An algorithm gives you a guideline, an idea of how you want to lead life, even if you do not know where the path leads. Wherever that path may lead, if your set of self imposed instructions are “good” ones, the end result will also be “good”.
To lead life well is not so very difficult if you follow your algorithm and ride the wave. What rules do I try to follow? Well, if I were allowed one rule only it would have to be that much abused word “love”.
If I were allowed the luxury of spelling my algorithm out in more detail, it might go as follows.
Seizing the day.
Being as pleasant and kind to everyone around me as I am able to manage.
Not to dwell on the past or to worry about the future.
To keep engaged in something productive, beneficial and absorbing.
To eat well and keep fit.
To mend my roof and ensure that I have enough to pay my way.
To avoid greed and materialism.
To seek better ways for society.
To write and to spread my own eccentric views on how humanity can and should live.
For whatever reason, life of late has been a great deal easier. I do not claim to live in a state of permanent bliss. Norman Nirvana may live close by, but I can not claim his identity for my own. I am not a goody two shoes and I am frequently a curmudgeonly and grumpy old shyte. I have to watch myself very carefully and pull myself up sharply by my own bootstraps when I sense bad old habits creeping in.
But to live by a simple algorithm, a simple set of rules, is a great comfort, even if you have to remind yourself from time to time what those rules are. And to stumble back to the paths of righteousness when you catch yourself becoming an unreasonable or unpleasant old bore.
Algorithm, Flow, Happiness, Taoism
Mystical Experiences of Reality 