Temperance

Temperance is defined as moderation or voluntary self-restraint. It is typically described in terms of what an individual voluntarily refrains from doing. This includes restraint from retaliation in the form of non-violence and forgiveness, restraint from arrogance in the form of humility and modesty, restraint from excesses such as extravagant luxury or splurging now in the form of prudence, and restraint from excessive anger or craving for something in the form of calmness and self-control.

Temperance has been described as a virtue by religious thinkers, philosophers, and more recently, psychologists, particularly in the positive psychology movement. In classical iconography, the virtue is often depicted as a woman holding two vessels transferring water from one to another. It was one of the cardinal virtues in western thought found in Greek philosophy and Christianity, as well as eastern traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism.

Temperance is one of the six virtues in the positive psychology classification, included with wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, and transcendence. It is generally characterized as the control over excess, and expressed through characteristics such as chastity, modesty, humility, self-regulation, hospitality, decorum, abstinence, forgiveness and mercy; each of these involves restraining an excess of some impulse, such as sexual desire, vanity, or anger.

Virtue Based Ethics
Virtue Based Ethics emphasizes the focus upon developing virtues which strengthen the mind and character, and in our interpretation are the basis of building the strength of the spiritual foundation. This is critical for the Lightbody to hold higher consciousness and Universal knowledge, which leads to spiritual freedom. More simply, a virtue can also be defined as a character trait that is positive. Expressing those virtuous qualities causes more positivity to ripple out into the world, which is the direct result of that person’s behavior. When a person expresses virtuous qualities in their behaviors and interactions with others, it contributes to the co-creation of personal wellbeing and happiness and also helps others to reach that feeling of wellbeing. In the spiritual context this is experienced as blessings, feeling a blessedness that guides your path forward, which allows the human being to flourish and feel happiness and contentment in their life. The sentient intelligence of the Soul-Spirit, if we listen, will always lead us to express many kinds of higher quality virtues. Because the soul’s purpose is to guide each person to experience their own fulfillment of spiritual purpose, and to flourish in peace and contentment, while developing the deeper connection with higher consciousness.

We create the state of wellbeing, happiness, peace and contentment in our life when we have disciplined ourselves to achieve the natural flow of expression of the higher qualities of virtues and ethics that allow the person to succeed and fulfill their higher purpose. Another way to express this is that when a person practices virtue based ethics in every area of their life, no matter what difficulty, adversity or challenge comes their way, they can defeat the obstacles in their path through the dedicated practice of expressing, behaving and committing to the strengthening of virtue based ethics. The state of success as measured in the material world as material power or resources is not the same as fulfilling ones spiritual purpose in life. Many times we can observe people that have gained vast material wealth, power and influence, and yet they remain unfulfilled, unhappy and lost in life. Achieving our spiritual purpose, and being able to support the aims of our spiritual purpose being able to share and spread virtuous qualities with others, is the key to peace, happiness and fulfillment, with or without material or monetary rewards.