The Good Life – A human operating system
The Good Life Meditation is my daily effort of recounting, considering and developing my personal life objectives and principals. I perform the action of verbally listing and describing these points each day, typically at dawn, as a start and readiness to the coming day.
FIVE OBJECTIVES 1. The Good and Effective Use of Time 2. The Development and Maintenance of Good, Sound Principals 3. The Cultivation of Good Emotional Reactions 4. The Performance of Good Actions 5. Recognition of True Limits and True Opportunity
TWENTY PRINCIPALS 1. War To rise each morning taking arms against my own philosophy as well as the philosophy of others. To suffer no unsound or unjust objective or principal to survive another sundown. 2. Reason (honesty & objectivity) My instrument of discovery and destruction of all things untrue. A tool of self-immolation turned first inward as I engage the bold charge of discovery. 3. Homunculus The small, mute and hidden man within my head who hides pulls levers and strings and hints at my opinions and judgements and who must die utterly upon the failure and dissolution of my person. 4. The Home of Good and Evil A catalog of right and wrong maintained by that little man within my head, containing both opinion and judgement and suggestive of a platform of subjective responsibility. 5. Purpose (biology and virtue) First live and reproduce, then to die and get out of the way. Secondarily, to decide some meaning further to the first. For myself, I select virtue. A life lived in pursuit of the further well-being of myself and others and the Earth itself. 6. Atomic Everything is bits and pieces, flowing and changing, forever reforming. So too myself and others, here for a bit, soon to pass, soon to dissolve, never again this thing once more. 7. Nature (paradigm & mandate) Everything and everyone has some qualities and character which define what they are and what they are about. This nature combined with perspective and will is their paradigm and operational guide. The demands of biology are a mandate deep and sound from the perspective of survival and the continuance of our kind. 8. Maturity (wisdom & fortitude) A collection of experience gained of life trials both succeeding and failing and recalled with some accuracy and honest consideration toward improved future ends. Wisdom is the soil where the such considerations are ploughed while fortitude the will and persistence to see the harvest through. 9. Social (diplomacy & justice) Human beings are made of nature for one another. We can survive alone, though we rarely flourish. The understanding and wisdom gained in deep, persistent solitude can rarely be communicated or translated to others, and may become irrelevant babble despite possibly being true. 10. The Feast of Offal The waste and by-products of unreasoned and unprincipled living are discarded like filth everywhere we live, think and act. 11. Temperance (suffering, simplicity & apathy) Controlled consumption of all things such as food and drink, work and play, and even our thoughts and emotions. 12. Agency & The Great Indifference Every individual life is an agent, and the products of its living are its artifacts. Subtract these away and what’s left is the vast landscape of The Great Indifference. 13. The Best Seat in the House This place and time where I am now will suffice in the moment. I’ll have peace where and who I am at this time, and doing whatever engages my necessity and motive. 14. The Path of Wildness At every life crossroads I’ll access the fact that a decision must be made, and then determine how much time I have to make it, and then collect my facts and consider the options, and then decide at the appointed time. 15. The Risk of Avoiding Risk What deeper danger is made manifest as we focus our attention and fear upon the most present potential risk? What comes creeping from behind while we cower away from the immediate things which causes us to tremble? 16. Sin & Damnation (falsity, credulity, faith, superstition, dogma) There’s an immediate price to pay for sin, for giving up on the hard work of abiding our nature, of abiding reason, of abiding what is true. 17. Complete Oblivion (no final reunion, reconciliation, or justice) Soon the light within the mind will wink out. 18. The Season of Philosophy Think and record your thoughts while you can. See how the sun is fading now, dropping near the horizon? You will not survive the coming night. 19. The Great Life Adventure Embark when you are young upon that beckoning dream and adventure. 20. Arena & Utility Every place and situation is an opportunity to practice and refine your objectives and principals.
Click below to learn more about The Good Life https://softypapa.wordpress.com/writing/book/the-good-life/
This video was recorded on November 2nd, 2017 in the desert surrounding the deserted mining camp called “Campo #1.”
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My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have taken some time to share a little of The Good Life with me. I’m available on social media at the links below and can be reached via email at softypapa@gmail.com
My book is available here:
Going Alone is an independent approach to living, uncovering what is real, and making peace with the facts of what is true no matter how the truth makes us feel. I upload at least one video a week for this series on my YouTube channel.
The Good Life is a formulated plan of objectives and principals designed to help us live a more virtuous life in accord with sound reasoning. I upload at least one video a month for this series.
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From the original archive
First published on softypapa.wordpress.com on November 11, 2017. Original text, photographs, links, and embedded media preserved.
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