Operating Manual for Life -- Book Seven
How To Create Your Own...
Operating Manual for Life
by Rel Davis
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BOOK SEVEN
LIFE AND SOCIETY
Humans are social creatures.
We seem to function best in groups of other humans.
Not only do we need the physical support of other people, for food and clothing and housing,
We need the emotional support of others.
We need their love.
Even more importantly,
We help create the world that other people live in.
And they help create the world we live in.
Connectedness is a reality.
79.
As long as you cause no harm,
You are free to do whatever you wish.
In personal terms, we know we are free to do anything we want to do...
As long as we are willing to accept the consequences.
But in relation to society as a whole, our obligation becomes greater.
We are free to do anything we want,
As long as we harm nothing.
That's a tough requirement!
Something has to be harmed every time we sit down to eat.
It means I must constantly judge every action to balance the harm that might be done.
Is the harm to that stalk of lettuce I pluck for my salad ...
Greater than the harm I might sustain without food to eat?
Is the value of that hamburger to me ...
Worth the fact that a large mammal had to die in order to produce it?
Life becomes a balancing act.
It's the world's oldest moral principle.
Live and let live.
An ye harm none, do what ye will.
Return not evil for evil.
80.
The requirement that we do no harm
Applies to other people, other living creatures,
Even inanimate things,
And you yourself.
If you want to walk peacefully in your world...
You must learn to do no harm in your world.
Everything in the world is sacred.
The rocks, the trees, the seas.
The flying bird, the creeping snail.
Your next door neighbor.
And you yourself.
Anything that hurts another creature --
From its point of view --
Is morally wrong.
The word "evil" simply means harm to another creature or thing.
An evil person is one who causes harm.
81.
The universe operates on balances.
Life is a balancing act.
Native Americans knew this instinctively.
If they cut a branch for a dwelling,
They did so only with a deep sense of respect.
They thanked the tree for its contribution.
If they killed a deer for food,
They did so only with a deep sense of respect and gratitude.
They asked the deer for permission.
They honored the animal for its contribution.
We need to gain that sense of balance in life.
For everything we take from the earth,
We need to replace it with something else.
If I must cause harm in order to obtain food,
Let me do as little harm as possible,
And let me do so with deep respect for the source of the food.
Living life in balance
Means to minimize harm and recognize my debt to the earth.
82.
Everything in the universe is connected.
Everything.
We realize the importance of causing no harm in our world ...
When we realize that everything in the world is connected.
The air you breathe was produced by phytoplankton in the middle of the ocean,
And by trees growing on mountain-tops.
Inside your body, the oxygen is made available to you thanks to the work of some tiny bacteria-like creatures called mitochondria.
Were it not for these creatures, you could not live.
The food you eat was grown in fields nourished by water evaporated from the sea,
By tiny nitrogen-fixing creatures in the soil,
By hard-working human beings who till the land.
The electricity you use was produced most likely from coal created thousands of years ago from the bodies of ancient plant life.
The very elements that make up your body were created in the bowels of a star much larger than our sun...
That destroyed itself 10 billion years ago.
rom that debris was produced our sun, the planets, the iron that courses through your veins.
Everything is connected.
Destroy the phytoplankton in the seas...
And humans will cease to exist on earth.
83.
Everything in the universe is alive.
Everything.
The form of life you and I enjoy seems to be rare in the universe.
We are self-aware life forms
Stranded on an island far out on the rim of a minor galaxy.
But there is increasing evidence that everything in the universe has some level of awareness.
Some level of intelligence.
Every particle of matter and every burst of energy ...
Respond to the same stimuli the same way,
Everywhere in the universe.
The throbbing micro-universe of the electron
Seems to be fully as alive as we ourselves.
The complex patterns of chemicals, plasmas and energies within a star
Are fully as complicated as the structure of the human body.
Native Americans said everything was alive.
They were right.
I must control my actions so that I cause harm to nothing -- living or non-living.
84.
Every action you take --
No matter how small --
Has an effect on your world.
Your actions influence your world.
One smile to a stranger can start a pattern of smiles that could conceivably circle the earth.
One nasty remark to a loved one...
Will most certainly come back to you negatively.
Never underestimate the ripple effect of small actions.
Little kindnesses often result in great rewards.
Small injustices often produce great pain.
Be careful how you act.
