Rules

We depend upon rules.

Rules make it possible to drive automobiles with relative safety. They create harmony in the meditation hall (although perhaps not in our minds). Sports wouldn't exist without rules and athletes who won't follow them quickly become pariahs.

Rules work. I suppose that's why we never tire of making them.

But I've never found a set of rules that can accommodate the fluidity and wildness of everyday life. Even the Buddhist precepts, if understood as rules, fall short of the bewildering requirements of this vast world.

Still, something in us longs for the clarity that rules can provide. Just tell me what to do!

The rules above, written several decades ago by Sister Corita Kent, are among the best I've ever seen (at least as good as Robert Fulghum's rules, which are pretty darn good).

But Sister Corita knew something important about rules:  they quickly lose their ability to help us. That's why new rules will be issued next week.

Comments

[Bob]

I am always asking my teacher for the rules. The rules will help me stay on the path, the rules will let me understand my progress, the rules will keep me from going off the path; I hate rules they only show me where I screwed up.
12 years of catholic school; I never question a nun.

[Kogen]

This is wonderful! Thank you!