The Art of Life (Part 1)

Last updated on 2008-06-16.

I have come across a few sites offering some helpful, and some not so helpful, advice on how to appreciate and interact with life. I thought it would be a good idea to add my voice to the mix.

For this first series I decided to supply the information in short and long answer format.

The following are some lessons learned from a life of pleasure and a few hard knocks:

Part A: Short Answer

Part B: Long Answer

Part A: Short Answer

Education not consumption determines quality of life.
Things can always get better and they can always get worse. Never feel sorry for yourself and never feel superior to others.
Sex is about quality not quantity, and love is about intensity not longevity.
Reduce your exposure to mainstream media. There are many independent news, entertainment, music and learning resources at your disposal. Use them, and if you so wish, join them.
Know the difference between drugs and plants. A victimless crime is not a crime and future societies will have to reflect this.
You can learn a lot more from extremism than you can from moderation, but you better make sure you know what you are doing, because the consequences of extremism are much more severe than those of moderation.
Know the difference between a corporation and a human.
Spend 50% of your time with those who are older or younger than you. This will greatly enhance your understanding and appreciation of life.
There are times in our journey through this existence when certain events change our lives forever and set us on paths that we could never have imagined. Then something else happens which takes all those moments and makes them seem completely irrelevant.
Do not prematurely dismiss anyone or any belief system without first educating yourself about them and the topic of discussion.
Never underestimate people’s malice and never take for granted someone’s kindness.
When you think you are invincible is when you are the most vulnerable.
Protect the innocent because you never know when you will need protection.
Decide how you want to experience life and experience it. Just make sure that you can independently maintain the lifestyle you choose, and that you stay safe to play another day.
Try not to harm anyone, not even your enemies.
Governments lie, and those in power will do almost anything to stay in power. Question authority and learn the truth about those who conspire.
The universe is not out to get you, but if it is, there isn’t much you can do about it so just relax.
The more you learn the more you realize how little you know. This tends to keep life exciting.
Seldom is anything personal so do not get offended easily. Take advice but before you take it to heart, find out who is giving the advice and what it entails.
Try to make as few enemies as possible. The number of friends you make depends on how you want to experience life.
Becoming a nudist is liberating.
One of the biggest lies sold to humanity is that you should be happy all the time. Explore all your emotions.
Stupid friends/family are more dangerous than intelligent enemies.

Part B: Long Answer

Life is sweet if you educate yourself when the opportunity arises. The majority of what you have learned in our corporate sanctioned government education system is indoctrination, so treat it as such. Decide for yourself what part of the system you agree with and what part you would like to do away with.
Use the Internet, the largest library ever known in human existence, to learn what you wish to learn. There are many institutions, organizations, and individuals offering course materials and lectures online, free of charge. Use them to your advantage while it lasts because if certain governments have their way information through the Net will no longer be affordable or unfiltered.
To prevent the deterioration of our society, be amazed by life. The best way to achieve this is by not only exercising your body but also your mind. Democracy can only exist in a society with an educated populace, and the right for self-governance can only be obtained through knowledge. When we embrace ignorance and forfeit our right to control our destiny, we have succumbed to apathy, which is one short step away from slavery.
Contrary to what you may have been told, the best and most efficient way to reduce our footprint on the planet is to reduce our meat intake, and to decriminalize and begin the cultivation and consumption of hemp, en masse, globally.

Cannabis products span the consumer spectrum making it the only plant in the world that can help us save the environment. It has over 25,000 potential uses. It rejuvenates the soil, can replace wood products saving our forests, it’s medicinal, and it can be used as building material, textiles, paint & plastic, fuel, paper, food and body care.

“Hemp Revolution” Part 2 (39:04).
In addition to learning to communicate in a cultural language, learn to communicate in The Language of Mathematics. It is crucial for our society to become mathematically literate since math is the only form of communication that is consistent between all other languages, including the arts.

Additional videos at The Language of Mathematics: Table of Contents
Break free of the corporate time cycle, find your own internal clock. Nature is seasonal and since we are part of nature than we must also operate on a seasonal cycle.
Be creative and express yourself. The future is unwritten and the present is in rapid metamorphosis, so change and adapt according to how you wish to interact with the reality that you envision.
Play with and in water. We tend not destroy things that keep us entertained and happy.
Everything is politics, from what we eat to what we drink, from what society deems acceptable behavior to what it considers a criminal offence, from who we interact with to how we interact with them. Politics decides if we are free or if we will live as slaves in bondage. Politics determines what we are taught in school, how we treat the ecosystem, what theories scientists investigate, how art is perceived, what version of history we recall, and how the future will remember us.

In essence, politics governs our thoughts, our understanding of reality, and how we and our society evolve. So learn about it and get involved if you want to be free to live as you choose.
Our present economic system is unsustainable, be prepared for its collapse and seek alternate means of commerce.
The unfiltered dissemination of information through the Internet is affecting our belief structures, changing our way of consumption, our way of doing business, our way of seeking knowledge, our way of communicating, and our way of life. It is creating a new branch of consumer, numbering in the hundreds of millions, requiring products and services that have yet to be produced. In essence, the Internet is creating the largest untapped market the world has ever seen. It should then not come as a surprise that Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and many others are trying to control the content on the Net and why consumers are demanding Internet freedom (pdf). The Internet is a New World and the battle to keep it free and accessible to all is just beginning. It is up to us, the occupants of this world, to keep those who wish to control us and future generations to come at bay.

It is relatively easy to join and contribute to this new world. With the price of video and audio equipment being as low as they are, the software being as accessible and as simple to use as it is, and the Internet being the only true free form of communication, as a society we may be lucky enough to be on the road to the “Golden Path” if we are able to Save the Internet and provide a medium for those who wish to share a non-corporate vision of our collective. It is your future that is at stake, so get involved.
The only constant in life is change because nothing lasts forever.
Always remember that there are many valid theories that explain evolution, the origin of the human mind and the development of our present civilization.
Make sure that you work with the earth at some point in your life. Earth sciences should have been mandatory at school, so educate yourself as soon as possible about this planet, our home.
The odds are that there is no such thing as death. We are most likely on a journey that is about experience, knowledge and growth. It should last as long as we can make it last and should never be cut short because we are anxious to see the next phase or exhausted of dealing with this one. If we are still in this physical form then it means that we still have much to learn and enjoy before moving on.
Grow food.
“The world in which we live in does not exist in some absolute sense but is just one model of reality… there are other ways of being, other ways of thinking, other ways of orienting yourself in the earth.”
Live in your body as well as your mind. Every now and then look at yourself, look at your hands, and wiggle your fingers and your toes. Your body is the machine that you will be occupying until the next phase. Understand how it works, how you can optimize it, and what you can do with it.
We share this planet with other species so it is crucial for us to understand the consequences of our actions.
You can not instantaneously live in the present and the future anymore than an electron knows where it is and where it is going. So live in the now, understand the past, and let future take care of itself. If you can do this, you have done everything above and more.