How to Live Wisely

It turns out the adage that an unexamined life is not worth living is true.

The New York Times had a wonderful article last year on how to live wisely. It is about college students at Harvard who participated in a non-credit seminar called “reflecting on your life” which considered of 3 90 minute discussions with 1st year students facilitated by faculty. See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/education/edlife/how-to-live-wisely.html

Participants were asked thoughtful questions. How well do your commitments reflect your goals?  How do you spend your free time? (In other words, what are you passionate about?) Would you rather be extremely good at one thing or pretty good at a lot of things?  What are your core values and how does your chosen career path align with them?  How do you define success and why?

3 years later, the participants all reflected that the experience of thinking about what it is they value was valuable and helped them turn “college into the transformational experience it is meant to be.”

Want to live life wisely? Thing about what it is you value.

The Edicts of King Asoka

Dhamma is good, but what constitutes Dhamma?

(It includes) little evil, much good, kindness,

generosity, truthfulness and purity.

King Asoka

I watched a movie about the life of King Asoka (starring Shahrukh Khan). Because not a lot is known about the man, it’s a fictionalized account. However, it does include the battle at Kalinga which was supposed to be really rather violent and vicious and a turning point in Asoka's life. After that Asoka becomes king and a Buddhist. He is credited with spreading Buddhism throughout Asia.

What survive of his writings are his Edicts – written into stone. For more information and complete translated text visit: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/dhammika/wheel386.html)

In his edicts King Asoka encouraged:

• Respect towards other (parents, teachers, servants etc), 
• Generosity towards the poor, 
• Harmlessness towards all life (which is interesting for a guy who killed so many people), 
• Moderation in spending and in saving,
• Treating people properly was apparently more important than any ceremony,
• He encouraged tolerance and respect,
• He thought all people should be well learned in the “good doctrines” of other people’s religions (in other words those doctrines that promoted tolerance, love, compassion, respect etc), 

The qualities of heart (personal virutues) that are recommended by Asoka in the edicts include: kindness (daya), self-examination (palikhaya), truthfulness (sace), gratitude (katamnata), purity of heart (bhava sudhi), enthusiasm (usahena), strong loyalty (dadha bhatita), self-control (sayame) and love of the Dhamma (Dhamma kamata - the rules of how to act).

Sounds a lot like Humanism to me.

What Will Matter?

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It happens by choice.

Michael Josephson of the Josephson Institute, an ethical organization, has a great statement about What Will Matter.  This is used to help teach children the importance of ethics (see:  http://charactercounts.org/pdf/WhatWillMatter.pdf)

The document talks about priorities and what matters most. Not how much money you made, but how much you gave to others. It’s not how successful you are, but how you actually act and whether your actions matter to others or not. That is what matters.

In order to live a life that matters, you have to choose to live such a life. You have to choose your actions so that they don’t just benefit you, but that they benefit others as well.

This is a central part of the humanist mindset. Yes, we want to be happy. But we recognize that to be truly happy, we can’t just focus on ourselves. Our words and our deeds must help others too.

To succeed, we have to consider the impact we have on others and we have to take care to make sure that impact is good. How can we help others. How can we share our happiness and ensure others are helps as well. How can we make life better.

It’s about choosing to live a life of service to others, to the extent that you can and are able to. Make helping others an integral part of your motivation in life and you will help ward off any pending midlife crisis, because you won’t wonder what it all is for. You will know.

Strategies for Humanist Living

Discussions about how Humanists can best live our lives.

One of the cool parts about my job is that I have inspired others to ask questions about what it means to live life as a Humanist. In one Humanist Community in OH they started having discussions about this topic and decided to post the results of their discussions online. In a 10 part Strategies for Humanist Living they discuss:

1. How to describe your way of thinking - http://www.hcco.org/node/178
2. How to encourage critical thinking in others - http://www.hcco.org/node/181
3. How to advocate for reasonableness and compassion - http://www.hcco.org/node/182
4. How can you tell if someone is a humanist - http://www.hcco.org/node/185
5. What art and entertainment reflects a Humanist worldview - http://www.hcco.org/node/186
6. What do you say when someone says bless you or have a blessed day? http://www.hcco.org/node/189
7. How to deal with an overtly obnoxious religious person in the workplace - http://www.hcco.org/node/191
8. What comfort does Humanism provide when dealing with rejection - http://www.hcco.org/node/194
9. What should children be taught about religion? http://www.hcco.org/node/197
10. How does having a community of Humanists help? http://www.hcco.org/node/201

What a great exercise in humanist thinking. Do you agree with their answers? If not, why not?