Do you live by any sort of code of conduct, 'way of life', or maybe self-imposed rules?

[Strat]

Posted by Ratszinger (here)
Well, Make a plan and write! That is my recommendation. Write it down. There is something magic about writing it all down and keeping that paper stored back somewhere. Like me, years later you'll find it and every single thing and place you wanted to see will have been seen. I literally wrote about all the places I was interested in as child. I wrote down and did papers on the Mississippi, the river, the Lewis and Clark Expedition through there, the Arch, St. Louis, I wrote about San Antonio and the Alamo, and I wrote about the Navajo Indians and Fort Defiance, and I wrote a paper about Frank Phillips and Phillips 66 and Bartlesville, OK
in grade school!!
When I joined the AF they flew me to San Antonio. When I was permanent duty stationed they put me at Scott AFB in IL 20 min. from the Mississippi River and the Arch.
When my wife who I met in the dental Corp in the AF transferred to the Indian Health Service and began a job for them and I was unemployed and out of the AF she was moved to Fort Defiance, AZ where we lived for two years and later further into the heart of the res in Tsaile, AZ and when they said they needed her elsewhere they moved her to Pawhuska OK and we bought a home to live in Bartlesville OK where we still live today!
All truth and all mind boggling! And I think all because I planned it out and somehow made it all happen! By the time it happened I forgot all about those homework assignments, projects and papers. Had my mom not kept it all and given it to us and had my wife and family not seen it for themselves I doubt they'd believe it either. But write it all down. Write and keep writing. Then keep it all somewhere.

Yes! It's almost weird but there's something very powerful with writing things down. I read "Taking Charge of Adult ADHD" and they said to do this. I've found that if I make a sort of "To-Do" list the night before then I am much more likely to accomplish whatever goals I have set.

My issue is sticking to certain things I want to do every day. Meditation, sleep at a certain time, read more, etc. I know lots of people have the same issue as well. I think for me, part of the problem is it's not a big deal/it's not mandatory. Like I can get by w/o hard set rules. I want to achieve a sort of self mastery so I just gotta do these things, no excuses.

Since sleep is one of my main targets right now, I'm going to do like rgray said as well as yourself. I'm going to go to bed at the same time every night and write it down on my calendar. This way I have the visual (reward?) of seeing what I've done. This worked for my dieting so fingers crossed, it just might work for sleep as well

Thank you everyone for your input

[Lunesoleil]

I am in « décroissance » (resilient), even before it becomes a fashion, which does not prevent exceptions to my own lifestyle. Living life as it presents itself and learning to let go is to empty the void before filling it again, this is the Tao.

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Strat (here)

Posted by Ratszinger (here)
Well, Make a plan and write! That is my recommendation. Write it down. There is something magic about writing it all down and keeping that paper stored back somewhere. Like me, years later you'll find it and every single thing and place you wanted to see will have been seen. I literally wrote about all the places I was interested in as child. I wrote down and did papers on the Mississippi, the river, the Lewis and Clark Expedition through there, the Arch, St. Louis, I wrote about San Antonio and the Alamo, and I wrote about the Navajo Indians and Fort Defiance, and I wrote a paper about Frank Phillips and Phillips 66 and Bartlesville, OK
in grade school!!
When I joined the AF they flew me to San Antonio. When I was permanent duty stationed they put me at Scott AFB in IL 20 min. from the Mississippi River and the Arch.
When my wife who I met in the dental Corp in the AF transferred to the Indian Health Service and began a job for them and I was unemployed and out of the AF she was moved to Fort Defiance, AZ where we lived for two years and later further into the heart of the res in Tsaile, AZ and when they said they needed her elsewhere they moved her to Pawhuska OK and we bought a home to live in Bartlesville OK where we still live today!
All truth and all mind boggling! And I think all because I planned it out and somehow made it all happen! By the time it happened I forgot all about those homework assignments, projects and papers. Had my mom not kept it all and given it to us and had my wife and family not seen it for themselves I doubt they'd believe it either. But write it all down. Write and keep writing. Then keep it all somewhere.

Yes! It's almost weird but there's something very powerful with writing things down. I read "Taking Charge of Adult ADHD" and they said to do this. I've found that if I make a sort of "To-Do" list the night before then I am much more likely to accomplish whatever goals I have set.

My issue is sticking to certain things I want to do every day. Meditation, sleep at a certain time, read more, etc. I know lots of people have the same issue as well. I think for me, part of the problem is it's not a big deal/it's not mandatory. Like I can get by w/o hard set rules. I want to achieve a sort of self mastery so I just gotta do these things, no excuses.

