written 28 March 2021
published 4 April 2021
It started as a thin magenta vertical line, about 1/3 of the way in from the right side of my screen. Within a few days there was a turquoise companion, and then another. My aging 23" computer monitor was dying. I use a Mac laptop and like having a larger secondary screen for reading in larger fonts, with pages side by side, or creating mechanical drawings, or occasional photo manipulation. But all tools wear out, and I could see where this was going.
I mentioned my issue to a visiting friend, and he offered the long-term loan of larger, higher resolution monitor. Last Saturday, I brought it home, and decided I needed to reorganize my entire computer work area. These things have to happen from time to time, and new hardware is a good excuse. My work area is normally like sedimentary geology, with layers of paper, representing older history the deeper one digs. Consequently, the reorganization involved recycling a lot of paper that was no longer relevant, or, in some cases, even comprehensible. But in among the layers were a few forgotten treasures, including this:
Rules For Being Human
1) You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours the entire period. 2) You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid. 3) There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error: experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work". 4) A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson. 5) Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned. 6) "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here". 7) Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself. 8) What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours. 9) Life is exactly what you think it is. You create a life that matches your beliefs and expectations. 10) Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust. 11) You will forget all this. 12) You can remember it whenever you want.
These rules were on a sheet of paper with no attribution. A quick Google search revealed they were first presented in "Way Of The Peaceful Warrior", by Dan Millman, 1980, and further popularized in "Life Is A Game", by Cherie Carter-Scott, 1998.
I like the visions presented. Rule 1 suggests we are spiritual beings experiencing material reality within our avatar body. Rules 2-5 are all about lessons, emphasizing that learning is the entire purpose of life: becoming a more whole human being. We are a young species and have little idea of our full human potential. Rule 6 reminds me of Ram Dass and "Be Here Now", the most powerful, fundamental act of intention. Close attention reveals we are always "here", and it is always "now". Rule 7 describes how the illusion of separation works in unity reality. What we don't accept inside, we reflect outside, believing the two are different. This explains the power in rules 8-10, as we create our own reality, guided by inspiration. But our waking consciousness is only 10% of the creative force, the rest being unconscious patterns we have internalized, so persistent applied intention is required. We have forgotten our spiritual truth, rule 11, because material reality is such a fascinating, multifaceted distraction. But that truth is never really lost, and is always available, rule 12.
Simple rules, but challenging to apply.
