Social values and norms. Types of values

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Introduction

1. The concept of spiritual values

2. Structure of spiritual values. Classification of spiritual values

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The most important philosophical issues concerning the relationship between the World and Man include the inner spiritual life of a person, those basic values that underlie his existence. A person not only cognizes the world as an existing thing, trying to reveal its objective logic, but also evaluates reality, trying to understand the meaning of his own existence, experiencing the world as due and undue, good and harmful, beautiful and ugly, fair and unfair, etc.

Universal human values act as criteria for the degree of both spiritual development and social progress of humanity. The values that ensure human life include health, a certain level of material security, social relations that ensure the realization of the individual and freedom of choice, family, law, etc.

Values traditionally classified as spiritual are aesthetic, moral, religious, legal and general cultural.

In the spiritual sphere, the most important difference between man and other living beings—spirituality—is born and realized. Spiritual activity is carried out for the sake of satisfying spiritual needs, that is, the need of people to create and master spiritual values. The most important among them are the need for moral improvement, satisfaction of the sense of beauty, and essential knowledge of the world around us. Spiritual values appear in the form of ideas of good and evil, justice and injustice, beauty and ugliness, etc. Forms of spiritual development of the surrounding world include philosophical, aesthetic, religious, and moral consciousness. Science is also considered a form of social consciousness. The system of spiritual values is an integral element of spiritual culture.

Spiritual needs are the internal motivations of a person for spiritual creativity, for the creation of new spiritual values and for their consumption, for spiritual communication.

A person is designed in such a way that, as his personality develops, he gradually changes his tastes, preferences, needs, and value orientations. This is a normal process of human development. Among the wide variety of different values that exist in the psyche of any person, two main categories stand out: material and spiritual values. Here we will pay more attention to the second type.

So, if everything is more or less clear with the material (this includes the desire to own all sorts of things, such as good clothes, housing, all kinds of devices, cars, electronic equipment, household items and things, and the like), then spiritual values are of a completely different quality. As we know, the soul of a person means something living, moral, animated, personal, important, meaningful (in terms of life), having a higher degree of existence. Consequently, values of a spiritual nature are qualitatively different in comparison with ordinary material ones.

Spiritual values, in fact, favorably distinguish any other living forms of existence from a person, who clearly differs in the conditioning of his special behavior and life activity. Such values include the following qualities: the value of life itself, activity, consciousness, strength, foresight, willpower, determination, wisdom, justice, self-control, courage, truthfulness and sincerity, love for one’s neighbor, loyalty and devotion, faith and trust, kindness and compassion, humility and modesty, the value of treating others well and the like.

In general, the area of spiritual values represents the sphere of human existence, life, existence. It exists both inside a person and outside his physical body. It is worth considering that spiritual values highlight their main qualities, among which is the value of the human life. For people, self-worth is already a great value - in contrast to the usual price (cost), it is something absolute - a concept that means the same thing as a shrine.

1. The concept of spiritual value

It is noted that spiritual values form the foundation of culture. The existence of cultural values characterizes precisely the human way of being and the level of separation of man from nature. Value can be defined as the social significance of ideas and their dependence on the needs and interests of a person. For a mature person, values function as life goals and motives for her activities. By implementing them, a person makes his contribution to universal human culture.

Values as part of the worldview are determined by the existence of social requirements. Thanks to these requirements, a person could be guided in his life by the image of the proper, necessary relationship of things. Thanks to this, values formed a special world of spiritual existence, which raised a person above reality.

Value is a social phenomenon, therefore the criterion of truth or falsity cannot be unambiguously applied to it. Value systems are formed and changed in the process of development of the history of human society. Therefore, the criteria for value choice are always relative, they are determined by the current moment, historical circumstances, they translate the problems of truth into a moral plane.

Values have many classifications. According to traditionally established ideas about the spheres of social life, values are divided into “material and spiritual values, production and consumer (utilitarian), socio-political, cognitive, moral, aesthetic, religious values.”1 We are interested in spiritual values, which are the center of a person’s spiritual life and society.

There are spiritual values that we find at different stages of human development, in different social formations. Such basic, universal values include the values of good (good), freedom, truth, creativity, beauty, faith.

As for Buddhism, the problem of spiritual values occupies the main place in its philosophy, since the essence and purpose of existence, according to Buddhism, is the process of spiritual search, improvement of the individual and society as a whole.

Spiritual values from the point of view of philosophy include wisdom, concepts of true life, understanding of the goals of society, understanding of happiness, mercy, tolerance, self-awareness. On modern stage the development of Buddhist philosophy, its schools place new emphasis on concepts of spiritual values. The most important spiritual values are mutual understanding between nations, the willingness to compromise in order to achieve universal goals, that is, the main spiritual value is love in the broadest sense of the word, love for the whole world, for all humanity without dividing it into nations and nationalities. These values flow organically from the basic values of Buddhist philosophy. Spiritual values motivate people's behavior and ensure stable relationships between people in society. Therefore, when we talk about spiritual values, we cannot avoid the question of the social nature of values. In Buddhism, spiritual values directly control a person’s entire life and subordinate all his activities. Spiritual values in the philosophy of Buddhism are conventionally divided into two groups: values related to the external world and values related to the inner world. The values of the external world are closely related to social consciousness, concepts of ethics, morality, creativity, art, and an understanding of the goals of the development of science and technology. The values of the inner world include the development of self-awareness, personal improvement, spiritual education, etc.

Buddhist spiritual values serve to solve the problems of real, material life by influencing inner world person.

The world of values is the world of practical activity. A person’s attitude to the phenomena of life and their assessment are carried out in practical activity, when the individual determines what significance an object has for him, what its value is. Therefore, naturally, the spiritual values of Buddhist philosophy had practical significance in the formation of the traditional culture of China: they contributed to the development of the aesthetic foundations of Chinese literature, art, in particular landscape painting and poetry. Chinese artists pay main attention to the internal content, the spiritual mood of what they depict, in contrast to European ones, who primarily strive for external similarity. In the process of creativity, the artist feels inner freedom and reflects his emotions in the picture, thus, the spiritual values of Buddhism have a great influence on the development of the art of Chinese calligraphy and Qigong, wushu, medicine, etc.

Although almost all philosophical systems, in one way or another, touch on the issue of spiritual values in human life, it is Buddhism that deals with them directly, since the main problems that Buddhist teaching is designed to solve are the problems of spiritual, internal improvement of man.

Spiritual values. The concept covers social ideals, attitudes and assessments, as well as norms and prohibitions, goals and projects, benchmarks and standards, principles of action expressed in the form of normative ideas about good, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, fair and unfair, legal and illegal, about the meaning of history and the purpose of man, etc.

The concepts of “spiritual values” and “spiritual world of the individual” are inextricably linked. If reason, rationality, knowledge constitute the most important components of consciousness, without which purposeful human activity is impossible, then spirituality, being formed on this basis, refers to the values associated with the meaning of human life, one way or another deciding the issue about the choice of one’s life path, the meaning of one’s activities, its goals and means of achieving them.

Spiritual life, the life of human thought, usually includes knowledge, faith, feelings, needs, abilities, aspirations, and goals of people. The spiritual life of an individual is also impossible without experiences: joy, optimism or despondency, faith or disappointment. It is human nature to strive for self-knowledge and self-improvement. The more developed a person is, the higher his culture, the richer his spiritual life.

The condition for the normal functioning of a person and society is the mastery of the knowledge, skills, and values accumulated over the course of history, since each person is a necessary link in the relay of generations, a living connection between the past and the future of humanity. Anyone who, from an early age, learns to navigate it, to choose for himself values that correspond to personal abilities and inclinations and that do not contradict the rules of human society, feels free and at ease in modern culture. Each person has enormous potential for the perception of cultural values and the development of their own abilities. The ability for self-development and self-improvement is the fundamental difference between humans and all other living beings.

The spiritual world of man is not limited to knowledge. An important place in it is occupied by emotions - subjective experiences about situations and phenomena of reality. A person, having received this or that information, experiences emotional feelings of grief and joy, love and hatred, fear or fearlessness. Emotions, as it were, paint acquired knowledge or information in one or another “color” and express a person’s attitude towards them. The spiritual world of a person cannot exist without emotions, a person is not an impassive robot processing information, but a personality capable of not only having “calm” feelings, but in which passions can rage - feelings of exceptional strength, persistence, duration, expressed in the direction of thoughts and strength to achieve a specific goal. Passions sometimes lead a person to greatest feats in the name of people's happiness, and sometimes for crimes. A person must be able to manage his feelings. To control both these aspects of spiritual life and all human activities in the course of his development, will is developed. Will is a person’s conscious determination to perform certain actions to achieve a set goal.

