CONFRONTING VIRTUES and VICES

Get rid of all ideologies, disturbing sentiments, prejudices and ideas.

To grow in humanity, wisdom and strength, we must open to change, new content coming from our meditated experience and fighting the fundamental vices: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

The so-called Fundamental VICES were first enumerated in the 6th century as the negative “counter-virtues”, bad attitudes, creators of lousy knowledge of negative awareness and confused actions. While we proceed in a growing understanding of ourselves and take biking as an instrument for such endeavour, examining the vices as traditions (west and east) passed to us can be helpful. Like the virtues, the vices derive from the repetition of actions, which form, in the subject who performs them, a sort of “habit” which inclines him in a specific direction and behaviour. But being vices and not virtues, such practices do not promote inner, noble and spiritual growth; on the contrary, they destroy it.

1) Vainglory, or pride, the overestimation of the Ego, violent arrogance. It is considered the original and worst of the seven vices, the source of all the others. The opposite of humility, pride is corrupt selfishness, the will to put one’s desires, wants, and whims before the wellbeing of others.

(2) Greed, or covetousness, is not sharing, an inordinate desire to acquire, possess and consume more than one needs. To own for showing, to show to generate envy.

(3) Lust, or inordinate desire, is an unbridled desire for power or control over things and humans; a blind passion for the sake of control often exercised for short-term objectives. To possess for the show, to show generating envy.

(4) Envy, an insatiable desire like greed and lust. “Better than” is perceived as a sad or resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of someone else. It is an uncontrolled ambition to imitate other people’s life.

(5) Gluttony, lack of attention to the body and the care and fitness of it. Overconsumption of anything to the point of waste, including drunkenness and substances.

(6) Wrath, or anger, uncontrolled feelings of rage and hatred, a wish to seek vengeance. Wrath is the source of road rage and can manifest in different ways, including impatience, hateful misanthropies, and violent and self-destructive behaviour.

(7) Sloth, it is a sin to omit responsibilities. A failure to do things one should do or take responsibility for the behaviour. It is as well inability to change or a refusal to learn.

Each of these vices can be fought with the seven fundamental virtues of humility, charity, purity, gratitude, temperance, patience, and diligence. A description of the deadly sins already appeared in Aristotle, who defined them as the “habits of evil”.

The PROCAMPT method starts from a group of virtues selected because of their impact on motorcycling.

PROCAMP then leave the rider to build a personal evaluation, facing the understanding and application of virtues, centred on the “WHY”, starting from the “Why are we doing this exercise?” and a “why” that must be verified several times during the exercises.

Examining the impact of the selected Virtues on the pilot and repeating the “Why am I here?” frequently during the course reduces the risk of seeking goals or objectives that ORPC is not designed to offer.

The rider/participant, meditating on the written presentation of the ten virtues, should be able to compile a personal report (bullet points) on what is easy to apply, what is not easy and what is not habitual and should be learned.

Counselling on Virtues should be done by examples and by sharp points to use as guides. It is more a process of helping each other extract the good we have inside than imposing or introducing new content.

“Not much knowledge nourishes and satisfies the soul, but feeling and enjoying things internally.”