The Greatest Quality

[Unlearner]

I just started thinking about this question this morning, and I'm kind of curious to see how other people feel about it. What do you think, in you personal experience is the single greatest quality or charactericstic that a person can have or exhibit?

 

Among many other qualities, I would have to say kindness. A person who, in a given situation, has to decide on a course of action, I believe that a kind action would generally be of the more prudent choices.

 

However, I haven't had a significant amount of time to meditate on this, so I may come up with a new answer later. What do you think?

[Lth]

honesty. you can come up kind but not honest. you can be friendly but not honest. so from my perspective honesty comes first first first

[Nikolai1]

I think all this virtues link together like a chain. You can't be kind unless you're wise, and you can't be wise unless your selfless, an you can't be selfless unless your happy and so on...

[vonkrankenhaus]

Re:

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"What do you think, in you personal experience is the single greatest quality or charactericstic that a person can have or exhibit?"

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Happiness. The characteristic of true, total, all-inclusive Happiness.

 

First is required: Freedom. Cannot be truly happy if not truly Free.
Happiness without Freedom is temporary, relative - not truly Happiness.

 

Required for that: Health. Cannot be truly free without true Health.
Freedom without Health is temporary, limited, and not really free.

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[Marblehead]

honesty. you can come up kind but not honest. you can be friendly but not honest. so from my perspective honesty comes first first first

The first to respond and the response I would have shared.

[Nikolai1]

You can be honest but commit all kinds of villainy because you are foolish. And you can be very honest but very self-centred.

 

Surely there's more to virtue than honesty?

[noonespecial]

I'd have to say discenrment, when to be silent, when to be assertive, when to be passive, when to be active.

[Marblehead]

You can be honest but commit all kinds of villainy because you are foolish. And you can be very honest but very self-centred. Surely there's more to virtue than honesty?

The question was:  the single greatest quality.  Only one choice.  Otherwise I would have said the Daoist's Three Treasures.

[3bob]

to get up and go again after whatever knocks you down while also learning from your mistakes and those of others so that some of these other virtues can develop...

[Unlearner]

honesty. you can come up kind but not honest. you can be friendly but not honest. so from my perspective honesty comes first first first

 

You can be honest but commit all kinds of villainy because you are foolish. And you can be very honest but very self-centred. Surely there's more to virtue than honesty?

 

Is not honesty the fool's trait? The clever one is the one who learned to lie for their own gain. Cleverness may be a useful tool to many, but not necessarily to the Daoist (Dao De Jing, Ch. 19).

 

The question was:  the single greatest quality.  Only one choice.  Otherwise I would have said the Daoist's Three Treasures.

 

Hmm... perhaps a better question would be to address also the collection of qualities necessary to support the highest quality. As well, as rainbowvein mentioned, I too would be curious on your take of the Three Treasures.

[Marblehead]

Hi MH, would love to hear you restate the three treasures in your own words. Thanks.

Conservativism (I am a conservative)

Compassion (I have compassion and I do put those emotions to action)

Humility (I still have work to do here)

[the1gza]

I would go with honesty. If you gotta lie to get something, you're probably in the wrong place. Also, if you're honest, you come to realize things like humility, conservativism, and compassion. However, you don't attempt to fake these things, which is just acting that isn't seated in reality but repression. Rather, it helps you place yourself in situations where you are truthfully compassionate, and you get to realize that things like greed and arrogance aren't only based in things that often lead to destruction, but also that these things are based off ideals that often have nothing to do with the individual who possesses them. So I'm agreeing with honesty here.

[doc benway]

I just started thinking about this question this morning, and I'm kind of curious to see how other people feel about it. What do you think, in you personal experience is the single greatest quality or charactericstic that a person can have or exhibit?

 

Among many other qualities, I would have to say kindness. A person who, in a given situation, has to decide on a course of action, I believe that a kind action would generally be of the more prudent choices.

 

However, I haven't had a significant amount of time to meditate on this, so I may come up with a new answer later. What do you think?

 

I think you're on to something.

I would say wisdom, but that is vague.

This wisdom manifests in putting the welfare of all sentient beings on equal footing with one's own.

[Marblehead]

Interesting to see you utilize the word conservatism (a political philosophy) in the place of frugality.

 

Other synonyms for frugality I have seen: simplicity; conservation; modesty; restraint; clarity.