The worldview idea of the value of an ordinary person, his life, forces today in culture, traditionally understood as the repository of universal human values, to highlight moral values as the most important, determining in the modern situation the very possibility of his existence on Earth. And in this direction, the planetary mind is taking the first, but quite tangible steps from the idea of the moral responsibility of science to the idea of combining politics and morality.

2. Structure of spiritual values

Since the spiritual life of mankind occurs and is based on material life, its structure is largely similar: spiritual need, spiritual interest, spiritual activity, spiritual benefits (values) created by this activity, satisfaction of spiritual needs, etc.

In addition, the presence of spiritual activity and its products necessarily gives rise to a special kind of public relations- aesthetic, religious, moral, etc.

However, the external similarity in the organization of the material and spiritual aspects of human life should not obscure the fundamental differences that exist between them. For example, our spiritual needs, unlike material ones, are not given biologically, they are not given (at least fundamentally) to a person from birth. This does not at all deprive them of objectivity, only this objectivity is of a different kind - purely social. The individual’s need to master the sign-symbolic world of culture has for him the character of an objective necessity - otherwise you will not become a person. But this need does not arise “by itself,” in a natural way. It must be formed and developed by the social environment of the individual in the long process of his upbringing and education.

It is worth noting that at first, society directly forms in a person only the most basic spiritual needs that ensure his socialization. Spiritual needs of a higher order - in the development of as much of the wealth of world culture as possible, participation in their creation - society can form only indirectly, through a system of spiritual values that serve as guidelines in the spiritual self-development of individuals.

As for the spiritual values themselves, around which people’s relationships in the spiritual sphere develop, this term usually indicates the socio-cultural significance of various spiritual formations (ideas, norms, images, dogmas, etc.). Moreover, in people’s value perceptions there is certainly a certain prescriptive-evaluative element.

Spiritual values (scientific, aesthetic, religious) express the social nature of man himself, as well as the conditions of his existence. This is a unique form of reflection by public consciousness of the objective needs and trends in the development of society. In the concepts of the beautiful and the ugly, good and evil, justice, truth, etc., humanity expresses its attitude to existing reality and contrasts it with a certain ideal state of society that must be established. Any ideal is always, as it were, “raised” above reality, containing a goal, desire, hope, in general - something that should be, and not something that exists. This is what gives it the appearance of an ideal entity, seemingly completely independent of anything. On the surface, only its prescriptive and evaluative character is visible. The earthly origins, the roots of these idealizations, as a rule, are hidden, lost, distorted. This would not be a big problem if the natural historical process of the development of society and its ideal reflection coincided. But this is not always the case. Often, ideal norms born of one historical era are opposed to the reality of another era, in which their meaning is irretrievably lost. This indicates the coming of a time of acute spiritual confrontation, ideological battles and mental turmoil.

Therefore, it is necessary to propose a classification of values that corresponds various areas environment faced by an individual. This classification was proposed, in particular, by N. Rescher; he distinguishes economic, political, intellectual and other values. In our opinion, this approach suffers from some lack of system, although in general the proposed classification can be accepted and used. However, we propose to use as a criterion for constructing an external classification the life spheres with which an individual deals in the course of his existence, then all values can be divided into the following groups:

1. Health values - show what place health and everything connected with it occupies in the value hierarchy, what prohibitions are more or less strong in relation to health.

2. Personal life - describe a set of values responsible for sexuality, love and other manifestations of intergender interaction.

3. Family - show the attitude towards family, parents and children.

4. Occupational activities - describe the relationships and demands of work and finances for a given individual.

5. Intellectual sphere - show what place thinking and intellectual development occupy in a person’s life.

6. Death and spiritual development - values responsible for attitudes towards death, spiritual development, religion and the church.

7. Society - values responsible for a person’s attitude to the state, society, political system, etc.

8. Hobbies - values that describe what an individual’s interests, hobbies and free time should be.

Thus, the proposed classification, in my opinion, reflects all types of life spheres that a person may encounter

3. Max Scheler's teaching on values

Max Scheler (German Max Scheler; August 22, 1874, Munich - May 19, 1928, Frankfurt am Main) - German philosopher and sociologist; professor in Cologne (1919-1928), in Frankfurt (1928); student of Eichen; contrasted Kant's ethics with the doctrine of value; the founder of axiology (theory of values), sociology of knowledge and philosophical anthropology - the synthesis of disparate natural science knowledge about human nature with philosophical comprehension of the various manifestations of his existence; he saw the essence of man not in thinking or volition, but in love; love, according to Scheler, is an act of spiritual unity, accompanied by an instant insight into the highest value of the object.

The main areas of his research are descriptive psychology, in particular the psychology of feeling, and the sociology of knowledge, in which he distinguished a number of types of religious, metaphysical, scientific thinking (depending on their attitude towards God, the world, values, reality) and tried to put them in connection with certain forms of social, practical state and economic life. The contemplating and cognizing person, according to Scheler, is confronted by objective, objective worlds not created by man, each of which has its own essence accessible to contemplation and its own laws (essential laws); the latter are above the empirical laws of existence and manifestation of the corresponding objective worlds, in which these entities, thanks to perception, become data. In this sense, Scheler considers philosophy to be the highest, most extensive science of essence. At the end of his spiritual evolution, Scheler left the soil of the Catholic religion of revelation and developed a pantheistic-personalist metaphysics, within the framework of which he wanted to include all sciences, including anthropology. Nevertheless, he never completely moved away from his phenomenological-ontological point of view, but the problems of philosophical anthropology, of which he was the founder, and the problem of theogony now moved to the center of his philosophy.

Scheler's theory of value

At the center of Scheler's thought is his theory of value. According to Scheler, the value of an object's existence precedes perception. The axiological reality of values preceded knowledge. Values and their corresponding disvalues exist in objectively ordered ranks:

the values of the holy versus the non-values of the vicious;

the values of reason (truth, beauty, justice) versus the non-values of lies, ugliness, injustice;

the values of life and honor versus the non-values of dishonor;

pleasure values versus displeasure non-values;

values of usefulness versus non-values of useless.

“Disorder of the heart” occurs whenever a person prefers a value of a lower rank to a value of a higher rank, or non-value to a value.

4. The crisis of spiritual values and ways to solve it

spiritual value sheler crisis

We can say that the crisis of modern society is a consequence of the destruction of outdated spiritual values developed back in the Renaissance. In order for society to find its moral and ethical principles, with the help of which one could find one’s place in this world without destroying oneself, a change in previous traditions is required. Speaking about the spiritual values of the Renaissance, it is worth noting that their existence for more than six centuries determined the spirituality of European society and had a significant impact on the materialization of ideas. Anthropocentrism, as the leading idea of the Renaissance, made it possible to develop many teachings about man and society. Placing man at the forefront as the highest value, the system of his spiritual world was subordinated to this idea. Despite the fact that many virtues developed in the Middle Ages were preserved (love for everyone, work, etc.), they were all directed towards man as the most important being. Virtues such as kindness and humility fade into the background. It becomes important for a person to acquire the comfort of life through the accumulation of material wealth, which led humanity to the age of industry.

IN modern world, where most countries are industrial, the values of the Renaissance have exhausted themselves. Humanity, while satisfying its material needs, did not pay attention to the environment and did not calculate the consequences of its large-scale influences on it. Consumer civilization is focused on obtaining maximum profits from the use of natural resources. What cannot be sold has not only no price, but also no value.

According to consumer ideology, restricting consumption can have a negative impact on economic growth. However, the connection between environmental challenges and consumer orientation is becoming increasingly clear. The modern economic paradigm is based on a liberal value system, the main criterion of which is freedom. Freedom in modern society is the absence of obstacles to the satisfaction of human desires. Nature is seen as a reservoir of resources to satisfy man's endless desires. The result has been various environmental problems (the problem of ozone holes and the greenhouse effect, the depletion of natural landscapes, the increasing number of rare species of animals and plants, etc.), which show how cruel man has become towards nature and expose the crisis of anthropocentric absolutes. A person, having built a comfortable material sphere and spiritual values for himself, drowns in them. In this regard, there was a need to develop new system spiritual values that could become common to many peoples of the world. Even the Russian scientist Berdyaev, speaking about sustainable noospheric development, developed the idea of acquiring universal spiritual values. They are the ones who are called upon to determine the further development of humanity in the future.

In modern society, the number of crimes is constantly increasing, violence and hostility are familiar to us. According to the authors, all these phenomena are the result of objectification of a person’s spiritual world, that is, the objectification of his inner being, alienation and loneliness. Therefore, violence, crime, hatred are an expression of the soul. It’s worth thinking about what fills the souls and inner world of modern people today. For most it is anger, hatred, fear. The question arises: where should we look for the source of everything negative? According to the authors, the source is located within the objectified society itself. The values that the West has long dictated to us cannot satisfy the standards of all humanity. Today we can conclude that a crisis of values has arrived.

