"Ecce Homo" on Nietzsche autobiograafiline teos, kus ta võtab oma sõnadega (ja päris mahlakatega, sealjuures) kokku oma elutöö viljad. Ilmselt polnud just kõige targem valik võtta esimeseks Nietzsche teoseks just see raamat, kuna ta analüüsis siin oma teoseid, millest mul ülevaadet polnud. Teisalt andis see mulle põgusa arusaama Nietzschest kui indiviidist (või nagu talle meeldiks- üliinimesest), tema kirjastiilist ja teemadest, mis teda puudutasid. Teose algus oli paljutõotav- oli huvitav lugeda Nietzsche heietusi ühiskonna, moraali, kristluse, kaaskondlaste ja sakslaste suhtes. Raamatu lõpp muutus igavaks, aga ilmselt just seetõttu, et ma polnud ta teostega kursis. Vormilt meenutas see veidi Rosseau "Üksildase uitaja mõtisklusi". Nietzsche ülistas samamoodi üksindust, looduses viibimist ja väga olulisel määral rõhutas ta kliima- ja toitumisharjumusi inimese heaolu kujundamisel: "Kuid üksildus on minu hädavajadusi, teisisõnu, tervenemine, naasmine ensese juurde, hingetõmme vabas, kerges, värelevas õhus..." Nietzsche oli ääretult kriitiline tubase eluviisi suhtes: "Istuda nii vähe kui võimalik; mitte usaldada ühtki mõtet, mis pole sündinud vabas õhus ja vaba liikumise viljana- mida ka musklid poleks pühitsenud." Toasistumine oli Nietzsche meelest irooniliselt lausa päris patt püha vaimu vastu. Ridade vahelt tuli välja pisut ka Nietzsche zen-budistlik elufilosoofia: "Veel praeguselgi hetkel vaatan ma oma tulevikku- avarat tulevikku!- kui tüünet merd: mitte minid ihad ei säbrusta tema pinda." Eriti puudutatuna tundsin ma end Nietzsche kriitikast liigse lugemuse suhtes. Kui üldiselt seostatakse suurt lugemust positiivsete aspektidega, siis Nietzsche põhjendas väga hästi ära vastupidise argumendi. Nimelt kaotavad tema meelest õpetlased, kes ainult raamatuid lappavad, viimaks võime midagi oma peaga välja mõelda. Loomulikult annab lugemus juurde palju mõtteid ja ideid, aga seda enam vähenevad indiviidi autentsed mõtted. Pea muutub sisuliselt lihtsalt google'i otsingumootoriks, kust ei tule midagi originaalset. Loovus kaob. Eriti hästi ilmestab seda meie aegunud koolisüsteem, mille eesmärgiks näib siiski faktiteadmiste tuupimine, mis üldiseks tervikuks seostamata ja enesele lahti mõtestamata, peale eksami sooritamist unustusse vajuvad. Teisalt väitis isegi autor, et tema eelistatuimaks puhkamisviisiks on lugemine. See eest valib ta väga kriitiliselt oma lugemisvara. Mina selles vaatenurgas nii kindlameelseks ei jääks- loomulikult ei ole mõtet kõike lugeda, aga huvi tuleks siiski kõige vastu tunda ja lapse kombel ringi avastada- asjad, mille suhtes meil on eelarvamused, võivad tutvumisel hoopis vastupidise mulje tekitada. Teisalt suurte meeste papagoiks muutuda ka ei tahaks. Nietzsche ise väitis, et suured ja geniaalsed mõtted tulid tal just tänu haigusest tingitud üksinda olesklemisele ja raamatutest hoidumisele. Loomeperioodil ei lasknud ta endal midagi lugeda. Olen sama kuulnud ka paljudelt muusikutelt, kes loometöö juures ei saa teist muusikat kuulata. Ilmselt on väga lihtne kaotada nii oma autentsus. Üldiselt võis raamatust leida huvitavaid ja ka mitte nii huvitavaid mõttekäike ning anda endale põhiteadmised Nietzsche loominguga sügavamaks tutvumiseks. (Kaheks aastaks eraldusse minemine peab veel ootama)
Mõned tsitaadid veel: (turukärbes nagu ma olen, armastan ma tistaate)
"Vihavimm, mis sündinud nõrkusest, on kahjulik eelkõige nõrgale endale- kui aga eeldada rikast natuuri, siis on ta ülearune tunne, tunne mida valitseda on vaat et rikkuse tõend."
"Saksa vaim on indigestioon, seedehäire, ta ei saa millestki jagu."
"Õpetlane, kes õigupoolest veel ainult raamatuid "lappab"- filoloog mõõdua normiga umbes 200 päevas- kaotab viimaks täiesti võime midagi oma peaga välja mõelda. Ja kui ta parajasti ei lappa, siis ta ka ei mõtle. Mõeldes ta vastab ärritusele (loetud mõttele)- kuni ta viimaks üksnes reageerib. Õpetlane paneb kogu oma jõu juba valmismõeldud mõtete eitamisse või jaatamisse, nende kritiseerimisse- ise ta enam ei mõtle... Tema enesekaitseinstinkt on nürinenud; vastasel korral oskaks ta end raamatute eest kaitsta. Õpetlane on decadent. -Omaenese silmil olen ma näinud, kuidas andekad, vaba ja rikkaliku eelsoodumusega natuurid juba kolmekümnendais aastaid end "raisku loevad", saades tühipaljaiks tuletikukesteks, kes hõõrdudes sädeme- "mõtte" esile toovad."
"Vastuväiteid kutsub esile ka kannatamine üksinduse all- mina ise olen alati vaid "paljunduse" all kannatanud..."
"Lõppudelõpuks ei või mitte keegi mitte millestki- raamatud kaasa arvatud- välja meelitada häält, mida temas endas pole."
3/5
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Susan Brown "Does Work Really Work"
Those who do work (and they are becoming less numerous as our economies slowly disintegrate) are something — they are teachers, nurses, doctors, factory workers, machinists, dental assistants, coaches, librarians, secretaries, bus drivers and so on. They have identities defined by what they do. They are considered normal productive members of our society.
Whether machinist, dancer, teacher, secretary, or pharmacist, it is not only one’s skills that are being sold to an employer, it is also one’s very being. When employees contract out their labour power as property in the person to employers, what is really happening is that employees are selling their own self determination, their own wills, their own freedom. In short, they are, during their hours of employment, slaves.