Since sleep is one of my main targets right now, I'm going to do like rgray said as well as yourself. I'm going to go to bed at the same time every night and write it down on my calendar. This way I have the visual (reward?) of seeing what I've done. This worked for my dieting so fingers crossed, it just might work for sleep as well

Thank you everyone for your input

I have never, to my recollection, been a disciplined sleeper. So disclaimer here.

But what if regular sleep timing were a natural result (‘symptom’ from an anarchist’s POV) of having your life in enough order that you do what you want to do everyday before a dedicated bedtime? That ain’t me.

I do lots of reading in bed. Sometimes before sleep, sometimes in morning or the between times. iPad is on all night, good bedside stand and lock rotation. Sometimes I just listen to vids, turning to lay the other way.

Whatever you try, please just go easy on yourself. Don’t compress your big heart too small. 👻🐝♥️

[AngelArmy]

My most recent progression is something Mel Gibson said in a film about what the bible says;

1. Joy in suffering

which (hopefully) leads to...

2. Perseverance

then onto...

3. Character

then onto....

4. Hope

Thanks

Kristy

[AutumnW]

My code of honor involves backing down from an argument immediately, if it looks like I'm wrong. AS so many arguments are based around ideology, it's not always easy.

Trying not to let people whose ideologies I consider stupid and dangerous, get under my skin.

[Strat]

Posted by AutumnW (here)
My code of honor involves backing down from an argument immediately, if it looks like I'm wrong. AS so many arguments are based around ideology, it's not always easy.

Trying not to let people whose ideologies I consider stupid and dangerous, get under my skin.

This has always interested me. I don't get it why humans (myself included) get upset when others don't believe them. Like who cares, I'd think it wouldn't bother folks but people get seriously mad and quickly. Especially, and obviously when it comes to politics and religion (even dieting lol).

As I've put a lot of work into myself, personal growth or maybe just maturation to an extent, I think I've basically gotten over this. Not totally though, some things mean a lot to me and when someone says they don't believe me for whatever reasons, usually doubting my motives, then that can get annoying. For example I work with a micro-loan organization to help people across the world. A lot of people just don't get it so they assume I'm dense, or I'm doing it for brownie points, or that I'm lying about my participation/donations, etc. That used to piss me off but now it's just mildly annoying. I'm a work in progress.

This is part of the reason for this thread. Getting input from all of yall can shed light on things I've overlooked.

[shaberon]

Posted by Daughter of Time (here)
I am not a particularly religious person. I am especially not fond of the Abrahamic religions. That said, I do have great fondness for the teachings of the Christ. I also have great admiration for Buddhism.

This is an intriguing but somewhat self-contradictory response.

Towards the first part, I would tend to agree, Abrahamic tradition is untrue. If one looks at the running counter-point by the Mandeans, it will become very obvious. Of course, I am interested in why anyone else would have a negative response. There is something more to it besides stories that can be disproved, or rendered undesirable.

On the second part, I would have to ask what is meant by "the Christ". It seems inescapably Abrahamic in the usual context. However, the term for "anointing" is not new, but comes out of centuries of use with a variety of meanings. The relevant application, using it to exalt a particular individual in a big way, would be Cyrus the Great, Christ. In the Gospel of Matthew, there is an area where Jesus happens to say "tell no man I am Christ". Similarly as in the OP, there are at least twenty parallels if not quotes, of sayings attributed to Jesus that are the same as in Buddhism. That's easy because they are collected in a Sutra. But if we scan the fragmentary remains of Egypt or Babylon, we encounter many of the same. In that sense, I would say I have some fondness for "teachings" wherever found, if they are an improvement, if they are better and more powerful than what had come before.

And so if I describe myself as "a Buddhist" for convenience, then, yes, it is something that can be hashed out by words online, but this is barely the point. What we would take as a "teaching" is heavily *physical* by participating in arts, music, dancing, science, and especially exercise and particularly combative sport. That is because it actually *is* responding to the Greek educational system, which included "pankration" and brought us the Olympic Games.

The Romans were not very good at this, and, overall, 55% of the contests were won by Asians, which is why there was an edict in 393 banning "pagans".

The roots of my Buddhism are not that different from Greek militant philosopher academies, because they are the same.

In the west, that system was snuffed, but through the east it has sailored on through almost all the places. A lot of what I might have to say that would be new to people amounts to a high school education in Okinawa or Nepal.

Because of this, I can somewhat relate to what Strat is dredging for, because at a root level, I find myself physically blocked from the way I am trained to operate.

I am effectively verbally silenced for all the Orwellian reasons, and, on top of that, I am beginning to suffer physical ignorance.

The effect is literally the darkness of Hades.


Because I am forced to attribute such physical pallidity to an Abrahamic majority, I find myself in the position to verbally refute whatever is inadequate about it.

It really is that creepy. I do almost everything wrong because I have to conform to the pattern of what to me is a foreign mentality.