Alas and alack, I think we have all
missed the point in this node. The point, if I may be so
bold isn't that we decide on our
morals or
values, but that we, in our process of
growth and
absorption,
discover them.
After all, you don't decide what is right and wrong, you feel it, (this by the way, is called having a conscience ) and only through a broader range of your experience can you decide if your feelings are right or wrong, but by then they may have changed, and you will have to respond to them as they exist.
To give you a case in point, imagine that you are a policeman, now imagine giving up all those things you believe in and have fought for all your life and becoming the diametric oppositon to it. Not partial, but total. If your core values and morals are things you decide, then this should be no problem. You can go from Saint to Satan in a second, and the change is absolute.
What this little scenario lacks is awareness of the fact that morals of any sort preclude certain thoughts or actions, and that they help give us a sense of quality in our lives. After all were we able to chose our morals we would have nothing to learn from each other, nothing to discover, and could rewrite ourselves as and when we choose fit. Looking around this is sadly not the case.
I should know. Now, after a lifetimes worth of moderate insight I know that there are right and wrong things in this world, and despite what others say there are good and bad people, and I don't label them this, this is who they are. I discover what is good or bad, who is nice or nasty through a process of exploration not definition, and I find myself behaving in new and interesting ways everyday, I discover myself, and know who I am through my morals and values.
I discover what I believe because every living moment shapes those beliefs and teaches me what they are, and consequently who I am. How can I decide on them then? If something better comes along, I will become it even before I know it.