Six Simple Rules for Becoming Human

That there should be six and not five rules was suggested by Bronislav Vinogrodsky following his Ancient Chinese sources; Rule Seven was suggested by Giuseppe Mascoli as a preventative measure against taking oneself too seriously.

The rules are meant to help those 11 520 real and genuine human beings that according to a very precise estimates of Bronislav Vinogrodsky currently (January 30th, 2016) live on this planet and for expanding the number of those who are willing to leave behind their animal totems and to stop imitating behaviour of various animals (hamsters, wolves, lions, cockroaches, rats, snakes, foxes etc), plants or mushrooms and are willing to enter into Socratic search for what is specifically human. It is admitted that the number of real and genuine human beings might be changing as this is being written and/or read.

The basic rules are devised and compiled for the benefit of all present and future real and genuine human beings in order to facilitate the preservation of their humanness and also for the benefit of those who strive to become human.

Rule One: No bullshit

Rule Two: No lying

Rule Three: No pretense

Rule Four: No pressure

Rule Five: No rush

Rule Six: No corrections, explanations and justifications

Rule Seven: There is no permanent rule here; instead it changes on a daily basis in a completely arbitrary way. So far the following arbitrary, changing-every-day, sabbatical (so called gratefully acknowledging Alexander Lavent’s help who at the right moment explained the notion of sabbath to several non–Jewish people) rules have been successfully implemented for a great benefit of all involved persons (in brackets - inventor’s name, if known, and the place where the rule was invented, if known):

Jan 26: No cats (Giuseppe Mascoli, Franco Maca restaurant, London)

Jan 27: No formal meetings longer than 50 minutes (Anthony Julius, Africa House, London)

Jan 28: Never interrupt unless extremely witty (Sasha Kazes, Langan’s restaurant, London)

Jan 29: No attachments, no strings attached, and no strings (Juris Sīlis, Jelgavas tipogrāfija, Jelgava)

Jan 30: Do not imitate others (Bislan Abdulmuslimov, Monterosso restaurant, Riga)

Jan 31: Nothing superfluous (Arnis Rītups, Riga International Airport, Riga)

Feb 1: Do not offend anyone unless it is necessary (Arnis Rītups, Institut francais, Villefranche-sur-Mer)

Feb 2: Keep your mind in hell and do not despair (Noted by Starec Siluan and transmitted by Yeoromonah Sofrony, Mount Athos)

Feb 3: Be attentive while dreaming (Arnis Rītups, Villa Franca)

Feb 4: After a fight one has to feast (Ancient custom still alive in Caucasus)

Feb 5: To every thing there is a season (anonymous as recorded in Ecclesiastes 3:1, translated for King James Bible)

Feb 6: Love God and do whatever you want (Augustine, Hippo)

Feb 7: Enjoy whatever you are doing or drop it (Alexander Piatigorsky, London, paraphrased by Arnis Ritups, Villa Franca)

Feb 8: Act courageously or stay calm (Common sense)

Feb 9: Remember, a sincere enemy can become your friend (Ancient wisdom)

Feb 10: The relations with friends should exist in the distance of two freedoms (Raivo Bitenieks, Liepāja)

Feb 11: Use sincerity as a fuel for energy of consciousness (Bislan Abdulmuslimov, Zaļā street, Riga)

Feb 12: Everything in the world should happen slowly and incorrectly so that a human being may stop being proud of himself. (Venedikt Erofeev, Moscow)

Feb 13: Live beautifully (Common sense)

Feb 14 (St. Valentine’s day): Fuck with mind not dick (paraphrase of a rule invented by Youri Knorozov, Moscow)

Feb 15: Surprise a friend (on the basis of the main rule of Sergei Diaghilev rephrased by Arnis Rītups, Berlin)

Feb 16: Reaction to a situation without understanding is always premature; with understanding – often superfluous (paraphrase of a thought of Alexander Piatigorsky formulated by Arnis Rītups in a train Lyon-Marseille)

Feb 17: Do not take more than you give (on the basis of texts by Clive Staples Lewis formulated by Tim Rice in an unknown location)

