The Third Precept
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Until the day when I outvote myself on the Board of Directors, Niels’ original two precepts will be like the Ten Commandments: Etched in Stone, Standing Alone.
“Be Truthful” and “Be Kind” cover all the bases, as far as I can see. The Head and The Heart. The Head works best on a diet of Truth and The Heart thrives on Kindness.
(That’s not to say that The Head doesn’t need a balanced diet: Truth seasoned with Kindness is just what the doctor ordered. And so it goes for The Heart: Kindness without the salt of Truth can taste like treacle.)
I love the Dalai Lama wisdom on a wall hanging my thoughtful Spouse gave me:
This is my simple religion.
There is no need for temples
no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart
is our temple.
The philosophy is kindness.
All of that said, there’s no reason we can’t offer our own “11th Commandment” or “Third Precept” once in awhile, just for conversation.
Here’s mine:
“One of my main themes is joy in spite of everything. I don’t think that I am pollyannish; my characters suffer, they die. They experience pain, alienation, frustration–all the hardships of life that real people experience. But, my heroes and heroines, the characters with whom I most identify and who are most important to me, all insist on joy in spite of everything.”
…Essentially, “joy in spite of everything” amounts to a kind of defiant attitude, a refusal to be victimized by events over which one has no control. It reflects the belief that life is too short to be wasted in the anger or lamentation that easily could be generated by the era or area in which one, by circumstance, happens to reside. We must recognize the injustice and suffering that abounds in the world and do everything we can to alleviate it, yet in the same instant insist on having one hell of a good time.
Tom Robbins
That’s my Third Precept. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can’t deal with the Truth and I can’t even Be Kind to myself, let alone all you scary strangers. In those times my fallback, my Plans B-thru-Z, are Tom’s “defiant attitude:”
Joy In Spite of Everything.
Cheers,
BuFoon Steve
