417. An Endless Project

The range of our awareness is always unknown. We might feel we are fully aware of a particular experience only to later realize that there is more to it than we thought. We might feel that our actions towards others are compassionate only to discover they do not seem to meet anyone’s needs. We might feel we know how to share our awareness with others only to find that we cannot communicate it easily.

416. The Only One You Have

You just want to be free. Free to create the life you want for yourself. Free to build the world you want to have with others. Free to have new experiences that go beyond what you’ve already done. But you’re here, trapped in an intermediate form of life somewhere between bare survival and achieving your dreams.

Sometimes success feels so close, as though you could actually step into it. But then one thing or another drags you back into a struggle that you thought you were finished with. There’s always more struggle. Even when you believe you have things under control, there is somehow still more.

415. More To Be Created

What does it mean to say that an artwork contains a mistake? Putting aside the obvious case where the artist declares some part to be a mistake, is it even possible for an artwork to be wrong?

When we say something is wrong, it is because it doesn’t reach the standard or norm that we’ve applied to it. We feel it falls short in some way that it shouldn’t. This kind of judgment makes sense when we’re examining something where an error could cause harm. We want to minimize the harm done to ourselves and others so we enforce our norms in an attempt to ensure this happens.

414. Delusional Relationships

Firmly attached to a specific desire, my ability to see reality is occluded. My attention cannot reach what is happening in and around me, because I’m seeing everything through the lens of my desire and its possible satisfaction. I’m ignoring important information and putting too much emphasis on the evidence that supports my desire.

With my attention so heavily restricted, I can’t get an accurate picture of things, which means it’s easy for me to fall into delusion. This is especially true when the desire is intense and its object is present, which is often what happens when it involves another person. Sometimes these delusions are glaringly obvious, but often they are more subtle.

413. Getting Ahead

It’s just a phase she’s going through. That’s what they say about her. They need an explanation for her behaviour. They want to know why she has abandoned her former pursuits. They can’t seem to accept that she has actually changed.

But she knows she has changed. There’s no doubt in her mind. She sees her life in a totally different light than she used to. Before she worried endlessly about success. She wanted it all: the dream career, the dream family, the dream life. She had it all planned out and she was following her plan obsessively. It almost scares her now to think about how obsessed she was.

412. Collective Liberation

When we act from compassion, we do what is needed to make our own lives and the lives of the people around us better. By meeting the needs of ourselves and others, we eliminate suffering and we create joy. We meet needs directly and also indirectly, by helping others towards the awareness they need to overcome their suffering.

It might then seem like compassion is concerned only with improving individual lives. But it is by creating change in individuals that compassion also creates collective change. For a person who is aware does not restrict their compassion to specific others. Genuine compassion is never limited only to our own family, friends, or neighbours. It is always action to meet needs and eliminate suffering for all living beings.

411. Theoretical Burdens

We notice a pattern in some area of our experience, so we give that pattern a name. Then we discover similar patterns that relate to the first pattern and we name those too. Soon we have a whole theory of this domain of experience, which we also name. In doing so, we create for ourselves a new object to study. We can then deploy our reflective and analytical abilities to explore the categories and distinctions we’ve constructed in order to expand and refine them.

410. The Scope Of Suffering

As my awareness of self and world expands and deepens, I begin to better understand the sources and scope of my suffering. I gradually become more aware of the simple fact that much of my ordinary experience includes various forms of suffering.

When the world seems to contradict and oppose me, I suffer from frustration or anger. When I compare my life to the lives of those who seem to be doing better than me, I suffer from envy. When memories of what I’ve lost spring to mind, I suffer from grief. When my present circumstances feel stagnant and hopeless, I suffer from despair. When I feel overwhelmed by demands and obligations, I suffer from stress. When the dangers of an uncertain future are approaching, I suffer from anxiety.

409. A Blissful Secret

Once read, a poem cannot be escaped. Through nothing other than innocent reading, its spirit becomes lodged in you. The only way out is not to read, but when the words are right in front of you, so inviting and provocative, can you really stop yourself?

You read because that is what you always do when you encounter words. It’s a habit stronger than almost any other you’ve formed throughout your life. You will read what you see and you will be changed by it. This is your fate, the inevitable outcome you cannot escape.