Although many people focus on meditation, morality plays a very important role in the training that leads to Enlightenment. It includes three aspects of the Eightfold Path of Buddhism: Right Speech, Right Conduct, and Right Livelihood.

It’s not very hard to understand the importance of morality. It is impossible to achieve the peace of mind needed for Enlightenment if you feel remorse or have done wrong.

Moral values are not just socially relative or subjective ideas. They are transcendent principles of Pure Reason.

Emmanuel Kant, in The Critique of Practical Reason, discusses the nature of pure practical reason.

Most everyone is moved by the needs of their ego. We use practical reason to obtain the objects of our desires. Happiness is generally considered the satisfaction of desires.

Moral Law originates from what Kant calls Pure Practical Reason. This is the judgement of right and wrong independent of worldly desires. Human reason can make moral decisions because it is inherently unconditioned.

We know what it means to do wrong, to cause unnecessary harm, to bear ill will. We are free to choose our actions. Many choose to do wrong out of ignorance of what brings true happiness. Many choose to obey their animal desires.

What is revealed when all desires for the world are released is our unconditioned awareness. Enlightenment is this unbinding:

O monks, the well-instructed noble disciple, seeing thus, gets wearied of form, gets wearied of feeling, gets wearied of perception, gets wearied of mental formations, gets wearied of consciousness. Being wearied he becomes passion-free. In his freedom from passion, he is emancipated. (The Anatta-lakkhana Sutta)

It is our unconditioned awareness, or pure awareness, that makes pure practical reason possible. When there is no desire, all thoughts and actions are necessarily moral. The emancipated awareness is by nature kind, compassionate, and understanding.