The Big Lebowski as a Guide to Life: The Dude is The Role Model We All Need

It’s been a bit since we turned our attention to one of the inspirations underlying this very blog – The Big Lebowski

I’ve discussed The Dudeness a few times…

I’ve collected a few Lebowski-related topics in my online travels.

Much like The Dude, the topics veer towards the existential with a mix of the absurd. A perfect recipe.

We’re All Lebowski Now

This is a bit of an ode to the bathrobe and the impact COVID has had on our collective willingness to lower our expectations – in a good way.

Even a discussion of bathrobes slides into a deeper meaning with The Dude – “Control is an illusion, stillness is salvation. In other words, you gotta chill.”

Huckberry is a great online store – if ya didn’t know, now you know.

The Lebowski Theorem of Machine Superintelligence

Apparently, AI has a lot in common with The Dude as well. Who woulda thunk it? Not so worried about AI taking over the world if it’s so chill!

What I’ve Learned from Jeff Bridges

Jeff Bridges is almost The Dude in real life. A dude after my own heart. I love how much he digs Lebowski…”The Dude is a wonderful character. I wouldn’t mind if I was mostly recognized for that guy. That doesn’t bother me at all.

Does the Dude Abide by the Tao? A comparative study of Dudeism and the Tao Te Ching

I’ve been a fan of the Tao for many moons. The Dude’s chill vibes strike a chord with me for similar reasons the Tao’s free-flowing philosophy has led my mental charge for years – chill is cool.

This is a pretty academic comparison of Dudeism and Taoism. Worth the browse.

Exploring the Real-Life Religion Based on “The Big Lebowski”

I’ve covered my ordained-priest status with Dudeism before. Here’s an article exploring Dudeism…

The call for people to re-examine their priorities in a materialistic system is in no way a new one. Dudeism is bridging the gap between the obscurity of the mystical world and popular culture by building its legacy on The Dude which has contributed to its popularity. 

Dudeism and Enlightenment

Rather than rejecting all moral codes, the Dude just wants everyone to relax a little.

The world is a complicated place. But maybe there are a few simple remedies. Relax. Take it easy. Flow. Wu Wie. Abide.

  • Anyone has the potential to be a Dude
  • Taking it Easy Eliminates Suffering

A Musing on Abiding

Abiding is an awful lot like Wu Wei. And Dudeism is an awful lot like Buddhism.

Perhaps there are similarities that underly all of life’s “truths.” We’re just recycling and relearning the same truths in new contexts.

At some point, we should try to retain these truths.

Or maybe letting go is THE truth.

Abide, dude.

 

 

Order of Essenes Book 11 [Thought Gems, Purpose & Physical Fitness]

I love the breadth of topics the Order of Essenes covers. Working towards self-improvement from a variety of directions.

Book Eleven offers a few gems and a pretty solid daily movement routine.

Enjoy…

Order of Essenes: Book Eleven

Thought Gems  💎

Adjust to the cold – When you step out of a warm building into the cold outdoors, take a deep breath through your nose and hold your breath. This serves to drive the blood to the surface of the body, preventing the initial chill. Keep your mouth closed. Do not talk until your body has adjusted itself to the sudden change in temperature.

The Source, the Fountain Source, lies within each seeker.

Be not a mental spendthrift. Learn to stand sentinel at the gates of your thoughts.

The faculty of imagination is a life force – a power which is a starter, a beginner, an exciter – a foundation builder, without which man is but a piece of flotsam and jetsam on life’s sea.

The most powerful forces in the universe are the silent forces.

When anxiety steps in, correct judgment passes out. Calmness, poise, balance, mental serenity are essential to effective thinking.

A worthy ambition is to possess a mind as clear as crystal, and as ordered as the stars. We approach that as we learn to contact omniscience, and it is omnipresent.

The more one knows, the more one simplifies. Life is made up of simples,

Purpose

Purposeful people are the winners in the game of life.

The objective is the most important consideration in life. There is, in fact, no definite place in
life for you while you are without purpose – objective – without a port of destination.

The possibilities for you are infinite. The consequences of your decisions now, will be eternal.

