My Four "Non-Tenets"

Over the past several years, I've developed four ideas that I keep coming back to, that feel true. I try to think of these not as facts, just ideas that resonate with me and my experience. They are my four "Non-Tenets."

1. There are stories and ideas that show up in all the world's religions, mythologies and belief systems. Some people take their particular stories as literal facts and their ideas as laws, while others see them as metaphors or signposts that point to larger truths.

2. One pattern that shows up again and again is the idea that 1) humans were once less wise but more innocent, and 2) with knowledge came insight, but also suffering, and 3) there is a way to transcend this suffering and be at once wise and simple.

At a macro-level, you could say this is the story of the evolution of humanity, but in the case of individual persons, you could say that this pattern is a path, and everyone is somewhere on it.

3. Every person is their own final authority, and decides what they believe for themselves, whether they want to or not. Even if you say that your authority is outside of yourself, you are the person making that decision. You can choose an authority based on the arguments and beliefs of others, or you can choose what resonates with you most deeply, in your own experience.

4. No one can control the outer circumstances of the world and their own lives, but everyone has the power of agency to affect how they experience and interact with the world.