What role do values play in a person's life? What values are true and necessary, primary? The authors tried to answer these questions using the example of Russia as a unique, multi-ethnic, multi-confessional state.

Russia also has its own specifics; it has a special geopolitical position, intermediate between Europe and Asia. In our opinion, Russia must finally take its position, independent of either the West or the East. In this case, we are not at all talking about the isolation of the state; we only want to say that Russia should have its own path of development, taking into account all its specific features.

For many centuries, peoples of different faiths have lived on the territory of Russia. It has been noted that certain virtues, values and norms - faith, hope, love, wisdom, courage, justice, abstinence, conciliarity - coincide in many religions. Faith in God, in yourself. Hope for a better future, which has always helped people cope with cruel reality and overcome their despair. Love, expressed in sincere patriotism (love for the Motherland), honor and respect for elders (love for your neighbors). Wisdom that includes the experience of our ancestors. Abstinence, which is one of the most important principles of spiritual self-education, the development of willpower; during Orthodox posts helping a person to get closer to God and partially cleanse himself of earthly sins. In Russian culture there has always been a desire for conciliarity, the unity of everyone: man with God and the world around him as God’s creation. Conciliarity also has a social character: the Russian people throughout the history of Rus', Russian Empire to protect his Motherland, his state, he always showed conciliarity: during the Great Troubles of 1598-1613, during the Patriotic War of 1812, during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Let's see what the current situation is in Russia. Many Russian people remain unbelievers: they do not believe in God, goodness, or other people. Many lose love and hope, becoming embittered and cruel, allowing hatred into their hearts and souls. Today in Russian society primacy belongs to Western material values: material wealth, power, money; people go over their heads, achieving their goals, our souls become callous, we forget about spirituality and morality. In our opinion, representatives of the humanities are responsible for the development of a new system of spiritual values. The authors of this work are students of the specialty social anthropology. We believe that a new system of spiritual values should become the basis for Russia's sustainable development. Based on the analysis, it is necessary to identify those common values in each religion and develop a system that is important to introduce into the sphere of education and culture. It is on the spiritual basis that the entire material sphere of society’s life should be built. When each of us realizes that human life is also valuable, when virtue becomes the norm of behavior for every person, when we finally overcome the disunity that is present in society today, then we will be able to live in harmony with the world around us, nature, people. For Russian society today it is necessary to realize the importance of reassessing the values of its development and developing a new system of values.

If in the process of development its spiritual and cultural component is diminished or ignored, then this inevitably leads to the decline of society. In modern times, in order to avoid political, social and interethnic conflicts, an open dialogue between world religions and cultures is necessary. The basis for the development of countries should be spiritual, cultural and religious forces.

Conclusion

Values are spiritual and material phenomena that have a personal meaning and are the motive for activity. Values are the goal and basis of education. Value guidelines determine the characteristics and nature of a person’s relationship with the surrounding reality and, thus, to a certain extent determine his behavior.

The system of social values is developed culturally and historically, over thousands of years, and becomes the bearer of social, cultural inheritance, cultural-ethnic or cultural-national inheritance. Thus, differences in the value worldview are differences in the value orientations of the cultures of the peoples of the world.

The problem of the value of the phenomena of the world around us, human life, its goals and ideals has always been an integral part of philosophy. In the 19th century, this problem became the subject of numerous social studies, called axiological ones. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, the problem of values occupied one of the leading places in the work of Russian idealistic philosophers N. Berdyaev, S. Frank and others.

Today, when humanity is developing a new planetary thinking, when different societies and cultures are turning to common universal values, the problem of their philosophical study is a practical and theoretical necessity due to the inclusion of our country in the pan-European and pan-planetary value system. Currently, society is undergoing painful processes of the withering away of the values of totalitarian regimes, the revival of values associated with Christian ideas, and the inclusion of the values of democratic states already accepted by the peoples of the West. The laboratory for the philosophical study of these processes and the formation of new values is the media, the development of which in the current century has put them on a par with such generally accepted communicative factors of culture that directly synthesize social values, such as religion, literature, and art.

Mass media have become one of the components of the psycho-social environment of humanity; they claim, and not without reason, to be a very powerful factor in shaping the worldview of an individual and the value orientation of society. They hold leadership in the field of ideological influence on society and the individual. They have become translators of cultural achievements and, undoubtedly, actively influence the acceptance or rejection by society of certain cultural values.

List of used literature

1. Alekseev P.V. Philosophy: Textbook / P.V. Alekseev., A.V. Panin-M.: Prospekt, 1996.

3. James W. The will to believe / W. James.-M.: Republic, 1997.

4. Berezhnoy N.M. Man and his needs. Edited by V.D. Didenko. Moscow State University Service. 2000.

5. Genkin B.M. Structure of human needs. Elitarium. 2006.

6. Spirituality, artistic creativity, morality (materials " round table") // Questions of Philosophy. 1996. No. 2.

Reflections on... // Philosophical almanac. Issue 6. - M.: MAKS Press, 2003.

7. Uledov A.K. Spiritual life of society. M., 1980.

8. Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. M. 1983.

9. Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology. In 2 vols. M., 1989.

10. Pustorolev P.P. Analysis of the concept of crime. M.: 2005.

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The term “culture” is of Latin origin. Initially it meant “cultivation, cultivation of the soil”, but later it received more general meaning. Culture is studied by many sciences (archaeology, ethnography, history, aesthetics, etc.), and each gives it its own definition. Distinguish material And spiritual culture. Material culture is created in the process of material production (its products are machines, equipment, buildings, etc.). Spiritual culture includes the process of spiritual creativity and the spiritual values created in the form of music, paintings, scientific discoveries, religious teachings, etc. All elements of material and spiritual culture are inextricably linked. Man's material production activity underlies his activity in other areas of life; at the same time, the results of his mental (spiritual) activity materialize and turn into material objects - things, technical means, works of art.

Spiritual culture is a unique integrity of art, science, morality, and religion. The history of the formation of culture has a number of features. The accumulation of cultural values proceeds in two directions - vertically and horizontally. The first direction of accumulation of cultural values (vertically) is associated with their transfer from one generation to another, i.e. with continuity in culture.

The most stable aspect of culture is cultural traditions, elements of social and cultural heritage that are not just passed on from generation to generation, but are also preserved for a long time, over the lives of many generations. Traditions imply what to inherit and how to inherit. Values, ideas, customs, and rituals can be traditional.

The second line of accumulation of cultural values (horizontally) is most clearly manifested in artistic culture. It is expressed in the fact that, unlike science, it is not individual components, actual ideas, parts of theory that are inherited as values, but an integral work of art.

Different approaches to the interpretation of culture:

Philosophical-anthropological: culture is an expression of human nature, a body of knowledge, art, morality, law, customs and other characteristics inherent in man as a member of society.
Philosophical-historical: culture as the emergence and development of human history, the movement of man from nature, the herd into historical space, the transition from a “barbarian” state to a “civilized” one.
Sociological: culture as a factor in the formation of the life of a society, cultural values are created by society and determine its development.

FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE:

cognitive – a holistic idea of a people, country, era;
evaluative – selection of values, enrichment of traditions;
regulatory or normative - a system of norms and requirements of society for all its members in all areas of life and activity (standards of morality, law, behavior);
informative – transfer and exchange of knowledge, values and experience of previous generations;
communicative – the ability to preserve, transmit and replicate cultural values, development and improvement of personality through communication;
socialization – the individual’s assimilation of a system of knowledge, norms, values, accustoming to social strata, normative behavior, and the desire for self-improvement.

In creativity, culture is organically fused with uniqueness. Each cultural value is unique, be it a work of art, an invention, a scientific discovery, etc. Replicating something already known in one form or another is the dissemination, not the creation, of culture.

"Mass culture" formed simultaneously with the society of mass production and consumption. Radio, television, modern means of communication, and then video and computer technology contributed to its spread. In Western sociology, “mass culture” is considered commercial, since works of art, science, religion, etc. act in it as consumer goods that can generate profit when sold if they take into account the tastes and demands of the mass viewer, reader, music lover .

“Mass culture” is called differently: entertainment art, “anti-fatigue” art, kitsch (from the German jargon “hack”), semi-culture. In the 80s The term "mass culture" began to be used less frequently, since it was compromised by the fact that it was used exclusively in a negative sense. Nowadays it has been replaced by the concept "popular culture", or "pop culture". Characterizing it, American philologist M. Bell emphasizes: “This culture is democratic. It is addressed to you, people without distinction of classes, nations, levels of poverty and wealth.” In addition, thanks to modern means of mass communication, many works of art of high artistic value have become available to people. "Mass" or "pop culture" is often contrasted "elite" a culture that is complex in content and difficult for the unprepared to perceive. It usually includes films by Fellini, Tarkovsky, books by Kafka, Böll, Bazin, Vonnegut, paintings by Picasso, music by Duvall, Schnittke. The works created within the framework of this culture are intended for a narrow circle of people with a keen understanding of art and are the subject of lively debate among art historians and critics. But the mass viewer or listener may not pay any attention to them or may not understand them.

