What is your cupid health? Camus, Jainism, and Harmless Good Health

“Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” - Albert Camus

Most of friends and family are strong and won't give up. All those who have are a blessed ancestry!

Giving up is Not wrong or anything like it. We all have limits. Some are shorter than others. In fact, I also love Camus' take on that: Philosophically Suicide is the First Question. Not encouraging, just sharing. Once you decide to live; and, once you make a commitment to try out the Impossible and begin a line of communication with an "Other" - you are essentially committed to healthy harmless living. Most of us who decide to practice harmless living come to this from a religious, universalist, or spiritual perspective. Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism, all have some wonderfully explicit instruction on the benefits of harmlessness. This does not mean a lack of action either. It is lovely, for example, how the use of harmless and pure interchange in different translations of Phippians 2:15. One of the best examples of the practice of active harmlessness is Jainism seen in India's capital Delhi. Jainist religion was founded around principles of non-violence, vegetarianism, and harmlessness. In this lovely and ancient religious edifice the top floors are reserved for the healing of animals. Injured animals are brought from all over to receive care and compassion here.

I ask you all, how can I serve you today?

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I have not successfully committed to a life free from killing and violence toward animals. If you commit to anything else but this; again, my limited experience speaking here - your Other will come back and rain fire on you from the depths of HELL. Or some such discomfort will be shared with you.

I have a psychoanalyst uncle who has practiced in NYC now 50 some years, his answer is simple, Keep Working on IT. But, he also assures me with all his experience, realize how difficult change is.

Long winded introduction to this blog post; but, it is a way of saying something I had heard and perhaps have learned in years of travel and adventure now - you: Take IT with you.

Some great travel gurus have put it this way - people who go on extended travel or live as expatriates fall in two to three camps, those who are running away, those who are running to, and those who are lost permanently. I can agree with the characterization and generalization; though most of us combine elements of all three.

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So my blog question is this: What is your cupid health? What are you doing to find happiness and fulfillment; satisfaction, understanding and ease; harmlessness and joy; and mindfulness in an Other?

When we are young, when we continue to be young at heart, when we have hurt ourselves through experience, sickness, or aging, there may follow an 'ah-ha' moment or renewed sense of life: Use IT.

In one way or another most Ancients had things valid and generous to pass down to us on subjects of love, trust, happiness, and faith in Others. Shamans, Gurus, and Scientists share these views today.

Don't be afraid to unwind, but nothing will stop you shorter ways up mountain than a road of excess.

Eat healthy, Be healthy, Treat people healthfully. In all these ways be harmless.

Expose yourself to improve your health. Practice peace actively. Start from where you are.

Believe in the history on our ancients. Know that in explaining we bring new questions to the fore.

Change comes to me with tiny successes. I know that there is truth; it is in me; and it is complex.


In closing.... I ask you all, how can I serve you today?

"In the next few years the struggle will not be between utopia and reality, but between different utopias, each trying to impose itself on reality ... we can no longer hope to save everything, but ... we can at least try to save lives, so that some kind of future, if perhaps not the ideal one, will remain possible."

ALBERT CAMUS, Between Hell and Reason