Increasing the amount of free work in our lives requires that we be conscious of the corrupting effects of money and barter. Thus, baby-sit your friend’s children not for money, but because you want to do so. Teach someone how to speak a second language, or edit someone’s essay, or coach a running team for the simple pleasure of taking part in the activity itself. Celebrate giving and helping as play, without expecting anything in return. Do these things because you want to, not because you have to.
Whether machinist, dancer, teacher, secretary, or pharmacist, it is not only one’s skills that are being sold to an employer, it is also one’s very being. When employees contract out their labour power as property in the person to employers, what is really happening is that employees are selling their own self determination, their own wills, their own freedom. In short, they are, during their hours of employment, slaves.
Increasing the amount of free work in our lives requires that we be conscious of the corrupting effects of money and barter. Thus, baby-sit your friend’s children not for money, but because you want to do so. Teach someone how to speak a second language, or edit someone’s essay, or coach a running team for the simple pleasure of taking part in the activity itself. Celebrate giving and helping as play, without expecting anything in return. Do these things because you want to, not because you have to.
Ted Kaczynski "Industrial Society and It's Future"
In modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to satisfy one's physical needs. It is enough to go through a training program to acquire some petty technical skill, then come to work on time and exert the very modest effort needed to hold a job. The only requirements are a moderate amount of intelligence and, most of all, simple OBEDIENCE. If one has those, society takes care of one from cradle to grave. (Yes, there is an underclass that cannot take the physical necessities for granted, but we are speaking here of mainstream society.) Thus it is not surprising that modern society is full of surrogate activities. These include scientific work, athletic achievement, humanitarian work, artistic and literary creation, climbing the corporate ladder, acquisition of money and material goods far beyond the point at which they cease to give any additional physical satisfaction, and social activism when it addresses issues that are not important for the activist personally, as in the case of white activists who work for the rights of nonwhite minorities. These are not always PURE surrogate activities, since for many people they may be motivated in part by needs other than the need to have some goal to pursue. Scientific work may be motivated in part by a drive for prestige, artistic creation by a need to express feelings, militant social activism by hostility. But for most people who pursue them, these activities are in large part surrogate activities. For example, the majority of scientists will probably agree that the "fulfillment" they get from their work is more important than the money and prestige they earn.
For many if not most people, surrogate activities are less satistying than the pursuit of real goals (that is, goals that people would want to attain even if their need for the power process were already fulfilled). One indication of this is the fact that, in many or most cases, people who are deeply involved in surrogate activities are never satisfied, never at rest. Thus the money-maker constantly strives for more and more wealth. The scientist no sooner solves one problem than he moves on to the next. The long-distance runner drives himself to run always farther and faster. Many people who pursue surrogate activities will say that they get far more fulfillment from these activities than they do from the "mundane" business of satisfying their biological needs, but that is because in our society the effort required to satisfy the biological needs has been reduced to triviality. More importantly, in our society people do not satisty their biological needs AUTONOMOUSLY but by functioning as parts of an immense social machine. In contrast, people generally have a great deal of autonomy in pursuing their surrogate activities.
But for most people it is through the power process---having a goal, making an AUTONOMOUS effort and attaining the goal---that self-esteem, self-confidence and a sense of power are acquired. When one does not have adequate opportunity to go through the power process the consequences are (depending on the individual and on the way the power process is disrupted) boredom, demoralization, low self-esteem, inferiority feelings, defeatism, depression, anxiety, guilt, frustration, hostility, spouse or child abuse, insatiable hedonism, abnormal sexual behavior, sleep disorders, eating disorders, etc.
Among the abnormal conditions present in modern industrial society are excessive density of population, isolation of man from nature, excessive rapidity of social change and the breakdown of natural small-scale communities such as the extended family, the village or the tribe.
Our lives depend on decisions made by other people; we have no control over these decisions and usually we do not even know the people who make them. ("We live in a world in which relatively few people---maybe 500 or 1,000---make the important decisions," Philip B. Heymann of Harvard Law School, quoted by Anthony Lewis, New York Times, April 21, 1995.) Our lives depend on whether safety standards at a nuclear power plant are properly maintained; on how much pesticide is allowed to get into our food or how much pollution into our air; on how skillful (or incompetent) our doctor is; whether we lose or GET A JOB
may depend on decisions made by government economists or corporation executives; and so forth. Most individuals are not in a position to secure themselves against these threats to more than a very limited extent. The individual's search for security is therefore frustrated, which leads to a sense of powerlessness.
In primitive societies life is a succession of stages. The needs and purposes of one stage having been fulfilled, there is no particular reluctance about passing on to the next stage. A young man goes through the power process by becoming a hunter, hunting not for sport or for fulfillment but to get meat that is necessary for food. (In young women the process is more complex, with greater emphasis on social power; we won't discuss that here.) This phase having been successfully passed through, the young man has no reluctance about settling down to the responsibilities of raising a family. (In contrast, some modern people indefinitely postpone having children because they are too busy seeking some kind of "fulfillment." We suggest that the fulfillment they need is adequate experience of the power process---with real goals instead of the artificial goals of surrogate activities.) Again, having successfully raised his children, going through the power process by providing them with the physical necessities, the primitive man feels that his work is done and he is prepared to accept old age (if he survives that long) and death. Many modern people, on the other hand, are disturbed by the prospect of physical deterioration and death, as is shown by the amount of effort they expend trying to maintain their physical condition, appearance and health. We argue that this is due to unfulfillment resulting from the fact that they have never put their physical powers to any practical use, have never gone through the power process using their bodies in a serious way. It is not the primitive man, who has used his body daily for practical purposes, who fears the deterioration of age, but the modern man, who has never had a practical use for his body beyond walking from his car to his house. It is the man whose need for the power process has been satisfied during his life who is best prepared to accept the end of that life.
