Welcome to CULTure. Now, there are a couple of rules around here…

Worship money. Make money. Flush the toilet. Eat meat. Wear make-up. Shave. Fall in love. Break hearts. Watch TV. Live in the city. Go to college. Love what you do, but don’t do what you love. Preach to the inferior; listen to the superior. Follow the rules. Criticize the government, but don’t try to change it or leave it. Follow the crowd. Be the crowd. Don’t question of challenge things except if they are already being questioned or challenged. Settle. Compromise your values. Get used to it. Accept things passively. Don’t accept things passively. Hate your family. Complain about your life. Make friends for convenience, then stab them in the back to get ahead. Watch the news. Look outwards for help. Trust no one. Demand nothing. Laugh when you are made fun of—have a sense of humor. Don’t be sensitive. Be loved/lovable (a projection meaning please everyone except yourself). Wear clothes. Stay inside.

Sound good? Then the status quo is for you! Hesitant? Well, there’s another option…

Welcome to Counterculture. There are also a couple of rules you should know…

Worship the East. Complain about The Man. Dance freely. Be naked. Act care-free. Practice free love. Love everything. Profess tolerance and non-judgment. Worry about the state of the world. Be angry and frustrated about the state of the world. Take responsibility for saving the world. Talk about consciousness, synchronicity, and community. Meditate. Smoke/take substances, or act like you do. Be a vegetarian. Play music in groups. Care about the environment. Start a movement. Hug everyone. Gaze at people. Smile at people. Resist anything mainstream or conventional. Isolate yourself from the mainstream. Recognize the divine in everyone. Share your feelings. Don’t shave. Don’t wear make-up. Demand a radical transformation of society. Trust everyone. Write in a journal. Make art. Look inwards for help. Believe that you are free and everyone else is asleep. Try to wake people up. Think that you are right and everyone else is wrong; they’re just not listening; they don’t know what they want. Call your life “this world” and mainstream life “that world.”

…Now welcome to Dominique. She has some guidelines (ok, rules) too…

Have an attitude of gratitude. Appreciate the beauty of nature. Balance stillness and motion. Listen and evaluate. Ask questions. Love easily those who are like you. Work at loving those who are different. Learn lessons, relearn them, and practice them. Return to the source. Do not harm. Love. Explore. Be aware and mindful. Breathe. Pursue home and community, whatever that means. Pursue those “yes!” moments. Write to express and reflect. Read to imagine and learn. Value love, community, family, freedom, honesty, authenticity, ahimsa, awareness, life/health, spirituality, now, and nature. Live according to these values.

A little dogma in everybody! Hooray for dogma! We are set on our ways until we change our ways, and then we are set on our new ways. Lines easily blur between sharing and recruiting, teaching and preaching. We are intolerant of intolerance. We give advice to those who don't ask for it. We try to change people and things that don't want to change. We criticize the dogma in others and are blind to our own. We tear ourselves apart trying to simultaneously save the world and enjoy it...

DOGMA IS A SOURCE OF SUFFERING AND INJUSTICE.