[chezlaw]

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The second part is: could I ever expect to behave more morally in a given situation then to follow this feeling/understanding. (assuming there is an absolute morality).



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I don't think there's anything more one could do except to be their own mind. I think what causes problems is that everybody has their own attachments which sway their judgment this way or that way.

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That seems to agree with what I'm saying. I'm not saying anything about whether our own minds get it right to any extent, I'm just claiming that we can't do better (even if there's an objective standard of better) than to rely on our own minds.

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Part of the question is: could my moral feelings ever conflict with my understanding (this is an introspective empirical question, to which I think the answer is no).


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It depends on how attached to a conceptual understanding of reality that one is. If belief in concepts rather than what actually is, is strong, then that will sway a person's thinking towards right vs. wrong which creates duality. That duality is just a concept in the mind though, but which then leads to more thinking along those same lines, which causes confusion as to what is actually truth or 'right'. If the mind believes concepts are reality, then the body/mind is imprisoned by thought. It would be like having a bad childhood memory and everytime you think about it you feel terrible. That is when the mind is strongly attached to a belief/thought. The mind that is able to see thoughts come and go without being swayed by them is the mind that sees reality/truth IMO and which from morals feel right/truthful.

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I might be suffering from an understanding failure, there's a lot in what you've said. It seems you are talking about a failure of the mind to understand the world (because its strongly attached to particular beliefs etc) and that the moral feelings reflect this flawed understanding. The duality bit worries me, are you saying someone could understand it is wrong to kill someone but feel it is right to kill them?

chez