Advice from the Ancients

Advice from the Ancients 'Live long and prosper." "Want to be happy for the rest of your life? Make an ugly man/woman your husband/wife." Modern culture is full of advice for living long and being happy. The ancients (Sanscrit) had an abundance of them as well. Perhaps we can apply some of them to our modern life.

1. You get one body. Use it wisely!

With the exception of artificial joints,artificial intelligence, and

organ transplants and cloning, this is still true. All these 'fix-it' repairs require surgery, not a necessarily enjoyable process. Would it be better if we cared for our bodies before they break down. Of course this requires diet, exercise and the avoidance of damaging habits. Those may not be enjoyable either? Something to think about. Care now, or pay later.

2. You will receive lessons. Pay attention!

We all carry baggage. Sometimes they raise up to haunt us. We repeat negative experiences, doing the same things over and over again, and they don't end well. The advice to pay attention encourages us to do just that. What is causing us emotional or physical dis-ease? Deal with it. Learn the lessons it is teaching you....and move on!

A corollary to this is the idea that there are no mistakes in life. Only lessons not yet learned!

And if a lesson is not learned, it is bound to repeat itself!

These lessons and learning never end. Pay attention. The process of learning makes life interesting. Move on!

3. "There" is not better than "here".

We commonly hear this advice in the form of "The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence." If you tie this to #2 you might think about whether you will be repeating a lesson if you crawl under the fence to reach the greener grass. There may be another and another fence. The grass is always there, and always looks greener if you cannot reach it.

Learn the lesson, don't repeat it. Put the work it would take to get under the fence into the current pasture and make it better!

4. Others are just mirrors of who you are.

If you are grumpy, you tend to run into grumpy people? Why? Are they reflecting your bad mood? Or you approach life happily, and seem to always be running into cheerful, upbeat people. Why? Your every expectation may not be met, but you may feel better about it if you look a it from a positive perspective. Others may respond and meet your expectations more often, or present new and different perspectives!

5. What you make of life is up to you. Don't be lazy.

Oh, yeh, I remember, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." The longer you wait for someone else to do the hard work of making you a success, the less likely it is to happen. They are busy working on their own life! their own dreams and goals. So don't be lazy, get busy!

6. You know the answers to your innermost questions.

"If only I knew how to...." You know, go after it. Try.

What is the worst that could happen? You could try again, perhaps something different. Better to have tried to answer your questions, than to just have questions you never made an effort to answer!

7. Forget number 1-6? Read them again, daily.

8. Figure out what you really want. Prioritize. Make

a plan, try to work the plan. Try again. Repeat.

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The purpose of this article is not to be an answer sheet. It is a jumping off point for your personal thinking. There are other articles on this blog (A Place for the Eye to Rest) that offer thought provoking ideas to consider. Please send me your thoughts and comments at Karenmac1999@hotmail.com