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Reference: The Happiness Rundown

15. FULFILL YOUR OBLIGATIONS

In going through life, one inevitably incurs obligations. Factually, one is born with certain obligations and they tend to accumulate thereafter. It is no novel or new idea that one owes his parents a debt for bringing one into the world, for raising one. It is a credit to parents that they don’t push it any harder than they do. But it is an obligation, nevertheless: even the child feels it. And as life continues to run its course, one accumulates other obligations—to other persons, to friends, to society and even the world. 

It is an extreme disservice to a person not to permit him to satisfy or pay off his obligations. No small part of the “revolt of childhood” is caused by others refusing to accept the only “coins” a baby or child or youth has with which to discharge the “weight of obligation”: the baby’s smiles, the child’s fumbling efforts to help, the youth’s possible advice or just the effort to be a good son or a good daughter commonly pass unrecognized, unaccepted; they can be ill-aimed, often ill-planned; they fade quickly. Such efforts, when they fail to discharge the enormity of the debt, can be replaced with any number of mechanisms or rationalizations: “one doesn’t really owe anything,” “I was owed it all in the first place,” “I didn’t ask to be born,” “my parents or guardians are no good” and “life isn’t worth living anyway” to name a few. And yet the obligations continue to pile up. 

The “weight of obligation” can be a crushing burden if one can see no way to discharge it. It can bring about all manner of individual or social disorders. When it cannot be discharged, those who are owed, often unwittingly, find themselves targets for the most unlooked-for reactions. 

One can help a person who finds himself in the dilemma of unpaid obligations and debt by simply going over with him or her all the obligations they have incurred and have not fulfilled—moral, social and financial—and work out some way to discharge all of them the person feels are still owed. 

One should accept the efforts of a child or an adult to pay off non-financial obligations they feel they may owe. One should help bring about some mutually agreeable solution to the discharge of financial ones. 

Discourage a person from incurring more obligations than it is possible for him or her to actually discharge or repay. 

The way to happiness is very hard to travel when one is burdened with the weight of obligations which one is owed or which he has not discharged.

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Exercise

0. Make sure you have completed the exercise section at Happiness: Precept 14-1. Study the precept above.

1. Check the responses to the following questions for false data (see false data steps at Happiness: Prologue).

(a) “Have you been told or taught not to fulfill your obligations?”
(b) “Do you have any rules or ideas contrary to fulfilling your obligations?”
(c) “Have you been led to believe that you shouldn’t fulfill your obligations?”
(d) “Do you know of anything that conflicts with fulfilling your obligations?”
(e) “Do you have any false data about fulfilling your obligations?”

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2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers: 

(a) “How have others transgressed against the precept: ‘Fulfill your obligations’?”
(b) “How have you transgressed against the precept: ‘Fulfill your obligations’?”

Do a quick review to see if you did not miss any answers on this step. You should be feeling good about this step.

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3. See if the following question definitely brings up some name you know of:

“Is there any specific person in your past who really transgressed against the precept: ‘Fulfill your obligations’?”

If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:

“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”

If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.

“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?” 
“Is there any time when you decided that not fulfilling your obligations was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___  and yourself?”

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4. Handle any anomalies that come up on the following question by looking at the anomaly more closely. 

”Do you have any reservations about fulfilling your obligations?”

If the anomaly does not resolve then review the precept as well as all the exercise steps above to see if anything was missed. Then do step 4 again. When there is no anomaly go to step 5.

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5. Contemplate on the following question.

“Do you have any reservations about getting someone else to fulfill their obligations?” 

If any reservation comes up, then consider the following: 

“How would that be a problem?” 

Get answers to this question until there are no reservations.

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Reference: The Happiness Rundown

14. BE WORTHY OF TRUST

Unless one can have confidence in the reliability of those about one, he, himself, is at risk. When those he counts upon let him down, his own life can become disordered and even his own survival can be put at risk. 

Mutual trust is the firmest building block in human relationships. Without it, the whole structure comes down. 

Trustworthiness is a highly esteemed commodity. When one has it, one is considered valuable. When one has lost it, one may be considered worthless. 

One should get others around one to demonstrate it and earn it. They will become much more valuable to themselves and others thereby. 

14-1. Keep your word once given. When one gives an assurance or promise or makes a sworn intention, one must make it come true. If one says he is going to do something, he should do it. If he says he is not going to do something, he should not do it. 

One’s regard for another is based, in no small degree, on whether or not the person keeps his or her word. Even parents, for instance, would be surprised at the extent they drop in the opinion of their children when a promise is not kept. 

People who keep their word are trusted and admired. People who do not are regarded like garbage. Those who break their word often never get another chance. 

A person who does not keep his word can soon find himself entangled and trapped in all manner of “guarantees” and “restrictions” and can even find himself shut off from normal relations with others. There is no more thorough self-exile from one’s fellows than to fail to keep one’s promises once made. 

One should never permit another to give his or her word lightly. And one should insist that when a promise is made, it must be kept. One’s own life can become very disordered in trying to associate with people who do not keep their promises. It is not a casual matter. 

The way to happiness is much, much easier to travel with people one can trust.

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Exercise

0. Make sure you have completed the exercise section at Happiness: Precept 13. Study the precept above.

1. Check the responses to the following questions for false data (see false data steps at Happiness: Prologue).

(a) “Have you been told or taught not to be worthy of trust?”
(b) “Do you have any rules or ideas contrary to being worthy of trust?”
(c) “Have you been led to believe that you shouldn’t be worthy of trust?”
(d) “Do you know of anything that conflicts with being worthy of trust?”
(e) “Do you have any false data about trustworthiness?”

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2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers: 

(a) “How have others transgressed against the precept: ‘Be worthy of trust’?”
(b) “How have you transgressed against the precept: ‘Be worthy of trust’?”