Make a plan—have a purpose as you advance. You will set new horizons. But today and now you must determine to quit drifting. Everything in life indicates the necessity of this. Here is opportunity – and the first requirement is the exercise of vision.

Forget the past whate’er it was. Your life is lived today.

He profits most who serves best.

There can be no other lesson, then, it is a great purpose which gives meaning to life. It unifies all our powers, binds them together in one great cable. Makes strong and united what was before weak and scattered.

Forget yourself in all that you do; this is the secret of abounding happiness and success. Thus, in the purpose or vision you create, plan to do something, to create something, that people need, require or will cherish. Plan something useful or that will cause for someone pleasure, pride of possession, or will profit them, or save them from danger, inconvenience, or embarrassment or some of the unpleasant things of life.

The genius is he who has intensified thought, made visions real.

Physical Fitness

The perfect functioning of the mind can best be accomplished when physical perfection is attained. Physical perfection, like any other accomplishment or thing worthwhile, must be earned.

Begin to think in terms of physical perfection and do something about it.

Physical fitness – see Book 11

Order of Essenes: Book Ten [Practice the Art of Living]

Order of Essenes Book Ten begins to discuss the “art of living” and the need to “practice” to build the life you desire.

I like this perspective. Reframing life as art, and thinking of yourself as the artist, gives you the freedom to explore, work with what you have, and enjoy the practice of improving every day.

Life is a research project, and you are the subject. Play, learn, and grow.

Order of Essenes: Book 10

Purposeful Planned Living

Purposeful planned living is the way to a more abundant life.

In the universal ever-present creative substance, there is the seed of every good thing –  health, happiness, success – waiting to be brought into manifestation in the material world.

The impulse and form of this materialization must come from a mind supplying a pattern or mold into which life essence is continually pouring.

Love

We are capable of forging on the anvils of the heart that greatest of all emotions – love. We give it. We respond to it. We are elevated by it. It is the one known effective solvent for human problems.

1, 2, & 3 Story Intelects

There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors, who have no aim beyond their facts, are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason, generalize, using the labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, predict; their best illumination comes from above, through the skylight. -Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Streams of Habit

Many of our streams of habit are canalized toward useful and desirable goals; others are like meandering rivers which always take the line of least resistance. The longer our lifestream follows its aimless course, the deeper the river bed and the harder it is to cut through the enclosing banks.

Cleanse your mind of negative destructive things – doubt, worry, or fear – those pictures of want, and lack and illness with which you have flooded your consciousness.

The human body is a complex and highly integrated machine. It takes food, air, and water and converts them by chemical and biological processes into flesh, blood, bone, and energy. In the production of these, it employs various chemicals of its own creation.

Many and varied chemicals are formed by thought processes, moods, feelings, and emotions. These thoughts – and chemicals – affect the material man in a direct physical manner.

Life is Research

Research sounds formidable but on the contrary, it is very simple.

Chas. F. Kettering says, “Research is nothing complicated. It may use a laboratory and it may not. It is purely a principle and everybody can apply it in his own life. It is simply a way of trying to find new knowledge and ways of improving things which you are not satisfied with.

 

What are some of the things you would like to have? Why can’t you have them?

 

Write down ten things that you don’t like about your business, about yourself, or about the way you are doing things. (If you can’t think of ten things, there is something wrong with your imagination and vision faculties.)

 

Now try to work out some way of correcting those ten things. If No. 1 is too difficult to solve, try solving the others, just as you put a word in a crossword puzzle. Each of these problems that you solve will make the others easier. You will be surprised when you find how well they fit into eachother. If you do that, you are a research worker (subject-yourself). 

Practice the Art of Living

There is one basic fact in life which you must accept. That fact is that life itself is perfect.

The mastery of life is achieved by the ceaseless practice of the mechanics which make up the art of living.

A good personality is the result of practice, not introspection.

We stress doing definite important things, as the road to health, happiness, and success.

You must understand the mind, conscious, subconscious, and superconscious, but the mind is intended to think with, not to worry about. It is an instrument to live with, not to live for.

Every human being is endowed with an infinitely precious stock of attention power, but daily the mind is assailed and distracted by a thousand appeals and distractions.

