Five Tenets of Life

The five fundamental tenets of [a full life]:

1- Clarity of Intention
The first tenet, Clarity of Intention, is the foundation of the authentic spiritual life. It states that in order to succeed in liberating yourself from fear, ignorance, and self-deception, you have to have no doubt whatsoever that you want to be free more than anything else right now.

2- The Law of Volitionality
The second tenet, The Law of Volitionality, tells us that if we want to be free more than anything else we have to be willing to accept responsibility for everything that we are doing and for the consequences of any and all experiences that have happened to us in the past.

3- Face Everything and Avoid Nothing
The third tenet is the ultimate form of spiritual practice, and it is called Face Everything and Avoid Nothing.

4- the Truth of Impersonality
The fourth tenet states that every aspect of the human experience is a completely impersonal affair. It tells us that the personal sphere, the personal narcissistic self-sense that is ego, is created moment by moment through the compulsive and mechanical personalization of almost every thought, feeling, and experience we have.

5- For the Sake of the Whole
The fifth tenet points us to the highest and most wholesome context for the aspiration for liberation. That context is for the sake of the whole. Why is it that you would want to be free with such passion and intensity? It's not merely for your own liberation. It's for the transformation of the whole world, for the enlightenment of the whole universe, for the evolution of consciousness itself.

--Translated by Andrew Cohen