Do a quick review to see if you did not miss any answers on this step. You should be feeling good about this step.

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3. See if the following question definitely brings up some name you know of:

“Is there any specific person in your past who really transgressed against the precept: ‘Be worthy of trust’?”

If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:

“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”

If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.

“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?” 
“Is there any time when you decided that not being trustworthy was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___  and yourself?”

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4. Handle any anomalies that come up on the following question by looking at the anomaly more closely. 

”Do you have any reservations about being worthy of trust?”

If the anomaly does not resolve then review the precept as well as all the exercise steps above to see if anything was missed. Then do step 4 again. When there is no anomaly go to step 5.

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5. Contemplate on the following question.

“Do you have any reservations about getting someone else to be worthy of trust?” 

If any reservation comes up, then consider the following: 

“How would that be a problem?” 

Get answers to this question until there are no reservations.

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Reference: The Happiness Rundown

12-3. Help take care of the planet

The idea that one has a share in the planet and that one can and should help care for it may seem very large and to some, quite beyond reality. But today what happens on the other side of the world, even so far away, can effect what happens in your own home. 

Recent discoveries by space probes to Venus have shown that our own world could be deteriorated to a point where it would no longer support life. And it possibly could happen in one’s own lifetime. 

Cut down too many forests, foul too many rivers and seas, mess up the atmosphere and we have had it. The surface temperature can go roasting hot, the rain can turn to sulphuric acid. All living things could die. 

One can ask, “Even if that were true, what could I do about it?” Well, even if one were simply to frown when people do things to mess up the planet, one would be doing something about it. Even if one only had the opinion that it was just not a good thing to wreck the planet and mentioned that opinion, one would be doing something. 

Care of the planet begins in one’s own front yard. It extends through the area one travels to get to school or work. It covers such places as where one picnics or goes on vacation. The litter which messes up the terrain and water supply, the dead brush which invites fire, these are things one need not contribute to and which, in otherwise idle moments, one can do something about. Planting a tree may seem little enough but it is something. 

In some countries, old people, the unemployed, do not just sit around and go to pieces: they are used to care for the gardens and parks and forests, to pick up the litter and add some beauty to the world. There is no lack of resources to take care of the planet. They are mainly ignored. One notes that the Civilian Conservation Corps in the U.S., organized in the 1930s to absorb the energies of unemployed officers and youth, was one of the few, if not the only project of that depressed era that created far more wealth for the state than was expended. It reforested large areas and did other valuable things that cared for the U.S. part of the planet. One notes that the C.C.C. no longer exists. One can do as little as add one’s opinion that such projects are worthwhile and support opinion leaders and organizations that carry on environmental work. 

There is no lack of technology. But technology and its application cost money. Money is available when sensible economic policies, policies which do not penalize everyone, are followed. Such policies exist. 

There are many things people can do to help take care of the planet. They begin with the idea that one should. They progress by suggesting to others that they should. 

Man has reached the potential capacity to destroy the planet. He must be pushed on up to the capability and actions of saving it. It is, after all, what we’re standing on.

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Exercise

0. Make sure you have completed the exercise section at Happiness: Precept 12-2. Study the precept above.

1. Check the responses to the following questions for false data (see false data steps at Happiness: Prologue).

(a) “Have you been told or taught not to take care of the planet?”
(b) “Do you have any rules or ideas contrary to taking care of the planet?”
(c) “Have you been led to believe that you shouldn’t help take care of the planet?”
(d) “Do you know of anything that conflicts with helping take care of the planet?”
(e) “Do you have any false data about helping to take care of the planet?”

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2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers: 

(a) “How have others transgressed against the precept: ‘Help take care of the planet’?”
(b) “How have you transgressed against the precept: ‘Help take care of the planet’?”

Do a quick review to see if you did not miss any answers on this step. You should be feeling good about this step.

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3. See if the following question definitely brings up some name you know of:

“Is there any specific person in your past who really transgressed against the precept: ‘Help take care of the planet’?”

If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:

“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”

If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.

“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?” 
“Is there any time when you decided that not helping take care of the planet was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___  and yourself?”

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4. Handle any anomalies that come up on the following question by looking at the anomaly more closely. 

”Do you have any reservations about helping take care of the planet?”

If the anomaly does not resolve then review the precept as well as all the exercise steps above to see if anything was missed. Then do step 4 again. When there is no anomaly go to step 5.

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5. Contemplate on the following question.

“Do you have any reservations about getting someone else to help take care of the planet?” 

If any reservation comes up, then consider the following: 

“How would that be a problem?” 

Get answers to this question until there are no reservations.

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Wrap up Precept 12

0. Review Precept 12.

1. Contemplate over the following question.

“Is there any conflict between safeguarding and improving your environment and any other ideas you have encountered?”

Handle any conflict with false data steps.

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2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers: 

“Have you thought of any other transgressions of others against the precept: ‘Safeguard and improve your environment’?”
“Have you thought of any other transgressions of your own against the precept: ‘Safeguard and improve your environment’?”
“During these sessions have you thought of any withhold?”

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3. Consider this question:

“Do you have any feeling that you wouldn’t be yourself if you followed the precept: ‘Safeguard and improve your environment’?”

If this is not the case, go to the Step 4. Otherwise, ask yourself,

“Can you recall any person who felt the way you do about the precept: ‘Safeguard and improve your environment’?”

If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:

“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”

If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.

“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?” 
“Is there any time when you decided that not safeguarding and improving your environment was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___  and yourself?”

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4. Check over the following questions. and handle any anomalies that come up.

“Do you have any other considerations about safeguarding and improving your environment?”
“Do you have any other considerations about others safeguarding and improving the environment?”

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