There are all kinds of benefits from living an ethical life. The most obvious is that being ethical enables you to live as a valued member of society. However, I am not going to talk about the common benefits of living ethically. I will instead highlight how this leads to unconditional happiness.
Living ethically is a good thing, from both a societal and a personal point of view. From a societal point of view, when people live ethically, relations between them unfold more smoothly. When people stop following the norms, civil society breaks down.
From a personal point of view, ethical living seems to have the effect of minimizing your focus on personal interests and desires, which helps you shift your attention to happiness. Unethical conduct, on the other hand, is symptomatic of — and even increases — the self-centered desire for things that you mistakenly believe will make you happy.
As we will see in Appendices 2 and 3, Buddhism and yoga offer much guidance on ethical conduct, which is key to those practices. In addition, although I do not discuss specific guidance in Appendix 1, ethical conduct is the foundation of following the Tao. Likewise, I do not provide specific guidance in the chapter on devotional practices, but ethical conduct is integral to such practices.
Nonviolence
Both Buddhism and yoga teach the benefits of nonviolence. Obviously, this applies to all people. Buddhists make a point of teaching nonviolence toward any living being. The violence you do to another can have a terrible effect on you, and can destroy any chance of your learning to be happy.
The Yoga Sutras teach that violence is often a response to fear. Our inclination is to want to see someone harmed in order to protect ourselves. It is fueled by the delusion of importance of self over others. By giving in to violence, you are building an impenetrable wall around yourself, and making it more and more difficult to let go of the hold that self-centered self has on your attention. You make it more difficult to shift your attention to happiness.
Truthfulness
Dishonesty, like violence, is usually motivated by the self-centered self. It can be activated by the desire to get something, or to avoid pain. Every time you tell a lie, you are feeding the insatiable appetite of the self-centered self, and moving farther and farther away from happiness. Truthfulness, on the other hand, encourages you to acknowledge and accept the way things are. You deemphasize the self, which is never quite happy with the way things are.
Not Stealing
People often steal because they feel empty, and want things that are not theirs, and which they perhaps cannot get honestly. The self-centered self wants to take and keep what it believes to be painfully missing. “Criminals” steal by illegal means; smart people often steal legally. But it is all stealing, and every time you do it, you pander to and strengthen the self-centered self.
Do Not Be Greedy
The emotion of greed obviously comes from a desire for things one does not have, or wants more and more of. It is the very opposite of the charity and selflessness that promote happiness.
The Karmic Debt
The concept of karma plays a large role in both yoga and Buddhism. It is the belief that any volitional act you perform eventually rebounds to you in some way. Simplistically, it could be that if you steal from someone, then someone will eventually steal from you. If you harm someone, someone will eventually harm you.
It is difficult to find happiness when unethical actions are allowed to pile up a karmic “debt” that must eventually be repaid. At a minimum, the guilt in some part of your mind and spirit may keep eating at you and obscuring the peace and happiness you seek.