On living a good life...................

 

Look, alright, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, knows what they’re doing. I spent the first few decades of my life thinking everybody else received a Secret Pamphlet and that this pamphlet explained how to file taxes and when to leave a party and how to love someone without ruining it.

I didn’t get the pamphlet. I assumed it was just me. Nope. We’re all out here freestyling. Yeesh.

Still gotta answer the question though: How do we live a good life? Yeah, I’m gonna need some assistance…

Naturally, the person I decided to go to for help is a Greek guy who’s been dead for 2300 years.

-Eric Barker has the rest of the story here

Marching orders...............................

Russell as an optimist..................?

    "We have also become, in certain respects, progressively less like animals.  I can think in particular of two respects:  first, that acquired, as opposed to congenital, skills play a continually increasing part in human life, and, secondly, that forethought more and more dominates impulse.  In these respects we have certainly become progressively less like animals."

-Bertrand Russell, as culled from here

a position to judge.................

     Let us now see what that Himalayan miscalculation was.  Before one can be fit for the practice of civil disobedience one must have rendered a willing and respectful obedience to the state laws.  For the most part we obey such laws out of fear of the penalty for their breach, and this holds good particularly in respect of such laws as do not not involve a moral principle.  For instance, an honest, respectable man will not suddenly take to stealing, whether there is a law against stealing or not, but this very man will not feel any remorse for failure to observe the rule about carrying head-lights on bicycles after dark.  Indeed it is doubtful whether he would even accept advice kindly about being more careful in this respect.  But he would observe any obligatory rule of this kind, if only to escape the inconvenience of facing a prosecution for a breach of the rule.  Such compliance is not, however, the willing and spontaneous obedience that is required of a Satyagrahi.  A Satyagrahi obeys the laws of society intelligently and of his own free will, because he considers it to be his sacred duty to do so.  It is only when a person has thus obeyed the laws of society scrupulously that he is in a position to judge as to which particular rules are good and just and which unjust and iniquitous.  Only then does the right accrue to him of the civil disobedience of certain laws in well-defined circumstances.  My error lay in my failure to observe this necessary limitation.  I had called on the people to launch upon civil disobedience before they had thus qualified themselves for it, and this mistake seemed to me of Himalayan magnitude.

-Mohandas K. Gandhi,  Gandhi: An Autobiography:  The Story Of My Experiments With Truth

Guidelines............................

                         INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE

1.   Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2.   When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3.   Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others, and Responsibility for all your actions.
4.   Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5.   Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6.   Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7.   When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8.   Spend some time alone every day.
9.   Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10.  Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11.  Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12.  A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13.  In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14.  Share your knowledge. You’ll die, but may achieve immortality.
15.  Be gentle with the earth.
16.  Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17.  Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18.  Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19.  Approach love and compassion with reckless abandon.

-Anon

via

By all means.......................

Twenty-nine days.......................

...................of following your own directions.  The tale is told here.

On obedience and initiative....................

Flexibility was also important. Contrary to the stereotype the German army did not want blind obedience. Not only did it allow subordinate commanders to figure out how to achieve their objectives but if opportunities arose which were unforeseen they were not only allowed to take advantage of them but expected to do so. “His majesty made you a major because he believed that you would know when not to obey his orders.” as Prince Frederick Charles put it.
-as excerpted from here

Wondering about ramifications, if that is really true.

On following recipes...........................

.................................................................................to the T.

Good thing............................

“I am not apt to follow blindly the lead of other men” 
-Charles Darwin

More about HMS Beagle can be found here.

Well, OK.............................................

via

A pretty good to-do list....................

thanks Todd

Instructions...........................................

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Commentary...........................

"We cannot control something as insignificant as a mustard seed.  How can we control something as big as the world?"
-Sung Ch'ang-Hsing

"Spiritual things respond to stillness.  They cannot be controlled with force."
-Ho-Shang Kung

"The sage considers his body transitory and the world its temporary lodging.  How can he rule what is not his and lose the true and lasting Way?"
-Li Hsi-Chai

"The interchange of yin and yang, of high and low, of great and small is the way things are and cannot be avoided.  Fools are selfish.  They insist on having their own way and meet with disaster.  The sage knows he cannot oppose things.   He agrees with whatever he meets.  He eliminates extremes and thereby keeps the world from harm."
-Su Ch'e

"The sage gets rid of extremes with kindness.  He gets rid of extravagance with simplicity. He gets rid of excess with humility.  By means of these three, the sage governs the world."
-Lu Nung-Shih

"The sage penetrates the nature and condition of others.  Hence he responds to them without force and follows them without effort.  He eliminates whatever misleads or confuses them.  Hence their minds become clear, and each realizes his own nature."
-Wang Pi

All these quotes (and more) come from the commentary attached to each Chapter of  Red Pine's translation of the Tao

Cicero, on the how-to of public speaking.........

"A leading speaker will vary and modulate his voice, raising and lowering it and deploying the full scale of tones.  He will avoid extravagant gestures and stand impressively erect.  He will not pace about and when he does so not for any distance.  He should not dart forward except in moderation with strict control.  There should be no effeminate bending of the neck or twiddling of his fingers or beating out the rhythm of his cadences on his knuckles.  He should extend his arm at moments of high dispute and lower it during calmer passages....Once he has made sure he does not have a stupid expression on his face and or a grimace, he should control his eyes with great care, for as the face is the image of the soul the eyes are its translators.  Depending on the subject at hand they can express grief of hilarity."

Noah......................................

So, the reading in church yesterday was about Noah and his ark.  The sermon following the reading suggested that the real story of Noah is the story of his obedience.   I really like our minister.  I really liked his sermon.  However, the whole time he was talking, my undisciplined mind kept flashing back fifty years to Bill Cosby - "me and You, Lord."