Feb 18: Do not fly too close to the sun (a lesson given to Ikarus and Daedalus, learned by Karlson, recorded by Astrid Lindgren, Stockholm)

Feb 19: Be the example of your thought; if necessary – use words (paraphrase of a rule of Saint Francis)

Feb 20: Say what you mean and mean what you say (Shahla Tarrant, Sanremo)

Feb 21: Help any person you know if you feel that now is a difficult time for the person (Magomed Musaev, Beaulieu–sur-Mer)

Feb 22: Give as a gift something you want to own (Ancient wisdom)

Feb 23: Remember – when you do not think clearly and precisely, Satan is playing with you (a principle used in some Italian circles in the Middle Ages, reactualized by Merab Mamardashvili, Moscow-Tbilisi)

Feb 24: Always leave a choice to a friend, never to an enemy (Wisdom of Ancient warriors)

Feb 25: In any given situation act in accordance with the moment’s structure (Rauls Zitmanis, Riga)

Feb 26: Do not let your principles to become your tyrants (Stendhal, almost)

Feb 27: Get rid of one of your fears (Gunta Bāriņa, Tel Aviv)

Feb 28: Love to pay (Yefim Ostrovsky, Moscow)

Feb 29: No Rule Seven applies.

Mar 1:  What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.

(Jean Cocteau, Villefranche-sur-Mer)

Mar 2: Remember that salvation and solution are found at the same place as danger and problems (Helderlin, almost)

Mar 3: Hide in plain sight (Edgar Allan Poe, unknown location)

Mar 4: Be, think, speak and act as simply as possible but not simpler (Albert Einstein expanded by Arnis Rītups, London)

Mar 5: Do your thing, your way (Oleg Alekseev, Riga)

Mar 6: Think! (Grenfell Prince, London)

Mar 7: Live fully (Episcopal church in Manhattan)

Mar 8: Find a friend (Common sense)

Mar 9: Act on the level of the impossible (Sergei Adonyev, Riga)

Mar 10: Occupy future (Arnis Rītups, Kiev)

Mar 11: Wait attentively and let it be (Ancient Chinese wisdom)

Mar 12: Habit deadens, be wrong (following Samuel Beckett as recalled by Richard Pevear, Paris with a slight addition)

Mar 13: Learn to forgive from those who have forgiven you (the practice of Orthodox church)

Mar 14: Ask questions and listen (Ignas Staškevičius, Palanga)

Mar 15: Keep in the flow (Ancient Chinese practice articulated by Bronislav Vinogrodsky, Moscow)

Mar 16: Become an island (on the basis of Buddha’s saying in relation to Culapanthaka as recorded in Dhammapada, Verse 25)

Mar 17: Remember, no man is an island (John Donne, almost)

Mar 18: Do not write more clearly than you think (following Niels Bohr formulated by Alexander Vilenkin in Liquid Art House, Boston)

Mar 19: Read the events of your life as corresponding to your state of consciousness (in accordance with the introduction to Siddur)

Mar 20: Do not hurry, you are already here (Aleksei Hvostenko, Sankt-Petersburgh)

Mar 21: Manage only yourself (Abdul Abdulkerimov, Menlo Park)

Mar 22: Enter the unknown (Andrew Fischer, California)

This emerging list of 365 arbitrary rules, one for each day of the year, will be continued. It is hoped that since January 26, 2017 the arbitrary rules will be permanently attached to each date of the year, except for February 29 that will never have Rule Seven, for the rest of the days of current calendar or humankind. At the same time the complete list will be open to various ways of personalization and randomization, adapting to the needs of each emerging individual consciousness.

At the time of completion of 365 arbitrary rules, the list will be widely and freely distributed in Latvian, Russian and English with future translations into Arabic and Chinese without claiming any copyright on the rules that can be freely translated and distributed in any form in any language used by real and genuine humans.

Currently we are looking for trustworthy persons who can devise a rule with a genuine intention of enlarging the number of real and genuine human beings in future, and lessening the animalistic and plant-like power of various human-like ways of living that actually represent attempts at imitating other kinds of life. Each rule will be evaluated by a secret commission to be or not to be included in the list of 365 arbitrary rules. It is assumed that such a list will be ready on January 26, 2017 at the latest.