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Our universe functions on a super-abundance of energy: the sun freely shares massive amounts of energy, yet we are concerned with scarcity and hoarding.
Our worry is survival. However, we have developed an economy around desire fulfillment, which is never sated and easily converts "want" to "need": amidst excess, we experience lack.
(source: Bataille)
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we privilege, specific traits: being beautiful, smart, or athletic. Every society will value specific genetic traits. When being born with them, especially with two or more, it is like being a superhero.
These traits should be celebrated, as the individual can be seen as a model for what’s possible, and equally, the gifted should be humbled by recognizing their luck.
A problem develops when someone is born with a gift, and yet must subvert or hide it in order to avoid jealousy. It speaks of a twisted society that would allow such small-minded persecution.
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We have a desire; we chase it, catch it, and consume it. We then need another passion. Our hands are full, but as we grasp for more, we inevitably drop once meaningful pieces of ourselves.
There is a "one-in-one-out" policy when we relate to desire as captured objects. You can clutch them to you but only hold so many; thus, they fall away as you dart about in pursuit.
Or, you can let them pass through you as they arise, enjoying them without possessing them. This is love without attachment or ego making demands or expecting reciprocation. And you are still present and full of enjoyment without the grasping.
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Your identity is your form, which is an act. To be “you” is to behave as people imagine you should, even as you imagine “you” should.
However, beneath the act is a profound awareness that is not identifiable: it is formless and still you.
From this formless awareness, the fears, wants, and concerns of the self (the act of “you”) are merely passing desires to which we desperately cling to maintain a recognizable shape.
The idea that “to find yourself,” you double down on “you” only increases the identification with fear, wanting, and desire: you build a stronger shape/form which you then need to maintain.
To find peace, we need “to lose yourself.”
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There has become a doubling, where once the observer was doing violence to the observed through objectification or judgment.
The observer has always been attacked back: overstimulated with impossible desires and pitched ads. But today the viewer is made aware of their position as objectifiers and consumers, complicit as the cause of celebrity anxiety and depression.
The observer observes themself observing, inflicting damage upon themselves for causing the double-bind of the celebrity who is anxiously unable to fulfill their image or be themself.
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Everyone is supposed to find their purpose for happiness, fulfillment, or well-being.
Most are Judeo-Christian ethics, which means our purpose aligns with societal influence: we want to be “good” people. Your purpose is commendable but is it yours?
Give up on being a good person, and accept yourself as a person. By shedding as much of the societal pressure as possible and following your passions, you stand a chance to find your purpose.
It is odd that you must give up trying and drift into your purpose: seeking it leads to mimicking other people’s purpose.
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To desire is to want something beyond you, and in approaching it your psychology dredges forth all the pains of wanting and not receiving, all the failures of the past.
Even if we receive what we crave it disgorges the toxins simultaneously, causing us to flinch away as we grasp, causing sabotage as we approach fulfillment.
This desire/repulsion creates a loop of approach and retreat: a self-frustrating and painful cycle.
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My buddy can manifest. However, he is frustrated when others resist alignment with his desires.
Manifestation must be a powerful head trip. The danger is to use it as a tool: to bend the mystery of summoning into a transactional demand is contrary to the spirit of the source.
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To renounce something is to tie yourself to it forever: you are now in a constant battle.
Your energy spent fighting empowers it in direct proportion.
The only way to drop a desire is to understand it: to see through it, then it drops itself.
(from Anthony DeMello)
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It takes pain over time to become courageous. Mostly we don’t want to change; we want relief.Yet, there is a threshold of despair from which cowardice costs too much.
The goal is to reduce the time it takes to react until you are spontaneous: you courageously avoid long-term pain and temporary relief.