IN Lately scientists are talking about the appearance "screen culture" which is associated with the computer revolution. “Screen culture” is formed on the basis of the synthesis of computers and video technology. Personal contacts and reading books fade into the background. Appears new type communication, based on the possibilities of free access of the individual to the world of information. These are, for example, video phones or electronic banks and computer networks that allow you to receive information from archives, book depositories, and libraries on a computer screen. Thanks to the use of computer graphics, it is possible to increase the speed and improve the quality of the information received. The computer “page” brings with it a new type of thinking and education with its characteristic speed, flexibility, and reactivity. Many today believe that the future belongs to “screen culture”.

In the context of internationalization, the problems of preserving the culture of small peoples are becoming more acute. Thus, some peoples of the North do not have their own written language, and the spoken language is quickly forgotten in the process of constant communication with other peoples. Such problems can only be resolved through a dialogue of cultures, but on the condition that this must be dialogue “equal and different”. A positive example is the existence of several official languages in Switzerland. Equal opportunities have been created here for the development of the cultures of all peoples. Dialogue also presupposes interpenetration and mutual enrichment of cultures. It is no coincidence that cultural exchange (exhibitions, concerts, festivals, etc.) has become a good tradition in the life of modern civilization. As a result of dialogue, universal cultural values are created, the most important of which are moral norms, and primarily such as humanism, mercy, and mutual assistance.

Level of development of spiritual culture is measured by the volume of spiritual values created in society, the scale of their dissemination and the depth of assimilation by people, by each person. When assessing the level of spiritual progress in a particular country, it is important to know how many research institutes, universities, theaters, libraries, museums, nature reserves, conservatories, schools, etc. it has. But alone quantitative indicators Not enough for a general assessment. It is important to take into account quality of spiritual products - scientific discoveries, books, education, films, performances, paintings, musical works. The purpose of culture is to form every person’s ability to be creative, his sensitivity to the highest achievements of culture. This means that it is necessary to take into account not only what has been created in culture, but also how people use these achievements. That is why an important criterion for the cultural progress of a society is the degree to which social equality of people is achieved in introducing them to the values of culture.

CLASSIFICATION OF VALUES:

Vital – life, health, physical and spiritual well-being, quality of life.
Social – social status and well-being, social equality, personal independence, professionalism, comfortable work.
Political – freedom of speech, civil liberties, law and order, legality, security.
Moral - goodness, honesty, duty, selflessness, decency, loyalty, love, friendship, justice.
Religious - God, divine law, faith, salvation, grace, ritual, Holy Scripture and Tradition.
Aesthetic – beauty, style, harmony, adherence to traditions, cultural identity.

The crisis situation that has developed in Russia is manifested with particular force in the spiritual life of society. The situation in the culture of our fatherland is assessed as extremely difficult and even catastrophic. With the inexhaustible cultural potential accumulated by previous generations and our contemporaries, the spiritual impoverishment of the people began. Mass lack of culture is the cause of many troubles in the economy and environmental management. The decline of morality, bitterness, the growth of crime and violence are evil growths based on lack of spirituality. An uncultured doctor is indifferent to the suffering of the patient, an uncultured person is indifferent to the creative quest of an artist, an uncultured builder builds a beer stall on the site of a temple, an uncultured farmer disfigures the land... Instead of native speech, rich in proverbs and sayings, there is a language clogged with foreign words, thieves' words, and even obscene language. Today, what the intellect, spirit, and talent of the nation has been creating for centuries is under threat of destruction - ancient cities are being destroyed, books, archives, works of art are perishing, folk traditions of craftsmanship are being lost. The danger to the present and future of the country is the plight of science and education.

The problem of protecting and preserving the cultural heritage of the past, which has absorbed universal human values, is a planetary problem. Historical cultural monuments are also dying from the inexorable destructive influence of natural factors: natural - sun, wind, frost, moisture and “unnatural” - harmful impurities in the atmosphere, acid rain, etc. They are also dying from the pilgrimage of tourists and excursionists, when it is difficult to preserve a cultural treasure in its original form. After all, let’s say, when the Hermitage in St. Petersburg was founded, it was not designed to be visited by millions of people a year, and in the New Athos Cave, due to the abundance of tourists, the internal microclimate has changed, which also threatens its further existence.

Science as a whole can be viewed from three perspectives:

as a special system of knowledge;
as a system of specific organizations and institutions with people working in them (for example, industrial research institutes, the Academy of Sciences, universities), developing, storing and disseminating this knowledge;
as a special type of activity - a system of scientific research, experimental design research.

The peculiarity of scientific knowledge is deep penetration into the essence of phenomena, in their theoretical character. Scientific knowledge begins when a pattern is realized behind a set of facts - a general and necessary connection between them, which makes it possible to explain why a given phenomenon occurs this way and not otherwise, and to predict its further development. Over time, some scientific knowledge moves into the field of practice. The immediate goals of science are the description, explanation and prediction of processes and phenomena of reality, that is, in a broad sense, its theoretical reflection. The language of science differs significantly from the language of other forms of culture and art in its greater clarity and rigor. Science is thinking in concepts, and art is thinking in artistic images. At different stages of the development of society, scientific knowledge performed various functions: cognitive-explanatory, ideological, prognostic.

Over time, industrialists and scientists saw in science a powerful catalyst for the process of continuous improvement of production. Awareness of this fact dramatically changed the attitude towards science and was an essential prerequisite for its decisive turn towards practice. You have already become familiar with the revolutionary influence of science on the sphere of material production. Today, science is increasingly revealing another function - it is beginning to act as social power, directly involved in the processes of social development and management. Most brightly this function manifests itself in situations where the methods of science and its data are used to develop large-scale plans and programs for social and economic development, for example, such as the program for economic and political integration of member countries of the EEC.

In science, as in any area of human activity, the relationships between those who are involved in it, and the actions of each of them are subject to a certain system ethical (moral) standards, defining what is permissible, what is encouraged, and what is considered impermissible and unacceptable for a scientist in various situations. These norms can be divided into three groups. TO first relate universal human requirements and prohibitions, such as “don’t steal”, “don’t lie”, adapted, of course, to the peculiarities of scientific activity.

Co. second This group includes ethical norms that serve to affirm and protect specific values characteristic of science. An example of such norms is the selfless search and defense of truth. Aristotle’s saying “Plato is my friend, but truth is dearer” is widely known, the meaning of which is that in the pursuit of truth, a scientist should not take into account either his likes and dislikes, or any other non-scientific considerations.

TO third This group includes moral rules that relate to the relationship of science and the scientist with society. This range of ethical standards is often identified as a problem freedom of scientific research and social responsibility of a scientist.

The problem of the social responsibility of a scientist has deep historical roots. Among the regions scientific knowledge A specific place is occupied by genetic engineering, biotechnology, biomedical and human genetic research. The undeniable achievements of these sciences are combined with the growing danger for humanity of ill-considered or malicious use of their methods and discoveries, which can lead to the emergence of so-called mutant organisms with completely new hereditary characteristics that have not previously been found on Earth and are not due to human evolution.

The development of genetic engineering and related fields of knowledge required a different understanding of the connection between freedom and responsibility in the activities of scientists. Over the centuries, many of them, not only in word but also in deed, had to affirm and defend the principles of free scientific research in the face of ignorance, fanaticism, and superstition. Today, the idea of unlimited freedom of research, which was certainly progressive before, can no longer be accepted unconditionally, without taking into account social responsibility. After all, there is responsible freedom and there is a fundamentally different free irresponsibility, fraught, given the current and future capabilities of science, with very serious consequences for humans and humanity.

Main components of worldview:

cognitive – includes knowledge, scientific knowledge, styles of thinking of a community, people;
value-normative – ideals, convictions, beliefs, norms;
emotional-volitional – socio-psychological attitudes of the individual and society, transformation into personal views, beliefs, values, knowledge, norms of the community, people;
practical – updating of generalized knowledge, values, ideals and norms, a person’s readiness for a certain type of behavior.

“Any reorganization of society is always connected with the reorganization of the school. New people and strength are needed - the school must prepare them. Where social life has taken a definite form, there the school has been established accordingly and fully corresponds to the mood of society.” Written in the second half of the 19th century, these words are still relevant today.

Throughout a person’s life, there is a process of his socialization - his assimilation of the social experience of past and contemporary generations. This process is carried out in two ways: during the spontaneous influence of life circumstances on a person and as a result of targeted influence on him by society, in the process of education and, above all, through the educational system that has developed in society and meets its needs. But society is heterogeneous: each class, social group, nation has its own idea of the content of education.