Another way in which people satisfy their need for the power process is through surrogate activities. As we explained in paragraphs 38-40, a surrogate activity is an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that the individual pursues for the sake of the "fulfillment" that he gets from pursuing the goal, not because he needs to attain the goal itself. For instance, there is no practical motive for building enormous muscles, hitting a little white ball into a hole or acquiring a complete series of postage stamps. Yet many people in our society devote themselves with passion to bodybuilding, golf or stamp-collecting. Some people are more "other-directed" than others, and therefore will more readily attach importance to a surrogate activity simply because the people around them treat it as important or because society tells them it is important. That is why some people get very serious about essentially trivial activities such as sports, or bridge, or chess, or arcane scholarly pursuits, whereas others who are more clear-sighted never see these things as anything but the surrogate activities that they are, and consequently never attach enough importance to them to satisfy their need for the power process in that way. It only remains to point out that in many cases a person's way of earning a living is also a surrogate activity. Not a PURE surrogate activity, since part of the motive for the activity is to gain the physical necessities and (for some people) social status and the luxuries that advertising makes them want. But many people put into their work far more effort than is necessary to earn whatever money and status they require,
Assuming that industrial society survives, it is likely that technology will eventually acquire something approaching complete control over human behavior. It has been established beyond any rational doubt that human thought and behavior have a largely biological basis. As experimenters have demonstrated, feelings such as hunger, pleasure, anger and fear can be turned on and off by electrical stimulation of appropriate parts of the brain. Memories can be destroyed by damaging parts of the brain or they can be brought to the surface by electrical stimulation. Hallucinations can be induced or moods changed by drugs. There may or may not be an immaterial human soul, but if there is one it clearly is less powerful than the biological mechanisms of human behavior. For if that were not the case then researchers would not be able so easily to manipulate human feelings and behavior with drugs and electrical currents.
For many if not most people, surrogate activities are less satistying than the pursuit of real goals (that is, goals that people would want to attain even if their need for the power process were already fulfilled). One indication of this is the fact that, in many or most cases, people who are deeply involved in surrogate activities are never satisfied, never at rest. Thus the money-maker constantly strives for more and more wealth. The scientist no sooner solves one problem than he moves on to the next. The long-distance runner drives himself to run always farther and faster. Many people who pursue surrogate activities will say that they get far more fulfillment from these activities than they do from the "mundane" business of satisfying their biological needs, but that is because in our society the effort required to satisfy the biological needs has been reduced to triviality. More importantly, in our society people do not satisty their biological needs AUTONOMOUSLY but by functioning as parts of an immense social machine. In contrast, people generally have a great deal of autonomy in pursuing their surrogate activities.
But for most people it is through the power process---having a goal, making an AUTONOMOUS effort and attaining the goal---that self-esteem, self-confidence and a sense of power are acquired. When one does not have adequate opportunity to go through the power process the consequences are (depending on the individual and on the way the power process is disrupted) boredom, demoralization, low self-esteem, inferiority feelings, defeatism, depression, anxiety, guilt, frustration, hostility, spouse or child abuse, insatiable hedonism, abnormal sexual behavior, sleep disorders, eating disorders, etc.
Among the abnormal conditions present in modern industrial society are excessive density of population, isolation of man from nature, excessive rapidity of social change and the breakdown of natural small-scale communities such as the extended family, the village or the tribe.
Our lives depend on decisions made by other people; we have no control over these decisions and usually we do not even know the people who make them. ("We live in a world in which relatively few people---maybe 500 or 1,000---make the important decisions," Philip B. Heymann of Harvard Law School, quoted by Anthony Lewis, New York Times, April 21, 1995.) Our lives depend on whether safety standards at a nuclear power plant are properly maintained; on how much pesticide is allowed to get into our food or how much pollution into our air; on how skillful (or incompetent) our doctor is; whether we lose or GET A JOB
may depend on decisions made by government economists or corporation executives; and so forth. Most individuals are not in a position to secure themselves against these threats to more than a very limited extent. The individual's search for security is therefore frustrated, which leads to a sense of powerlessness.In primitive societies life is a succession of stages. The needs and purposes of one stage having been fulfilled, there is no particular reluctance about passing on to the next stage. A young man goes through the power process by becoming a hunter, hunting not for sport or for fulfillment but to get meat that is necessary for food. (In young women the process is more complex, with greater emphasis on social power; we won't discuss that here.) This phase having been successfully passed through, the young man has no reluctance about settling down to the responsibilities of raising a family. (In contrast, some modern people indefinitely postpone having children because they are too busy seeking some kind of "fulfillment." We suggest that the fulfillment they need is adequate experience of the power process---with real goals instead of the artificial goals of surrogate activities.) Again, having successfully raised his children, going through the power process by providing them with the physical necessities, the primitive man feels that his work is done and he is prepared to accept old age (if he survives that long) and death. Many modern people, on the other hand, are disturbed by the prospect of physical deterioration and death, as is shown by the amount of effort they expend trying to maintain their physical condition, appearance and health. We argue that this is due to unfulfillment resulting from the fact that they have never put their physical powers to any practical use, have never gone through the power process using their bodies in a serious way. It is not the primitive man, who has used his body daily for practical purposes, who fears the deterioration of age, but the modern man, who has never had a practical use for his body beyond walking from his car to his house. It is the man whose need for the power process has been satisfied during his life who is best prepared to accept the end of that life.
Another way in which people satisfy their need for the power process is through surrogate activities. As we explained in paragraphs 38-40, a surrogate activity is an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that the individual pursues for the sake of the "fulfillment" that he gets from pursuing the goal, not because he needs to attain the goal itself. For instance, there is no practical motive for building enormous muscles, hitting a little white ball into a hole or acquiring a complete series of postage stamps. Yet many people in our society devote themselves with passion to bodybuilding, golf or stamp-collecting. Some people are more "other-directed" than others, and therefore will more readily attach importance to a surrogate activity simply because the people around them treat it as important or because society tells them it is important. That is why some people get very serious about essentially trivial activities such as sports, or bridge, or chess, or arcane scholarly pursuits, whereas others who are more clear-sighted never see these things as anything but the surrogate activities that they are, and consequently never attach enough importance to them to satisfy their need for the power process in that way. It only remains to point out that in many cases a person's way of earning a living is also a surrogate activity. Not a PURE surrogate activity, since part of the motive for the activity is to gain the physical necessities and (for some people) social status and the luxuries that advertising makes them want. But many people put into their work far more effort than is necessary to earn whatever money and status they require,
Assuming that industrial society survives, it is likely that technology will eventually acquire something approaching complete control over human behavior. It has been established beyond any rational doubt that human thought and behavior have a largely biological basis. As experimenters have demonstrated, feelings such as hunger, pleasure, anger and fear can be turned on and off by electrical stimulation of appropriate parts of the brain. Memories can be destroyed by damaging parts of the brain or they can be brought to the surface by electrical stimulation. Hallucinations can be induced or moods changed by drugs. There may or may not be an immaterial human soul, but if there is one it clearly is less powerful than the biological mechanisms of human behavior. For if that were not the case then researchers would not be able so easily to manipulate human feelings and behavior with drugs and electrical currents.
