

2. Uncultured, asocial. This type of orientation is characterized by the rejection of the experience of the past, those cultural values ​​that have been created and accumulated by past and outgoing generations of people. In this case, the individual refuses the cultural heritage, denies its historical value, tries to impose on society his own, sometimes individualistic ideas about cultural values ​​and rules of conduct. For people who have chosen this path, the past culture appears as a hostile force that destroys them, which in turn is subject to denial. This is typical for the behavior of criminals, traitors, "reborn", representatives of socially antagonistic groups.

3. Alienation. This type of value orientations is typical for people who perceive the current culture as an alien, neutral, unnecessary, unfamiliar system of values, to which they develop an indifferent, indifferent attitude. For these people, the position of apathy, “non-participation”, “non-action”, non-participation in cultural values ​​is characteristic.

4. Transformation. A person of this orientation chooses the path of creative assimilation of the values ​​of the past, in which everything that contributes to the progressive development of the culture of society and man is selected and inherited. In this case, the individual becomes a conscious participant in the process of creating new cultural values. Paraphrasing V. Khlebnikov, we can say that the stellar road of mankind has been divided into the Milky Way of acquirers and the thorny path of inventors. Favorable conditions for creativity are not always provided for the creators of a new culture. As a rule, they meet misunderstanding among their contemporaries, and even rejection. Because of their independent position, their personal life is most often tragic, conflicting. They are inconvenient for the layman with their eccentricity, dissimilarity to "everyone". As I. Severyanin once wrote:

Artists, beware of the bourgeoisie!

They will deprive you of your gift

With my hostile sleep

With his body hurdy-gurdy;

They will start a fire

In the soul, where the law is lawlessness.

Each person, social group, nation, at first glance, has its own values, sometimes unlike the values ​​of others. But recently, in conditions when the processes of establishing the social nature of production began to acquire a global, global character, the question of universal human values ​​has arisen.

Cultural universals underlie the existence of universal values. Cultural universals include those cultural phenomena that are common to all peoples, regardless of their skin color, religion, economic status. For example, game, sports, clothes, household utensils, dancing, etc.

Recognition of the existence of not only material, but also spiritual values.

Recognition as values ​​not just objects that have a physical, bodily, material nature, but also those of a social nature, i.e. being public relations.

Recognition as values ​​not only of social objects - norms, institutions, rituals, but also their creators and bearers - people, labor collectives, ethnic communities and groups, associations and organizations.

Recognition of values ​​that are not only individual, national, but also global in nature.

We can divide universal human values ​​into a number of types in accordance with what spheres of public life they cover: economic, social, political, spiritual.

Cultural common human heritage - everything that has been “cultivated” by man and mankind during his existence on earth, the products and results of labor, activities, many generations of people: fields and forests, parks and gardens, buildings and structures, means of communication and communication, discoveries and inventions, knowledge and ideas, norms and ideals.

Human value is made up not only by finished products of activity, but also by various types, forms, methods of labor and activities of man and mankind, which are aimed at preserving and increasing the cultural universal heritage, as well as transferring it in the form of tradition, heritage, to a new, younger generation.

Human values ​​are formed as a result of the approval and special, cultural attitude of people to their common heritage. This attitude appears in the form of social norms, laws, ideas that have a universal status.

Universal human values ​​include those that characterize the behavior of an individual or human communities, as well as the relationship between them.

The universal values ​​are:

Humanism, respectful attitude, tolerance and tolerance in communication between people.

Freedom and personal integrity.

Equality of all before the law and recognition of this equality by all mankind.

Personal and family life, the right to create a family and its preservation.

Freedom of thought, conscience and confession.

Work and protection against unemployment, which ensures the social and private life of a person.

The right to education, health care, health care.

Each individual has the status of a citizen, and hence the recognition of him as a full participant in legal relations.

The presence of property in one form or another - public or private, personal or collective.

Participation in political life in organized or unorganized forms, in managing the affairs of society and the state.

An important role in relations between people is played by interstate and international values.

Peace among peoples, the exclusion of wars as a means of resolving contentious issues.