Main directions of education reform:

democratization: expansion of rights and freedoms educational institutions, openness of discussion and decision-making;
humanitarization: increasing the role of humanitarian knowledge in the training of specialists, increasing the number of specialists in the field of humanities;
humanization: society’s attention to the individual, his psychology, interests and needs;
computerization: use of new modern technologies training;
internationalization: creation of a unified education system at the national and global levels.

In the modern world there are a huge number of different types of schools and other educational institutions: Quaker schools in England, providing religious-pacifist education, comprehensive schools and vocational schools educational establishments in the CIS countries, theological seminaries in all Christian countries, madrassas in the Muslim countries of the East, universities, colleges, technical schools. But in this extremely variegated variety of systems and types of education, one can trace the general directions of its development in the modern world.

Religion is certain views and ideas of people, corresponding rituals and cults. Faith, according to the Gospel, is the realization of what is hoped for and the assurance of what is not seen. It is alien to any logic, and therefore it is not afraid of atheists’ justifications that there is no God, and does not need logical confirmation that He exists. The Apostle Paul said: “Let your faith rest not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Features of religious faith. Its first element is faith in the very existence of God as the creator of everything that exists, the manager of all affairs, actions, and thoughts of people. According to modern religious teachings, man is endowed by God with free will, has freedom of choice and, because of this, is responsible for his actions and for the future of his soul.

Stages of development of religion:

natural religion: finds its gods in natural conditions;
religion of law: the idea of an omnipotent God-lord, obedience to divine commandments;
religion of redemption: belief in the merciful love and mercy of God, liberation from sins.

Structure of religion:

religious consciousness;
religious faith;
religious ideas;
religious activities;
religious communities, denominations, churches.

Religious consciousness:

religious psychology, which includes: feelings and moods, habits and traditions, religious ideas;
religious ideas, which include: theology (theory of God), cosmology (theory of the world), anthropology (theory of man).

Anthropological foundations of religion:

ontological (ontology is the philosophical doctrine of being) - this is the attitude of a mortal person to eternity, belief in personal immortality, the assumption of the posthumous existence of the soul;
epistemological (epistemology theory of knowledge) is a person’s cognitive attitude to Infinity, the contradiction between the abstract possibility of knowing the world as a whole and the real impossibility of such knowledge, only religion explains the world as a whole from its beginning to the “end of time”; a religious worldview is a holistic worldview;
sociological - this is an attitude to the real conditions of human life in the past, present and future, a person’s desire for a fairly organized world;
psychological - a feeling of fear, loneliness, uncertainty, the desire to be sovereign, self-sufficient, to be understood, to be involved in the world of other people, to assert oneself, to find a second “I”, to resolve the problem of understanding in the sphere of religious consciousness, hope in God.

Functions of religion:

worldview is a religious worldview, an explanation of the world, nature, man, the meaning of his existence, worldview;
compensatory - this social inequality is compensated by equality in sinfulness, suffering, human disunity is replaced by brotherhood in the community, the powerlessness of man is compensated by the omnipotence of God;
regulatory is a regulator of people’s behavior, it organizes the thoughts, aspirations and actions of a person, groups, communities with the help of certain values, ideas, attitudes, traditions;
cultural transmission is the introduction of a person to cultural values and traditions of religious culture, the development of writing, printing, art, and the transfer of accumulated heritage from generation to generation.

The idea of the existence of God is the central point of religious faith, but does not exhaust it. Thus, religious faith includes: moral standards, moral standards that are declared to originate from divine revelation; violation of these norms is a sin and, accordingly, is condemned and punished; certain legal laws and regulations, which are also declared to have either occurred directly as a result of divine revelation, or as the result of the divinely inspired activity of legislators, usually kings and other rulers; faith in the divine inspiration of the activities of certain clergy, persons declared saints, saints, blessed, etc.; Thus, in Catholicism it is generally accepted that the head of the Catholic Church - the Pope - is the vicar (representative) of God on earth; faith in the saving power for the human soul of those ritual actions that believers perform in accordance with the instructions of the Holy Books, clergy and church leaders (baptism, circumcision of the flesh, prayer, fasting, worship, etc.); faith in the divine direction of the activities of churches as associations of people who consider themselves adherents of a particular faith.

There is a variety of beliefs, sects, and church organizations in the world. These are various forms polytheism(polytheism), the traditions of which come from primitive religions (belief in spirits, worship of plants, animals, souls of the dead). Neighboring them different shapes monotheism(monotheism). Here are national religions - Confucianism (China), Judaism (Israel), etc., and world religions, formed during the era of empires and found adherents among peoples speaking different languages - Buddhism, Christianity, Islam. It is world religions that have the greatest influence on the development of modern civilizations.

Buddhism - earliest in time of appearance world religion. It is most widespread in Asia. The central area of Buddhist teaching is morality, the norms of human behavior. Through reflection and contemplation, a person can achieve the truth, find the right path to salvation and, observing the commandments of holy teaching, come to perfection. The elementary commandments, obligatory for everyone, come down to five: do not kill a single living creature, do not take someone else's property, do not touch someone else's wife, do not tell lies, do not drink wine. But for those who strive to achieve perfection, these five commandments-prohibitions develop into a whole system of much more strict regulations. The prohibition of killing goes so far as to prohibit the killing of even insects that are barely visible to the eye. The prohibition to take someone else's property is replaced by the requirement to renounce all property at all. One of the most important precepts of Buddhism is love and mercy for all living beings. Moreover, Buddhism prescribes not to make any distinction between them and to treat good and evil, people and animals equally favorably and compassionately. A follower of the Buddha should not pay evil for evil, because otherwise not only are they not destroyed, but, on the contrary, enmity and suffering increase. You can't even protect others from violence and punish murder. A follower of the Buddha must have a calm, patient attitude towards evil, avoiding only participation in it.

Christianity - the second oldest world religion. Nowadays it is the most widespread religion on Earth, numbering over 1024 million adherents in Europe and America. The moral rules of Christianity are set out in the commandments of Moses: “thou shalt not kill”, “thou shalt not steal”, “thou shalt not commit adultery”, “honor thy mother and father”, “thou shalt not make thyself an idol”, “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord God in vain”...Central in Christianity are the idea of human sinfulness as the cause of all his misfortunes and the teaching of deliverance from sins through prayer and repentance. The preaching of patience, humility, and forgiveness of offenses is limitless. “Love your enemies,” Jesus teaches. “Bless those who curse you, give thanks to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you.”

Islam (Muslim) - the latest world religion to emerge. There are about a billion of its adherents on Earth. Islam became most widespread in North Africa, Southwest and South Asia. “Islam” translated into Russian means “submission”. Man, according to the Koran, is a weak creature, prone to sin, he is not able to achieve anything in life on his own. He can only rely on the mercy and help of Allah. If a person believes in God and follows the instructions of the Muslim religion, he will deserve eternal life in paradise. Demanding obedience to Allah from believers, Islam prescribes the same obedience to earthly authorities. Characteristic feature The Muslim religion is that it vigorously intervenes in all spheres of people's lives. Personal, family, social life of Muslim believers, politics, legal relations, court - everything must obey religious laws.

In this regard, today people are increasingly talking about the processes of “Islamization,” which means, firstly, the content of political programs put forward and implemented in a number of countries in the Muslim world (Pakistan, Iran, Libya). Although their implementation may be different, nevertheless, they all declare their goal to be the construction of an “Islamic society” in which economic, social and political life will be determined by the norms of Islam.

Secondly, “Islamization” refers to the continuing spread of this relatively young religion in several areas of Asia, Africa, India, and the Far East. The process of “Islamization” is very controversial. On the one hand, it reflects the desire of the peoples of developing countries to free themselves from the remnants of colonialism and Western influence, on the other hand, the implementation of Islamic slogans by the hands of extremists can bring untold troubles to humanity.

The influence of religion on a person is contradictory: on the one hand, it calls a person to adhere to high moral standards, introduces him to culture, and on the other hand, it preaches (at least many religious communities do this) submission and humility, refusal of active actions even when they aim at the good of people. In some cases (as in the situation with the Sikhs), it contributes to the aggressiveness of believers, their separation and even confrontation. If we cannot give a general formula that allows us to assess whether this or that position in relation to religious faith is progressive or reactionary, then there are still some general provisions regarding the relationship between believers, between believers and atheists.

They exist as moral, legal (legal) relations. First, in respect for another person, for other people, even if they believe in a different God (or gods), they believe in the same God differently, if they do not believe in God, they do not perform religious rites at all. To believe or not to believe in God, to perform religious rites or not is a private matter for each person. And not a single government agency, not a single government agency, no public organization has the right to hold anyone accountable - criminal or civil - for his faith or non-belief. This does not mean that the state and society are indifferent to any religious activity.