Ven. Thubten Yeste "Make Your Mind an Ocean"
Despite what you think, you are not free. I’m not saying that you are under the control of
someone else. It’s your own uncontrolled mind, your own attachment, that oppresses you. If you
discover how you oppress yourself, your uncontrolled mind will disappear. Knowing your own mind
is the solution to all your problems.
One day the world looks so beautiful; the next day it looks terrible. How can you say that? Scientifically, it’s impossible that the world can change so radically. It’s your mind that causes these appearances. This is not religious dogma; your up and down is not religious dogma. I’m not talking about religion; I’m talking about the way you lead your daily life, which is what sends you up and down. Other people and your environment don’t change radically; it’s your mind. I hope you understand that.
When you were a child you loved and craved ice-cream, chocolate and cake, and thought, “When I grow up, I’ll have all the ice-cream, chocolate and cake I want; then I’ll be happy.” Now you have as much ice-cream, chocolate and cake as you want, but you’re bored. You decide that since this doesn’t make you happy you’ll get a car, a house, television, a husband or wife — then you’ll be happy. Now you have everything, but your car is a problem, your house is a problem, your husband or wife is a problem, your children are a problem.
Lord Buddha says that all you have to know is what you are, how you exist. You don’t have to believe in anything. Just understand your mind: how it works, how attachment and desire arise, how ignorance arises, and where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know the nature of all that; that alone can bring you happiness and peace. Thus, your life can change completely; everything turns upside down. What you once interpreted as horrible can become beautiful.
If I told you that all you were living for was chocolate and ice-cream, you’d think I was crazy. “No! no!” your arrogant mind would say. But look deeper into your life’s purpose. Why are you here? To be Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: Make Your Mind an Ocean page 10 well liked? To become famous? To accumulate possessions? To be attractive to others? I’m not exaggerating — check for yourself, then you’ll see. Through thorough examination you can realize that dedicating your entire life to seeking happiness through chocolate and ice-cream completely nullifies the significance of your having been born human.
Realize that the nature of your mind is different from that of the flesh and bone of your physical body. Your mind is like a mirror, reflecting everything without discrimination. If you have understanding-wisdom, you can control the kind of reflection that you allow into the mirror of your mind. If you totally ignore what is happening in your mind, it will reflect whatever garbage it encounters — things that make you psychologically sick. Your checking-wisdom should distinguish between reflections that are beneficial and those that bring psychological problems. Eventually, when you realize the true nature of subject and object, all your problems will vanish.
No matter which of the many world religions we consider, their interpretation of God or Buddha and so forth is simply words and mind; these two alone. Therefore, words don’t matter so much. What you have to realize is that everything — good and bad, every philosophy and doctrine — comes from mind. The mind is very powerful. Therefore, it requires firm guidance. A powerful jet plane needs a good pilot; the pilot of your mind should be the wisdom that understands its nature. In that way, you can direct your powerful mental energy to benefit your life instead of letting it run about uncontrollably like a mad elephant, destroying yourself and others.
If you understand that satisfaction does not depend only on external things, you can enjoy both material possessions and peace of mind.
People should be totally aware of both what’s going on in their own minds and how their minds are relating to the outside world, what effect the environment is having on their minds. You can’t close your life off from the world; you have to face it; you have to be open to everything.
If you’re having a problem with your parents, maybe you can solve it in a month. But changing and overcoming the fundamental dissatisfied mind can take many, many years. The waves are easy; the ocean is more difficult
Nirvana is a Sanskrit word that means freedom, or liberation. Inner liberation. It means that your heart is no longer bound by the uncontrolled, unsubdued, dissatisfied mind, not tied by attachment. When you realize the absolute nature of your mind, you free yourself from bondage and are able to find enjoyment without dependence upon sense objects. Our minds are bound because of the conception of ego; to loosen these bonds we have to lose our ego. This might seem strange to you, that you should lose your ego. It’s certainly not something we talk about in the West. On the contrary, here we are taught to build our egos; if you don’t have a strong ego, you’re lost, you’re not human, you’re weak. This seems to be society’s view. However, from the point of view of Buddhist psychology, the conception of ego is our biggest problem, the king of problems; other emotions are like ministers, ego is king. When you reach beyond ego, the cabinet of other delusions disappears, the agitated, fettered mind vanishes, and you attain an everlasting blissful state of mind. That’s what we call nirvana, inner freedom. Your mind is no longer conditioned, tied to something else, like it is at the moment. Presently, because our mind is dependent upon other phenomena, when those other phenomena move, they take our mind with them. We have no control; our mind is led like an animal with a rope through its nose. We are not free; we have no independence. Of course, we think we’re free, we think we’re independent, but we’re not; we’re not free inside. Every time the uncontrolled mind arises, we suffer.Therefore, liberation means freedom from dependence upon other conditions and the experience of stable, everlasting bliss, instead of the up and down of our normal lives. That’s nirvana. Of course, this is just a brief explanation; we could talk about it for hours, but not now. However, if you understand the nature of inner freedom, you realize that transient sense pleasures are nowhere near enough, that they’re not the most important thing. You realize that as a human being you have the ability and the methods to reach a permanent state of everlasting, unconditional joy. That gives you a new perspective on life.
You have to learn to investigate the deeper nature of anger, aggression, anxiety or whatever it is that troubles you. When you look into the deeper nature of negative energy you’ll see that it’s really quite insubstantial, that it’s only mind. As your mental expression changes, the negative energy disappears, digested by the wisdom that understands the nature of hatred, anger, aggression and so forth.
When you look at the outside world you have a very strong impression of its substantiality. You probably don’t realize that that strong impression is merely your own mind’s interpretation of what it sees. You think that the strong, solid reality really exists outside, and perhaps, when you look within, you feel empty. This is also a misconception: the strong impression that the world appears to truly exist outside of you is actually projected by your own mind. Everything you experience — feelings, sensations, shapes and colors — comes from your mind.