 

 

Edit: I noticed you said the same thing one year ago: http://thedaobums.com/topic/26569-the-three-treasures/?p=395767

Well, at least my BS stands the hands of time.  Hehehe.

 

Seriously though, I was a conservative before I knew anything about politics and I really don't use the word in a political sense often.  Conservative to me means being not wasteful.  Conservative means to save up for the things you want and buying them only after you have enough to pay in full at purchase time.

 

Conservative is a lifestyle for me.  Waste not, want not, and all that other BS.

 

But yes, I am a political conservative. 

[Lth]

You can be honest but commit all kinds of villainy because you are foolish. And you can be very honest but very self-centred. Surely there's more to virtue than honesty?

 

even if comitting such acts, it comes from alighnment of purpose. when being honest and still committing is not lying to oneself. it is embracing the wrongdoings and accepting the consequences

 

so the action itself that stems from whatever circumstances would be wrong or bad, but the quality behind it is good, virtue

[the1gza]

You can be honest but commit all kinds of villainy because you are foolish. And you can be very honest but very self-centred. Surely there's more to virtue than honesty?

Not really, because both of those things, in my experience, cannot really stand the test of honesty if it is also turned upon the self. For example, being self-centered (which I honestly think is a completely misused term in the first place, because most so-called self-centered people are actually profusely worried about the opinions of others) is not something that can stand the test of genuine honesty when placed in terms of self-reflection. The ideals that go into being "self-centered" are so marred in self-deceptions that, if you are being truthfully honest with yourself, cannot be continued if you wish to continue being an honest person.

 

The same goes with villiany; the underlying motivations of crime are based on deceptions that people have seeded in themselves. For example, people who are on the street committing robberies, drug deals, and murders-for-hire believe that they do this because the money is fast and "easier" than holding a job. Yet, they will turn right around and talk about it "bein' hard out here for a gangsta'", and they can't live their lives without looking over their shoulders, holding a ridiculous amount of distrust, massive stress, and a much lower life expectancy. Fact is, the street life for these guys is extremely difficult, and gettin' money in these streets is extremely difficult. But there is a deceptive idea that the money is easy and fast, when in actuality it is not easy, many times not fast, and extremely dangerous. They might be able to speak straight with other people, but there are several deceptions that criminals tell themselves everyday.

 

I'll be honest, I haven't met a completely honest person ever. If they don't speak untruths to other people, they reveal the lies they tell themselves all the time. "To be successful, you have to go to school and get a good job"... that's a ridiculous deception that lays on the foundation of modern society as we know it. Many people cannot even allow themselves to tell the truth for it smashing their whole world, going through life believing in things that did not wind up being true in practical reality. Even saying that villains and self-centered people can be honest, when the whole basis of those ways of living are based on self-deception... honesty is about a whole lot more than just telling a person "facts".

[Unlearner]

I think you're on to something.

I would say wisdom, but that is vague.

This wisdom manifests in putting the welfare of all sentient beings on equal footing with one's own.

 

I like the last part, but I think we should be wary of using terms like "wisdom" loosely. Lao Zi certainly was, as he never associated wisdom as a quality of a sage. Then again, that may simply be from people who misuse the term in the first place....

[Spotless]

The will to get back upon the horse - and not blame the horse for having fallen off once again.

[Lth]

one time a person was really mad. he was raging and saying nasty things at me. i made an assumption, that probably his mother treated him badly for his lack of love. he thought i insulted his mother...

true story

[Marblehead]

one time a person was really mad. he was raging and saying nasty things at me. i made an assumption, that probably his mother treated him badly for his lack of love. he thought i insulted his mother...

 

true story

That was funny.  And I saw the reaction coming even before reading it.

[GrandmasterP]

Pragmatism

( cos shit happens).

 

[soaring crane]

cheerful indifference :-)

[forestofclarity]

Awareness. Because without that, you don't have anything. 

[doc benway]

Awareness. Because without that, you don't have anything. 

 

Personally, I would disqualify awareness as a "quality".

That said, I agree that awareness is the foundation of all other practices and hence our most important activity.

[doc benway]

I like the last part, but I think we should be wary of using terms like "wisdom" loosely. Lao Zi certainly was, as he never associated wisdom as a quality of a sage. Then again, that may simply be from people who misuse the term in the first place....

Agreed - I hesitate to even try and define 'wisdom' as that would be to limit it, but there is a "knowing" that causes people to walk the path I described. I can think of no better label than wisdom.