Flourish: to be in a state of activity and production; expanding in influence; thriving; visibly doing well. Prosper: to achieve economic success; succeeding at what one does.
Recently the truly excellent (IMHO) short film director and Scientologist Taron Lexton completed work on a visualisation of the 1981 nonreligious moral code by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, The Way To Happiness. It’s basically a feature film but the characters don’t have any dialogue as such; rather the narrative is provided by a word-for-word reading of the book, with the video imagery supporting and helping visually explain the content. Never seen anything quite like it, loved it, end of story. So here’s a quote from my favourite part of the book, the penultimate (second-to-last) chapter:
“Sometimes others seek to crush one down, to make nothing out of one’s hopes and dreams, one’s future and oneself.
“By ridicule and other means, another who is evil-intentioned toward one can try to bring about one’s decline.
“For whatever reason, efforts to improve oneself, to become happier in life, can become the subject of attacks.
“It is sometimes necessary to handle such directly. But there is a long-range handling that seldom fails.
“…The real handling of such a situation and such people, the real way to defeat them is to flourish and prosper.
“Oh, yes, it is true that such people, seeing one improve his lot, can become frantic and attack all the harder. The thing to do is handle them if one must but don’t give up flourishing and prospering, for that is what such people want you to do.
“If you flourish and prosper more and more, such people go into apathy about it: they can give it up completely.
“If one’s aims in life are worthwhile, if one carries them out with some attention to the precepts in this book, if one flourishes and prospers, one certainly will wind up the victor. And, hopefully, without harming a single hair on their heads.
“And that is my wish for you: flourish and prosper!“—L. Ron Hubbard
For more information about use of The Way To Happiness in upholding and restoring morality across the world, visit the website of The Way To Happiness Foundation. The Way To Happiness is © L. Ron Hubbard Library.