Most of the decisions that your mind has been making from the time you were born — “This is right; this is wrong; this is not reality” — have been misconceptions. A mind possessed by misconceptions is an uncertain mind, never sure of anything. A small change in the external conditions and it freaks out; even small things make it crazy. If you could only see the whole picture, you’d see how silly this was. But we don’t see totality; totality is too big for us.
If you have the misconception that your life will be perfect, its nature will be up Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: Make Your Mind an Ocean page 35 and down. If you expect your life to be up and down, your mind will be much more peaceful. What in the external world is perfect? Nothing. So since the energy of your mind and body are inextricably bound up with the external world, how can you expect your life to go perfectly? You can’t.
L ook into your mind. If you fervently believe that all your enjoyment comes from the material objects and dedicate your entire life to their pursuit, you’re under the control of a serious misconception
A mind that has such strong faith in the material world is narrow, limited; it has no space. Its nature is sick, unhealthy, or, in Buddhist terminology, dualistic
Recognize the nature of your mind. As human beings, we always seek satisfaction. By knowing the nature of the mind, we can satisfy ourselves internally; perhaps even eternally. But you must realize the nature of your own mind. We see the sense world so clearly, but we’re completely blind to our internal world, where the constant functioning of misconceptions keeps us under the control of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. This is what we must discover.
To enter the spiritual path, you must begin to understand your own mental attitude and how your mind perceives things. If you’re all caught up in attachment to tiny atoms, your limited, craving mind will make it impossible for you to enjoy life’s pleasures. External energy is so incredibly limited that if you allow yourself to be bound by it, your mind itself will become just as limited. When your mind is narrow, small things easily agitate you. Make your mind an ocean.
One day the world looks so beautiful; the next day it looks terrible. How can you say that? Scientifically, it’s impossible that the world can change so radically. It’s your mind that causes these appearances. This is not religious dogma; your up and down is not religious dogma. I’m not talking about religion; I’m talking about the way you lead your daily life, which is what sends you up and down. Other people and your environment don’t change radically; it’s your mind. I hope you understand that.
When you were a child you loved and craved ice-cream, chocolate and cake, and thought, “When I grow up, I’ll have all the ice-cream, chocolate and cake I want; then I’ll be happy.” Now you have as much ice-cream, chocolate and cake as you want, but you’re bored. You decide that since this doesn’t make you happy you’ll get a car, a house, television, a husband or wife — then you’ll be happy. Now you have everything, but your car is a problem, your house is a problem, your husband or wife is a problem, your children are a problem.
Lord Buddha says that all you have to know is what you are, how you exist. You don’t have to believe in anything. Just understand your mind: how it works, how attachment and desire arise, how ignorance arises, and where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know the nature of all that; that alone can bring you happiness and peace. Thus, your life can change completely; everything turns upside down. What you once interpreted as horrible can become beautiful.
If I told you that all you were living for was chocolate and ice-cream, you’d think I was crazy. “No! no!” your arrogant mind would say. But look deeper into your life’s purpose. Why are you here? To be Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: Make Your Mind an Ocean page 10 well liked? To become famous? To accumulate possessions? To be attractive to others? I’m not exaggerating — check for yourself, then you’ll see. Through thorough examination you can realize that dedicating your entire life to seeking happiness through chocolate and ice-cream completely nullifies the significance of your having been born human.
Realize that the nature of your mind is different from that of the flesh and bone of your physical body. Your mind is like a mirror, reflecting everything without discrimination. If you have understanding-wisdom, you can control the kind of reflection that you allow into the mirror of your mind. If you totally ignore what is happening in your mind, it will reflect whatever garbage it encounters — things that make you psychologically sick. Your checking-wisdom should distinguish between reflections that are beneficial and those that bring psychological problems. Eventually, when you realize the true nature of subject and object, all your problems will vanish.
No matter which of the many world religions we consider, their interpretation of God or Buddha and so forth is simply words and mind; these two alone. Therefore, words don’t matter so much. What you have to realize is that everything — good and bad, every philosophy and doctrine — comes from mind. The mind is very powerful. Therefore, it requires firm guidance. A powerful jet plane needs a good pilot; the pilot of your mind should be the wisdom that understands its nature. In that way, you can direct your powerful mental energy to benefit your life instead of letting it run about uncontrollably like a mad elephant, destroying yourself and others.
If you understand that satisfaction does not depend only on external things, you can enjoy both material possessions and peace of mind.
People should be totally aware of both what’s going on in their own minds and how their minds are relating to the outside world, what effect the environment is having on their minds. You can’t close your life off from the world; you have to face it; you have to be open to everything.
If you’re having a problem with your parents, maybe you can solve it in a month. But changing and overcoming the fundamental dissatisfied mind can take many, many years. The waves are easy; the ocean is more difficult
Nirvana is a Sanskrit word that means freedom, or liberation. Inner liberation. It means that your heart is no longer bound by the uncontrolled, unsubdued, dissatisfied mind, not tied by attachment. When you realize the absolute nature of your mind, you free yourself from bondage and are able to find enjoyment without dependence upon sense objects. Our minds are bound because of the conception of ego; to loosen these bonds we have to lose our ego. This might seem strange to you, that you should lose your ego. It’s certainly not something we talk about in the West. On the contrary, here we are taught to build our egos; if you don’t have a strong ego, you’re lost, you’re not human, you’re weak. This seems to be society’s view. However, from the point of view of Buddhist psychology, the conception of ego is our biggest problem, the king of problems; other emotions are like ministers, ego is king. When you reach beyond ego, the cabinet of other delusions disappears, the agitated, fettered mind vanishes, and you attain an everlasting blissful state of mind. That’s what we call nirvana, inner freedom. Your mind is no longer conditioned, tied to something else, like it is at the moment. Presently, because our mind is dependent upon other phenomena, when those other phenomena move, they take our mind with them. We have no control; our mind is led like an animal with a rope through its nose. We are not free; we have no independence. Of course, we think we’re free, we think we’re independent, but we’re not; we’re not free inside. Every time the uncontrolled mind arises, we suffer.Therefore, liberation means freedom from dependence upon other conditions and the experience of stable, everlasting bliss, instead of the up and down of our normal lives. That’s nirvana. Of course, this is just a brief explanation; we could talk about it for hours, but not now. However, if you understand the nature of inner freedom, you realize that transient sense pleasures are nowhere near enough, that they’re not the most important thing. You realize that as a human being you have the ability and the methods to reach a permanent state of everlasting, unconditional joy. That gives you a new perspective on life.
