The 10 Kenough Tenets

Here is a short list of suggestions I thought of that could be useful for people to structure and guide their lives around. There are 10 points (one for each finger on both hands, so easy to remember) that I believe could serve useful for people to practice and adopt into their lives. The following “10 Tenets” (a reference to the 10 Commandments of the Bible) are not “commandments” in any sense, but rather suggestions that people can consider and experiment with. Each principle (listed in no particular order of importance) is summed up in one sentence, and has a brief explanation that further elaborates on why these ideas could serve as helpful guiding tools of importance. I hope that these 10 points help people discover and lead more fulfilling lives in both relation to their individual selves and their surrounding family, friends, and community.

To read the explanation for each Tenet, please either click on the links below or scroll down this page:

1. I am Kenough. You are Kenough. We are Kenough.

“I am Kenough” (Kenough being a play on the name "Ken" and the word “enough”) refers to the line that Blonde Ken (played by Ryan Gosling) wears on a sweatshirt in the last scene he appears in the “Barbie” movie. This first tenet expands on this line to argue that people should recognize that they are, first and foremost, autonomous human beings that are not totally defined by externally imposed identities, systems of power, or primal biological instincts. In particular, true to the philosophy of the Barbie movie, I suggest that people should not limit or trap themselves to a primitive life of seeking sexual attraction and gratification. People are inherently worthy of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness merely by their own independent and metaphysical existence. This does not mean that people are perfect and without flaws, are able of becoming perfect, or should try to achieve perfection with the expectation of success. Rather, it is an acknowledgement that our own independent existences as autonomous human beings validate our desires for freedom, liberty, and happiness. We should explore how to achieve those three things in a way that does not deny other people the right to their own freedom, liberty, and happiness as well.

2. Learn more about yourself

As a follow-up to Tenet #2, we should take time to reflect upon our current motivations, hopes, and dreams. What inspires us to live our lives, and what do you ultimately hope to achieve? In particular, you should consider adopting greater retrospection and reconsideration if you currently prioritize sexual attention and manifesting your sexual fantasies. Just because you had a life goal or ambition earlier in your life does not mean that you need to continue actively working towards those life goals and ambitions. People change over time, and therefore it is natural for people to want to change what to live for as well. Never lead life in a straight path, but actively dare to pivot.

3. Reevaluate your interests, priorities, and goals

You likely know much about yourself, in particular what you enjoy and what brings meaning into your life. However, we should consider that the journey of self-discovery is never truly over, but rather a constantly occurring process that exists throughout our lives, no matter where we are and at any given age. Whatever you think you know about yourself, We should challenge ourselves to actively seek what else the wider universe offers that could be of interest to you. Dare yourself to venture beyond what you already know and love to see what else you can come to enjoy and take pleasure in. Go to a library and read new books, watch new TV shows/movies, play new sports, listen to new genres of music, and experience new forms of art that you previously hadn’t ever considered interacting with. Who knows? - You might come to find that what you truly love, what truly gives pleasure to your life, is something you didn’t actively engage in your past life.

Introduction

4. Cultivate a healthy body

“Anima sana in corpore sano” is a Latin phrase that can be translated to “a sound mind, in a sound body”. While a person’s mind can comprehend ideas beyond the physical realm and metaphysical reality, it is helpful to remember that our abilities to think and wonder are still ultimately cognitive functions that extend from our brains. In other words, our minds are attached to our bodies. In order to thus maximize and optimize our ability to think and comprehend, it is probably in our interest for us to seek an active lifestyle that produces and results in a physiological healthy body. If we can foster our body’s health, we will consequently foster our mind’s health. We should not limit ourselves to achieving and seeking healthy bodies corresponds to a certain stereotypical or socially idealized form of body. Men, for example, do not necessarily have to achieve prominent muscular builds with six-pack abs. Rather, we should strive to seek and attain bodies that would be considered healthy under any professional medical criteria; there is no single body type or structure that monopolizes the concept of health.

5. Seek healthier/healthy diets

As a follow-up to Tenet #3, that people should actively seek out and consume a diverse range of food that would foster a healthy body. This does not mean adhering to only select cuisines or following strict dietary styles. Rather, (especially in consideration of Point #2) people should seek foods from multiple cultures and traditions that could enable their health. We should acknowledges that not everyone in every environment has the ability to purchase or access to nutritional foods, nor does everyone have the resources, space, and time to grow one’s one food. While respecting and admitting that challenges for equal access to nutritional foods exist, we should nonetheless maintain that it is in our best interest to encourage people to actively yearn for healthier diets in order to build healthier bodies and minds.

7. Dare to pray and meditate

In conjunction with Tenet #6, those who are spiritually curious should consider regularly consider praying and meditating (regularly being scrutiny to each individual’s available time and need). Praying does not necessarily in attempting to communicate with a God or gods. Moreover, the notion of prayer should not be seen as a means to ask God or gods for personal favors and gifts (particularly if such favors or gifts are in the request of sexual satisfaction and desire). In fact, prayer should be done without the expectation that there will be any divine answer or reply at all. Rather, prayer should be understood as a means for people to recognize their own flaws and fragility, and submit themselves to the universe for wider retrospection and contemplation. As intelligent as we are as individuals and a collective human species, we must reconcile that we are limited in our ability to perceive the universe and attain perfection. As much, in recognition of the limitation of our individual abilities and boundaries of our humanity, we should approach prayers as acts of humility. Through prayer, we can recognize our vulnerabilities as human beings. With meditation, we can then further reflect upon and grapple with our flawed humanity, and then seek ways to address and improve it. We should not preach one particular form or style of prayer and meditation over others. Prayer can be done in speech to God or certain gods, or just as humble announcements to the cosmos universe (perhaps as a form of pantheism). It can be said out loud or spoken silently in one’s mind. It can be done outside in a public setting where such activity is permitted (such as a park, a forest, a religious building, etc.) or in the comforts of own’s private home. It can be done alone or in together in unison with people you love and care about. It does not matter how one prays or meditates, but rather that one tries to do so.

6. Explore spirituality

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of distinct religious traditions across the different countries, continents, cultures, and civilizations that make up our shared world. I believe that it is in everyone’s interest to actively engage in and foster a spiritual lifestyle. Why? Well, the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences can help us (to a limited extent) understand and comprehend the universe in the aspects of “what”, “when”, “where”, and “how”. Spirituality can help us understand the universe from the prism of “why”.

If you come from a family, culture, and/or community with an established spiritual tradition and religious faith, then regardless of how much you (think you) already know, you should take effort to learn more about that tradition and faith. Ask questions and listen to your parents, guardians, and elders; engage with your community’s spiritual leaders; read your tradition’s sacred texts; and reflect upon what this all means to you. For example, if you belong to a certain denomination within the Jewish or Christian faiths, then I would encourage that you (1) read the Bible, (2) regularly attend a local synagogue/church, (3) regularly talk with a rabbi/pastor/priest, and (4) actively engage with a synagogue/church community (particularly through acts of charity and volunteerism). If you have thoroughly explored and felt that you have learned enough about your family, culture, and/or community’s religion, but are not satisfied with that spiritual tradition, then perhaps the next step forward would be for you to begin exploring and learning about other traditions, whether it be different denominations within the same religion or a new religion altogether. Likewise, if you come from a family, culture, or community without an identifiable spiritual faith, then it likely in your best interest for you to explore and learn about a religion that could be of interest to you.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of acknowledging or worshipping a specific imagined deity (be it God or gods), then perhaps you should consider non-theistic faiths, such as Buddhism. I do not support dogmatism or blind faith without active reason or reflection. Spirituality - and religion, as a collective template that channels spirituality into an organized way of life - should be a means to liberate oneself from the anxieties and fears that exist in everyday life. However, I believe that the only way to do so is through actively engaging with and reflecting upon faith. Submitting yourself as a slave to theological dogmatism and pedagogical religious hierarchs would defeat this purpose.