In this work, your success, your attainment of your longings and desires, will largely depend upon concentration, meditation, determination, expectation, and action.

For a moment contemplate in review…

Your physical body is ever-changing and every twenty-four months you are practically one hundred percent a different individual physically. Every new cell or atom or life unit added is perfect and without age; it will in its new home and new life form, conform to its surroundings; it will be endowed from the first instant with intelligence, mentality, character, consciousness, it will be stamped with the real You trademark, and thenceforth subject to the chemical and biological changes. It will respond to, and its destiny be subject to your thoughts. It will make up one of the billions of the component parts of your subconscious. It will ever work towards perfection unless guided or influenced for imperfection. It will observe the unchanging and unchangeable laws of unity and harmony. It will die, pass on, and change when the law is violated. It will ever keep its contact with universal intelligence, the omniscient, from whence it came. Everything is included in a ceaseless interaction of cause and effect.

Nothing can escape nor set aside the law… “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” is as true in the invisible realm as in the field of agriculture. No one can deny it, nor can one cheat the law, and no one escapes it.

If one would come to know the greater-self, let him enter his own closet and shut the door. There he will find his most dangerous enemy, and there he will learn to master him. He will find his true self. There he will find his truest friend, his wisest teacher, his safest adviser-himself. There he will find abiding within himself the Holy of Holies.

Finally, from weakness to power; from sickness to health; from discord to harmony; from failure to success; from misery to happiness—all these positive developments are for you to demonstrate.

The Essenes principle is this: Each has the power for potential perfection.

In the course of these Instructions, you will come to realize the almost magic-working possibilities, which can result from meditation, concentration, and affirmation.

Before you arrive at that stage, however, you must be conditioned, prepared, and instructed upon the subject of relaxation, so that satisfying results may be attained, easily, simply, and always naturally.

*Relaxation Exercises* – see book…

Positive Thinking

Every thought which you project into the universal creative substance will be worked out in your body or affairs, just as you picture it. How foolish and destructive therefore to project what you fear and do not want. Is it not the more sensible thing to picture clearly the things or conditions you desire.

Think positively of good fortune, not negatively of misfortune.

The electrons of man’s brain are stirred to action by faith and acting concurrently with the spiritual ethers, they hasten nature to produce quickly what ordinarily requires months of seedtime and harvest,

Order of Essenes: Book 9 [Live with Intent – Your Mind and Life are Woven Like a Quilt]

The subconscious mind is powerful. By some estimates, it manages 95%+ of your moment-to-moment activities.

But a cool lesson in Order of Essense: Book 9 is the idea that your conscious mind is the guide of your subconscious mind.

Your subconscious extends to the farthest reaches of your microcosm – each cell –> atom is a miniature version of you.

Each and every thought has the potential for far-reaching effects, guiding those moment-to-moment activities.

Live with intent, and you create your Life.

Order of Essense: Book Nine

The never-changing laws of nature are operative.

The ancient fact of life remains, that purposeful people, who know what they want, and intend to get it, somehow, sometime, always have a considerable edge over casual, contemplative people who rather like the world in general, and would be mildly pleased to have life drop something nice in their lap someday.

Thought Gems  💎

We all see what we look for.

When you think a thought, you never can tell how far its intent may reach.

Subconscious

You can plant, or permit to be planted, in the subconscious a thought, idea, plan, vision, impression, or feeling, and it grows just as though you planted a seed in a garden, or inserted a bud.

Autosuggestion

You can plant the seed that is called autosuggestion. You, the conscious you, just talk to or command or hold in mind as a good idea the thought, with insistence that it must have your attention or must be remembered, or must have an answer.

If someone gives you an idea by statement, command, suggestion, or if you get it from a newspaper, book, or even the impression from the acts and manners of another, and the idea or impression is acceptable to your conscious mind and you are moved or swayed by them—if they make a favorable imprint, they are suggestions.

So your subconscious can be reached by suggestion or autosuggestion, and will respond, sprout the seed, or nourish the bud.

Every action and movement of your internal organism – except some chemical changes – is effected by your will, manifesting on the subconscious plane.

All life action is mind action – mostly subconscious mind action. Life and mind are not for one instant separated.