The rights of peoples to self-determination up to the creation of their own state.

Sovereignty of peoples, recognition of the supremacy of the rights of the people in solving political, economic, social problems and a number of others.

A person is surrounded by full-flowing flows of information, he has accumulated huge reserves of knowledge, he is possessed by all sorts of desires and dreams. Without the right value orientations, all of them can pass a person by. It is very important to develop a correct view of the world, to formulate your own goals, guidelines in life, to be able to correlate them with the megatrends that will be characteristic of the culture of the 21st century. American futurologists D. Nasbitt and P. Eburdin identified ten main trends that await human culture. These include the global economic boom of the 1990s, the emergence of free-market socialism, the privatization of the welfare state, the rise of the Pacific region, the decade of women in leadership positions, the rise of biology, the revival of the arts, the universal way of life, the religious renaissance of the new millennium, the triumph of personality . As you can see, the last four megatrends completely cover the world of values ​​of spiritual culture.

Related Literature 11

Anisimov S. F. Spiritual values: production and consumption. M. 1988.

Towernin G. I. Economic dimension. Structure. Principles. Functions. Lvov. 1994.

Bunich P.G. New values. M. 1989.

Brozhik V. Marxist theory of evaluation. M. 1982.

Vyzhletsov G.P. Axiology of culture. SPb. 1996.

Drobnitsky O. G. The world of animated objects. M. 1967.

Leiashvili P. R. Analysis of economic value. M. 1990.

Marx K. Capital. T. 23.

Nietzsche F. Will to power. The experience of reassessing all values. M. 1910.

Nasbitt D., Eburdin P. What awaits us in the 90s. Megatrends: Year 2000. Ten New Trends for the 90s. M. 1992.

Production as a social process. M. 1986.

Rickert G. Natural sciences and cultural sciences. SPb. 1911.

Rickert G. Philosophy of History. SPb. 1908.

Severyanin I. Poet's Library. M. 1975.

Simonov P. V., Ershov P. M., Vyazemsky Yu. P. The origin of spirituality. M. 1989.

Frank S. L. Ethics of nihilism // Milestones. From the depth. M. 1991.

Schweitzer A. Culture and ethics. M. 1973.

Core spiritual values

The art of happiness consists of many components. As we have already found out, achieving happiness begins with understanding its true sources and developing these sources in your life. This requires inner discipline, a gradual process of eradicating negative mental states and replacing them with positive ones - kindness, tolerance, the ability to forgive. We will end our consideration of the factors leading to a full and happy life with an analysis of spirituality.

There is a natural tendency to associate spirituality with religion. The Dalai Lama's approach to achieving happiness is the result of many years of monastic experience. He is also rightfully considered an outstanding Buddhist scholar. And yet, many are attracted not by deep philosophical knowledge, but by such personal qualities as responsiveness, sense of humor and humanity. During our conversations, these traits often took precedence in him over the Buddhist monk. Despite his shaved head and saffron robes, despite his status as one of the preeminent religious leaders of our world, in our conversations he was an ordinary person, preoccupied with universal human problems and anxieties.

Explaining the true meaning of spirituality, the Dalai Lama began by distinguishing between spirituality and religiosity:

I believe that it is very important for a person to appreciate his potential and understand the meaning of inner transformation. This is achieved in the process of spiritual development. Sometimes I call it "the opening of the spiritual dimension".

There are two levels of spirituality, one of which is associated with religious beliefs. There are so many different people and so many different characters in our world. There are five billion of us, and, in my opinion, there should be five billion different religions, since there are no two absolutely identical people. I believe that everyone should choose the spiritual path that best suits their character, natural inclinations, temperament, beliefs, family and cultural customs.

