Affirmation for living my life

Embrace simplicity,

Put others first,

Desire little.

~~Lao Tzu

The following is an affirmation for living that you can read and apply to your life. The ** denote my own personal experience.

Life is uncertain, impermanent, we can only expect the unexpected.

Death is sure. It is undeniable that every body ages, and at some point dies, and death can come at any moment.

So whAt then?

Awareness and acceptace of these simple truths has put me on a spiritual path, a search for deeper meaning to the question "what am I living for?" and "how should I live my life?"

A truthquest with many Trials tribulations and a heap of information i have sorted through to find what is useful and true for me.

**Since a child, i have had an acceptace of death, helping me to not fear it because I know it is inevitable and Im not going to waste energy worrying about something so unavoidable.

Also, now that I understand somewhat that i (whoever that is) have lived countless lives and therefore died many deaths makes the life I am living now seem no different than my previous and future lives. The outward forms may have varied in their appearance but underlying truths and lessons learned (or not) have spanned many of my lives and are most likely stashed away deep in my subconscious (wherever that is)**

Back to life, back to the reality I create, the endless cycle of cause and effect that is so far beyond my control that I have found acceptance to be one of the most useful tools for living.

Expect the unexpected = accept the unexpected = accept life... float down the river rather than trying to stand in one spot fighting the current.

What I can control somewhat, and through training come to control well, is my mind (whatever that is), and the intention i set based on the harvest i desire to reap.

The mind is the base of all thoughts and thoughts give rise to actions, so if i have an awareness of how my mind works: thoughts and emotions, I can then act appropriately in each situation life throws (sometimes launches or hurls) at me and be the useful human I want to be.

Awareness of my emotions helps me to notice the ones that have compromised my actions in the past (jealousy, anger, greed, excitement, restlessness etc.)

Positive emotions can have just as much influence as negative emotions, so I must be aware of all.

Understanding of the impermanence of these emotions is my tool to cultivate a calm mind that is not overpowered in the moment emotions arise. Just breathe, acknowledge, and let go.

The following paragraph is information from the Handbook for Mankind:

The constant practice of moral thought and behavior trains the mind in concentration making it fit for any task it must undertake. This concentration, is the calm that is unswayed by emotions and can produce right thoughts and actions without hesitance, with diligence. The concentrated, smooth operating mind, then gives way to wisdom and insight, seeing beyond right and wrong concepts and only what will be the most useful decision for any situation.

Morality ---> Concentration ---> Wisdom

Do I want to be a good human? Or a bad human I want to be a useful human, which is mostly good.

Why? What's the point?

If I was the only person on the planet, my actions would only affect me, and living would merely be survival for my benefit.

This is not the case.

There are billions of other sentient beings sharing life on this planet. All may appear different in form, but all share the same mind, same desires, same fears, same striving for a pleasurable experience, even same elemental physical makeup.

My thoughts, decisions, and actions affect everyone else as well as myself, even the unborn future generations. This fact I need to keep reminding myself of, especially with habits that i have formed that might make me less conscious of my actions because i am so used to reacting in a certain way

**(getting excited about things is one example of a habit i am working on being aware of)**

Hmmmmm, makes me think that there must be a purpose that we are all so similar; life must have a purpose.

Assumptions are not a useful mind tool but I am going to assume that life is not purposeless. Each human being is capable of intention and conscious decision making, and this cannot be purposeless, if it was I could not imagine an answer to the question "why?"

So if I lived my life completely selfishly, pleasure seeking for my own benefit, delusioned that my actions affect no one but myself **(sounds familiar)** and I die without anyone having any memory of me or my action, can my life be called a success? Was I useful?

In this life, I want to be useful. I see the purpose of so many of us here sharing, is just that, to share, to think of eachother and realize that each of our actions affects others and causes more actions which affect others and goes on and on and on into eternity.

Think for a second if we all were aware of our actions simply because we were thinking of someone else. Think of a world lacking selfishness.

Whoa.

So what to do then with this knowledge, this awareness that I might have finally discovered an answer that is useful?

Do the only thing I can do, using my mind and body as a resource of usefulness and the tools of awareness, acceptance, and compassion to practice practice practice being useful for others, because that is the most useful for my self.