Copyright,
1998, Max K. Goff, all rights reserved
Wisdom is a process of self-discovery, learning and understanding. I think Robert Heinlien described it best in Stranger in a Strange Land. To grok. To completely consume, digest and assimilate the thing and in knowing it, know yourself.In my life I too have yearned to learn more and to ultimately discover the meaning of "happiness;" to live long and prosper. To that end, grok these rules, which I have grokked, from a cultural heritage spangled with possibilities. Max's 7 Cardinal Rules. These rules, applied to a life, will yield the true path to freedom, wisdom and a life well lived.
This is not to say that I have perfected the processing of my own path. As my son is fond of reminding me, I have a particular problem with rule #5. But I'm quick to refer him to rule #6, and the debate goes on. Design is not implementation.
Within the context of the one Great Rule, the Golden Rule, which is the basis for all rules, these seven cardinal rules do also apply:
1. Your purpose here: Learn and have fun. Do this daily. (Richard Bach)
2. Find a path with a heart. (Carlos Casteneda)
corollary: At any moment you can choose a different future,
or a different past. (Tom Robbins)
3. Engage the now.
corollary: Do not look backward in anger or forward in fear
but around in awareness. (a rest room wall)
4. People support what they help create. Hence, include everyone. (life)
5. Always choose Substance over Image. (Plato)
6. Grok that you create the universewith your thoughts.
corollary: Subjectivity is truth, Objectivity illusion. (Soren Kirkegaard)
7. Behave as though you are connected to everyone you meet,
and everything you see. Because you are.
(Hermann Hesse, The Kybalion, Deepok Chopra, et al.).
corollary to the Golden Rule: Give away that which is of most value.