By no physical law/theory, or mechanistic theory, can the marvelous life processes be explained.

Power of mind over matter…

The true condition is “mind over mind” – the conscious over the subconscious.

The condition may be readily demonstrated and manifested by you or by anyone willing to take the pains and make the effort.

There is no doubt the conscious mind positively influences the subconscious – the regulator of life processes.

Here is a tremendously important and vital fact: Each atom of your body, each cell, each drop of your blood, contains the life principle and each is you in miniature! Each contains the subconscious mind!

All life action is mind-action. Life and mind are not for one instant separated.

Thought Gems 💎

We may all possess wisdom if we are willing to be persuaded that the experience of others is as useful as our own,

Vitamins, minerals, diet… (see full book for details)

PS – I like the metaphor of Quilt in the title. There are a lot of quilts in our life – variables that layer upon each other. Mind and Life are, perhaps, the meta-Quilt.

Not implicitly connected here, but if you want to go down a health rabbit hole, check out the Quilt explained by Dr. Jack Kruse.

 

Order of Essenes: Book Eight [Use Your Subconscious Mind, Smile, & Practice the Law of Giving]

Order of Essense: Book Eight continues to discuss the power of thought, but also digs into the subconscious mind, reinforces the law of giving to get, and shares instructions to smile – starting now, where you are.

Book 8 definitely packs a punch – similar to all of the Books that have preceded it.

As with all of the Books, there is benefit to reading and rereading – gems are hidden in the details and built upon habits overtime. But I predict your first read will offer improvements that can change your world TODAY.

Enjoy…

Order of Essenes: Book 8

Your life is an individual process.

You can and will succeed in all your efforts, and your heart longings will become realities if you but observe the natural laws.

There is one law that you must learn – the law of giving, that you may get.

The master tool with which great men work in this world is intellect, and when properly contacting the infinite, there is no limiting factor.

The individual determines his own position in life, according to the amount of intelligent effort exerted.

It is for this reason that men will never be equal because there are those — the majority — who will not work to acquire this inner power.

Thought Gems 💎

  • Activity is the great law of life and growth. Inactivity is the forerunner of decrepitude and senility.
  • There is creative power in the spoken word. We must be careful how we use it or we shall be creating more ill than good. Your words may bring good or evil to you.
  • When we know the truth and act upon it, life answers our imperative call, life becomes what we wish to make it.
  • Realize that thought is creative, and use it to create contentment.
  • Trouble does not beget itself. It is born of thought. It is nourished by the troubled quality of the thoughts we allow to creep into the mind. It stays only so long as we continue to nourish it.
  • Each has himself as a laboratory and subject for experimenting.

Subconscious

it is on these hidden planes that the major portion of our mental work is performed. It is here that the most important of our mental processes take place.

Your past study, experience, and observations constitute the knowledge you possess. You have ideas, plans, purposes, ideals, and longings. You are perfectly aware that you possess these. At this moment you have but an infinitesimal part of these “in mind.” In other words, you have but one or two things in the field of your ordinary consciousness

They are on a plane beyond or below the field of ordinary consciousness. At will, you can turn your attention in the direction of these things, and instantly they proceed to come to the plane of your ordinary consciousness.

The subconscious presides over and directs the activities of each individual cell of your body.

It governs the vital processes.

In addition, the subconscious mind supervises those actions that are called instinctive or habitual. Again, your emotions are generated in the subconscious mind and are passed up to the conscious mind.

A great amount of creative thinking is done by the subconscious.

As you contact the subconscious, knowingly and confidently give it the tasks of reasoning and judging. You will not only relieve the mental strain incident to conscious action, but as you will begin to manifest faith that the decisions and judgments are from the omniscient. By acting in accord with such judgments and decisions, you will progress as you have never progressed before.

You will feel relaxed with the subconscious in control.

There is a unity between the conscious and the subconscious. The subconscious accepts, without question, what the conscious gives it. The conscious mind is the door to the subconscious for its facts gathered by the physical senses, and it knows the answer to the problem submitted based on the premises given it.

If mental processes can be so destructive in such a short period of time, that they could be equally constructive in the same time under proper inspiration, and with constructive mental pictures, lived with equal vividness.