As a Buddhist monk, I consider Buddhism to be the most suitable religion for me. For me this religion is the best choice. But that doesn't mean that Buddhism is the best choice for everyone. This is clear and undeniable. It would be foolish to think that Buddhism is ideal for everyone, since different people perceive the world differently. Therefore, diversity of religions is required. The purpose of religion is to benefit people, and if there were only one religion, I think that sooner or later its effectiveness would be exhausted. So, for example, if only one dish was served in a restaurant day after day, it would soon lose almost all of its customers. People require variety in food, as they show a variety of tastes. Religion, like food, is designed to nourish the human spirit. Therefore, I believe that the diversity of religions should only be welcomed and appreciated. Some consider Judaism the best choice for themselves, others - Christianity, others - Islam. That is why we must respect and appreciate all the religious traditions that exist today.

All these religions are beneficial to mankind. Their purpose is to make people happier and the world a better place. But in order to make the world a better place, every believer must make an effort, show diligence and determination. To use religion as a source of inner strength, you need to make it a part of your life. You need to achieve a deep understanding of her ideas, not only on an intellectual, but also on a spiritual level, to make these ideas a part of your inner world.

I believe that one can develop a deep respect for all existing religious traditions. They deserve respect just because they form an ethical system that positively influences human behavior. So, in Christianity, faith in God creates a clear ethical system that governs the life and behavior of a person, and this system is very effective, since it contains the possibility of intimacy with God and the possibility of proving one's love for God through the manifestation of love and compassion towards other people. .

There are many other reasons for respecting other religions. It is clear that the major religions have brought great benefits to millions of people over the centuries, continue to do so today, and will inspire many more generations to come. It is very important to understand this.

In my opinion, one of the ways to strengthen mutual respect between religions is to establish close personal contact between them. Over the past few years, I have made many efforts in this direction - for example, met with representatives of Christianity and Judaism - and I believe that I have achieved some positive results. Such contacts make it possible to better learn about the benefits that a particular religion brings to humanity, and, possibly, to adopt some useful points, methods and even techniques.

Thus, it is very important to develop ties between different religions in order to unite efforts for the benefit of mankind. There are so many problems in the world, so much strife and strife, so religion should prevent conflict and deal with suffering, and not become one of their sources.

We often hear the saying that all people are equal. This means that we all strive for happiness in the same way. Everyone has the right to be happy and not suffer. Therefore, if some religion becomes a source of happiness or good for you, you must respect the rights of other people, other religions. It is obvious.

During the Dalai Lama's week of public speaking in Tucson, the spirit of mutual respect was palpable. The hall was constantly attended by representatives of various religions, including many Christian clergy; despite this, the atmosphere was peaceful and harmonious. There was even some exchange of experience, and the Dalai Lama's descriptions of various methods and techniques invariably aroused deep interest among non-Buddhists. One of the listeners asked this question:

In any religion great importance is attached to prayer. Why is prayer so important in the spiritual life? The Dalai Lama replied:

I believe that prayer is basically a daily reminder to yourself of your deepest principles and beliefs. Personally, I repeat certain Buddhist verses every morning. They look like prayers but are actually reminders. Reminders on how to connect with people, how to deal with problems, and more. Therefore, my spiritual practice mainly consists of reminders - about the importance of compassion, about forgiveness and other such things. And, of course, it includes certain Buddhist meditations on the nature of reality and visualization. If I have enough free time, my usual daily practice takes about four hours. That's quite a lot.

The thought of four hours of prayer a day prompted another listener to ask:

I am a mother of two children, I work, so I have very little free time. How to find enough time for prayers and meditations in such conditions?

I, too, could complain about the lack of free time, if I had such a desire,” the Dalai Lama replied. - And with even greater reasons. However, if you make some effort, you can always find time - for example, get up early in the morning. Then, there is such a thing as a weekend. You can sacrifice some of your entertainment, - he laughed. - So at least half an hour a day you are able to find. If you try even better, you will find half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. One has only to deal with this issue, and you will find how to solve it.

If you are serious about spiritual practices, you should understand that they involve the development and training of the mind, abilities, psychological and emotional spheres. These practices are not just some physical or verbal activity, not just saying prayers or singing. If you understand them in this limited sense, you certainly need to allocate some specific hours for their implementation, since you cannot combine them with your daily activities. If, for example, you repeat mantras in the kitchen while preparing food, your family members will not like it. If you have the right understanding of these spiritual practices, you can practice them twenty-four hours a day.

True spirituality is a state of mind that you can maintain constantly..

So, if you find yourself in a situation in which you are tempted to offend someone, immediately gather yourself inwardly and restrain yourself from these actions. When you're ready to lose your temper, immediately pull yourself together and say to yourself, "No, that's not right." This is what spiritual practice is. From this point of view, you always have time.

This reminded me of one of the Tibetan masters, Potov, who said that for one who has achieved a certain inner stability and understanding, everything that happens is a lesson, a learning. I think this is very true.

Thus, if you, for example, see some scenes of violence and sex on TV or in the movies, try to focus on the negative aspects of such extremes, and then these episodes will shock you less - you will perceive them as illustrations of the destructive nature of uncontrolled emotions, as useful lessons.

Of course, learn from series like "Melrose District" - this is good, but the arsenal of spiritual practices of the Dalai Lama, of course, is much more extensive. As he said, his daily exercises include Buddhist meditations on the nature of reality, as well as some visualizations. In this conversation, he only mentioned them in passing, but in the few years we have known each other, I have heard from him a much more detailed and complex analysis of them. His monologues on the nature of reality were full of the most complex philosophical arguments and descriptions of tantric visualizations - meditations and visualizations, the purpose of which is to create in the human imagination something like a holographic atlas of the Universe. He devoted his whole life to the study and practical development of these Buddhist meditations. Thinking about this huge effort, I asked him:

Can you talk about the practical benefits of these spiritual practices and their role in your daily life?

The Dalai Lama was silent for a few moments, then quietly replied:

Although my personal experience is very limited, one thing I can say with complete certainty is that as a result of these Buddhist trainings, my mind has become much calmer. It definitely is. Although this change happened gradually, year after year.

He laughed.

I believe that my attitude towards myself and other people has also changed. And, although it is difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons for these changes, it seems to me that understanding played a big role in this - not an absolute understanding, but a certain feeling or sense of the deep nature of reality - as well as the contemplation of such things as impermanence, the inevitability of suffering, the value of compassion and altruism .

So, for example, even thinking about those Chinese communists who brought great grief to many Tibetans, as a result of Buddhist practice, I feel compassion for them, because I understand that a person is made the executioner of circumstances. Therefore, and also because of the bodhisattva vows and oaths, I cannot consider that a person who has done something terrible deserves revenge or does not deserve happiness. The bodhisattva vow played a major role in developing this attitude, so I love him very much.

This reminded me of a teacher from Namgual Monastery. He spent twenty years in Chinese prisons and labor camps as a political prisoner. Once I asked him what was the most difficult thing for him during his imprisonment. Surprisingly, he replied that his biggest fear was losing his compassion for the Chinese!

There are many such stories. So, about three days ago I met a monk who also spent many years in Chinese prisons. He told me that during the 1959 Tibetan uprising, he was twenty-four years old and joined the rebels, who were headquartered in Norbuling. The Chinese caught him and threw him into prison along with his three brothers, who were subsequently killed. Two of his brothers also died. Then his parents died in a labor camp. He said that while in prison, he thought about his life until he came to the conclusion that he was a bad monk, although he spent his entire adult life in Drepang Monastery. He realized that he was a stupid monk. At that moment in prison, he vowed that he would do his best to become a good monk. As a result of Buddhist practices and mental training, he reached such a state that even physical pain did not prevent him from feeling happy. Even during the torture and beatings, he felt happy, perceiving them as a cleansing from the negative karma of past incarnations.

I hope these examples have proven to you the value of spiritual practices in everyday life.

So, the Dalai Lama described the last ingredient of a happy life - the spiritual dimension. Through the teachings of the Buddha, the Dalai Lama and many others have found a spiritual basis in their lives that helps them endure and even overcome the pain and suffering that life sometimes brings us. And, according to the Dalai Lama, in each of the major religions of the world there is a set of methods and techniques that can make a person happier.

