In this course, we are practicing to bring these virtues into our lives. We will do this through reflection and undertaking specific tasks.

Cultivating the Virtues in Daily Life

This talk is about the relationship of the virtues to the good life. But the aim of this course is not just to impart information, but to actually help you live better. It will help if you use these talks as the basis for daily contemplations and journaling. 

Reviewing your day

I'm suggesting that you:

• Spend about 5 to 10 minutes each day contemplating the role of the virtue we're talking about in your life that day.
• Spend another 5 or 10 minutes journaling about it. 

So, for example, if the virtue under consideration in the unit is truthfulness, you'll review how truthful you've been over the course of the day, or if the virtue under consideration is courage, you'll review how courageous you've been over the course of the day, and so on. 

As you contemplate, you can think about the moments you've been truthful or courageous, or the moments when you failed to be truthful or courageous. You can think about those moments and whether you're pleased with them or displeased with them. You can wonder what you might have done better. What are the factors that enabled you to be courageous in that situation? Or what are the factors that inhibited you from being courageous in that situation? 

Being honest about our motivations

Sometimes we might tell a lie and it might be perfectly reasonable to tell that lie. It might be a little white lie to save somebody else from being embarrassed. But on the other hand, we have to be truthful about our motivation as well. Sometimes we tell these little lies not to save someone else from embarrassment, but to ingratiate ourselves to others or to make ourselves look better than we are, or to win some other kinds of favors. So we have to be careful as we contemplate, that we try to carefully unpack our motivations and understand them. 

The benefits of journaling

I think it's also important that, after you're done contemplating, you journal about the contemplation so that you keep a record for yourself. And as you review that record, you can see what are the problems that keep on coming up again and again and again? Or what are the factors that undermine you again and again? Or maybe you can just appreciate how much progress you're making over time. These journals then become a resource for your continued moral growth going forward. 

Review your actions with openness and equanimity

I also think it's important that we keep in mind that as we're contemplating and journaling, we're not trying to be judgmental. Sometimes when we see that we fail to embody a virtue, we can become very self-castigating. We can use it as an opportunity for self-criticism and for secondary reactive emotions. But instead, I'm requesting that you try to do this contemplation and journaling in an open, accepting, meditative space in which we can view all of our contradictions and inconsistencies and imperfections with a degree of equanimity. The goal, again, is not to castigate ourselves or blame ourselves, or see ourselves as bad or deficient, but just for us to discover opportunities for future growth.

Now it's OK if you choose just to listen to the talks in this course, but I think you'll get a lot more out of it if you try to actively integrate the talks into your life through this process of contemplation and daily journaling.