406. Growing Empathy

At some point during childhood, we first realize that the people around us have experiences just like ours. We notice that the same things that cause us pain also seem to cause them pain. In this way, we begin to develop empathy for the people closest to us, which means that when they suffer, we feel their suffering as if it were our own. We see them not as truly other, but as part of us.

405. Metaphorical Meaning

We generally expect the texts we read to be closely tied to the world we live in. We expect this because we most often use language to describe particular objects, people, or events and the practical relationships between them. Unless we’re told otherwise, we expect the writing we encounter to function in the same way.

Certain contexts automatically cause us to think about words differently. This is what happens when we read a poem. We don’t expect poems to supply us with ordinary facts about the world because we know poems tend to be about something other than the literal meanings of their words. We’re primed to think metaphorically, so we engage with the text in this way. If a poem takes certain liberties in its use of language, we do not immediately declare it wrong and move on to something else. We allow for this freedom of meaning as part of the metaphorical game that we play when we read and write poetry.

404. Awareness In Every Moment

Awareness is a continuous achievement. To see clearly is not just to notice something once, but to continuously notice it over and over again. Awareness is never merely knowledge filed away somewhere in the back of my mind. Being aware means allowing for need to be actively seen in every moment of experience.

I might know that the root of suffering is found in attachment to intentions called desires, aversions, and beliefs. I might know that this suffering can be brought to an end through freedom from attachment. I might even know that compassionate action to meet needs will reduce suffering and create joy for myself and others. But merely knowing these things cannot help me achieve liberation from suffering or the creation of joy.

403. Back To Happiness

There must have been a time when he was happy. Of this, he feels fairly certain. But he also knows memories are often grander than the experiences they represent, so he must not exaggerate. Still, he feels confident he was once happy.

He can remember how everything used to move gently from one experience to the next. His life felt so easy and relaxed then, so free from debilitating concerns. His worries were confined to trivial things, like the places he had to go the next day or his standing among his peers. Never was there any kind of protracted struggle. Problems arose but they were quickly dispatched.

402. Difficult Memories

When something terrible happens to us, we can easily become fixated on it. The memory of the event replays over and over again, dominating our thoughts. Every instance of remembering causes us to partially re-experience the event, which in turn causes us to suffer further.

With the passage of time, the memory usually arises less frequently. But if something reminds us of the bad experience, then our suffering can return with overwhelming force. We begin to think that we will always suffer unless we can somehow forget the experience entirely.

401. The Crime Of Existing

We’re always making you into something you’re not. We’re always categorizing you, putting you into a little box with a neat label. The box is far too small to hold you, but it’s the only one we’ve got.

We force you into the box and then when some part of you sticks out, we criticize you for it, as though it’s your fault that you don’t fit into our box. We measure you against a standard that you can’t fully see or interrogate, a standard that is somehow both fixed and variable at the same time. Fixed when you exceed its limits, and variable when you somehow manage to stay within them.

400. Prophets Among Us

If you said you were a prophet, would anyone believe you? People would think you were joking or maybe just seeking attention. If you told them you were serious, they might think you were crazy. They would not think it possible that you could see the future or tell us about it.

The possibility of there being prophets among us is something we have generally ruled out. It does not seem realistic that there could be human beings capable of seeing more of what is to come than we can. We know there are many who have claimed such things in the past, only to have later been shown to be spreading nothing more than vague tautological truths or provenly false delusions.

399. Enabling Creativity

To be creative, I need to be loose. When I’m preoccupied with achieving a good outcome or with following a specific method, I’m too rigid to fully express myself. I become incapable of following the intuitions that arise from my awareness — the very intuitions that would help me create an artwork that is both vibrant and beautiful.

If I can notice my rigidity then I can do something about it. I can release myself from the intentions that are distracting my attention and impeding my ability to be creative. In this way, enabling creativity is the same as enabling compassion. When my attention is distracted by attachment to particular intentions, it is taken away from what I most need to see. By loosening the attachment, I become capable of adopting a more compassionate mode of being, which is also a more creative mode of being.

398. Something Has To Change

She feels lack in everything that happens to her. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an experience she chooses for herself or one that is required of her. It doesn’t matter whether it’s something she wants to avoid or something she desperately desires. Always there is some unnamed thing missing, which means all of her experiences are tainted with dissatisfaction.

What is missing, she does not know, but she knows it’s missing and this causes her incredible frustration. Nothing ever feels as full or enjoyable as she thinks it should. At the very best, she feels a little happiness here or there. But she knows there is also a place beyond happiness, a place somehow more full than happiness, and maybe this is what she needs.