Affirmations on Virtues for Survival

Affirmations on Virtues for Survival By Basil Gala, Ph.D. In Search of Meaning Definitions and first principles: 1. A virtue is a character trait beneficial to survival. Each virtue (value, need, ideal) has an opposite and damaging trait. A countervailing trait completes the triangle; this third trait balances and moderates any virtue to stop fatal excess; we can use such triangles as building blocks for a long and prosperous life. 2. Societies as well as individuals possess virtues and vices. Each living thing displays character, allowing it to contribute something of value or mess up the survival chances of others. 3. Survival applies to the individual body and spirit, as well society. Society is family, friends, neighbors, local community, county, state, nation, humanity, biosphere, and all living things anywhere, returning to the Life Source, or God, after bodily death. 4. If the interest of the individual is in conflict with the interest of the family, family comes first. Families sacrifice themselves defending the nation in war, and nations should lower themselves to save humanity. Humans are the caretakers of Earth and its creatures, not the masters. 5. A virtue or vice emerges when a behavior becomes habitual rather than occasional. 6. Some virtues have a stronger effect on survival than others; we have a hierarchy of virtues. 7. We can assign positive weights to virtues and negative weights to vices proportional to their effect on survival and choose accordingly what to do. 8. Maximum negative weight is assigned to a vice that kills; maximum positive weight is assigned to a virtue which extends the lifespan as far as it can go. 9. Virtues can be synergistic, and vices too. 10. Some virtues or vices apply to individual survival; other virtues or values are social, promoting the common welfare. 11. The self is the core of living, because my own mind is the only thing I can control to influence other living spheres and the inanimate world. If I can preserve and strengthen the self, body-mind-spirit, I may best serve the outer spheres of life. 12. I can use the above principles with the triangles of virtue to design and implement a geodesic dome of an effective lifestyle for survival. 13. I have inherited many virtues and vices through my genes and upbringing as a child; some virtues I possess are gifts from above or from luck. I can do nothing about such influences, but I can learn to extinguish my vices and practice the virtues I desire for my life. 14. Each day I practice: strengthening of a virtue, weakening of a vice, and control of both with a moderating trait. That is the art of praxis. 15. Praxis involves repetition of the following affirmations, meditations to involve the subconscious in right behavior, and constant training of the will to confront vice and exercise virtue. 16. You confront and control vice by allowing it to tempt you, then rejecting it until it is extinguished. 17. You grow virtue by recognizing it, upholding it, and patiently cultivating it as a way of living. 18. You can focus on a different vice or virtue each day or week; when you have worked on your entire list, you start your practice again beginning with those virtues not yet established in your lifestyle. 19. Record the following affirmations and listen to them frequently; post mottos with these virtues. Recite these affirmations with passion and conviction in private and in public. Challenge and counter the propaganda from advertisers and other organizations which support vices for their own profit. 20. Core virtues take care of my basic needs for the survival of my own body. Social virtues support the needs of my fellow creatures, by spreading genes and memes, but the highest virtues are those of self realization, securing the immortality of the spirit and union with God. Core virtues: The foundation: Twelve triangles of virtue form the foundation of an effective lifestyle, which is best laid in childhood and youth, but such a foundation is essential even in the later years of life. 1. Maintain sound health to continue serving family and society; don’t be a hypochondriac. Any unhealthful behavior is a critical vice, because it makes you less valuable as a unit of society. 2. Keep yourself and your immediate surroundings clean and orderly, without becoming fussy. 3. Keep serious and earnest, not flippant, but occasionally become playful and humorous to relax and maintain a sense of proportion. Have fun while doing what is valuable for survival. 4. Loving education and learning, avoid obsolete academic encrustations. Be ready to forget useless canned knowledge and aim your training to practical ends. 5. Authorities in education are to be first followed then challenged in the pursuit of new knowledge. 6. Stay curious like a cat to explore and learn, first sniffing and tasting for danger; adventure will come unexpectedly anyway, no reason to seek it out. 7. Acquire maximum competence by specializing in your chosen field; don’t wear blinders like a race horse. Absorb general knowledge of the world in which your discipline is embedded, thus becoming more competent for the long term. 8. Seek excellence and perfection in your work, but don’t become immobilized by a fixation on these virtues. Be satisfied with progress towards perfection. 9. Be ready to come up with something new and unusual to solve a problem, while following well established methods proven effective; getting discouraged prematurely solves nothing. 10. Pleasure is generally associated with benefits, unless pleasure has not been moderated with abstinence and through excess has become an addiction. 