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Life teaches us something but sometimes we’re not quite sure what. That’s why I like to read what others have to say on the subject because then I can putt my own experience into perspective. The other day while browsing my friends tweets on twitter I came across a post about a related topic “How shall you live your life?”, naturally I was curious because as a Buddhist I thought I should know something about this topic.
The post references the essayist Michel Eyquem de Montaigne who lived a few hundred years ago and is seen by some as being the Father of bloggers! Certainly he wrote about his everyday thoughts and feelings which makes him somewhat of a unique character for the time. I suggest you read both articles. For the impatient I’ve listed the main points he makes about how to live your life below:
- Don’t worry about death
- Pay attention
- Be born
- Read a lot, forget most of what you read, and be slow-witted
- Survive love and loss
- Use little tricks
- Question everything
- Keep a private room behind the shop
- Be convivial: live with others
- Wake from the sleep of habit
- Live temperately
- Guard your humanity
- Do something no one has done before
- See the world
- Do a good job, but not too good a job
- Philosophize only by accident
- Reflect on everything; regret nothing
- Give up control
- Be ordinary and imperfect
- Let life be its own answer
The Essays of Michel De Montaigne can be downloaded from gutenberg.org.
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