Each action helps create your world.
85.
Judge every action by:
Is this how I want my world to be?
In World War II, Albert Camus worked in the French Resistance against the Nazi invaders.
At first he worked with the Communists.
He finally left them, because they required agents to assassinate enemies.
Camus said that he could no longer support any movement that required the taking of a human life,
For to do so, was to be a murderer himself.
Camus realized that his actions created the world he lived in.
If he supported murder, he was creating a world of killing.
Every action you take ...
Every movement you support ...
Every politician you vote for ...
Is a statement to the world of who you are and what kind of world you want to live in.
If you act violently toward your friends and loved ones...
You create a violent world.
As Jesus once said:
"All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."
86.
If you would live in an honest world...
Act honestly in your world.
The kind of life you lead determines the kind of world you live in.
The principle is really quite simple.
People are attracted to people who tend to be like themselves.
If your actions reveal you to be a grasping, dishonest person,
You will attract grasping, dishonest people into your life.
But believe me,
No crook wants to be in the company of a truly honest person for very long.
Ask any con man.
The best victim is another con.
How you act determines the type of people you attract,
And how other people respond to you.
87.
If you want a better world for your children,
Create that world through your own actions.
Act the way you want the world to act.
here's an old story about a successful businessman who took his 2-year-old son and placed him on top of a tall dresser.
"Jump!" he told his son, "I'll catch you."
"I'm afraid," the child said.
"Look, if you can't trust your father, who can you trust? Jump and I guarantee I'll catch you."
The child jumped off the dresser. The businessman stepped out of the way. His son landed painfully on the floor.
"Remember that," the father told his weeping child. "Never trust anybody!"
This father was passing on to his child the same twisted morals, the same twisted world he himself inhabited.
Whatever you want for your child, be sure to live it yourself.
If you want your child to be happy, be a happy person --
Create a happy home life.
I've known men who wanted to leave a comfortable life to their children.
They worked hard. They were seldom home and when they were home they were tired and irritable.
They gave their children wealth,
And wondered why their children seemed so ungrateful.
88.
Life isn't supposed to be fair.
It just is.
While it is our responsibility to respect the balance in our world...
We cannot always expect balance from the world.
At least, not from our limited perspectives.
Things don't always work out the way we planned them.
There are too many people out there creating their worlds as well.
Sometimes, it just doesn't seem fair.
Well, it isn't supposed to be fair.
(When I was child, I was told that "fair" is nothing but a country circus!)
You say you worked hard all your life?
And look what you have to show for it -- nothing!
You can't go back and change the past.
You can only begin right now to create a new world for yourself.
Don't expect the world to be fair.
Accept the universe on its terms and it will more likely accept you on yours.
89.
Yet the things we do will come back to us,
Eventually.
Eastern religions have a principle known as karma.
Kind of like Newton's third Law of Motion:
Every action produces an equal action in response.
Karma does work.
But not always in the way we expect,
Or when we expect it to happen.
Everything you do will come back to you.
Sooner or later.
It's hard to see karma at work in the world,
Because we can't see into the hearts of all the evil-doers.
We can't see the pain the universe inflicts on them.
We simply have to act as if we understood that karma was applicable.
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
90.
There is a statute of limitations on guilt.
After a child turns 18, the parents are no longer responsible!
Our responsibility toward our own minor children is greater than to any other human beings.
We brought them into the world.
We are responsible for preparing them for life.
Ideally, we will begin giving each child a greater amount of freedom as the child grows older.
Until, finally, we set them free.
After that time, at about the age of 18, we are no longer responsible for them.
Don't keep putting yourself down because you think you raised your children incorrectly.
You can't go back and change anything, so you aren't responsible.
Besides, parents have a lot less effect on their children than they think they do.
After your children are grown, your responsibility is to yourself.
Let them go find their own therapists!
91.
Be kind to yourself.
Be kind to all of creation.
If you remember to treat yourself with kindness,
You will remember to treat others with kindness.
If you refuse to judge yourself,
You will never be guilty of judging others.
If you learn to listen to and obey your own body,
You will learn to listen to and respond to the needs of others.
If you cause your own body no harm,
You will cause no harm to others either.
If you learn to love yourself,
You can learn to love others as well.
Deep inside you
Is a fount of infinite wisdom.
Respect yourself,
The source of all that wisdom.
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