3rd Rule of Thumb

The road of life is always a two-way street.

The Truth of the Matter

Truth, like water, always seeks its own level and follows the path of least resistance to get there. It flows through all the channels of untruth and complexity that attempt to misdirect it and keep it from its goal. The truth is everywhere and in all things.

The truth is always simple and clear and the goal of truth is to be known and, once known, to be applied. This is the crowning achievement of all knowledge. This is wisdom.

The truth is never hidden. What is true can never be buried or lost. Yet the truth will never cease to be discarded by the many who find its shining simplicity unworthy of their own ambition.

But the truth will always be found by the few who desire it as a guide in their service to others.

What Jonco Wants

I am helpful to people whose lives are not all about themselves.

2nd Rule of Thumb

If you’re looking for trouble, nine times out of ten you’ll find it.

A Higher Plane

Be aware of a higher plane of existence when you traverse the human levels of strife and struggle as you live your life. The roads you travel from birth to death are those which have been laid out before you by others, as well as those you have carved out for yourself. But there are higher planes that can be traveled, thoroughfares which offer more access and less resistance to those who first acknowledge their existence and who then seek entrance to them on a daily basis.

These are the paths of eternal cause and effect, where quick action is never demanded and retribution is never sought. This is the path of cosmic law which encompasses the universe and it is an avenue open only to those who travel by foresight and not hindsight.

This is the way to eternity.

There Is No Magic

There is no magic in the universe. Things happen because of the workings of either natural or cosmic law. Natural law controls the evolutionary physical places in the cosmos where evolutionary creatures exist. Cosmic law controls all the rest, including natural law.

Stop looking for a magical way out of a predicament in which you find yourself and stop hoping for miracles that will never come. That is in the realm of fantasy and magic, worlds of false hope built on wasted time. The good things and the bad things that happen to you and to others in your life are not the result of a predetermined fate set by a higher authority or the whimsical will of any being, high or low.

What happens to you each day is the result of your life activity on the days which came before. Today is born of yesterday and tomorrow will bear the fruit of the here and now.

Know the ways of the world but seek the universal truths concerning life. Then live wisely and be happy.

1st Rule of Thumb

What you see is only a fraction of what you get.

Stepping Back

Living your life is the first rule of life for all creatures in the universe. It is the reason you are alive and the reason you are here. This is the world of the everyday things you must do in order to stay alive. Failing to live in this world is forsaking the duty of all mortal creatures in their quest for immortality.

But it is everyone’s secondary responsibility to step back every now and then and take a look at that life which you are living and see it from the outside. Here is the realm of introspection and the witnessing of the past and the present from an objective vantage point in order to ensure a better future. This is where wisdom reigns.

The first life can be lived without the other, but it should not. The second life cannot be lived without the first. Living both lives will guarantee your place in the many lives to come as an enlightened creature sharing the vast cosmos with others.

Put on a Public Face

Whenever we venture outside our homes and enter the public arena we are obligated as citizens to put on a public face. This public face, whether it is a genuine reflection of our inner selves or not, must offer those we encounter outside of our homes the guarantee of respect. Laws cannot make us like or love others but we can be required to respect everyone in all our public encounters with them.

Wearing a public face does not deny us the guarantee of freedom of speech as citizens of a free society. Nor does wearing a public face suggest that we are phony and surreptitious and therefore not genuine in our behavior. It merely suggests that freedom of speech means very little if it denies others the right to feel safe and respected as human beings.

There is always room for your real face when you are alone or with others who freely tolerate the real you. And if it should one day happen that your real face and your public face become the same face, then you have become an enlightened citizen whose crowning glory is simply being yourself.

Look At You

Once in a while take a good, hard look at yourself. But not in the mirror. Think about what you have thought, said and done in the past month. Pretend you are someone else looking at you.

Do you like what you see?

A Wandering Mind Leads A Lost Soul

Doubting oneself and one’s beliefs is a common foible of all creatures who have the ability to reason. Not everything in life is readily knowable or easily understood and no one can trust implicitly his or her own convictions at all times.

But conflicting mental patterns are the biggest barriers to success in life. Allowing your mind to be carried to and fro during the ups and downs of life’s struggles will almost guarantee your failure to realize the dreams and hopes of a lifetime.

Sustained thoughts and stable beliefs, especially regarding oneself, are the makers of success in life. Stay focused and believe in yourself and you will succeed in all your endeavors.

