Scientology is Wisdom: Ethics

One area of philosophy which has been made incredibly complicated over the centuries is the subject of ethics. Just try and look it up and get a basic understanding of it from an average encyclopedia and you'll probably be left with a big question mark hovering over your head.

Ethics in Scientology is described in a way that anyone can understand and use to improve their own lives and the lives of those around them.

Ethics actually consists of rationality toward the highest level of survival for the individual, the future race, the group, Mankind and the other dynamics [areas of life] taken up collectively. Ethics are reason. Man's greatest weapon is his reason.

Ethics consists simply of the actions an individual takes on himself. it is a personal thing. When one is ethical ... it is by his own determinism and is done by himself.

- L. Ron Hubbard from the book "Introduction to Scientology Ethics"

So ethics is basically the subject that covers what actions one should take in order to survive, not just for yourself, but for all areas of existence.

And by "survive", I don't mean bare necessity. Survival at an optimum level must include having enough of the things one needs to survive and having some reserve in case of emergency. If it cost you $400 a week to live and you make $400 a week then you are living on a knife edge and barely surviving. If you need $400 and you make $4,000 then you are going to be surviving very well.

It is not always easy to figure out what actions you should take in order to survive. How do you know if an action is going to help or hinder? For example, in the current economic state many companies are cutting back on their advertising budgets. Is that going to help their survival or hinder it? That question is answered in Scientology Ethics.

In Scientology we have a set of things called the Ethics Conditions and a formula for each Condition to improve it. Example: there is an Ethics Condition called "emergency" which is the condition where things are either staying the same or are just starting to get worse. Let's say you've been making the same wage for five years and have not had a raise in all that time. You are in emergency. Your wage is actually less than it was five years ago because of inflation: things cost more than they used to but you are not making more so you can't buy as much.

So what should you do?

The steps to take to solve your situation are given in the Emergency Formula, which is a part of Scientology Ethics. This same formula also applies to the business that is starting to hit hard times because of the economic crisis. The formula for that condition will tell the business owner whether he should cut back on advertising or not.

Here we have "accumulated knowledge of life" that was "gained through experience" - which is the definition of Wisdom that I am using.

Further data on Scientology Ethics:

• Scientology is Solutions: Improving Conditions in Life
• Applying the Formula for the Danger Condition to The Economic Crisis