The more reasonable and scientific way is by the substitution of positive thoughts, acquiring new interests, setting new goals and ideals, taking on new activities, habits, friends, attitudes or mental processess.

As you progress, you will learn that life is made up of simples.

Instructions – Smile
When you get up in the morning and are dressed and ready to leave your room, look at yourself in a mirror, and then put on a smile – not a smirk, but a real smile. One that comes from the heart; one denoting gladness and happiness.

Smiles are the only potentials known that move things whether they intend to move or not.

Whomever you meet during the day, smile.

Start right at home.

Smile and the world smiles with you, weep and you weep alone.

The world is a mirror.

Joy and gladness, and the habit of good cheer, are creative and positive forces, and are tremendously uplifting and stimulating.

It is just human nature to love charming traits and agreeable qualities in people.

It is all based on the law that as you give, so shall you receive.

Thought Gems 💎

  • When one labors long, endures much, working toward a goal, and finally arrives, there is an intense appreciation of the rewards. Had they come without effort, they would be valued but little.
  • Your dominant thinking is the set of plans and specifications you prepare, and your life will be in accord with these plans and specifications. Your present situation is the payoff by the universal, as you planned and specified.
  • It is as though nature conducted a bank—with health, wealth, and happiness on deposit. To draw on this storehouse is positively and simply a matter of attunement of your consciousness. That means you must make your dominant thinking an architectural pattern, according to your desire-health, wealth, or happiness.
  • There is a universal power or principle which permeates the entire universe and we are immersed in it, just as much in one place as another, and it is our thoughts that attract it or repel it.

Order of Essenes: Book 7 [You Become What You Think]

Order of Essenes: Book Seven offers some great first-principle thinking to keep your best-self on its best Path.

  • You become what you think
  • Practic unselfishness
  • Cultivate friends
  • Take action: do good vs. be good
  • Chew your food more

Keep those thoughts marching in the right direction.

Enjoy…

Order of Essenes: Book 7

“He can, who thinks he can.”

Repeat this! Do it again and again!

When you realize this eternal truth, something within you will stir you to go forward, and at the same time by natural law, there will be added unto you something which will enable you to carry through to success.

Every right thought we think, every unselfish word or action, is bound by immutable laws to be fraught with good results.

We must learn to lose sight of results, quit thinking in terms of effects, and center upon cause. Let results or effects be a natural outcoming.

If you will recall the subject upon which you most frequently and intensely think that to which in your silent hours your soul most naturally turns, you will reveal the destination of the road you are traveling.

Your thoughts of today, yesterday, last month, last year, and throughout the years that are past, indicate your state of health, your position in life, your friends, your financial condition, and all that there is to know about you.

There is an unavoidable tendency to become the embodiment of that quality upon which one most constantly thinks. It is the law.

Deep down below the subconscious mind is the universal subconscious Mind; or to be more accurate, there is but one subconscious Mind.

What we look upon as being the individual subconscious mind is simply the limited use we make of the universal subconscious Mind.

It is of supreme importance to think right.

Our first need is to align our thinking with principle.

No one can do our thinking for us. We must each individually work out life’s beauty of pattern, its harmony of coloring, and its deepest meaning.

Selfish vs. Self-Sacrifice

By nature, the individual is selfish and inclined to follow his own impulses. The road to self-realization is by the route of self-sacrifice.

Think in terms of cultivating friendships.

From a psychological standpoint, all friendship involves the artificial process of subordinating one’s own interests and inclinations to those of others.

Not only do we ask you to cultivate friendships, but practice unselfishness.

Most people who are unsuccessful and unhappy are in that position because their daily thoughts and actions are tainted with selfishness.

Trying always to get, actually pushes away the object sought. Getting is an effect, a reaction; giving is the action which is followed by the sequel of gifts to the giver; hence giving is the cause of getting.

Action

The road to health, happiness, and success lies in doing things, in work.  Not in being good, but in doing good.

You cannot self analyze nor merely think yourself into happiness, health, and success.

Naturally, you cannot perform except as you think and will. Thinking thoughts of love must be followed by love. Those who love are willing to serve and sacrifice themselves for those they love.