11. Pain is a signal something is wrong and damaging; don’t cringe and try to escape the pain with palliatives. Take note of the pain, fear it not, relieve it naturally if you can, and move on. 12. Freedom is valuable only with self discipline; otherwise, freedom makes us slaves to addictions. The Walls: 1. If you must act and cause damage, don’t freeze up; choose your action so as to do the least harm. 2. Keep a cool head in dire circumstances, taking proper action for survival, something you’re not likely to do when disturbed and upset. 3. Allow no fear and harbor no hatred, facing challenges with concern only and reason; fear is paralyzing or misleading; anger causes loss of self control and thoughtless attack. 4. Stay enthusiastic, not apathetic and not fanatical, but also be detached when the situation demands it. 5. Faith and trust needs to be balanced with doubt and skepticism. Anxiety is unnecessary and harmful. 6. Humility compliments pride; arrogance debases those who indulge in it as well as others. 7. Stay alert and vigorous, but calm, never irritable. 8. Withdraw within yourself and meditate regularly to relax, while being alert to your surroundings and to opportunities; profit from solitude, avoid isolation. 9. Adaptability is essential for survival; those who are rigid and inflexible are likely to break and perish. Bend and flex, but maintain a strong backbone. 10. Strive and exert yourself to reach the highest level of performance; then allow for recovery from your efforts. Don’t reach your breaking point or slack off too soon. 11. Change if that leads to an improvement, avoiding rigidity, but adhere to sound principles based on your experience and the counsel of those you respect. Produce steady if small improvements, not overlooking a chance for a breakthrough. 12. Decide quickly after getting all pertinent facts, with due deliberation; don’t dilly-dally. 13. Abstinence for a moderate duration enhances pleasure and preserves health; if abstinence is carried on for too long it degrades to masochism. 14. Excitement in conflict stimulates body and mind, relieving boredom with cortisol secretions; if excitement is followed by peace and quiet, stress is wiped out and we can seek further excitement because boredom is also stressful. The Roof: 1. Flair and style appear when with unstinting efforts we achieve faultlessness with ease in what we do or make; excessive style turns to vulgarity when we try to impress and neglect the utility and practicality of our work. 2. I am usually grateful to Nature for my blessings and seldom bitter about my misfortunes, while seeking patiently to improve my lot in life. 3. I’d rather be happy if possible than miserable, as long as I am dutiful. 4. I want to be open to all artistic and intellectual ideas, but closed tight to any influences that damage life in me or others. I will never be too old a dog to learn. 5. To accomplish anything of importance I need to exercise immense patience and persistence in the face of obstacles that inevitably arise on the way; yet, I would be wise to abandon patience when effort is futile, not sooner. Giving up too soon is lack of spirit. 6. A positive mental attitude prompts us not to get discouraged and to take advantage of opportunities; PMA can also lead to over optimism when the situation demands caution, but NMA can be disastrous. It is best to be objective and focus on doing something constructive to solve problems. 7. I try to be regular in my habits of sleeping, eating, working, and resting; I am not a slave to the clock, however, and seek some variation in my routines so as not to get stale. 8. I avoid being overly religious or overly skeptical about God. I keep faith and doubt in balance. Fanaticism can be deadly, but denying your own soul is desiccating. 9. I strive to be sane and logical, but sometimes I resort to insanity and absurdity for a laugh; most of us are nuts in one way or another and we’re amusing if forgiven. Lack of any levity is stiffening. 10. I am trained to be scientific, posing questions to nature outside with experiments and looking for answers to questions of fact. Just as often I pose questions to my inner self, seeking answers from the Life Force as to what to feel and what to do. I reject all superstitions and pre-conceived ideas. 11. I am totally secure within myself living physically in a world always dangerous. I repel all fears and anxieties, relying on faith. 12. I am self reliant, but yell for help when I need it. I like to think of myself not a vine, but an oak. 13. I enjoy success as much as anybody, but failure is okay too if I am trying new things, until I learn how to handle matters. I do not fear failure to the extent of giving up effort. 14. Few things are more vital to survival that knowing truth from falsehood; often these qualities are blurred naturally or by the design of those wishing to deceive us. I can only affirm not to close my eyes to the truth no matter how painful. 15. If something has no utility, it has no value for me, but I will not deny that it may be real. Knowing what is real may possess some utility for survival eventually. 16. I rely on my will to solve my problems and overcome my weaknesses; certain occasions may demand resignation from me, but I will not easily be defeated. 17. I aspire to wisdom, but I never forget how foolish I have been in the past occasionally, and that I can so be in the future. But generally I am not easily fooled. 18. I desire a simple life in a world full of systems and gadgets constantly pushed on me, gadgets frequently failing and needing repair or replacement. I fight daily to avoid clutter and unnecessary complexity; I keep promising myself I will not add another thing to my life which I don’t need for survival. 19. I moderate hard work with leisure and recreation, avoiding self-imposed slavery to my career. 20. Speed can be the difference between life and death in the wild, and decides success in business competition in the civilized world. I allow speed to develop with practice, first focusing on acting correctly. If I run too quickly I’m likely to stumble and fall. 21. I remain free but with self discipline, never subservient to anyone or anything, except to my core principles. 