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The Most Important, But Most Difficult, Virtue in Life?

ZPowers

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I'm not sure. I don't know that the most important and most difficult are necessarily the same, or that every life has the same "most important" virtue.
 

Crescent Fresh

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I'm not sure. I don't know that the most important and most difficult are necessarily the same, or that every life has the same "most important" virtue.

Sorry, I admit that's not a clear thread title and that it can be misleading. :(

So let me rephrase this.

What I meant was, among all of the virtues that you respect highly, which one seem to be the most difficult for you to keep up with?
 

Giggly

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Trust...

Both trusting others and being trustworthy.
 

Lexicon

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Mental reconciliation of the very idea of the existence of things like 'virtue'
 
G

Ginkgo

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Reading the Silmarillion, you'll find that pride was the impetus that lead to the divide: good vs. evil. That's pretty much reflected in Judeo-Christian traditions; pride was considered to be the gravest of the deadly sins. If someone is prideful enough, they'll control others for egocentric reasons.

So, I guess humility is the best virtue imo. Humility and adaptability.
 

nolla

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Resistance of busyness. :yes:

Well, not really. It just seems like the world is busy for no reason whatsoever, and that we are being pushed to being busy all the time. Compassion and humility are good. They would decrease busyness as well.
 

Xenon

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So let me rephrase this.

What I meant was, among all of the virtues that you respect highly, which one seem to be the most difficult for you to keep up with?

Um...for me it's the willingness to endure discomfort. The willingness to struggle and experience anxiety and uncertainty and failure and frustration and even just plain drudgery, in order to do what's likely best for myself in the long run. This has never been one of my strengths, and I think that's really limited me for a long time.
 

FunnyDigestion

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Resistance of busyness. :yes:

Well, not really. It just seems like the world is busy for no reason whatsoever, and that we are being pushed to being busy all the time. Compassion and humility are good. They would decrease busyness as well.

That's an interesting perspective. I've always seen being busy (or being 'engaged' or 'working' at something) as a very important part of life, but in the past year or so I've started to change on that. I've begun to see stillness, calm, placidity, reflection, etc. as important & just as worthy of cultivation as work & occupation.

For me, work is about mindful exertion of energy, usually relating to artistic progress & creation. I always thought of "normal people" as the ones who were engaged in pointless busyness, but lately I've seen that a lot of what I've done in my life has served a similar purpose of filling up time simply to avoid idleness. If "idle hands are the devil's workshop", then learning to be good & mindful in inactivity is just as important to becoming a better person as learning to do valuable work.
 

nolla

Senor Membrane
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If "idle hands are the devil's workshop", then learning to be good & mindful in inactivity is just as important to becoming a better person as learning to do valuable work.

That's a very good point! :solidarity:

I would interpret it to mean that idle hands become the devil's busy hands, since most of us just can't bear idleness, they will start to do "whatever" in order to not waste their time. When doing whatever, doing something random, it is more likely to do "evil" than it would be if you were being mindful. Not to say that this has anything to do with planning outcomes of your actions. I don't really believe in predicting how much "evil" or "good" my actions will produce. But there is a certain value in being mindful, and not jumping to action whenever there is a possibility to do so. Of course, this same idea can be turned the other way around and say that resistance to busyness would also include the endurance of routine. Just because there is a chance to do something new doesn't mean that it is better than the routine I am enduring at the moment.
 

Santosha

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Let's discuss! :)

Since this is so subjective I will answer for myself. A virtue I admire greatly yet have the most difficult time upholding:

Purity: A process of freeing myself day by day from influences and attachments (usually external) that keep me from being true to myself and to what I know is right. Physical and spiritual cleanliness.
 

Hera

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Honesty is a very difficult virtue and very important IMO. I think that people are easily hurt by honesty, and part of that is because we're so conditioned to be dishonest that it seems unnatural when people present the truth. Similarly, it's difficult to be honest for that same reason. It hurts people, it can hurt ourselves, it can really alter our lives if we become honest. I'm not entirely convinced that complete honesty would be a vice. However, I think that at the point society is in, complete honesty is so foreign, we wouldn't know what to do with it.

That, and I'm a bit blunt with people, and I'd like to live in a world where less people called me callous and thanked me instead. :)
 

Mole

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Courage is the greatest virtue because all other virtues depend upon it.
 
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