Instructions:

  • Chew more
  • Chew each bite as long as it tastes good, or until it thoroughly liquefies.

 

Order of Essenes: Book Six [Your Thoughts are More Powerful Than You Realize]

Order of Essenes: Book 6 is short, but powerful.

Our thoughts, and the mind that works with those thoughts, offer much more power than we realize.

Opening ourselves to this power from moment to moment gives us a deeper appreciation for our journey and builds the framework of a great life built on consistent habits and thoughts.

Take control of your thoughts and take control of your life…

Order of Essense: Book 6

All mental states are followed by some bodily activity of some sort. They lead to inconspicuous changes in breathing, circulation, general muscular tension, and glandular or other viscereal activity, even if they do not lead to conspicuous movements of the muscles of voluntary life. All states of mind, even mere thoughts and feelings are motor in their consequences.

Thought Gems 💎

Hate, envy, suspicion, fear and worry and the ugly things of life disappear when snowed under by courage, faith, friendliness, love and confidence.

When you make a mistake, don’t look back at it long.

Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.

Understand that the mind as commonly understood, is an instrument much like a trolley pole, or third rail contact, that can reach inwardly and outwardly and tap powers and resources undreamed of by the mill run of people – this is the beginning and basis of real advancement.

The great intelligence is revealed through nature.

Pettiness is always the soul’s corruptor.

Every thought you let yourself think, every emotion you permit yourself to enjoy leaves its mark and helps either to make you insufficient for life or to give you some greater sufficiency. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Let a man make it his habit to refuse pettiness day by day and to choose robustly, and he can little by little develop a soul which shall, at last, become equal to anything!

It is given to the world to learn one great and divine lesson—the lesson of absolute unselfishness.

This too shall pass.

Worry—is weakness. You will always find a streak of selfishness behind every worry.

In the end you find that trials, difficulties and misfortunes have taught lessons–strengthened the human fibre, sharpened the tools used in life’s battles, and that all things work for good in the end, for it is the law that the life principles are ever working for perfection.

The only fundamental way to change things is to change your consciousness.

You cannot cheat nature – it is the law that you must and always will attain the condition that belongs to your consciousness.

THOUGHT GEMS 💎

If you don’t know where you are going, you are lost before you start.

The fellow who falls down on the job will be back on his feet a lot quicker than the one who lies down on it.

The way to judge your ideals and methods is to look around and see how far they have brought you,–and work.

Some folks get all the life kicked out of them trying to get a kick out of life.

Dudeist Priest Resume Grows – Wedding Two in the Books : New Wedding Script & a Primer on NC Dudeist Officiant Legality

A short five years ago I officiated my first wedding. As a Dudeist Priest no less.

I checked that box on the bucket list. Figured my Reverend status was retired.

Like Jordan coming back from baseball, it turns out my services were still needed.

I was honored to be asked to marry my bro-in-law and his lovely new bride.

A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a beautiful Saturday evening backyard wedding. A smashing success, if I do say so myself.

Check out my updated Dudeist Priest wedding script below.

I also did a bit of research to confirm the legality of my officiant status in NC. As an added bonus, here’s a link to a great discussion of the NC legality on the Dudeist forum.

Go forth and marry, my dudes!

Dudeist Priest Wedding Script

Welcome 

Welcome friends and family. 

It’s a great pleasure to welcome everyone here to celebrate this special moment between XYXZ and ZYX. 

Who gives ZYX to be married to XYZ? 

(Thank you Dad and Mom – Dad, you may take your seat.)

(Flower dudet take flowers)

A marriage is not created by a law or a ceremony; rather it occurs in the hearts of two people.

In witnessing this ceremony today, we are observing the outward sign of an inward union that already exists between XYZ and ZYX.

This ceremony is a symbol of how far they have come, and their promise to continue to build their lives together. 

There are only two official witnesses at a wedding, but each and every person here today will witness the vows XYZ and ZYX will share with each other. 

We should take good care to remember these words; for a marriage needs the love and support of a community of friends and family.  

Address 

Today XYZ and ZYX take the first steps on an exciting new journey. A journey that brings adventures, challenges, and moments of courage. 

