The Rules of the game of good times and good living….

These rules i keep in mind as I wobble in life, sometimes hitting and sometimes missing but always arriving exactly where I am suppose to be.

So, without further adieux, here are a few simple rules I usually remember when I need to. I offer them as suggestions and as food for thought.

1) A little goodness goes a long way. Another way to say this is, positive wins over negative – every time! That’s the same thing as the glass being half full instead of half empty. When we come from a place of half full instead of half empty, our intentions are more aligned with goodness than with negativity.  Thus, if your actions don’t produce the results you were imagining, you are still going to be OK because you will see the benefits of the unexpected outcome and roll with those punches, happily.

2) Creativity is the antidote of stagnation and when married to goodness, produces wonderfulness. Creativity married to negativity produces misery. We can be very creative imagining great fun possibilities, or we can be very creative imagining the worse in every situation. We can be creative finding solutions to difficult problems or we can be creative blaming others for our own issues. We can be creative discovering new connections, or we can be creative burning bridges. 

3) Your karma is everyone’s karma. David Deida put it very eloquently:  “Your every action ripples out and affects everyone.”  That’s “everyone” not just you, or the people you are in direct contact with.  “Everyone” includes people all the way to China, the butterflies in the Amazon forest and the dog next door. That’s because, you are a creation, manifested to manifest possibilities. Your higher purpose is to make the world a nicer place for everyone, not just for yourself. You are needed to give your gifts and to inspire others to give theirs. If you choose to make yourself into a reactive ball of hatred and negativity that’s what you will be rippling out to everyone, even to people and creatures that have never met you.  There’s a noble Zen practice designed for the advanced practitioner in order to help them refine their relationship to everything and reach final liberation. In that practice one willingly takes the suffering, illness, stress and every form of gunk out of one person, absorbs it into him/her self and offer his/her own peace and tranquility in exchange.  That takes courage.

4) “Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

5) The Golden Rule:

Confucianism: "What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."

Christianity: "Do to no one what you yourself dislike."- Tobit 4:15

Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. -Udanavarga 5:18

Baha’i Faith: Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not. —Bahá'u'lláh

Hinduism: One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma. Other behavior is due to selfish desires. - Brihaspati, Mahabharata

Judaism: You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself. —Leviticus 19:18

Sikhism: I am a stranger to no one, and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all. p.1299, Guru Granth Sahib

Taoism: Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss.
—T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien

In the words of Dr. Frank Crane, "The Golden Rule is of no use to you whatsoever unless you realize that it's your move!"

Enough said! Cheers to all.