There are religions that require human sacrifices, the rites of which physically and spiritually disfigure people, excite crowds and direct them to pogroms, murders, and outrages. Of course, the state, the law, public opinion Against this. But this is not religion itself, not faith itself, but activity harmful and illegal. And the state’s fight against this activity does not at all mean that it violates the principle of freedom of conscience.

A person whose spiritual life is highly developed, as a rule, possesses an important personal quality: he acquires spirituality as a desire for the height of one’s ideals and thoughts, which determine the direction of all activities. Spirituality includes warmth and friendliness in relationships between people. Some researchers characterize spirituality as the morally oriented will and mind of a person.

It is noted that the spiritual is a characteristic of practice, not just consciousness. A person whose spiritual life is poorly developed unspiritual. At the heart of spiritual life - consciousness. You already have some idea about it. Let us recall: consciousness is a form of mental activity and spiritual life, thanks to which a person comprehends, understands the world around him and his own place in this world, forms his attitude towards the world, determines his activities in it. The history of human culture is the history of the human mind.

The historical experience of generations is embodied in created cultural values. When a person communicates with the values of the past, the culture of the human race seems to flow into the spiritual world of the individual, contributing to his intellectual and moral development. Spiritual life, the life of human thought, usually includes knowledge, faith, feelings, needs, abilities, aspirations, and goals of people. The spiritual life of an individual is also impossible without experiences: joy, optimism or despondency, faith or disappointment. It is human nature to strive for self-knowledge and self-improvement. The more developed a person is, the higher his culture, the richer his spiritual life.

Ethical(custom, moral character) - means to always act in accordance with the moral law, which should be the basis of the behavior of all.

Religious(piety, piety) - faith dominates in life, not reason, selfless service to God, fulfillment of divine commandments. Accept the will of the Heavenly Father and build your life in accordance with it.

Humanistic(humanity) is the desire for improvement, self-expression, self-affirmation of the individual, the harmonious development of human value abilities, feelings and reason, the development of human culture and morality.

Criteria for the spiritual culture of a person.

Active creative attitude to life.
Willingness for dedication and self-development.
Constant enrichment of your spiritual world.
Selective attitude to sources of information.
System of value orientations.

A person can preserve his uniqueness, remain himself even in extremely contradictory conditions only if he has formed as a personality. To be an individual means to have the ability to navigate a variety of knowledge and situations and to bear responsibility for one’s choices, and to be able to withstand many negative influences. The more complex the world and the richer the palette of options for life aspirations, the more pressing the problem of freedom to choose one’s own position in life. The relationship between man and the culture around him constantly changed in the process of civilization development, but the main thing remained the same - the interdependence of universal, national culture and the culture of the individual. After all, a person acts as a bearer of the general culture of humanity, both as its creator and as its critic, and universal human culture is an indispensable condition for the formation and development of a person’s spiritual culture.

In the process of cognition, such a quality of a person’s inner world as intelligence is formed. The word is of Latin origin and means knowledge, understanding, reason. But this is a human ability that differs from his feelings (emotions), will, imagination and a number of others. Intelligence, first of all, is closest to the concept of “mind” - a person’s ability to understand something, to find the meaning of any things, phenomena, processes, their causes, essence, place in the world around them. A person’s intellectual potential is associated with the culture on which he bases his activities, which he has mastered and which has penetrated into his inner world. Intelligence is a person’s ability to obtain new information based on what he had at one or another stage of the cognition process, through reasoning, conclusions, and evidence.

The spiritual world of man is not limited to knowledge. An important place in it is occupied by emotions - subjective experiences about situations and phenomena of reality. A person, having received this or that information, experiences emotional feelings of grief and joy, love and hatred, fear or fearlessness. Emotions, as it were, paint acquired knowledge or information in one or another “color” and express a person’s attitude towards them. The spiritual world of a person cannot exist without emotions, a person is not an impassive robot processing information, but a personality capable of not only having “calm” feelings, but in which passions can rage - feelings of exceptional strength, persistence, duration, expressed in the direction of thoughts and forces to achieve a specific goal. Passions sometimes lead a person to great feats in the name of people’s happiness, and sometimes to crimes. A person must be able to manage his feelings. To control both these aspects of spiritual life and all human activities in the course of his development, will is developed. Will is a person’s conscious determination to perform certain actions to achieve a set goal.

It is necessary to explain the differences and relationships between spiritual and material culture.

Justify your point of view on the emergence of subculture, mass and elite culture, counterculture.

Consult history materials that address cultural issues, as well as training course MHC.

Try to determine the state of the spiritual culture of your country.

Pay attention to the achievements of science and technology that exist in the world and in your country.

Try to determine the features of education in the world, in Russia, in your country.

When determining the role of religion, consider the problem as a dialogue and cooperation between believers and non-believers, because the basis of this process is freedom of religion.

To complete tasks on Topic 8 you need:

1. KNOW THE TERMS:
Spiritual culture, folk culture, mass culture, elite culture.

2. DESCRIBE:
Religion as a cultural phenomenon, education in modern society.

3. CHARACTERIZE:
The diversity of cultural life, science as a system of knowledge and a type of spiritual production, the scientific picture of the world, the essence of art, its origin and forms.

Here we will talk about spiritual values in a person’s life, what they are and why they are so important.

Every person grows up with their own set of values. The most interesting thing is that they do not always serve a person, but on the contrary, they can even harm him.

Values are passed on to us from birth by our parents, teachers, educators, and friends.

We cannot always immediately understand which values harm us and which ones benefit us. Let's take a closer look at this!

What are values

Values are internal principles, beliefs that a person believes in and holds on to; he considers his values important and, if necessary, is ready to defend them.

Values can be both positive and negative.

Naturally, negative values harm a person. We can give examples of many values. For example, cigarettes, and even drugs, can become valuable for a person who will even look for advantages in them and protect them.

Those who drink alcohol believe that it is good for the body, sterilizes it from various types of infections and that drinking alcohol from time to time is necessary. Vodka sterilizes, wine dilates blood vessels, alcohol helps you relax and get away from problems. Although this is of course nonsense, alcohol is poison for the body.

Cigarettes are the best way to calm down and relieve nerves and stress, but at what cost?

It is important to see things in the real light, and not in an illusory one. In this article, I propose to discuss spiritual values, not religious ones.

Spiritual values

Spiritual values imply the presence of the Spirit in them. Development and strengthening of your inner Spirit, spiritual body.

The awareness that you discover these values within yourself, primarily for yourself and your own good, and not for the eyes of others. You choose to be this way for yourself.

The following spiritual values can be cited as an example:

honesty;
awareness;
responsibility;
love first of all for yourself, and then for others;
Believe in yourself;
sympathy;
sincerity;
love for your parents;
respect for any form of life;
peacefulness;
resistance to stress;
Adoption;
fidelity (meaning to his wife);
love for family.

This could go on for a long time. The main thing is that every value makes you stronger. By practicing these values within yourself, sticking to them simply because you choose to do so, you become a spiritually strong or spiritual person. It is unknown why this is so. It just is.

Naturally, in order to be honest with the people around you, you must first be honest with yourself; in order to be sincere with others, you need to learn not to lie to yourself. To love people, you must first love yourself.

It all starts with you, with your attitude towards yourself. If you hate yourself and don’t accept yourself, you don’t like yourself, then don’t think that the attitude of others towards you will be different or that you will suddenly burst into flames with passionate love for others. It's an illusion.

All these values, if you practice them, make you stronger.

Current society

Now in society, lying is normal, promiscuity is also normal, being insincere and two-faced, hating yourself and others, wearing masks, disrespecting parents, smoking and drinking are all normal, but not natural.

It doesn't grow the human spirit, it destroys it. A person feels internally defective, unable to change anything in his life.

Chasing external ideals or putting money and fame first is also not normal.

To be wealthy and have money, to live in luxury is a good desire, but when this is the only thing that matters to you, when you strive for this in order to prove to everyone what you are, that being superior in the eyes of others is no longer normal.

The inner always creates the outer. The outer world is only a reflection of the inner. What is the point of chasing a reflection when it is easiest to influence it by working with the inner world. This is precisely why you need internal spiritual values, to feel the inner core, to have the ability to create your life the way you choose.

I'm not asking you to believe it, you can just check it. Practice and you will learn everything, but this should not be the upbringing of parents, using and being guided by spiritual values is a conscious choice of everyone, and not driven into V programs from parents and others.

Thank you for attention!!!

Until next time!

Yes, you can also leave a positive comment under this article.

Always yours: Zaur Mamedov

Basic spiritual values

The art of happiness consists of many components. As we have already found out, achieving happiness begins with understanding its true sources and developing these sources in your life. This requires internal discipline, a gradual process of eradicating negative mental states and replacing them with positive ones - kindness, tolerance, the ability to forgive. We will end our examination of the factors leading to a full and happy life with an analysis of spirituality.

