How to Write Your Personal Constitution | Planet Dharma

1. Principles to Live By: Writing Your Personal Constitution A Personal Constitution The term “constitution” refers to a document or statement of what is important to a town or country, and could equally be applied to a person, as a “personal constitution”. It’s a very illuminating exercise to write one’s personal constitution. What would we put in it? We might start with principles, what is important to us. For example, friendliness or truthfulness, or we might put in the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you). In any case, our ideals may or may not match our actions in our day-to-day lives; this is why it proves to be such a wonderful exercise to write them down. It’s an excellent mirroring exercise, and a challenge for each of us. It helps us to see whether we are walking our spiritual awakening talk. Start Your Personal Constitution: List Your Top Five Operating Principles To start your personal constitution, list your top five operating principles in order, from most important to least. Keep them where you can refer to them regularly, and then follow them as best you can in day-to-day situations. It’s perfectly okay to change them at any time, but once you do, then follow that new list. If you find that you’re changing them constantly and/or rearranging their order, it will reveal a lot about how you constitute your life and relationships. For example, you might place truthfulness above compassion, but can you think of a situation wherein this order might be reversed? If you can, then change the order in your personal constitution and live by that until you meet a situation that supersedes the new arrangement. Paradoxes in Your Personal Constitution: Ideal vs Practical When it comes to living out your personal constitution, you’ll also notice the dialogue about the ideal and the practical. If we place compassion as first, and it interferes with our comfort or relationships or habits, so which would we prioritize? One could make two lists — one actual (survival and career might be at the top of the list) and one ideal (the Brahma Viharas might rank highest). How would you envision navigating the relationship between them? This exercise is not about judging, nor moralistic assessment. It’s about self-knowledge and a realistic and reliable guide to attitudes and decision-making, This can clear a lot of confusion out of our emotional and mental processes. Read More Source URL:https://www.planetdharma.com/principles-to-live-by-personal-constitution/