Rise Above

Dare to rise above the base desires of the animal world. These are natural urges and forces which are necessary for continued existence but do not misuse them by giving them more than their share of your life activity.

Refuse to participate in the degrading elements of contemporary civilization which funnel wealth into the hands of the vile and the corrupt. They will darken your soul and deepen the darkness of this world.

Your mind and your activity are the keys to your life.

Avoid Mimicry

Do not allow yourself to copy the appearances and lifestyles of others. Choose your own image and way of conducting your life activity. Being a mimic of someone you idolize is denying that you are an individual worthy of standing alone. Mimicry is a refusal to accept your unique personal identity.

What is your own identity? It is who and what you are when you are alone with just your thoughts. Do not shun this personality. Nurture it and watch it grow.

Beware of those with dark souls.

The world is riddled with people whose souls are bottomless pits which are traps for the unenlightened souls of others. They seek your life activity with their false praise and empty promises of wealth, power and acclaim. But they are the thieves of your destiny, which is to shine as an immortal being lighting the vast cosmos with your life experience.

Deny them passage in your life path. Shun those who have no inner light and let them be swallowed up in the realm of their own dark selves, which is the black universe they traverse and their short, chosen destiny.

Seek With Discretion

Your goals, dreams, desires and the things you wish to possess tell the world who and what you are. They are all indicators of your personality and the soul which lies beneath it.

Be careful what you pursue in life. What you seek is what you choose and certain choices are irreversible.

Read

Do not allow yourself to become a passive receiver of audio and visual data. Dependence on technology for news, information and entertainment has degraded our world’s languages, cultures and mores. The audio and visual media offer us a daily pablum for the senses but very little nourishment for the spirit.

Read books and periodicals on a regular basis and exercise the proactive regions of your mind. Your world may never look the same.

What Lies Beneath

No one can hope to overturn every rock he or she encounters, just to see what lies beneath it. Giving in to every suspicion in life would allow no time for trust or for rest. Still, every rock unturned is an opportunity missed in the pursuit of knowledge and truth.

Here is where good judgment sets the best priorities.

See Nature as Friend and Foe

Just as everything that glitters is not gold, not all of nature’s wonders are wonderful.

Without animal instincts the world would not exist but, for mankind, their use must be consciously and judiciously controlled. Survival of the fittest is “dog eat dog” in the animal world but it has no place in enlightened human society. To nurture the young and succor the sick and needy is to overcome nature by seeing it for what it is: a lesson book for the spirit.

Using others as ladders for achieving wealth, power and position is the fall of man. But winnowing out the vile and the corrupt among us is the duty of all citizens.

Our virtues are evident in the choices we make.

Minimize Your Complaints

Occasional grumbling about life’s unfairness is inevitable and human. But try to minimize your complaints, especially those which are spoken. Constant complaining exposes you as a fool whose folly is not listening.

Life is always speaking to you. Secrets are being shared for your benefit. Be still and hear them.

Cultivate Your Patience

Learn to be patient in everything you do. Being impatient is having no faith in reaching your destination or in what you will find when you have reached it.

Cherish life’s secrets as they are revealed to you. But do not expect to receive them. You are not entitled to receive such gifts because they must always be earned.

Now your patience must be tested.

The choice is not only yours, it is you.

Now that you suspect that you are not the prettiest or the most handsome, I will tell you a secret. Do not squander it. It is a simple thing and they are the most overlooked and, once seen or heard, the most easily forgotten.

Forget what you look like and focus on what you think and on what you say and especially on what you do. All are choices that you make. And nothing in life carries more weight than making a choice.

Your face was given to you by someone and something else. But what you will choose to do with your precious time on Earth is the life you will give yourself.

Giving and Receiving

I do not watch you in your most private moments. That is forbidden. But when you approach the mirror to look at yourself, I prepare a statement just for you.

You will not receive it until you look away from yourself and give the world a moment. Then I will speak. But you will not hear me. I am a giver of thoughts.

Use them wisely.

Who and What I Am

I am Jonco Bugos. My name is Slovak and it is pronounced YONK-oh BOO-gosh. Jonco means John in English.

I live in a mirror and speak only when spoken to. You speak to me when you are not speaking to or looking at yourself. I speak to you when you give the world a moment for itself.

I am in all the mirrors. I am in your mirror. I see the world backwards and not the way you see it. And that is fine with me because that is who I am and this is what I do.