There is a natural tendency to associate spirituality with religion. The Dalai Lama's approach to achieving happiness is the result of many years of monastic experience. He is also rightfully considered an outstanding Buddhist scholar. And yet, many are attracted to him not by deep philosophical knowledge, but by such personal qualities as responsiveness, sense of humor and humanity. During our conversations, these traits often prevailed in him over the Buddhist monk. Despite his shaved head and saffron robes, despite his status as one of the outstanding religious leaders of our world, in our conversations he was an ordinary person, concerned with universal problems and anxieties.

Explaining the true meaning of spirituality, the Dalai Lama began by distinguishing between spirituality and religiosity:

I believe that it is very important for a person to appreciate his potential and understand the meaning of internal transformation. This is achieved through the process of spiritual development. Sometimes I call this "opening the spiritual dimension."

There are two levels of spirituality, one of which is related to religious beliefs. There are so many different people in our world and so many different characters. There are as many as five billion of us, and, in my opinion, there should be five billion different religions, since there are no two absolutely identical people. I believe that everyone should choose the spiritual path that best suits their character, natural inclinations, temperament, beliefs, family and cultural customs.

As a Buddhist monk, I consider Buddhism to be the most suitable religion for me. For me this religion is the best choice. But this does not mean that Buddhism is the best choice for everyone. This is clear and undeniable. It would be foolish to think that Buddhism is ideal for everyone, since different people perceive the world differently. Therefore, diversity of religions is required. The purpose of religion is to benefit people, and if there were only one religion, I think that sooner or later its effectiveness would be exhausted. For example, if a restaurant served only one dish day after day, it would soon lose almost all its customers. People demand variety in food because they exhibit a variety of tastes. Religion, like food, is intended to nourish the human spirit. Therefore, I believe that the diversity of religions should be welcomed and appreciated. Some consider Judaism the best choice for themselves, others - Christianity, and still others - Islam. This is why we must respect and value all religious traditions that exist today.

All these religions benefit humanity. Their purpose is to make people happier and the world a better place. But in order to make the world a better place, every believer must make an effort, show diligence and determination. To use religion as a source of inner strength, you need to make it a part of your life. You need to achieve a deep understanding of her ideas, not only on an intellectual, but also on a spiritual level, and make these ideas part of your inner world.

I believe that it is possible to develop a deep respect for all existing religious traditions. They deserve respect simply because they form an ethical system that positively influences human behavior. Thus, in Christianity, faith in God creates a clear ethical system that governs human life and behavior, and this system is very effective, since it contains the possibility of closeness with God and the opportunity to prove one’s love for God through the manifestation of love and compassion towards other people .

There are many other reasons to respect other religions. It is clear that the major religions have brought enormous benefits to millions of people over many centuries, continue to do so today, and will inspire many more generations in the future. It is very important to understand this.

In my opinion, one of the ways to strengthen mutual respect between religions is to establish close personal contact between them. Over the past few years I have made a lot of efforts in this direction - for example, meeting with representatives of Christianity and Judaism - and I believe that I have achieved some positive results. Such contacts make it possible to learn better about the benefits that a particular religion brings to humanity, and, perhaps, to adopt some useful aspects, methods and even techniques.

Thus, it is very important to develop connections between different religions to join forces for the benefit of humanity. There are so many problems in the world, so much hostility and strife, so religion should prevent conflict and fight suffering, and not become one of its sources.

We often hear the saying that all people are equal. This means that we all have the same desire for happiness. Everyone has the right to be happy and not suffer. Therefore, if some religion becomes a source of happiness or benefit for you, you must respect the rights of other people, other religions. It is obvious.

During the week of public appearances by the Dalai Lama in Tucson, the spirit of mutual respect was palpable. Representatives of various religions were constantly present in the hall, including many Christian clergy; despite this, the situation was peaceful and harmonious. There was even some exchange of experience, and the Dalai Lama's descriptions of various methods and techniques invariably aroused deep interest among non-Buddhists. One of the listeners asked the following question:

Every religion places great importance on prayer. Why is prayer so important in spiritual life? The Dalai Lama replied:

I believe that prayer is basically a daily reminder to yourself of your deep principles and beliefs. Personally, I repeat certain Buddhist verses every morning. They look like prayers, but are actually reminders. Reminders on how to communicate with people, how to deal with problems and much more. Therefore, my spiritual practice mainly consists of reminders - about the importance of compassion, about forgiveness and other similar things. And of course it includes certain Buddhist meditations on the nature of reality and visualization. If I have enough free time, my normal daily practice takes about four hours. That's quite a lot.

The thought of four hours of prayer a day prompted another question from another listener:

I am a mother of two children, I work, so I have very little free time. How can one find enough time for prayer and meditation under such conditions?

“I, too, could complain about the lack of free time if I had such a desire,” answered the Dalai Lama. - And with even better reasons. However, if you put in some effort, you can always find time - for example, getting up early in the morning. Then, there is such a thing as a weekend. You can sacrifice some of your entertainment,” he laughed. - So you can find at least half an hour a day. If you try even better, you will find half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. You just have to look into this issue and you will find how to solve it.

If you are serious about spiritual practices, you must understand that they involve the development and training of the mind, abilities, psychological and emotional spheres. These practices are not just some physical or verbal activity, not just saying prayers or singing. If you understand them in this limited sense, you certainly need to set aside some specific hours for doing them, since you cannot combine them with your daily activities. If, for example, you repeat mantras in the kitchen while preparing food, your family is unlikely to like it. If you have the right understanding of these spiritual practices, you can practice them twenty-four hours a day.

True spirituality is a state of mind that you can maintain constantly.

So, if you find yourself in a situation in which you are tempted to offend someone, immediately pull yourself together internally and restrain yourself from these actions. When you are about to lose your temper, immediately pull yourself together and tell yourself, “No, this is wrong.” This is what spiritual practice is. From this point of view, you always have time.

This reminded me of one of the Tibetan masters, Potov, who said that for one who has achieved a certain inner stability and understanding, everything that happens is a lesson, a learning experience. I think this is very true.

Thus, if, for example, you see some scenes of violence and sex on TV or in the movies, try to focus on the negative aspects of such extremes, and then these episodes will shock you less - you will perceive them as illustrations of the destructive nature of uncontrolled emotions, as useful lessons.

Of course, learn lessons from TV series like "Melrose District" - this is good, but the Dalai Lama’s arsenal of spiritual practices is, of course, much more extensive. He said his daily exercises include Buddhist meditations on the nature of reality, as well as some visualizations. In this conversation he only mentioned them in passing, but over the several years of our acquaintance I heard from him much more detailed and complex analysis. His monologues on the nature of reality were full of complex philosophical arguments and descriptions of tantric visualizations - meditations and visualizations, the purpose of which is to create in the human imagination something like a holographic atlas of the Universe. He devoted his entire life to the study and practical mastery of these Buddhist meditations. Thinking about this enormous effort, I asked him:

Can you talk about the practical benefits of these spiritual practices and their role in your daily life?

The Dalai Lama was silent for a few moments, then quietly answered:

Although my personal experience is very limited, one thing I can say with complete confidence is that as a result of these Buddhist trainings, my mind has become much calmer. It definitely is. Although this change occurred gradually, year after year.

He laughed.

I believe that my attitude towards myself and other people has also changed. And, although the exact reasons for these changes are difficult to pinpoint, it seems to me that a large role in this was played by understanding - not absolute understanding, but a certain feeling or sense of the deep nature of reality - as well as the contemplation of such things as impermanence, the inevitability of suffering, the value of compassion and altruism .

So, for example, even thinking about those Chinese communists who brought great grief to many Tibetans, as a result of Buddhist practice, I feel compassion for them, because I understand that circumstances make a person an executioner. Therefore, and also because of the vows and oaths of a bodhisattva, I cannot consider that a person who has done something terrible deserves revenge or does not deserve happiness. The bodhisattva vow played a major role in the development of this attitude, which is why I love it very much.

This reminded me of one mentor from Namgual Monastery. He spent twenty years in Chinese prisons and labor camps as a political prisoner. One day I asked him what was the most difficult thing for him during his imprisonment. Surprisingly, he replied that his greatest fear was losing his compassion for the Chinese!

There are a lot of similar stories. So, three days ago I met a monk who also spent many years in Chinese prisons. He told me that during the Tibetan uprising of 1959, he was twenty-four years old and joined the rebels, whose headquarters were in Norbuling. The Chinese caught him and imprisoned him along with his three brothers, who were later killed. Two more of his brothers also died. Then his parents died in a labor camp. He said that while in prison, he reflected on his life until he came to the conclusion that he was a bad monk, although he spent his entire adult life at Drepang Monastery. He realized that he was a stupid monk. At that moment, in prison, he vowed that he would make every effort to become a good monk. As a result of Buddhist practices and mental training, he reached such a state that even physical pain did not prevent him from feeling happy. Even during the torture and beatings, he felt happy, perceiving them as cleansing from the negative karma of past incarnations.

