Accept Your Random Mindstorms

photo credit: Stuck in Customs

Do you think your thoughts?  Or do they think you?

Reflections on Precepts for Living

I wrote a post going on a year ago now.  I saw it as an extension of a post by Glen Allsop at the PluginID blog. I thought I would take a look at it over the next few days and see if I have changed my mind about what I wrote.

Glenn wrote about some precepts for living by the same author who wrote the ‘Book of Five Rings” that was popular a few years ago.  This book and, of course, The Art of War, by Sun Tzu were in the hands of many from the arts to business to the Zen-inclined. Glenn called his -

21 Rules to Live Your Life – Dokkodo.

First, when I saw rules, I flinched a bit.  Then I read ‘precepts,’ and one meaning of precepts which I can no longer find to site goes something like, “If you want this, you may have to do this first.”  Another says…

precept; noun – A principle intended as a general rule.

The simplest and shortest ethical precept is to be served as little as possible . . . and to serve others as much as possible. — Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

Not so bad, I guess.  I began thinking about ways to incorporate and make these more focused on the internal obstacles we encounter from time to time. Here goes.

Accept Your Random Mindstorms

• Accept everything just the way it is
• Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world

I agree that it’s important to accept the day to day BS that occurs in our precarious world.  Have you ever thought though, that accepting starts at home?

As often as not, the challenge is to accept that not only is the outside world out there to bop us around, but we do a fair share of bopping ourselves around.  Ask someone what they say to themselves when they “screw up.”  Here are some of the things I’ve gotten as an answer to that question -

• I tell myelf what a screw up I am.

• I say, what the hell were you thinking, you sh*thead.

• You are so f’ing stupid. How do you get by in life.

You may have had some of those thoughts yourself. I know I have.

So how about this? In your quest to accept everything as it is, work on accepting yourself as well, including those thoughts of what a bonehead you are. Just notice them.  Notice that you are creating them.  They are only a problem when you buy into them.

Just notice and name them.  It tends to take away their power.

They are, after all, just thoughts, just neurons firing in a habitual way. They will go where they will go and the control you or I have over them is limited at best. The first step in brain change is to notice the mindstorms we seek shelter from in the first place.