Ah this is so much fun, yes I have often contemplated the very same thing. Indeed the ‘mould’ that they set in place back then is as if the very outline of reality, the rules of the game.
And this one also! I have often wondered about something that is called these days a “growth mindset”, it’s a very popular ideology these days. I see it in a lot of high achievers, and for sure it was something that I was subject to for a long time. It could be summarised by this idiom in martial arts that a fighter trains for a competition and a martial artist trains for a lifetime, they are on an “endless path of self improvement”, never perfect but always striving to be better. It’s funny that the proponents of this creed see themselves as modern day samurais which of course gives a clue as to where this wisdom came from.
In this view of life there is never enjoyment and appreciation of this moment of being alive as each moment is merely an opportunity to progress towards something that can never be reached. And of course from this viewpoint anything that does not serve that ultimate (unreachable) goal is seen as a waste of time, enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive is then also a waste of time.
It’s funny that this “growth midnset” initially enjoyed a revival in popular culture and then lately it started to become a caricature with a new name of “grind mindset”. Where people clocked onto the silliness of what was being demonstrated, the next influencer with the 20 step guide on how to start your morning and how to measure this and that variable for ‘optimum performance’, that this is a life wasted in always pursuing something for the sake of the chase and nothing more, all very serious and sudorific also.
It is fascinating that these values simply flow from those spiritual values set up “back then”. It’s also fascinating that Richard was able to locate these new and genuine values which originate from the perfection and purity of the actual world.
What Peter wrote really hit’s bullseye with regards to the outlines of my identity - “that life is a ‘growth’ experience based on suffering”. This is ‘me’ as the high achiever, finding meaning in endless strenuous challenges. Unable to unreservedly place enjoyment and appreciation as the number 1 thing to be done. So it makes sense that I would make this ultimate achievement (actual freedom) into a sudorific challenge for ‘me’.
Accepting that it is easy and also that it will actually happen now (hence no more pursuit) is to put ‘myself’ out of business. Yet this is already happening and has been the past couple of days. I can no longer proceed in the difficult direction, I know it is a dead end. Now it is just the case of proceeding towards this new way of living known as actual freedom.
@cross.chrono Let me know if you’d rather I move this to my journal.