I hope these examples have proven to you the value of spiritual practices in everyday life.

So, the Dalai Lama described the last ingredient for a happy life - the spiritual dimension. Thanks to the teachings of the Buddha, the Dalai Lama and many others have found a spiritual foundation in their lives that helps them endure and even overcome the pain and suffering that life sometimes brings to us. And, according to the Dalai Lama, each of the major religions of the world has a set of methods and techniques that can make a person happier.

The power of faith has filled and continues to fill the lives of millions of people for many centuries. Sometimes it acts almost unnoticed, sometimes it causes deep spiritual transformations. Each of us, undoubtedly, at least once in our lives has witnessed how it affects some family member, friend or acquaintance. Sometimes examples of this power make headlines, as was the case with Terry Anderson, who was kidnapped on a Beirut street one morning in 1985. They simply threw a blanket over him and shoved him into the car. For the next seven years, he was held hostage by Hezbollah, an extremist group of Islamic fundamentalists. Until 1991, he was not allowed out of dirty, damp basements and cramped cells, kept in the dark and chained, and constantly beaten. When he was finally released, he received worldwide attention. He was very happy to see his family again and, oddly enough, felt almost no resentment or hatred towards his tormentors. When journalists asked him how he managed to show such extraordinary fortitude and strength, he said that only faith and prayer helped him endure this torment.

History is full of examples of how faith helps a person in difficult moments. And recent sociological surveys confirm the fact that religious faith makes human life much happier. Studies by independent scientists and sociological organizations (such as the Gallup Institute) have shown that there are much more happy and satisfied people among believers than among non-believers, and that religious faith helps people cope much more effectively with problems such as aging and personal crises and psychological trauma. In addition, statistics claim that in religious families such phenomena as teenage crime, alcoholism, drug addiction and divorce are much less common.

There are even serious reasons to believe that faith has a positive effect on the physical condition of people, including seriously ill people. Hundreds of scientific studies have found links between deep religious belief, mortality and health outcomes. Thus, in one study, deeply religious older women had a much easier time physically and psychologically after hip surgery than older women who had weaker or no faith.

Research by Ronna Casar Harris and Mary Amanda Dew of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has shown that deeply religious people have a much better time undergoing heart transplant surgery, and research by Dr. Thomas Oxman and his colleagues at Dartmouth Medical School found that among patients over fifty-five years of age, who have undergone surgery open heart coronary artery or heart valve, believers survive three times more than non-believers.

The benefits of deep religious faith are sometimes direct manifestations of certain doctrines and traditional beliefs. Thus, many Buddhists cope with suffering through a strong belief in the doctrine of karma. In the same way, Christians are helped to resist suffering by faith in an all-seeing and loving God - a God whose providence may be inaccessible to us, but who will sooner or later show his love for us. They find comfort in Bible verses such as: “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

In addition to specific doctrines, there are encouraging points that are common to all religions. Involvement in the activities of a religious group, regardless of religion, gives the believer a feeling of belonging to the group and connection with other people and brothers in faith. This creates a meaningful environment, a structure that allows a person to communicate and interact with others. Deep religious beliefs give meaning and significance to human life, support hope in suffering and death, awaken in a person a sense of eternity, which allows his spirit to rise above everyday problems.

Despite all this, faith in itself is not a guarantee of happiness and peace of mind. So, for example, at the very moment when Terry Anderson demonstrated most beautiful aspects religious faith, sitting chained in a cell, literally next to him, crowds of people mad with hatred demonstrated its worst aspects. For many years now, a brutal war has been going on in Lebanon, fueled by mutual hatred between various Muslim sects, on the one hand, and Christians and Jews, on the other. This has happened more than once throughout human history and is happening in many places on our planet now. Religion's ability to arouse hostility and hatred undermines trust in religious institutions. Therefore, the Dalai Lama, like some other religious leaders, is trying to highlight in various religions those universal elements of spiritual life that can make a person happier, regardless of his religious orientation.

The Dalai Lama concluded his discussion with a powerful description of the authentic spiritual life.

Speaking about the spiritual dimension in our lives, we have defined our religious beliefs as one level of spirituality. Religious faith is always good. But you can do without it, and in some cases with great success. To believe or not to believe is up to us to decide, it is our right. But there is another level of spirituality, which I call basic spirituality. These are basic human qualities - kindness, compassion, humanity. Everyone should have them, regardless of whether they are a believer or not. Personally, I believe that this level is more important than the first, since even the best religion can reach a limited number of people, only a part of humanity. And we all need these qualities, since we are all one big family. Without them, human existence will become unbearable and no one will be able to feel happy. Thus, developing these qualities in oneself is a very important task.

To do this, it seems to me, we must remember that out of, say, five billion people on this planet, one or two billion are deeply religious. Of course, by deeply religious people I do not mean those who, for example, call themselves a Christian simply because they were baptized in a Christian church, but do not have real faith and do not engage in religious practices.

Let's assume that there are only one billion believers on our planet. This means that the remaining four billion, that is, the majority. - non-believers. Therefore, we must find a way to improve the lives of these people, to help them become better and more conscious. Here, in my opinion, it is very important role education plays a role in instilling in these people that compassion, kindness and others positive traits are the basic properties of normal people in general, and not just believers. We have already talked about the significant influence of humanity, kindness, love and compassion on physical health, happiness and peace of mind. This, unlike most religious and philosophical theories, is a very practical theory, which, in my opinion, underlies all religious teachings, but is no less important for people outside of any religious traditions. We must instill in these people that it is not necessary to believe in order to be a good, sensitive person who is responsible for the future of the world.

You can indicate your affiliation with a religion or spiritual path by external means- wearing special clothes, building an altar or chapel on your land, reading prayers, chanting, etc. However, all this is secondary to your worldview, which should be based on basic spiritual values, since there are people whose shape is significantly different from the content. True spirituality makes a person calmer, happier and more peaceful.

All virtuous states of mind - compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, caring, etc. - are real dharma, or real spiritual qualities, since they cannot coexist with painful ones, or negative states.

Thus, by developing internal discipline within ourselves, we create the basis for religious life and the development of these positive mental states. Only the one who has disciplined, tamed his mind and learned to manifest this in his actions leads a real spiritual life.

The Dalai Lama was attending a small reception held in honor of a group of businessmen supporting the Tibetan people's struggle for their rights. A huge crowd of people gathered at the doors of the hall where the reception was held, waiting for the appearance of the Dalai Lama. In the crowd I noticed a man whom I had already seen a couple of times this week. He was a man of about thirty, tall and very thin. He was terribly disheveled, but it was not this that caught my attention, but the expression on his face - an expression that I often observe in my patients, a mixture of anxiety, depression and pain. I also noticed a slight twitching of his facial muscles near his mouth and mentally diagnosed him with dyskinesia, a nervous disorder caused by chronic use of anti-stress medications. “Poor guy,” I sympathized with him and almost immediately forgot about him.

As the Dalai Lama appeared, the crowd thickened and people leaned forward to greet him. Security guards, mostly volunteers, tried to hold back the crowd and clear the way for the Dalai Lama. The concerned young man, whom I had noticed a minute earlier, completely changed his face and was pushed by the crowd straight towards the passage that the guards had cleared. The Dalai Lama, passing by, noticed the guy, got out of the ring of guards and stopped to talk to him. At first he became confused and began to say something quickly and randomly to the Dalai Lama, who said only a few words in response. I didn't hear what they were talking about, but I saw that the man was getting more and more excited as they talked. He talked and talked, but then the Dalai Lama took his hand with both hands, patted it lightly and stood silently for a few more moments, simply nodding his head. It seemed that he did not notice anything or anyone around him. The pain and excitement suddenly left the man's face, and tears streamed down his cheeks. Although the smile that appeared on his face was weak and timid, joy and relief appeared in his eyes.

The Dalai Lama is convinced that inner discipline is the basis of spiritual life and the fundamental method for achieving happiness. As explained in this book, from his point of view, internal discipline is the fight against negative states of mind such as anger, hatred, greed, and the development of positive states such as kindness, compassion and tolerance. He also believes that only those whose minds are calm and stable can achieve happiness. The practice of internal discipline may include formal meditation techniques designed to stabilize and calm the mind. Most spiritual traditions contain practices of calming the mind, establishing contact with the deep spiritual nature.

Concluding his series of public appearances in Tucson, he spoke about meditation, which is designed to calm the mind, explore its deeper nature and thus achieve "stillness of mind."

Looking at those sitting in the hall, he spoke in a quiet and calm voice, as if addressing each person personally, and not the entire huge audience as a whole. Sometimes he enlivened his narrative with a slight shake of his head, hand gestures and almost imperceptible body movements.

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