Morality befitting one's position

There is an unwritten rule everyone has to accept: the higher a person's position, the more morality they must have compared with others. Teachers must be more moral than their students, parents more than their children, clergy more than lay followers, and officials more than ordinary citizens.

This demand is entirely natural and entirely fair. If we forget it, we are weeded out. If our morals do not match our position, we lose the position. In the days of kings, a king was often praised as a sage ruler. To credit a king with the qualities of a sage was to say he must be supremely moral. It was praise, but it was also what his subjects expected of him. The king is the highest, so his morality must be the highest, and the highest morality is that of a sage.

We are often swayed by the Western argument that everyone is equal before the law, and so treat officials as no different from ordinary people. In reality officials are very different. Everyone is human, with the same needs, but the role and responsibility of an official are quite different. Because of that difference, they are expected to be several grades more moral than ordinary people.

An ordinary person who steals is a common case, but if an official steals, it is another matter altogether, something huge and appalling in everyone's eyes. So people clearly demand much more morality from officials. That is the rule of matching morality to position.

Anyone who chooses the path of an official has to keep working at self-cultivation so that morality keeps growing to fit their position. Morality that is not trained every day declines on its own. The natural instinct of living creatures is selfishness, greed and hatred. Do nothing, and the bad traits slowly rise. Only daily cultivation keeps them in check.

Daily cultivation needs a method that is concrete and reasonable, scientific and psychological, and consistent with the law of cause and effect.

Every day an official should say moral things to themselves. I will be patient in hardship. I will love all my countrymen. I will restrain my greed. I will be loyal to my homeland. Said sincerely every day, this turns into a natural moral character.

Belief in the fair law of cause and effect is also decisive for morality. To talk about morality without it is a real omission. The law is both spiritual and scientific. Anyone who wants to be moral has to believe in it. When citizens see their leaders believing in it deeply and understanding it deeply, they will truly respect them. That is the power of spiritual faith.

Officials also need a way to keep the mind calm, gentle and at ease, to cope with heavy pressure at work. Serving a large population means a steady stream of urgent matters, little time and pay that never matches the burden. That is a great psychological pressure, too. Without a steady morality, anyone would be corrupted.

Morality comes from the examples of those who went before, philosophers and famous figures. It also comes from ordinary people around us. And it comes from our own wisdom. These are the sources we can consult, study and apply to our lives.

Keep cultivating morality until we meet the warm regard of the people. Only then can we consider it adequate for now.