from Verse Forty-FiveBeginning in formlessness, acting when there is no choice, if you want good fortune, first let there be no calamity; if you want what is beneficial, first remove what is harmful.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
This sounds like such commonsense -- a no-brainer! Unfortunately, when it comes to the human ego, we want our cake and to eat it too!!
Indulgences -- things that often are inharmonious or throw us out of balance -- satisfy our short-term desires. Too often, they lead to long-term problems, but we choose not to focus on such potentialities. No, we want what we want when we want it and to hell with the consequences.
We only focus on the consequences when it's too late to halt or mitigate them! We often wring our hands and promise to do better next time, but when the next time comes around, we follow the same damn trajectory.
Is it any wonder that we're so miserable!?
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Indulgences -- things that often are inharmonious or throw us out of balance -- satisfy our short-term desires. Too often, they lead to long-term problems, but we choose not to focus on such potentialities. No, we want what we want when we want it and to hell with the consequences.
We only focus on the consequences when it's too late to halt or mitigate them! We often wring our hands and promise to do better next time, but when the next time comes around, we follow the same damn trajectory.
Is it any wonder that we're so miserable!?
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
We are all so miserable?
ReplyDeleteWho is "we"?
"We" is so often a trap that leftists fall into, confusing how one feels with how everybody else feels. But nobody feels like anybody else.
I probably know what you mean, but will "we" all know?
For my part, I am miserable sometimes, but it is by no means my default condition.
But even when I am miserable, I have learned to seek out the useful things that abound in a state of misery.
Misery is another opportunity to enjoy the following state of non-misery.
I used "we" as shorthand for the human condition. We're each miserable -- in our own unique ways -- because we live through our egos and not through the formlessness of the Way.
ReplyDeleteI think you are talking about the Buddhist "suffering."
ReplyDeleteBaroness,
ReplyDeleteIt might be one in the same. I must confess that I know very little about Buddhism.