Principles.

This is a picture of the Chinese philosopher Mencius, thought of as the main teacher of orthodox Confucianism. As perhaps the most influential Chinese philosopher it is interesting to note that until I had read the Wikipedia article I knew nothing about him other than he was a Confucian Chinese philosopher, which is probably more than most in the West.

As with most Chinese philosophers his area of interest was in how people should live, and as a result he probably based his teachings on principles. However, it seems he was smart enough (and psychologically liberal enough) to know that you cannot educate goodness down to the last detail. No principle that you can teach a student will be the best answer in all situations, and so students need to be brought up in an environment that promotes an innate sense of goodness which that student can guide themselves with in all situations.

I want to try and talk about the guiding principles in my life, but I do so with the understanding that these are not laws set in stone, but rather guides, suggestions, rules of thumb.

Thinking: The first, and most powerful principle that I have about my life is that I must think about my life. It is important to me that I know why I am doing something, that the choices I make are decisions based on a good understanding of myself and my circumstances. I don't want to do things unwittingly, because those around me do it, or because people have done it before. I want to do things because after having looked at the situation I have decided that the best action is what I will then choose to do.
I think this is something that people think they do, but generally they do not. Most things are done by habit, and that's efficient, but I wish to at least choose my habits.

Non-Violence: This is a not-natural-to-me principle. I am more naturally inclined to violence than non-violence. I have a bad temper, with a very short ignition time. At sixteen I realized that if I didn't do something about this temper I was going to end up in jail. So I did something about it and I have not been in a fight since that time. However, I have threatened people with violence, I can yell and seem intimidating. These are against my principles, but it still happens. However, I do sincerely believe that violence is the basic nature of evil and is the primary activity which humanity should be looking to minimize. Violence is the act of someone (or a nation) that wants others to do as they wish, but does not have the moral strength to convince others of their position.

Optimism: Happiness is largely about how you view the world, whether things will go well for you, or whether you are doomed to misery. The thing about it is that if you think things will go well your mood is improved, and as a consequence your life has gone better. Now, this principle could be seen as sometimes being in opposition to the first principle, that of Thinking. This is because some things really are better than other things, and some things just are bad. This is true, but the principle of Optimism for me is as a default position. Before I start taking in data about my circumstances I wish my position to be one of optimism, that what I will find out will be pleasing, interesting, and full of opportunities. I don't think there is really any huge danger of optimists missing out on important aspects of life that cynics would notice, but even if they did, would that be so bad?

Courage: This has always been a guiding principle of mine. I don't mean courage for pride's sake (although this indeed a massive reward to your pride when you are courageous) but courage for the sake of doing what you want to do. Benjamin Franklin, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." There are things that I want out of my life, I wish to see amazing things, feel extraordinary feelings, be part of special moments. To do so I need to have courage in the face of obstacles, the greatest of which is the opinion of others. At my core I am opposed to those who stay close to home, love the things they have always loved and fear and despise that which is different. This is a lifelong slog, a trench warfare struggle over decades with casualties on both sides. It is an easier struggle for the young, but I see no reason whatsoever that my age should diminish my courage to do, say, think and believe the extraordinary. I need to do better at this.

The Story: I think life is best thought of as a story that you are telling as you go. When thinking about each portion of your life, if you can tell it to people whose opinion you think worthy of notice as a story, then that portion of your life was worth living. If ten years of your life have gone by and what you can tell people is that you lived somewhere and it was a nice place, that's not a story. The best stories have challenges, amazing settings, are filled with love, music, poetry and laughter. The best stories have a hero, and a hero is someone who makes the world a better place through the application of the principles of their basic nature.

A principle that I had thought about putting in here was the principle of honesty. I think if you do something that you have to lie about, then you probably made a mistake. However, over time I am finding that my application to this principle as strictly as I have done has often been a mistake. In fact, honesty can often be a form of violence towards someone else, as we all need our illusions to keep us happy. One of my illusions has been that I am a particularly honest and forthright person, although I'm not sure if that is true or not.