Life in a nutshell

[atskywalker]

I've been noticing that pipe smokers tend to be contemplative. Something we seriously lack in contemporary society because we're so busy and distracted. This made me think (after being inspired by another member here @aldecaker) to start this thread. So here's my question.
If you were to sum up life as you see it and pass it down to generations to come in the form of a sentence or a paragraph, what would you say? It would also be interesting if you would like to share your calendar age .
I'll put down my answer in a response once I get some time to think. I just thought I'd get this started. Hoping it becomes an interesting thread. Puff, contemplate, and respond ::

 

[seacaptain]

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

 

[warren]

Rode hard, put away wet! All and all not a bad experience so far. And the old observation, a lot of hard miles on cheap gas.
Age? Much closer to the end than the beginning.

 

[deathmetal]

Principle > comfort, intangible > tangible, doing right > doing right by individuals.

 

[ben88]

Everybody choses for himself

 

[mso489]

Never try to sum up life in a sentence or a paragraph.

 

[aldecaker]

@MSO- But, wait, didn't you just...oh, nevermind! :lol:

 

[elbert]

When Thoreau went to build his cabin at Walden pond, he borrowed a friend's axe. "It's difficult to begin without borrowing," he writes. How applicable! It's difficult to answer this question without borrowing someone else's words. But I'll try.
My most considered conviction about life is that it is what your mind makes it. America's Dream is that with the right combination of talent and hard work, anyone can make it big here. That Dream I find, on the whole, to be rather superficial, and sometimes naive ("You'd have to be asleep to believe it," as George Carlin once quipped). What I mean to discuss here is India's Dream, older than Buddha and the Vedas--that anyone can achieve liberation from suffering, by renouncing the ego's claim to ultimacy, and by realizing deeply and with every breathe that separation is an illusion.
So there it is; life is what your mind makes it. You can make for yourself a prison of illusion, where life is a zero-sum game that thwarts you at every turn, and it will be so--or you can make for yourself a temple of unity and interbeing, where you renounce your own ego and rejoice in the sheer beauty and splendor of life in the universe--and it will be so. That light can only come from within.
I don't claim to have achieved this level of awareness--only glimpsed it. Age: 26

 

[drwatson]

Love as often as you can, don't always believe what the status quo (aka college professor's)tell you. Real truth/knowledge must be found through one's self. The Golden Rule of course. 41yo

 

[stickframer]

Life as I see it? It's not about the mistakes I've made (there have been some doozies), it's about what I do afterwards.

Life is much more satisfying when I'm not consumed by pride, ego and selfishness. I find that as long as I try to keep that stuff in check I can sleep pretty well.
Oh,age 31.

 

[Perique]

Conan! What is best in life?
"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women."
43.

 

[johnnyreb]

Chief Two Eagles summed it up best:

 

[loneredtree]

Is that for real? I have seen that quote many years ago (40?). I never knew who said it. Soooo true. Goin fishing. :mrgreen:

 

[atskywalker]

I knew I would get gems asking this question. Thanks so much for all the insightful responses. I would say.,
A man is what he does. Not what he thinks. Not what he knows. Certainly not what he says. In his doing a man declares his essence for the world to bare witness. Hey betrays his inner most secrets and the contents of his heart. (39).

 

[atskywalker]

One objection I've realized to the Golden Rule by observing myself and others is that one may not know what they would like done unto them (or not like) until it actually happens. To me that renders the rule a bit problematic in that few people actually know themselves to be able to render the rule useful.
I have found through direct experience that the only way one can truly know themselves is through extended periods of solitude without distractions.

 

[tuold]

atskywalker wrote:

One objection I've realized to the Golden Rule by observing myself and others is that one may not know what they would like done unto them (or not like) until it actually happens. To me that renders the rule a bit problematic in that few people actually know themselves to be able to render the rule useful.

You reminded me of something I had read of the 17th century philosopher, Thomas Hobbs that is related to your quandary. Wikipedia has the relevant quote:
"...but to teach us that for the similitude of the thoughts and passions of one man, to the thoughts and passions of another, whosoever looketh into himself and considereth what he doth when he does think, opine, reason, hope, fear, etc., and upon what grounds; he shall thereby read and know what are the thoughts and passions of all other men upon the like occasions."
So maybe it is possible, upon much consideration and contemplation, to know what others would have done to them. It does sound like a three pipe problem to me though. =)
Isn't the Buddhist form of the Golden Rule more passive? Like "Don't do unto others what you would not like done to you". I think I like that better.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Live every moment like it is your last one. ::

 

[aldecaker]

@chasingembers- Hopefully it's not "screaming and on fire". That would be a looooong road.

 

[deathmetal]

One objection I've realized to the Golden Rule by observing myself and others is that one may not know what they would like done unto them (or not like) until it actually happens.

I prefer Kant's reformulation. The Golden Rule is utilitarian in that it is based on individual preference; the Kantian formulation is based on principle and requires assessing much broader impact than feelings, judgments, etc.

 

[seacaptain]

The Golden Rule is utilitarian in that it is based on individual preference;

The Golden Rule was laid out in a larger, specific, objective context. Within that context, preference is defined.