Happiness (7, 8)
     
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Happiness

Happiness (1, 2, 3)

Happiness (4)

Happiness (5, 6)

Happiness (7, 8)

Happiness (9, 10)

Happiness (11, 12)

Happiness (13)

Happiness (14, 15)

Happiness (16)

Happiness (17)

Happiness (18, 19)

Happiness (20)

Happiness (21)

Epilogue

Sharing Happiness

LIFE

  
7. SEEK TO LIVE WITH THE TRUTH

     False data can cause one to make stupid mistakes.  It can even block one from absorbing true data.  One can solve the problems of existence only when he has true data.

     If those around lie to him or her, one is led into making errors and his survival potential is reduced.  False data can come from many sources: academic, social, professional, etc...

     Many want you to believe things just to suit their own ends.  What is true is what is true for you.  No one has any right to force data off on you and command you to believe it or else.  If it is not true for you, it isn't true.

     Think your own way through things, accept what is true for you, and discard the rest.  There is nothing unhappier than one who tries to live in a chaos of lies.  

     7-1 DO NOT TELL HARMFUL LIES.  Harmful lies are the product of fear, malice and envy.  They can drive people to acts of desperation.  They can ruin lives.  They create a kind of trap into which the teller and the target can both fall.  Interpersonal and social chaos can result.  Many wars began because of harmful lies.

     7-2 DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS.  There are considerable penalties connected with swearing or testifying to untrue "facts"; it is called "perjury": it has heavy penalties.

~~~ The way to happiness lies along the road to truth. ~~~

 

     -truth: that which agrees with the facts and observations; logical answers resulting from looking over all the facts and data; a conclusion based on evidence uninfluenced by desire, authority or prejudice; an inevitable (unavoidable) fact, no matter how arrived at.

     -lies: false statements or pieces of information deliberately presented as being true; a falsehood; anything meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.

8. DO NOT MURDER

     Most races, from the most ancient times to the present, have prohibited murder and punished it heavily.  Sometimes this has been broadened to say, "Thou shalt not kill," when a later translation of the same work has found it to read, "Thou shalt not murder."

     There is considerable difference between these two words: "kill" and "murder".  A prohibition against all killing would rule out self-defense; it would tend to make it illegal to handle a serpent coiling to strike the baby; it would put a race on a diet of vegetables.  I am sure you can see many illustrations of the difficulties raised by a prohibition against all killing.

     "Murder" is another thing entirely.  By definition it means: "the unlawful killing of one (or more) human being(s) by another, especially with malice aforethought".  One can easily see that in this age of violent weaponry, murder would be all too easy.  One could not exist in a society where oneself or one's family or friends were at the mercy of some who went about casually taking lives.

     Murder justly bears the highest priority in social prevention and retaliation.  The stupid, the evil and the insane seek to solve their real or imagined problems with murder.  And they have been known to do it for no reason at all.

     Get behind any demonstratedly effective program that handles this threat to Mankind and push.  Your own survival could depend on it.

~~~ The way to happiness does not include murdering or your friends, your family or yourself being murdered. ~~~

 

     -murder: the unlawful killing of one (or more) human being(s) by another, especially with malice aforethought (intending to do so before the act).