You have to learn to investigate the deeper nature of anger, aggression, anxiety or whatever it is that troubles you. When you look into the deeper nature of negative energy you’ll see that it’s really quite insubstantial, that it’s only mind. As your mental expression changes, the negative energy disappears, digested by the wisdom that understands the nature of hatred, anger, aggression and so forth.
When you look at the outside world you have a very strong impression of its substantiality. You probably don’t realize that that strong impression is merely your own mind’s interpretation of what it sees. You think that the strong, solid reality really exists outside, and perhaps, when you look within, you feel empty. This is also a misconception: the strong impression that the world appears to truly exist outside of you is actually projected by your own mind. Everything you experience — feelings, sensations, shapes and colors — comes from your mind.
Most of the decisions that your mind has been making from the time you were born — “This is right; this is wrong; this is not reality” — have been misconceptions. A mind possessed by misconceptions is an uncertain mind, never sure of anything. A small change in the external conditions and it freaks out; even small things make it crazy. If you could only see the whole picture, you’d see how silly this was. But we don’t see totality; totality is too big for us.
If you have the misconception that your life will be perfect, its nature will be up Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: Make Your Mind an Ocean page 35 and down. If you expect your life to be up and down, your mind will be much more peaceful. What in the external world is perfect? Nothing. So since the energy of your mind and body are inextricably bound up with the external world, how can you expect your life to go perfectly? You can’t.
L ook into your mind. If you fervently believe that all your enjoyment comes from the material objects and dedicate your entire life to their pursuit, you’re under the control of a serious misconception
A mind that has such strong faith in the material world is narrow, limited; it has no space. Its nature is sick, unhealthy, or, in Buddhist terminology, dualistic
Recognize the nature of your mind. As human beings, we always seek satisfaction. By knowing the nature of the mind, we can satisfy ourselves internally; perhaps even eternally. But you must realize the nature of your own mind. We see the sense world so clearly, but we’re completely blind to our internal world, where the constant functioning of misconceptions keeps us under the control of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. This is what we must discover.
To enter the spiritual path, you must begin to understand your own mental attitude and how your mind perceives things. If you’re all caught up in attachment to tiny atoms, your limited, craving mind will make it impossible for you to enjoy life’s pleasures. External energy is so incredibly limited that if you allow yourself to be bound by it, your mind itself will become just as limited. When your mind is narrow, small things easily agitate you. Make your mind an ocean.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
The Taboo Against Knowiny Who You Are
Nevertheless, wonder is not a disease. Wonder,
and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important
things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and
intelligent and sensitive people from morons.
Most of us have the sensation
that "I myself" is a separate center of feeling and action, living inside
and bounded by the physical body—a center which "confronts" an
"external" world of people and things, making contact through the
senses with a universe both alien and strange. Everyday figures of
speech reflect this illusion. "I came into this world." "You must face
reality." "The conquest of nature."
This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the
universe is in flat contradiction to everything known about man (and all
other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not "come into" this
world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves,"
the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole
realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely,
if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be
true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of
themselves as isolated "egos" inside bags of skin
.We do not need a new religion or a new bible. We need a new
experience—a new feeling of what it is to be "I." The lowdown (which
is, of course, the secret and profound view) on life is that our normal
sensation of self is a hoax or, at best, a temporary role that we are
playing, or have been conned into playing—with our own tacit consent,
just as every hypnotized person is basically willing to be hypnotized.
The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against
knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently
separate, independent, and isolated ego.
Sometime, somehow, you (the real you,
the Self) will do it anyhow, but it is not impossible that the play of the
Self will be to remain unawakened in most of its human disguises, and
so bring the drama of life on earth to its close in a vast explosion.
and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important
things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and
intelligent and sensitive people from morons.
Most of us have the sensation
that "I myself" is a separate center of feeling and action, living inside
and bounded by the physical body—a center which "confronts" an
"external" world of people and things, making contact through the
senses with a universe both alien and strange. Everyday figures of
speech reflect this illusion. "I came into this world." "You must face
reality." "The conquest of nature."
This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the
universe is in flat contradiction to everything known about man (and all
other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not "come into" this
world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves,"
the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole
realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely,
if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be
true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of
themselves as isolated "egos" inside bags of skin
.We do not need a new religion or a new bible. We need a new
experience—a new feeling of what it is to be "I." The lowdown (which
is, of course, the secret and profound view) on life is that our normal
sensation of self is a hoax or, at best, a temporary role that we are
playing, or have been conned into playing—with our own tacit consent,
just as every hypnotized person is basically willing to be hypnotized.
The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against
knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently
separate, independent, and isolated ego.
Sometime, somehow, you (the real you,
the Self) will do it anyhow, but it is not impossible that the play of the
Self will be to remain unawakened in most of its human disguises, and
so bring the drama of life on earth to its close in a vast explosion.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Peter Ralston "The Book of Not Knowing"
We have to be willing to let go on familiar "landmarks" like our self-identity and cherised beliefs.
The supreme lesson of human consciousness is to learn how to not know.
Every aspect of a person's indivduality- indeed, his entire experience of self, life, and reality- is largery a product of the culture in which he lives.
In our culture, we spend most of our time looking outward in search of some satisfying experience. We focus on the circumstances of life- attaining our desires and avoiding our fear- yet, when all is said and done, we still find little satisfaction.
Since our experience is dominated by assumptions and beliefs, we're limited to pursuing a self that is more conceptual than real.
Cultural assumptions are part of foundation for our perceptions. We can't help but take them for granted. We look out from them, which makes it difficult to look at them.
By design, the modern human mind craves knowledge, especially in places where we can find none. When faced with absence of information, we'll make something up- we will believe and assume.
Without the clutter of opinions and beliefs, we are free of bias, and free to look in any direction. We are no longer stuck in beliefs or conventions, or limited by our cultural histories or individual past experiences.
If you think you are bad or stupid, clumsy of worthless, and that these assessments exist in the same category as having no legs, then you are just as stuck with them as you would be with a wheelchair.
