Maxims for Living Well

"Rather revel in riches than utter a lie." - Panchatantra

To compete there is a need for good thinking.

Those who live far apart, could need to learn to expect less from one another.

Perhaps most handed-over domestic skills are worthy of trust.

Taking care to go on in trustworthy ways, could help you to keep you calm too.

What is rewarding to yourself needs to be kept going quite spontaneously.

To enjoy things of worth looks mature and may become quite informative.

Those who rush headlong into marriage could need a strong character.

If you strive to advance moderation and reap overwhelming effects at that, something obviously went wrong.

To be trustworthy, have possessions yourself; but caring for one's possessions is not all that is needed in this respect.

Our lives together may be much more determined by the common camouflage of conventionality and faking than thought of.

There may be much freedom in expressing truly and liberally.

To be eclective is to be carefully selective.

Many maxims fit for encounters seem to border on slogans, as in the case of Confucius' counsel.

Much initial experience may fail. It is often that way.

We have to get well along with our deeper sides, for holistic health depends on it.

It stands to reason that one should try to complete adventures to one's inherent capacity, and go on with what furthers future's successes.

Things that are fit in nature may serve some purpose.

One is to preserve goodness of heart and counteract outright silliness.

Stay on the safe side, try and see where the money goes in these days as earlier.

To preserve one's insights and knowledge when needed, it could be adequate to study and align to "cream lessons" of others, for bulwarking somehow.

An awakened conscience is a good thing to stick to throughout life so long as the heart doesn't dictate otherwise.

Success in life depends in part on getting a lovable and congenial one to work with, "converge" ideals and ideas with somehow, and go into hardships with together.

Happiness from Within and Maslow's Pyramid of Needs

Peace can be lasting only if the mind could be made happy . . . Only if the very nature of the mind could be transformed to bliss consciousness. - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

A human had better be rooted in things that bring on zest or vitality, for they are id-related or id derivates. And what is more - just as Gordon Allport of Harvard University has theorised about through his views on so-called proprium - a man's growth of influence is tied in with a certain enlargement of the deep will - one's interests may expand in the same measure as the will links up to and expands outwards or onwards somehow. (Cf. Allport 1961; 1965)

Pressing needs should be met, or something - perhaps of the future - is at stake, is the bet.

Not all needs are good needs. The need to survive often asks for killing -

The hierarchy of needs that Abraham Maslow of Brandeis University systematised, takes for granted that physical needs need to be well fed and taken care of, before what is called higher growth operating in other channels or funnels, may reach peak levels. His hierarchy thinking may be debated, and should be - maybe it may be fit to speak of preponderances in his pyramid scheme. (Maslow 1964; 1968; 1987)

Figure. 1. Abraham Maslow's Pyramid of Needs

Sides to Living

What is necessary is not the attempt to vacate the mind, but that the conscious mind be led on to the subtle states of thinking to eventually transcend the subtlest state and arrive at the positive state of Being. - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

To be fit for living you have to know much. Knowledge is on many levels, it is not only conscious knowledge that helps. Also, there are very many arenas, fields and tracks of life. If members of a profession share their particular knowhow and benefits freely outside their own circles, there would hardly be any professionals left. Within yourself is the id system - quite like a baboon under your skin, if you stand a metaphor.

But there are other animals, lots of other animals, and we may now and then detect sides to how they live and accommodate, things that tend to impress lessons on some of us. But all in all, what counts for human living is being fair and otherwise exempary too in real life, hopefully.

What is called general capacity of abstract thinking, links up to id too, given that one's mental associations give vent to inherent id (libido), more or less.

Slaughter may or may not serve greater schemes of nature. At any rate, many species depend on it - others hardly so. And for animals in a suitable environment the striving for food is not too hard.

Minus deviants and plus deviants

Figure. 2. Bell-shaped curve

Not everybody knows that it may be very, very wise to deviate from nature's ruthless means and ways, from the ways of very carnal men, or worldlings, and build tact and culture to ease higher outlets, including art. In this light at least, some fine things can look stupid to the average Joes at first, second and third glance. Maybe. It depends on those such Joes follow. At any rate it is fine to be alert to that that there are those who deviate from conformity in very positive ways, as Dr. Abraham Maslow sees them (Cf. Maslow 1987). Then there are also "minus deviants" among men. They may look silly and be silly, contrary to Maslow's "plus variants".

Fig. 2 shows a bell curve of normal distribution. It shows up that many qualities of a group are unevenly distributed. The average and typical are the most common, and shown by middle area in this way: The more of them (specific qualities etc), the higher the curve rises. The curve tapers off toward the extremes - and there is a "minus extreme" (left side) and a "plus extreme" (right side). As we go from the average middle to an extreme, fewer and fewer share the qualities in question, for example measured intelligence.

An understanding of this makes us realise that what is common is hardly the mark of exceptionally good people (plus deviants), nor is great nastiness of "minus deviants". In this light, perhaps most common or conform men - the majority of mankind - do not rise well enough - and many plus deviants go largely unrecognised too, all over the world. Abraham Maslow thinks so.