22. While acting for survival, I enjoy everything I do with full awareness, appreciation, and joy. Being happy with what I do, I reinforce my virtues and weaken my vices. Still, I will do what is necessary for survival regardless of any pain or pleasure. Avoiding pain or finding pleasure is not a virtue. Pain and pleasure are simply signals that may guide my behavior. Social virtues: 1. Thrift is opposed by miserliness and is complimented by generosity where generosity does some good. As individuals, families, and societies we should spend only for our needs, boosting our bank balances, and credit, putting less stress on the environment, and reserving our wealth for important projects. 2. Money is nice but not at the cost of miserliness; I only need enough money to avoid penury and to satisfy my basic needs. Besides, in addition to money other things are of value: stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, diamonds, art objects, and antiques. More valuable than these are a loving family and good friends. 3. Acquisitiveness is good; greed is bad. Liberalism is sometimes appropriate. 4. Self awareness and individualism is opposed to selfishness, and complimented by altruism, social consciousness, and justice towards others. 5. You can be assertive or aggressive, avoiding timidity, but never vicious towards others. 6. Balance your victories over your enemies with compassion and pity, without gloating. 7. Stay ready to compete and fight if necessary for what you want, but be open to cooperation with your opponents avoiding feuds. 8. Be kind and offer charity when needed, never engaging in malevolence, provided your charity liberates your beneficiaries from need in the future. 9. I love as long as my love is beneficial; I ban hatred altogether from my heart because I don’t need it to defend myself. I don’t love anyone so much as to get besotted over them. 10. All humans are equal to me, but different, superior in talents they possess and inferior in talents I possess. If Nature has placed me on a higher level generally, I don’t brag and forget how quickly I can fall now and how inevitable is my end. 11. Seeking fame, glory, and popularity is not valuable unless their attainment aids me in securing my survival and the survival of society. Wanting fame for the aggrandizement of my ego is a disastrous vice. 12. Usually, what I most desire is solitude, being away from everybody in a natural setting, seeking inner peace. Some people find contentment in solitude and meditation; others prefer crowds, excitement, and interactions with other people. I need a social event only occasionally. 13. I say what I need to say simply and clearly; then I stop speaking and listen. I will be neither too reticent nor too talkative. 14. Social freedom contributes to the arts and to survival only with countervailing discipline; without discipline we get licentiousness. 15. Harmony and peace sustain us, as do order and symmetry; for growth these niceties must on occasion be broken. 16. I require absolute honesty only towards myself; others may get from me something less, but I despise outright lies and thievery. 17. To be just, fair, equitable, and courteous is the least I can be for the society that I serve. Remembering that justice cannot be perfect, I avoid outright cheating and deceitfulness. 18. I trust enough to be able to work with others, but I don’t care to be anybody’s fool. Anyone fishing for my money puts me in a defensive state of mind. 19. If I am to lead well I will first need to follow those superior to me in ability; but I will not succumb to unbounded loyalty towards any leader no matter how charismatic. 20. An insatiable thirst for power is the worst of vices, causing widespread damage to society and inevitably damage to the family and the individual. Being powerless, however, is the state of an infant, a slave, or an idiot. I desire power primarily over my own defects. 21. To satisfy their greed, the strong dominate the weak, but finally out of compassion, many successful people leave fortunes to charity. 22. To be peaceable and non-violent is my natural inclination, which I abandon only when I am extremely provoked. I am no wimp; don’t count on me to cave in when attacked. 23. Politeness is a virtue under all circumstances; if someone is rude to me, I will remain polite. But I will not bow to people I don’t respect and become a rug for them to step on. 24. Few traits endear us to others more than sincerity, saying what we mean and meaning what we say; but I will not babble everything that comes to my mind, but rather keep quiet when I cannot say anything constructive. 25. We don’t choose talent, a native ability; Nature chooses us to bestow talent. We can cultivate, however, what talent we possess and grow its reach. Everyone possesses a talent, large or small, tied to a unique character; those are unfortunate who don’t recognize and neglect their talent and those who employ their talent to damage others. Spiritual virtues: 1. Perfect your lifestyle in taking care of your body, demonstrating that you have learned to be grateful for the gift of life. 2. Discharge your duties towards others, loving those who are deserving of your love. 3. Do what is in your power to preserve nature and all living things within your reach. 4. Be prepared for the end of your life on earth, working to carry with you to the next world all the experiences you’ve had on planet Earth, contributing to heaven things of value, not a useless bundle of information to be cast aside. 5. Prepare for eternity with meditation and prayer, cultivating your spirit for eventual union with the Life Force; while avoiding materialistic thinking, neglect not life now on Earth.