Behave Thyself, Heathen

Do you remember these? They still apply, God or no God. Think of them as Seven Deadly Defilements, in three easy-to-remember groups:

(1) Craving: lust, envy, greed & gluttony
(2) Ignorance: pride & mental sloth
(3) Ill Will: anger...and what usu. follows in its wake

People love to talk about logic and reason, but rarely do they ever study these, much less try to apply them consistently. Go on, give it a go—it won't hurt much. And while you're at it, brush up on math skills like calculus and probability so you'll be able to better understand what cosmologists have to say about existence.

Calculus, by the way, is just algebra applied to the study of two problems: (1) differentiation, finding the rate at which a known but varying quantity is changing, and (2) integration, finding a quantity if you know the rate at which it's changing. If you know that y=mx + b, then the rate at which y changes is given by y'=m. The integral of y is (1/2)mx² + bx, and the quantity (i.e. the area under the curve) for the interval x=0 to x=4 is 8m + 4b. The book Quick Calculus is great both for absolute beginners and anyone who took calculus in college—and promptly forgot it.

There is no evil that cannot be done by the liar, who has transgressed the one law (of truthfulness) and who is indifferent to a world beyond.

The Dhammapada¹, verse 176 (13:10)

1st Law of Thermodynamics, for the hefty: Gluttony + Little exercise = Obesity

In technical terms: Q + W = ΔU; where Q, W and ΔU are, respectively, the quantities of energy (chow) added to a system, the work done on the system, and the resultant change in internal energy (heftiness) of the system. Chemists and physicists measure energy not in dietary calories but in Joules: (kg)(m²)(s^-2). The uppercase Greek letter Δ is delta. Note that W, "work done on the system," is a negative value when exercising. An escalator or elevator ride up would add positive gravitational potential energy.

Swish Swish
Broom Broom
Sweep the Floor
And Clean Your Room

I've Clean't My Room
And Swept the Floor
Broom Broom
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Grant My Wish!

"One is better off alive in the mud than dead in the palace." -Confucius

Will you enjoin good deeds on the others and forget your own selves? You also read the Scriptures, why do you not then understand?

al-Qur'an², 2:44

Q: What is Right Thought?
A: Thoughts free from sensuous desire, ill will and cruelty.

"You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud;..."

Mark³ 10:19

Through wisdom and patience
We will learn to draw strength and forgiveness.
Words will not be the cause of a drawn sword,
But if a body is threatened
Our mind will become the warrior.

(I picked this up in kung fu class but did have to modify it slightly. And no, it's not "our bodies will become ass-kickin', trigger-happy warriors" as the gung-ho might imagine.)

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...
Life is but a dream.

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Doctrine and Discipline

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1. Narada Thera, The Dhammapada: Pali Text & Translation with Stories in Brief and Notes, (Taipei: The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, 1993/2538), p.159. Verse 176 is the third verse of ch. 13, Loka Vagga (The World.)
2. Ahmed Ali, al-Qur'an: A Contemporary Translation - Arabic & English in parallel columns, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), p. 16.
3. The New American Bible, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1987), p. 1131. From the parable about the rich man. There is no reason to imagine these laws are the fiat of a Cosmic Designer who selects a number of them from among those on a much longer grocery list. Like gravity and quantum theory, they simply are the law, the doctrine, the dhamma, etc.