On the other hand, if you realize that these attributes are conceptual in nature, immediately you will experience the possibility that you can change them, or get free of them altogether.
Usually, the strong influence that our feelings have on us is more readily apparent and acceptable than the fact that we're dominated by our own thinking.
The task of directly experiencing the real nature of Being requires that we recognize and free ourselves of any and every concept we have- even the subtle and hidden ones- about who we are.
To get free from culturally mandated destiny of a life spent trying to fulfill the needs of something unreal and unnecessary, we need to make a distinction between what is real or original within ourselves and what is secondary and conceptual.
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes- Marcel Proust
Feeling truly complete and whole, authentic, and alive only becomes possible if we recognize this fabricated self-identity for what it is, and seek out an authentic experience of real-being.
Moving through life unknowingly dragging along and expressing yourself as a conceptual conglomerate can only lead do dissatisfaction. Being ill at ease with one's self and life, feeling like something is missing or not right, or having a sense of being inauthentic in some way, are all directly related to our inability to distinguish between our real beings and conceptual selves.
There is no inherent problem in having concepts, but we must not trap ourselves into being concepts.
You're still alive and you're still you, so mind will naturally protect and promote all the beliefs behind the activites that keep you that way. Unless you think to question the validity of the assumptions behind all this, they will simply appear to you as reality.
Whenever you get there, there is no there- Gertrude Stein
In simple terms, once we think we are some way, this though will become confused with ourselves, and so must be preserved.
In fact, the vast majority of our survival concerns are conceptual- even many that appear at first glance to be physical. When we think of such objective aspects as where we live, what we wear, and what we eat, we might hold them as matters of physical survival. Procuring basic food, clothing, and shelter for ourselves is quite straightforward, and if it were just a matter of physical survival, our work would end as soon as these needs were fulfilled in any way.
The act of comparing yourself to others, the idea of being a good or a bad person can only occur in relation to others.
Our social survival is the source of every concern of self-image, self-consciousness, and self-esteem, and these issues don't pause for us, ever.
We are largery made up of concerns such as what people think of us, what we want them to think or fear they may think of us, what we think of ourselves, and what we present as ourselves to others.
Being happy is confused with being successful, or being comfortable, or having life turn out as desired, or being free from pain and suffering.
Using "happiness" as a survival goal puts it out of our reach- it becomes unobtainable "cheese" that motivates us forward in life. We are stuck moving from one obtainment to another, from one struggle to the next, sometimes feeling good about it and sometimes feeling bad, yet never actually and only being happy with whatever is taking place.
Being programmed with so many nonoccurring images and ideals, we can't help but experience a huge emptiness. We can't help but compare and contrast what isn't- fantasies of our future destiny, images of how we should be or how things should turn out, beliefs what life should be like, standards to which we should measure up- with what "is", or at least "is preceived", and find the "is" lacking. By extension, we find ourselves lacking.
An "ideal" is largery used as something to indicate what we are not. At best it provides a direction in which to go. At worst, it is something we use to beat ourselves up with because we find ourselves and our lives continuously lacking.
The idea that we deserve fulfillment sets up for endless disappointments.
Where does suffering arise? In our experience of something, which means it is created by the mind. There is no suffering in an object. If suffering is not inherent within the existence of anything, then experiencing something as-itself and for-itself cannot produce suffering. It is only within the interpretive mind that suffering takes place.
Still, it's not the having of a self-image that creates suffering, it's that we identify with it. Those may seem like the same act, since for us the mere having of an image of self is the same as identifying oneself via conceptual imagery. But this doesn't need to be the case. It is possible not to identify with the images we have about ourselves. We can allow it to be just an image, separate from the reality of the self. No matter what form the self-identity takes, the same principle apples. The very act of identifying one's self occurs "having" or "being" any number of perceives phenomena. If we don't identify with any of it, we can't suffer in our struggle to maintain or defend or to persist as any of it.
Suffering is actually produced by such familiar actions as judging others, trying to control life, clinging to ideals, and resisting or conforming to what's happening, and it is even produced in the activity of wanting.
We have many conscious and subconscious images of how we and life should be or become. Anything we experience that does not match those images- which is most of it- will be viewed, in both small and large ways, as threats or failures to the goal of attaining our self-agenda objectives.
It isn't getting what we want that makes us happy. It's being happy whatever we experience- or perhaps I should say, being happy regardless what we experience.
Obviously, the chanches of being happy must by definition be reduced to moments of achieving something we want, and to be completely happy we would have to have achieved all that we want- which is very unlikely since our wanting never ends.
If we find nothing missing in our experience right now- nothing that should be experienced that isn't experienced- then we can have no desire. If we have no future as a possibility, we will also have no desire, no craving, no wanting.
Complaining about my choice and generating images of more exciting activities only creates pain. Enjoying my work while I work and my play while I play produces no separation and so no suffering.
Ordinarily we tend to focus on aqcuiring whatever will fulfill our needs. With experience, we notice that our needs are never finally or ultimately fulfilled no matter what we accomplish.
Happiness is as much about being free from ourselves as it is about being free to be ourselves.
Earlier I pointed out that no matter what is accomplished throughout life, no matter how successfully you meet all of life's challenges, the end of the story is that you will fail. You will not survive. All goals accomplished and ordeals overcome will fall away. That may be depressing and unacceptable fact for a self. But to Being it doesn't matter. If happiness is dependent on successfully realizing your goals, then ultimately there can be no satisfaction. On the other hand, if you are happy working toward your goals, then your happiness is not reserved for attaining them. If you are happy with whatever you experience, then you are happy. Being happy is a matter of being happy, period. As far as being happy goes, your true nature is already happy; simply let it "be".
This ability to create a discipline is what allows you to get free of your own immediate self drives. Without discipline we find no access to freedom.
Genius is eternal patience- Michelangelo
The supreme lesson of human consciousness is to learn how to not know.
Every aspect of a person's indivduality- indeed, his entire experience of self, life, and reality- is largery a product of the culture in which he lives.
In our culture, we spend most of our time looking outward in search of some satisfying experience. We focus on the circumstances of life- attaining our desires and avoiding our fear- yet, when all is said and done, we still find little satisfaction.
Since our experience is dominated by assumptions and beliefs, we're limited to pursuing a self that is more conceptual than real.
Cultural assumptions are part of foundation for our perceptions. We can't help but take them for granted. We look out from them, which makes it difficult to look at them.
