The importance of motivation—it is interesting to me the difference between doing what is right and good out of fear of punishment or hope of reward—or some other selfish motive—and, on the other hand, doing what is right and good because it is right and good.
Now, those who fall into the former category are what I would call children, and those in the latter I would call (real) adults.
We can also see clearly here how this has to do with self-control vs. being controlled, as well as responsibility. Children are unable to exert self-control, and so, in order to get them to do what is right, they must be controlled by means of the threat of punishment (violence, jail, loss of what they desire, etc.), or the enticement of reward (a material thing, a sweet, wealth, honor, a place in heaven, etc.). But (real) adults have no need to be controlled in order to do what is right, and so do not require such enticements or threats.
Now, the question is rightly asked: “What is this ‘right and good,’ and who decides it?” The answer is that no one decides it, for “it” is reality and truth, which are not subject to our illusory subjective perspectives and opinions.
That which is right and good is that which is in accord with truth, and therefore not in accord with illusion and delusion.
That is not a criteria that I, or anyone else for that matter, could decide. It rather simply is. It is according to the “authority” of the truth that one experiences/sees/recognizes in the process of going from illusion to reality, of going from illusion to seeing something as it really is. That is truth, that is the “authority” for what is good and right—reality, which is the absence of illusion.
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From my personal notes, 6/14/00
