The Twelve Tenets
Preserving humanity in a digital age
These tenets support both individual fulfillment and collective wellbeing. The goal is not perfect adherence but honest engagement. Use these principles as reference points for reflection, growth, and dialogue.
The first six are inner qualities - more internal, being states. The latter six are more outer actions - external, doing practices.
Reverence - Respect the Web of Existence
Connect with sources of awe. Recognize your interdependence with other humans, other species, and the natural systems that sustain life. Act as a temporary steward rather than an owner of the resources you use.
Embrace Intellectual Humility
Hold your beliefs lightly. Stay curious about what you might be wrong about. Welcome evidence that challenges your assumptions. Distinguish between confidence in your methods and certainty about your conclusions.
Discernment - Seek Truth Through Multiple Ways of Knowing
Value both empirical investigation and intuitive insight, rational analysis and embodied experience, scientific method and contemplative practice. Different questions may require different approaches to knowledge.
Acceptance - Face Mortality with Grace
Accept the reality of aging, loss, and death while fully engaging with life. Use awareness of impermanence to appreciate the present moment and focus on what truly matters. Find ways to transcend the ego's boundaries.
Equanimity - Cultivate Inner and Outer Peace
Work to understand and transform the sources of suffering within yourself - fear, hatred, greed, rigid thinking, delusion. Create conditions for peace in your relationships and communities. Address systemic injustices that create suffering.
Practice Compassionate Wisdom
Seek understanding before judgment. Combine kindness with discernment. Remember that suffering is universal - respond to others' pain (including your own) with both empathy and practical help.
Stewardship - Create More Than You Consume
Preserve and sustain resources with future generations in mind. Whether through art, ideas, relationships, children, or service - contribute meaningfully. Leave the world better for your presence.
Embody Courageous Integrity
Align your actions with your deepest values, even when difficult. Speak truth to power when necessary. Take responsibility for your choices and their consequences. Admit mistakes and make amends.
Synthesis - Honour Tradition and Innovation
Learn from the accumulated wisdom of previous generations while remaining open to new understanding. Preserve what serves life; transform what causes harm. Meld ancient insights with contemporary knowledge.
Purpose - Balance Personal Growth with Service
Develop your unique gifts and authentic self, but not at others' expense. Your well-being and others' well-being are interconnected. The healthiest individuals contribute to healthy communities.
Dialogue - Make Connections Across Difference
Actively work to understand people whose backgrounds, beliefs, or experiences differ from yours. Look for common humanity beneath surface differences. Practice the difficult art of disagreeing without demonizing.
Advocacy - Question Systems of Power
Remain vigilant about how authority operates in your life and society. Support structures that serve human well-being; challenge those that serve only the powerful. Remember that you too can become corrupted by power.