You can solidify your character by attending to small things. By attacking small faults, and on every small occasion, one by one. This will arouse the inner attitude of attention and caution. The small faults and small occasions being conquered, the character grows strong. Feelings and desires are not wholly of the body. If the mind is deliberately taken off such subjects and placed on other and better ones, then the whole body will follow the mind and grow tractable. This struggle must be kept up, and after a while it will be easier. Old age makes only this difference—the machine of the body is less strong; in old age the thoughts are the same, if we let them grow without pruning.

—W. Q. Judge

We speak of a person as having "soft" or "firm," "base" or "noble" character. Though people often say, "What can I do, I am made like that," is character really static? We can mould or build our character by analyzing our emotional and moral nature. A little observation makes it clear that morals backed by strong will play a vital role in character-building. A person of firm character is always integrated. A good moral character implies spiritual integrity.

Character-building is a continuous process. It is not just transition from being a bad person to a good person, but involves further development from a good to a spiritual person. As we proceed, we realize that it is a simultaneous process of breaking and building. Often we are called upon to modify or discard traits that we incorporated with great pains into our character. For instance, others may have praised us for being sentimental and sensitive and having great attachment for our family and friends. But we may be rudely awakened one day to learn that we cannot make a distinction between our child and other children, that we need to expand the circle.

At the base of a good character is a virtuous mind. "Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny." However, good moral behaviour calls for integration of head and heart; otherwise, moral principles are set at naught by intelligent minds. For instance, an orthodox Brahmin may say, God is in the hearts of all, yet he may feel no compunctions about practising untouchability! Sangharakshita gives a trivial example. Consider a case where we have decided to give up eating something we are fond of, say, cake. In the beginning it would be very difficult to stay away from the place where cakes are sold or made. But when we stick out, this craving is reduced, till we reach a happy state when there is no craving at all. Our abstention from cake is no longer a disciplinary measure, but it is an expression of the state of non-craving which we have attained within. So long as the integration of mind, heart and hands does not happen, we experience great inner conflict, which results in the dissipation of energy. So that we say: "I understand it all at mind level, but the heart refuses to accept."

When the discipline is only external, or when the desire is given up only outwardly, the inner longing eats us up. The state of such a man is described in the Gita as, "a false pietist of bewildered soul." Once upon a time, young boys in Sparta were tested to see how courageous they were. They were asked to go and steal one small animal from the neighbouring village. In doing so, a boy got caught stealing a baby fox. When caught by a farmer, the Spartan boy hid the baby fox under his shirt and went on talking heroically, as though nothing was wrong. But meanwhile, the baby fox got very uncomfortable inside and started eating away his vitals. H.P.B. writes of people who, by a strong effort of will, simply put down the passion instead of slaying it: (Raja-Yoga or Occultism). Mere external discipline is useless. What good is celibacy if the mind is full of thoughts of the opposite sex? As the Buddha puts it:

He is not a Bhikkhu because he carries the begging bowl. Nor even because he adopts the whole law outwardly. But he who is above good and evil, is chaste, who comports himself in the world with understanding, he, indeed is called a Bhikkhu. (Verses 266-67)

What avails thy matted hair, O fool? What avails thy deer skin? Outwardly you clean yourself, within you there is ravening. (Verse 394)

Virtue consists not in resisting evil, but in not even desiring it. This happens when both heart and mind are set on it.

Actions are judged right or wrong, moral or immoral, depending upon the motive. We may give lakhs of rupees in charity to help the needy, or for fame, or simply because we have wealth in excess. We may decide to keep cordial relations with people out of true charity or with the ulterior motive that we can use these good relations for our benefit.

Sheela is a transcendental virtue and may be described as a good moral character. Moral qualities like truthfulness, equanimity, honesty, etc., appeal to us all. But, Sheela implies leading a pure and virtuous life from moment to moment, and not once in a while. It does not take a spectacular mistake or slip on our part to let in bad influences. Living a pure life, continuously, creates a shield. Then, evil thoughts, words and deeds of others do not affect us; they would be like dust thrown against high wind.