Marriage brings two people together like nothing else; uniting two people who love each other unconditionally and with endless strength. 

XYZ and ZYX‘s relationship has grown into a love that brings out the best in each other, a care that knows no boundaries, and a dedication to taking on the world together. 

Marriage brings a new commitment. A commitment built on a strong foundation. It’s a promise that has existed in the way you support, appreciate, and encourage each other, long before today. 

Today marks the beginning of a new stage in your lives together, a moment that we are all honored to share with you. 

Wedding Vows 

Let us now hear the declarations and promises that XYZ and ZYX make to each other. 

XYZ, please take ZYX‘s hand and repeat after me. 

ZYX, today I give myself to you. 

I promise to Encourage and inspire you, 

To laugh with you

And to comfort you in times of sorrow and struggle. 

I promise to love you in good times and bad, 

When life seems easy and when it seems hard. 

When our love is simple, 

And when it is an effort. 

I promise to cherish you, 

And to always hold you in the highest regard. 

These promises I give to you today, 

And all the days of our life. 

ZYX, please repeat after me…. 

XYZ, today I give myself to you. 

I promise to Encourage and inspire you, 

To laugh with you 

And to comfort you in times of sorrow and struggle. 

I promise to love you in good times and bad, 

When life seems easy and when it seems hard. 

When our love is simple, 

And when it is an effort. 

I promise to cherish you, 

And to always hold you in the highest regard. 

These promises I give to you today, 

And all the days of our life. 

Declaration of Intent 

XYZ, will you take ZYX to be your partner through life? Will you love her, protect her, and spend your days in laughter together forever? 

(I do.)

ZYX, will you take XYZ to be your partner through life? Will you love him, protect him, and spend your days in laughter together forever? 

(I do.)

Exchanging of Rings 

(Little Dude give rings)

XYZ and ZYX, these rings are a physical representation of the love and commitment you share. 

May you be forever reminded of this moment and the joy that fills the air for the rest of your lives.

XYZ please place the ring on your ZYX’s finger and repeat after me…. 

I give you this ring 

to symbolize the continuous flow of my love.

Together we are united, 

unstoppable, 

and unbreakable, 

today and for all of our days. 

ZYX please place the ring on XYZ’s finger and repeat after me… 

I give you this ring 

to symbolize the continuous flow of my love.

Together we are united, 

unstoppable, 

and unbreakable, 

today and for all of our days. 

Declaration of Marriage

XYZ and ZYX, no one but you can declare yourselves married. 

You have begun that declaration here today in speaking your vows before your friends and family, and you will do it again in the days and years to come, standing by each other, sharing your lives together. 

Each tender act and each loving word will be the declaration of what was made here today.

It is my joyful responsibility to officially acknowledge your union as “Husband and Wife”. You may now seal your marriage with a kiss.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my privilege to present to you for the first time as husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. XYZ.

 

Order of Essenes: Book 5 [Common Sense Secrets to Success]

Occam’s Razor discusses the idea that the simplest of explanations is usually the most accurate.

I like simple.

Simple often seems to lead to common sense. Intuition.

Like Wu Wei.

Order of Essenes: Book 5 shares some secrets to success that will feel simple. Common sense. Intuitively correct.

And a fun experiment at the end.

Enjoy.

Effort

Every effort in this world contains within it the seed of a just reward. Every thought and every act is cause at work; an effect is inevitable.

No effort is ever lost in the universe and that makes the law of giving operative.

Appreciation

Your start comes from expressing admiration. Such is the power of sincere appreciation and the expression of gratitude. Such a little thing and yet so powerful.

Common Sense

Common sense is a central sense, toward which all impressions converge and unite in one sentiment—the desire for the truth. People of common sense love directness and simplicity, and ever seek to reduce complications and problems to simples, knowing the world is made up of simples. Common sense is the art of resolving questions.

Don’t Quit

DON’T QUIT when things go wrong. When the road you’re trudging seems all up-hill, when funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile but you have to sigh, when care is pressing you down a bit.

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Many failures turn about, when he might have won had he stuck it out.

Who are you?

How vitally important it is to learn that you are an unchanging you.