The power of faith for many centuries filled and fills the lives of millions of people today. Sometimes it works almost imperceptibly, sometimes it causes deep spiritual transformations. Each of us, no doubt, at least once in his life witnessed how it affects a family member, friend or acquaintance. Sometimes examples of this power make it to the front pages of newspapers, as was the case with Terry Anderson, who was kidnapped from a street in Beirut one morning in 1985. They just threw a blanket over him and stuffed him into the car. For the next seven years, he was held hostage by Hezbollah, an extremist group of Islamic fundamentalists. Until 1991, he was not allowed out of dirty, damp basements and cramped cells, kept in the dark and chained, and constantly beaten. When he was finally released, the attention of the whole world was riveted on him. He was very happy to see his family again and, oddly enough, almost did not feel resentment and hatred for his tormentors. When journalists asked him how he managed to show such extraordinary stamina and strength, he said that only faith and prayer helped him endure these torments.

History is full of examples of how faith helps a person in difficult moments. And recent sociological surveys confirm the fact that religious faith makes human life much happier. Studies by independent scientists and sociological organizations (such as the Gallup Institute) have shown that there are much more happy and satisfied people among believers than among non-believers, and also that religious faith helps people cope with problems such as aging, personal crises much more effectively. and psychological trauma. In addition, statistics show that such phenomena as juvenile delinquency, alcoholism, drug addiction and divorce are much less common in religious families.

There are even serious reasons to believe that faith has a positive effect on the physical condition of people, including those who are seriously ill. The results of many hundreds of scientific studies make it possible to establish a connection between deep religious faith, mortality rates and health status. So, in one study, deeply religious older women endured hip surgery much easier physically and psychologically than those older women whose faith was weaker or absent altogether.

Studies conducted by Ronna Casar Harris and Mary Amanda Dew of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have shown that deeply religious people tolerate heart transplant surgery much more easily, studies by Dr. Thomas Oxman and his colleagues at Dartmouth Medical School - that among patients over fifty-five years old, who have undergone open-heart surgery on a coronary artery or heart valve, three times as many believers survive as non-believers.

The benefits of deep religious faith are sometimes direct manifestations of certain doctrines and traditional beliefs. Thus, many Buddhists cope with suffering by firmly believing in the doctrine of karma. In the same way, Christians are helped to resist suffering by faith in an all-seeing and loving God - a God whose providence may not be available to us, but who sooner or later will show his love for us. They find solace in Bible verses such as: "Besides, we know that to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose, everything works together for good."

In addition to specific doctrines, there are inspiring moments common to all religions. Involvement in the activities of a religious group, regardless of religion, gives the believer a sense of belonging to the group, connection with other people, brothers in faith. This creates a meaningful environment, a structure that allows a person to communicate and interact with others. Deep religious convictions give meaning and significance to human life, support hope in suffering and death, awaken in a person a sense of eternity, which allows his spirit to rise above everyday problems.

Despite all this, faith in itself is not yet a guarantee of happiness and peace of mind. So, for example, at the very moment when Terry Anderson demonstrated the most beautiful aspects of religious faith, sitting on a chain in a cell, literally next to him, crowds of people distraught with hatred demonstrated its worst aspects. For many years now, a brutal war has been going on in Lebanon, which is fueled by mutual hatred between various Muslim sects, on the one hand, and Christians and Jews, on the other. This has happened more than once throughout human history and is happening in many places on our planet now. The ability of religion to arouse enmity and hatred undermines trust in religious institutions. Therefore, the Dalai Lama, like some other religious leaders, is trying to highlight in various religions those universal elements of spiritual life that can make a person happier regardless of his religious orientation.

The Dalai Lama concluded his discussion with a most convincing description of the true spiritual life.

Speaking of the spiritual dimension in our lives, we have identified our religious beliefs as one level of spirituality. Religious faith is always good. But you can do without it, and in some cases, with great success. To believe or not to believe - it's up to us to decide, it's our right. But there is another level of spirituality, which I call basic spirituality. These are the basic human qualities - kindness, compassion, humanity. Everyone should have them, regardless of whether they are believers or not. Personally, I think that this level is more important than the first, because even the best religion can reach a limited number of people, only a part of humanity. And we all need these qualities, since we are all one big family. Without them, human existence will become unbearable and no one can feel happy. Thus, the development of these qualities in oneself is a very important task.