Professor C. S. Lewis observes that there is a difference between doing some particular just and temperate action, and being a just and temperate man. Someone who is not a good tennis player can play a good shot, now and then. But what we mean by a good player is the man whose eyes, nerves and muscles have been so trained, by making innumerable good shots, that they can now be relied upon. These muscles acquire a certain tone or quality, even while he is not playing—just as a mathematician's mind acquires a certain habit or outlook, even when he is not working at mathematics. So also, one who perseveres in doing good action gets in the end a certain quality of character. It is this quality of character that is the real virtue of Sheela. Buddha describes such a man as one for whom "occasions to act with like or dislike arise not."

It is because we are required to practise the virtues from moment to moment that the task becomes difficult. Often this leads to despair. The opposite of despair is hope, which tells us that we must not doubt our ultimate capacity.

Virya or spiritual energy is often essential in living a morally pure life. Creativity is the function of energy. Energy is not only required to start something new, but also for maintaining what has already been begun. In spiritual discipline we need to make efforts over and over again. "Beware of change! For change is thy great foe," says The Voice of the Silence. Change is essential for spiritual growth, but on the other hand, we must take care that change does not begin to apply to things we want to preserve. For instance, once we have decided, after due deliberation, to follow a particular discipline, there should arise no controversy or conflict in our mind. Once settled, it must be like Pythagoras' theorem, verified and accepted by an advanced mathematician. Before accepting the theorem, he has tested it, and hence, does not verify every time he makes its application. Similarly, once having accepted the moral principles, we must have courage to practise them even in the face of opposition for the family, society, religion, community, etc. Says Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay on "Self-reliance":

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

We are always craving for approval and appreciation. But in practising morals, the highest and only true judge is our own divine nature. A Master of Wisdom expresses the attitude to be adopted towards the opinion of the world, thus:

Do not despise the opinion of the world, nor provoke it uselessly to unjust criticism. Remain rather as indifferent to the abuse as to the praise of those who can never know you as you really are and who ought therefore to find you unmoved by either, and ever placing the approval or condemnation of your own Inner Self higher than that of the multitudes.

Those of you who would know yourselves in the spirit of truth, learn to live alone even amidst the great crowds....Seek communion and intercourse only with the God within your own soul; heed only the praise or blame of that deity which can never be separated from your true self...For each one of you contains within the precincts of his inner tabernacle the Supreme Court—prosecutor, defence, jury and judge—whose sentence is the only one without appeal. (U.L.T. Pamphlet No. 22, pp. 10-11)

Morality practised out of fear is useless. A child who follows even the simple discipline—for instance, washing his hands before meals—out of fear, is bound to skip it, when he is sure of not being found out. Virtues followed out of fear in childhood make one submit to authority, even in one's adult life. Religion often makes use of psychological fear to make people follow religious injunctions.

Sheela has been defined as the key that counterbalances the cause and effect and leaves no further room for karmic action. "Counterbalancing the cause and the effect" means, we must not allow our good intentions to remain mere intentions but act on them. As Carlyle says: "The end of man is an action and not a thought, though it were the noblest." Psychologists say that each thought has energy, and if good intentions, plans, wishes, etc., remain in your brain and are not translated into actions, then it gives rise to nervous tension.

Sheela is also the key that "leaves no further room for karmic action." We are acting all the time. But, when we act, so as to pass the burden of our karma to others, we are not balancing the cause and the effect. For instance, while we are standing in the queue for a ticket it may so happen that just when it is our turn to buy the ticket, it is time for the ticket-window to close. In such a case, we need to accept the situation that comes to us under karma. Instead, if we plead with the clerk on the counter to keep it open for a little while longer and issue us the ticket, we have created fresh karmic debt, and failed to "counterbalance the cause and the effect."

What is the mark of a spiritually integrated person? One spiritually integrated does not depend on anything outside for his happiness. A spiritually integrated person uses all—money, power, approval, success, love, friendship—but it is not dependent on them. The Gita describes the man confirmed in spiritual knowledge as one who "forsaketh every desire which entereth into his heart, and of himself is happy and content in the Self through the Self." One established in the Law, has been described in the Dhammapada:

Not only by discipline of moral principles, nor only by resolutions and vows; not only by much study, nor even by attainment in meditation, or in seclusion and solitude, do I release myself from bondage unto Bliss. This is not attained by worldlings. O Bhikkhu, be not deceived in self-confidence as long as you have not reached the extinction of desire. (Verses 271-72)

In the word "Sankara," "Kara" means one who does; "Sam" indicates sublime auspicious bliss. "Sankara" implies the one who showers sublime auspiciousness all over the world without any break.

—Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati