The Precepts of Ptah Hotep

Precepts of Ptah Hotep Even though The Precepts of Ptah Hotep is one of the oldest documents in the world, the precepts are still relevant to social customs today. To be more specific, the 19th precept is one that I agree with and believe is beneficial to everybody. It states: “Be not of an irritable temper as regards that which happens at your side; grumble not over your own affairs.” I believe this precept is beneficial because it focuses on being positive and not on being negative, and it shows respect to yourself and to others. Precept number 19 tells us not to focus on the things that go wrong with our lives and not to complain. It’s saying to let things go and to not dwell in the past. This precept ties into the whole reason for social codes. Social codes, like The Precept of Ptah Hotep, are meant to be followed; and as Collin said, if for some reason one is broken by a person, that person should be able to fix it, to make up for the wrong they have done by not grumbling about it, but instead working to fix it. This precept is very much like the well known saying “Hakuna matata” used in the popular Disney movie, The Lion King. The saying means no worries and is used in the movie to tell a character not to dwell in the past and be sad about things that he cannot change, but instead to be happy about the present. If you do dwell in the past and grumble about bad things that have happened to you, people will not want to be around you because of your negativity. It is disrespectful to only talk about the bad things that you have experienced when you are around other people. If you can never let things go, you will not be fun to hang out with and will end up alone. I think this precept is very beneficial to everybody because it relates to how you treat others and yourself, which I think is a very important thing to understand how to do respectfully. It is important to me because it is something I believe I can do better at. For example, if I have a soccer game and we lose, I usually try not to dwell on the fact that we lost, although sometimes I can’t help it. There isn’t really any point in getting myself or my team down that we lost because it won’t help anyone do better in the next game. It would be a very disrespectful thing to bring not just myself, but others down into the dumps. The smart thing to do would be to congratulate my team for trying, and to just focus on getting better. I believe that the 19th precept from The Precepts of Ptah Hotep is one of the most important. It not only stresses respect for the individual and the majority, but also on being positive. I think that everybody can improve on letting things go and instead of complaining, trying to improve things. People can benefit by following precept 19 by being more fun to be around and making yourself and others happier.