To do this, it seems to me, we must remember that out of, say, five billion people on this planet, one or two billion are deeply religious. Of course, by deeply religious people, I do not mean those who, for example, call themselves a Christian simply because they were baptized in a Christian church, but do not have real faith and do not engage in religious practices.

Suppose there are only one billion believers on our planet. This means that the remaining four billion, that is, the majority. - unbelievers. Therefore, we must find a way to improve the lives of these people, to help them become better and more conscious. Here, in my opinion, education plays a very important role, instilling in these people that compassion, kindness and other positive qualities are the main properties of normal people in general, and not just believers. We have already talked about the significant impact of humanity, kindness, love, and compassion on physical health, happiness, and peace of mind. This, unlike most religious and philosophical theories, is a very practical theory that, in my opinion, underlies all religious teachings, but is no less important for people outside any religious traditions. We must inspire these people that it is not necessary to believe in order to be a good person, feeling and responsible for the future of the world.

You can indicate your belonging to a religion or spiritual path by external means - by wearing special clothes, building an altar or chapel on your own land, reading prayers, chants, etc. However, all this is secondary to your worldview, which should be based on basic spiritual values, as there are people in whom the form is significantly different from the content. True spirituality makes a person calmer, happier and more peaceful.

All virtuous states of mind - compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, caring, etc. - are real dharma, or real spiritual qualities, since they cannot coexist with painful or negative states.

Thus, by developing inner discipline in ourselves, we create the basis for religious life and the development of these positive mental states. Only the one who has disciplined, subdued his mind and learned to show this in his actions leads a real spiritual life.

The Dalai Lama was at a small reception hosted by a group of businessmen who support the Tibetan people's struggle for their rights. At the door of the hall where the reception was held, a huge crowd of people gathered in anticipation of the appearance of the Dalai Lama. In the crowd, I noticed a man whom I had already seen a couple of times this week. He was a man in his thirties, tall and very thin. He was terribly disheveled all over, but it wasn't that that caught my attention, it was the expression on his face - an expression that I often see in my patients, a mixture of anxiety, depression and pain. I also noticed a slight twitching of the facial muscles near his mouth and mentally diagnosed him with dyskinesia, a nervous disorder caused by chronic use of anti-stress drugs. "Poor fellow," I sympathized with him, and almost immediately forgot about him.

As the Dalai Lama entered, the crowd thickened, people leaning forward to greet him. The guards, mostly volunteers, tried to hold back the onslaught of the crowd and clear the way for the Dalai Lama. The preoccupied young man whom I had noticed a minute earlier had completely changed his face and was pushed by the crowd straight to the passage that the guards had cleared. The Dalai Lama, passing by, noticed the guy, got out of the ring of guards and stopped to talk to him. At first, he was confused, began to say something quickly and inappropriately to the Dalai Lama, who in response uttered only a few words. I didn't hear what they were talking about, but I saw that the man got more and more aroused as they talked. He talked and talked, but then the Dalai Lama took his hand with both hands, gently patted it and stood silently for a few more moments, just nodding his head. It seemed that he did not notice anything and no one around. Pain and excitement suddenly left the man's face, tears streaming down his cheeks. Although the smile that appeared on his face was weak and timid, there was joy and relief in his eyes.

The Dalai Lama is convinced that inner discipline is the basis of the spiritual life and the fundamental method of achieving happiness. As explained in this book, from his point of view, internal discipline is the fight against such negative states of mind as anger, hatred, greed, and the development of such positive states as kindness, compassion and tolerance. He also believes that happiness can only be achieved by one whose mind is calm and steady. The practice of inner discipline may include formal meditation techniques designed to stabilize and calm the mind. Most spiritual traditions contain practices for calming the mind, establishing contact with the deep spiritual nature.

Concluding his series of public talks at Tucson, he talked about meditation, which is designed to quiet the mind, explore its deeper nature, and thus achieve "stillness of the mind."