By design, the modern human mind craves knowledge, especially in places where we can find none. When faced with absence of information, we'll make something up- we will believe and assume.
Without the clutter of opinions and beliefs, we are free of bias, and free to look in any direction. We are no longer stuck in beliefs or conventions, or limited by our cultural histories or individual past experiences.
If you think you are bad or stupid, clumsy of worthless, and that these assessments exist in the same category as having no legs, then you are just as stuck with them as you would be with a wheelchair.
On the other hand, if you realize that these attributes are conceptual in nature, immediately you will experience the possibility that you can change them, or get free of them altogether.
Usually, the strong influence that our feelings have on us is more readily apparent and acceptable than the fact that we're dominated by our own thinking.
The task of directly experiencing the real nature of Being requires that we recognize and free ourselves of any and every concept we have- even the subtle and hidden ones- about who we are.
To get free from culturally mandated destiny of a life spent trying to fulfill the needs of something unreal and unnecessary, we need to make a distinction between what is real or original within ourselves and what is secondary and conceptual.
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes- Marcel Proust
Feeling truly complete and whole, authentic, and alive only becomes possible if we recognize this fabricated self-identity for what it is, and seek out an authentic experience of real-being.
Moving through life unknowingly dragging along and expressing yourself as a conceptual conglomerate can only lead do dissatisfaction. Being ill at ease with one's self and life, feeling like something is missing or not right, or having a sense of being inauthentic in some way, are all directly related to our inability to distinguish between our real beings and conceptual selves.
There is no inherent problem in having concepts, but we must not trap ourselves into being concepts.
You're still alive and you're still you, so mind will naturally protect and promote all the beliefs behind the activites that keep you that way. Unless you think to question the validity of the assumptions behind all this, they will simply appear to you as reality.
Whenever you get there, there is no there- Gertrude Stein
In simple terms, once we think we are some way, this though will become confused with ourselves, and so must be preserved.
In fact, the vast majority of our survival concerns are conceptual- even many that appear at first glance to be physical. When we think of such objective aspects as where we live, what we wear, and what we eat, we might hold them as matters of physical survival. Procuring basic food, clothing, and shelter for ourselves is quite straightforward, and if it were just a matter of physical survival, our work would end as soon as these needs were fulfilled in any way.
The act of comparing yourself to others, the idea of being a good or a bad person can only occur in relation to others.
Our social survival is the source of every concern of self-image, self-consciousness, and self-esteem, and these issues don't pause for us, ever.
We are largery made up of concerns such as what people think of us, what we want them to think or fear they may think of us, what we think of ourselves, and what we present as ourselves to others.
Being happy is confused with being successful, or being comfortable, or having life turn out as desired, or being free from pain and suffering.
Using "happiness" as a survival goal puts it out of our reach- it becomes unobtainable "cheese" that motivates us forward in life. We are stuck moving from one obtainment to another, from one struggle to the next, sometimes feeling good about it and sometimes feeling bad, yet never actually and only being happy with whatever is taking place.
Being programmed with so many nonoccurring images and ideals, we can't help but experience a huge emptiness. We can't help but compare and contrast what isn't- fantasies of our future destiny, images of how we should be or how things should turn out, beliefs what life should be like, standards to which we should measure up- with what "is", or at least "is preceived", and find the "is" lacking. By extension, we find ourselves lacking.
An "ideal" is largery used as something to indicate what we are not. At best it provides a direction in which to go. At worst, it is something we use to beat ourselves up with because we find ourselves and our lives continuously lacking.
The idea that we deserve fulfillment sets up for endless disappointments.
Where does suffering arise? In our experience of something, which means it is created by the mind. There is no suffering in an object. If suffering is not inherent within the existence of anything, then experiencing something as-itself and for-itself cannot produce suffering. It is only within the interpretive mind that suffering takes place.
Still, it's not the having of a self-image that creates suffering, it's that we identify with it. Those may seem like the same act, since for us the mere having of an image of self is the same as identifying oneself via conceptual imagery. But this doesn't need to be the case. It is possible not to identify with the images we have about ourselves. We can allow it to be just an image, separate from the reality of the self. No matter what form the self-identity takes, the same principle apples. The very act of identifying one's self occurs "having" or "being" any number of perceives phenomena. If we don't identify with any of it, we can't suffer in our struggle to maintain or defend or to persist as any of it.
Suffering is actually produced by such familiar actions as judging others, trying to control life, clinging to ideals, and resisting or conforming to what's happening, and it is even produced in the activity of wanting.
We have many conscious and subconscious images of how we and life should be or become. Anything we experience that does not match those images- which is most of it- will be viewed, in both small and large ways, as threats or failures to the goal of attaining our self-agenda objectives.
It isn't getting what we want that makes us happy. It's being happy whatever we experience- or perhaps I should say, being happy regardless what we experience.
Obviously, the chanches of being happy must by definition be reduced to moments of achieving something we want, and to be completely happy we would have to have achieved all that we want- which is very unlikely since our wanting never ends.
If we find nothing missing in our experience right now- nothing that should be experienced that isn't experienced- then we can have no desire. If we have no future as a possibility, we will also have no desire, no craving, no wanting.
Complaining about my choice and generating images of more exciting activities only creates pain. Enjoying my work while I work and my play while I play produces no separation and so no suffering.
Ordinarily we tend to focus on aqcuiring whatever will fulfill our needs. With experience, we notice that our needs are never finally or ultimately fulfilled no matter what we accomplish.
Happiness is as much about being free from ourselves as it is about being free to be ourselves.
Earlier I pointed out that no matter what is accomplished throughout life, no matter how successfully you meet all of life's challenges, the end of the story is that you will fail. You will not survive. All goals accomplished and ordeals overcome will fall away. That may be depressing and unacceptable fact for a self. But to Being it doesn't matter. If happiness is dependent on successfully realizing your goals, then ultimately there can be no satisfaction. On the other hand, if you are happy working toward your goals, then your happiness is not reserved for attaining them. If you are happy with whatever you experience, then you are happy. Being happy is a matter of being happy, period. As far as being happy goes, your true nature is already happy; simply let it "be".
This ability to create a discipline is what allows you to get free of your own immediate self drives. Without discipline we find no access to freedom.
Genius is eternal patience- Michelangelo
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