8. Aspire to make other people happy. Become a supportive community member.

While it is certainly important and laudable for one to seek self-fulfillment through individual acts of self-discovery, learning, and pleasure, we should understand that a life lived solely in the pursuit of self-interest cannot be maximally fulfilling or meaningful. Like it or not, we as human beings are social creatures. We belong to families, friend groups, communities, and cultures. Rather than aspiring to separate and distance ourselves from other people, we should aspire to connect more with the people closest to our lives. Whether it be people we are related to and/or know about or strangers who happen to live within our geographic vicinity, we should idealize a world where we take joy in bringing happiness to, empowering, and liberating the people around them. This can be in large and socio-economically powerful ways, such as donating generously to charitable causes or volunteering regularly to different social organizations. However, it can also be in a smaller, yet still kind gestures, such as regularly thanking bus drivers and calling one’s parents on their birthdays. Particularly, if older, wiser, and more experienced people sees a younger and more inexperienced people struggling in familiar ways, then the former should actively strive to help the latter. Whether it be providing them professional and workplace mentorship, advice on basic life tasks (how to do taxes, how to register to vote, etc.), or even just paying for someone else’s lunch because you see they are in a clearly financially distressed state, we should take into consideration the physical, mental, and emotional well beings of others in addition to ourselves.

10. Seek platonic friendships with members of the sex that you are attracted to

As human beings, per our innate nature, we have and often follow physical desires that bring us pleasure. Such examples include alcohol, drugs, obsessive visual entertainment, and, yes, sexual fulfillment. I do not advice that people should strive to completely abandon these physical sensations from their lives, in part because doing so would be a denial of the state of one’s humanity. However, maybe we should consider abstaining from indulging in one or more behaviors of physical gratification, largely so that practitioners can learn to find other ways that can bring them meaning (as per Tenet#2 and #3). For example, true to the heart of the Barbie movie, for example, we may find that taking a pause from sexual activity may liberate themselves from a life that chains them to our need for sexual attention. Self-control does not need to follow a set time period, and we should encourage people to dedicate themselves to self-discipline within time frames that are suitable and meaningful for them. This can be for one month, three months, six months, one-year, multiple years, etc. Importantly, self-discipline be deliberately voluntary. Acts of self-discipline derived from situations where other people refuse to help indulge your desires does not count. For example, members of the involuntary celibate (“incel”) online subculture are not committing themselves to temporary self-discipline, as they are not making the necessary self-sacrifice on their own part. Rather, they are generally being denied their desires by women. A valid example of voluntary self-discipline would be someone who takes a mental health break from dating life and active romance. Once people believe that they have properly fulfilled and concluded the meaningful necessity for self-discipline - and hopefully attained the inner-peace that they originally sought - then we should encourage people to re-indulge with whatever they were limiting beforehand (to the extent that it is, of course, legal, healthy, and not harmful to others).

9. Consider adopting a form of temporary self-discipline

In line with the theme of abstinence in Tenet #9, we should strive to foster a world where people can remain in active and beneficial friendships despite sexual interest. Most people exhibit some form of sexual attraction to one group of people, and it is natural to want to seek attention and sexual fulfillment from people that we find attractive. That said, refusing to see members of groups that we are attracted to as anything but objects who can fulfill our sexual fantasies not only insults and degrades those people, but also traps us in a state of sexual obsession that prevents us from being able to benefit from a diverse range of platonic relationships (which is in line with Tenet #2 and #8). Instead, I believe that people, particularly men, should make active efforts to form healthy relationships with people where it is established from the onset that no expectation of sexual activity will be performed or desired. For example, heterosexual men should perhaps become friends with women that they recognize as attractive, but do so in a way that controls their sexual urges and respects these women as human beings with their own feelings, hopes, and dreams (and not just sex desires). A world in which people, especially heterosexual men, can interact with people they are otherwise attracted to is one that is better prepared and positioned to establish better love and justice.

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