Law Office
This page is under construction. Meantime, here are a few
thoughts about The Law.
Some Sanity Islanders enjoy legalese and all that goes
with it (The Second Way) because it's like a puzzle to solve, or they enjoy
detail, debate, trivia, history, etc. Others avoid it as much as possible
because they see it as Contrived Second Force and feel that there is enough
Natural Second Force to deal with. Neither is interested in manmade
"justice" or "punishment" because they understand Balance. In any case, it's
here to stay, for the time being, and here are some Sanity Island remarks on
the subject.
EVERYONE on the planet--including you and me--has never
done ANYTHING that was not felt at the time of doing to be either right,
proper or justifiable (DON'T believe this, check it out for yourself).
(Justification often breaks down afterwards, but at the time of doing, any
act is felt to be justified). There are as many justifications for anything
as there are people on Earth. Sanity Islanders understand that they cannot
apply this truth to themselves and not everyone else--if I feel right or
proper or justified, then so does everyone. In which case I must allow them
their rightness, properness, justification if I am to "claim" my own.
For this reason, there can be no justification (!) for
punishment! If someone's idea of right is some degrees off center of my own,
who's to say which is "more" right? Me? My tribe? How is it me and my tribe
have more "authority" than theirs?
Meanwhile, we do have crime... violence against another.
And we can't have violence running amok. Sanity Islanders understand that
violent people must be quarantined until they no longer pose a threat.
"Rights"
At Sanity Island, there is a huge distinction between
"rights" and "privileges." Anyone brought up in Western culture assumes he
or she has "inalienable rights" including, but certainly not limited to
life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.
Really? Is this true, or even accurate?
A tenet of THE WAY of Intelligence is that we don't have
these things as "rights," because, as a wise old man put it, "any joker with
a gun can take these away." Although some will quibble that this is just
semantics (and that's just fine), it certainly is a new way to look at
things: these things I "have," including life itself, is a privilege
given--which could be taken away.
Today in Los Angeles I several of the biggest grocery
stores are either closed or have little stock because employees are striking
for their right to free health care, thinking the $5 a week they are being
asked to pay is a gross injustice. There are no busses or trains because
those drivers are fussing about their rights. Fires are raving the hillsides
and several were heard today talking about their right to government
reimbursement, and the sooner the better.
THE WAY of Intelligence takes no political issue with any
of this; it just asks if it is saner to think of such things as
privileges--since obviously they can be taken away by somebody.
This said, however, there are four rights every human
being does have--and isn't it funny how few take advantage of these
rights? Even someone with a gun cannot take these away from you, because you
can exercise them even while that awful (and rare) circumstance might be
happening. Sanity Islander's four rights are:
1. The right to be in
charge of my inner state.
2. The right to respond rather than react.
3. The right to place my own valuation of anything.
4. The right to freely experience whatever arises in my way today.
How many people do you know who could fill a book with
perceived rights--all of which can be taken away--and have never bothered to
recognize, let alone exercise, their birthright??
And by the way, it is also a tenet of THE WAY of
Intelligence that the more we respect, appreciate, and cultivate our
privileges, the more likely we are to keep them, enhance them, and gain
more. Check it out.
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