Grasp the idea that the body is just a garment and not the real you. Realize that your functioning mind that receives the messages of the senses, is an instrument for you to use, and is not the you. Your personality is your character role in the play going on, and not you.

Your success and happiness will form in the infinite and begin to manifest the moment you do.

Personality vs. Character vs. You

Your personality is the outward reflection of your moods—your feelings. your thoughts, your commands to your physical instruments.

Personality is one thing, and character another;

Your personality is what you appear to be. Your character is the sum total of real qualities.

You cannot say that the real you is your character. Character changes.

Secret to success!

The secret of success is to deserve success.

Health

It is perfectly natural for all persons to desire health because health creates confidence and gives assurance; it is the foundation of hope and faith; it gives one courage and banishes fear; health is itself energy and force; happiness and success are its twin children.

The ideal of health that each should have is not merely to be free of pain and disease but a health surplus, a reserve in the physical bank. Abounding health makes the eye sparkle, the step buoyant; one has the feeling of vim, vigor, and vitality; it is a quality of the body that radiates; there is an inner sense of joy and gladness.

Health is the first wealth. Personal magnetism is largely a matter of health. The spendthrift of health is the most foolish and reckless of all spendthrifts.

Illness

The creative, restorative, renewing, rejuvenating principle, the life principle is within every one of us.

A serious illness should be regarded as an opportunity to gather dividends, and create energies, that in health were not possible. Like any major experience, illness actually changes us.

An inner liveliness, illuminating the spirit and features of those who have learned to look upon illness as a challenge that must be met with hope and courage. If you have never been sick, never lost so much as a day in bed—then you have missed something!

Power of Thoughts

Every cell in the body gets an impulse from every thought in the mind. Your condition is therefore your thoughts objectified or out-pictured.

Guard well, therefore, the wellspring of life against the poisons of worry thoughts, fear thoughts, anger, revenge, or self-pity. All phases of fear and anxiety contract the blood vessels and impede the free circulation of the blood.

Thinking requires concentration, and when one perfects concentration and shutting out thoughts, and can meditate and accept back from the subconscious the great within, the answer to life’s problems, one has gone a long way on the road to health, happiness, and success. Every philosopher, every sage, every savior, got his thoughts, ideas, theories, philosophies only during a period of meditation, or concentration, or application, or silent uninterrupted study and thought.

We suggest that you find some time and someplace, where peace and quiet prevail. Concentration you may have to learn by degrees.

THOUGHT GEMS … 💎

  • A well-ordered life is like climbing a tower; the view half way up is better than the view from the base and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands.
  • It is good to dream but it is better to dream and work.
  • Faith is mighty but action with faith is mightier.
  • Desiring is helpful but work and desire are invincible.
  • Those with mediocre minds generally condemn and criticize everything they can’t understand.
  • Search as you may, you can find no evidence of a personal will operating in the universal-only changeless and unchangeable laws such is the “will of God.” If you would find the “Secret place of the “Most High,” the search must be within your own being. Within you is the shrine for resultful worship.

Instructions – Will:

In one simple sentence may be the conclusion from a life time of observation.

Concentration is one of the most marvelous forces that can be conceived. Without concentration, no success is possible.

Concentration develops all our senses and brings them to a degree of remarkable acuteness. He who succeeds in concentrating himself on a manual labor is certain to perform it with a minimum of fatigue, for he will be able to husband his strength, he will save himself from dissipating it in useless exertions, and he will concentrate all his faculties of attention, of calculation, of ingenuity, and of muscular power in order to succeed.

To think of an act which we are performing, to think of it alone, to concentrate everything and forget everything outside of it, there is the secret of so many successes, the explanation of so many good fortunes; the secret, also, of the immense influence which certain men exert over their fellows.

Walking is All the Rage – For Good Reason

“We should take wandering outdoor walks, so that the mind might be nourished and refreshed by the open air and deep breathing.” —Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind17.8

Synchronicity is pretty cool. Carl Jung was an interesting cat – another topic for another time.

The benefits/importance of walking regularly has come to my attention a number of times recently.

As an added bonus, the benefits of spending time outside, in nature, have been brought to my attention as well.

Synchronicity? Hmmm.

Worth a quick list of rad reasons to walk and be outside…