Looking at those sitting in the hall, he spoke in a quiet and calm voice, as if addressing everyone personally, and not to the entire huge audience as a whole. Sometimes he enlivened his narration with a slight shake of his head, gestures of his hands, and almost imperceptible movements of his body.

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About the value of troubles How to develop the desire to help others? In order to aim yourself at caring for other people, you must first of all think about your importance in comparison with them. There is a practice that came to Tibet from India, which includes the search for common ground with

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Timeless Values ​​There are not only joys in people's daily lives, but also bottlenecks, obstacles and difficulties. Although the previous sections of this chapter have described how to temporarily, at a conditioned level, avoid these problems by applying a certain attitude, we

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The spiritual values ​​of a person are a set of concepts and principles that a person adheres to and is ready to defend. The first concepts are formed in childhood under the influence of loved ones. The family forms the concept of the world around the child and teaches good or bad behavior.

What are the principles

Values ​​are divided into material and spiritual:

• money, a set of expensive goods, jewelry, luxury items, etc. are considered material;
• spiritual values ​​- the union of moral, moral, ethical and religious concepts that are important for the individual. These include love, respect, friendship, creativity, honesty, devotion, peacefulness, understanding. The concept of "spiritual" comes from the words "spirit", "soul". This is evidence that you need to appreciate the spiritual qualities of people.

Every individual to some extent depends on material goods. But you can not put material well-being above spiritual principles.

With age, priorities change. This happens under the influence of the people around and the events that have occurred. At preschool age, children value friendship, parental love, and they do not care what material objects surround them and whether their friends are rich. At school and adolescence, boys and girls pay attention to the level of prosperity of their own and other parents. Often spiritual and moral principles go by the wayside. At an older age, the realization comes that money cannot buy trust, love, honesty, and moral values ​​become a priority. It is important to instill in children kindness, the ability to understand and sympathize from an early age.

Types of moral ideals

Types of spiritual and moral values:

1. Meaningful. They reflect the worldview of the people and their attitude to their culture. They also form a personality and help determine the attitude towards other people and the whole world.
2. Moral. These values ​​govern human relationships. These include the concepts of kindness, courtesy, mutual assistance, honor, loyalty, patriotism. Thanks to moral concepts, a well-known saying appeared: “Do to people the way you want them to do to you.”
3. Aesthetic. This kind of value implies peace of mind. It comes when the individual has realized himself and is in harmony with himself and the world around him. Aesthetic values ​​include the concepts of the sublime, the beautiful, the tragic and the comic.

Basic spiritual concepts

Kind people are happier than others, because by doing good, they bring joy and benefit to the world, help others. Good deeds are based on compassion, selflessness and a desire to help. Such people are respected and loved.

beauty

Only a talented person is capable of seeing beauty in the surrounding world and conveying it to others. Beauty inspires creative people to create works of art. Many artists, poets, artists and musicians try to find this important landmark.

True

This value leads to self-knowledge and the search for answers to important moral questions. Truth helps people to separate good from evil, to understand relationships, to analyze their actions. Thanks to the truth, how humanity has created a code of moral laws and rules of conduct.

Art

Art makes a huge contribution to the development of personality. It encourages you to think outside the box and unleash your inner potential. Thanks to art, the circle of interests of the individual expands and allows one to develop spiritually, to see beauty. Artists throughout history have contributed to culture and daily life.

Creation

This spiritual need helps the individual to realize individual talents, develop and strive for the highest. Creativity contributes to the manifestation of abilities for the benefit of society. Creative people tend to transform the world, they go to the new, think wider and more productively, leaving behind:

• cultural monuments;
• literature;
• painting.

All these things together affect society and encourage other people to develop and not stand still. In everyday life, creative individuals help progress transform the world around them.

Love

This is one of the first moral guidelines that a person encounters. Parental, friendly love, love for the opposite sex gives rise to many emotions. Under the influence of love, other values ​​are formed:

• empathy;
• loyalty;
• respect.

Without it existence is impossible.

Spiritual values ​​and concepts play an important role in the life of each individual and the people as a whole, accompanying them throughout their lives.

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