Luck In This Landscape Lies Flat, by Caroline Harman, 2016

The New 10 Commandments! 

1.  

SLOW LIVING and Time. Work steadily, but also go for walks! Take a nap once in a while. This will give you a handle on your ambition, and your pace.  Slow down and pay attention to your thoughts and feelings. Work at this, alongside your regular work, so that you can be better at distinguishing habit, addiction, or impulse from your deeper intuition.   If you go fast for a while, take time to recover and reconnect. 

2.

EMPATHY, RECIPROCITY and BELONGING. Understand that you BELONG and are a part of an exquisite, perpetually unfolding system. So respect all persons human and nonhuman, and nonliving parts also, the water and air and soil, which are all also part of this system that connects us.

3. 

MUSIC. A fundament of our brains. Let there be music, make it, listen to it, share it. 

4. 

POSITIVE ATTENTION. In daily life, when interacting with others, take care with what you say and do. Make an effort to understand the other person’s point of view. Give special effort and attention to the positives. Try to collaboratively problem solve. 

5. 

GONGFU. Mindfully practice your best skills, whatever they may be, every day, striving for a high level of craft, attention, devoted practice, and continual improvement. Respect yourself, respect others, respect your work.

6. 

ABUNDANCE and MESSILY EFFICIENT SYSTEMS. Let the systems of modern life emulate nature’s - take little, leave a lot, produce a lot. Eventually, somehow, balance and recycle everything you make or use, and transfer energy. Incorporate diverse roles, and build connections. Build in negative feedback loops to maintain energy. Be a part of the Economy of Merit, the Gift Economy, and the Circular Economy.

7. 

ART. If we build something long lasting, a city, a home, a computer system, it should be built in consideration of our bodies and spirits, and embody long lasting values, for example: generosity, dignity, ease and acceptance, access for maintenance, and accommodation for change.

8. 

FUN AND HUMILITY. Mistakes, failures, humor, complexity and contradiction are part of life, accept it, haha.

9. 

Respect that LIFE wills itself to be, and to be in many diverse forms, abundant and active, whether it makes sense or not.

10.

Respect that DEATH is part of life. You are not alone, and the Self is not an independent, walled-off structure. Your Self is like a song, sweet and temporal, which will end someday, but be carried on in the hearts and minds of others. The basic parts of everything recycle in the universe, and never leave.