The five life principles

The five life principles -- BY BRUCE WEINSTEIN

The secret to living a rich, satisfying, happy life is to be found in five simple principles. We've known about these principles for more than 5,000 years. Every religious tradition in the world teaches them, as do parents in every country. Without them, civilization would be impossible, because there would be nothing but chaos everywhere. These principles have a transforming effect on who we are and where we go in life. They are the principles of ethics, and they are as follows:

1. Do no harm.

2. Make things better.

3. Respect others.

4. Be fair.

5. Be loving.

Yes, these principles are simple, but deceptively so, because too often we let fear, anger or other negative emotions get us off track. This creates a downward spiral, and it's sometimes difficult to get back to where we want to be.

For example, how often do we really keep "do no harm" in mind during our daily interactions with people? If a clerk at the grocery store is nasty to us, don't we return the nastiness and tell ourselves, "Serves them right?"

We may, but if we do, we harm the other person. In so doing, we harm our own souls, and this is one of the reasons why we shouldn't return nastiness with more of the same.

In forthcoming columns, we'll explore these principles in depth, and we'll see why doing the right thing benefits us in the long run. We'll examine how every religion expresses these principles in one way or another. We'll consider how to apply these principles in our everyday life. We'll even think about what to do when the principles conflict and seem to pull us in opposite directions.

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On the face of it, the principles are about making a difference in the lives of other people. To this extent, taking them seriously seems like something we have to do, something we ought to do, something that, quite frankly, we'd rather not do.

What we'll discover, however, is that making ethics our central concern is actually the best way to lead a richer, more fulfilled life ...

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