337. How We Treat Others

We want to be treated well by others. We feel we deserve to be treated well and that others should be obliged to treat us this way. We don’t care what they might think about us, as long as they always fulfill this basic obligation.

We obligate others through social pressure, through appeals to rights, and through the application of laws. While we are also obligated in the same way, we see the trade-off as worthwhile, since we generally have no problem with treating others well. After all, the obligation is not usually binding. We see others as similar to ourselves, so we automatically treat them well out of compassion and not because of any obligation.

336. Every Last Tool

Being aware is not without its challenges. Greater awareness necessarily means greater compassion, and compassion demands action. Compassion is not content with merely seeing how the world already is and allowing it to carry on producing suffering without end. It will not allow us to hide and enjoy our own safety and security while others suffer in need.

But the enormity of the task before us can be overwhelming. That so many are struggling with unmet needs means that significant changes are required. Changes not just to individuals but also to the systems we have constructed that actively work against compassion. It can sometimes feel like we need to go to war with the whole world just to be able to fix it.

335. Stress As Suffering

There are always so many things to do and so little time in which to do them. When the time I have available is significantly less than the time it will realistically take me to complete all of my tasks, I start to feel stress.

Stress arises both as a kind of worry and as a kind of tension. The worry is that I won’t be able to do everything I need to do and there will be some unwanted consequence, while the tension follows from the judgment that I can only get everything done through strict and unrelenting discipline.

334. Outrageous Ideas

Almost every artist has more ideas than they can use. The ones that get used tend to be those that are the most beautiful or meaningful, while also being feasible in the medium that the artist works.

Of the ideas that get left behind, some are abandoned because they feel too trite, cliche, or vulgar. Others are set aside because there is something still missing — a part that needs to be added in order for the idea to be complete or realizable. Often this missing part will be discovered later and the idea will find a home in the artist’s future work. But there are also ideas that are left behind because they feel too risky to be brought into the world.

333. True Tales

The book I was reading seemed to be a kind of travelogue. It was part of a series that recounted the experiences of the author as he explored the many places he visited. At one point in the book, the author began to describe an anonymous text he discovered at a small bookstore in the outskirts of a city.

The text he found recounted an incident that took place during a trip to another city, which is what had caught his attention. Not only were the events leading up to the incident and the players involved described in great detail, there were also personal reactions — the thoughts and feelings of the unknown writer as the story unfolded. He described the style of the text as something like a journal entry, or perhaps a story being told to a friend in a letter.

332. Total Awareness

Total awareness is the ability to see everything from every possible perspective in every moment. It is not merely adopting a balanced position between two opposing perspectives, but to be capable of seeing both simultaneously. It is to be able to raise oneself up to the perspective of a god and to lower oneself to the perspective of a grain of sand. It is to be able to see not only from these extremes but also from every point along the continuum between them.

331. What You Must Do

If someone you didn’t know told you that you absolutely must do something, you wouldn’t believe them. You’d be deeply skeptical of their claim. If the person seemed especially serious, you might ask for clarification or some kind of explanation. You’d want reasons to justify whatever it is you’re being told you must do.

If you were provided with reasons and they were convincing, you would then move to negotiation. You’d complain that what you’ve been told sounds too complicated or involved. You’d argue that you couldn’t possibly be expected to put in so much effort. Surely you don’t need to do exactly this. Surely there must be something else that would do the job adequately.

330. The Writing Of The Future

As we discover more of the world and ourselves, the norms we usually follow begin to feel stagnant and outdated. We feel an urge to replace these norms with ones more compatible with the life and culture we feel we need. By cooperating with others, this change gradually occurs and along with it, our form of life changes.

Some of the new norms we create are norms of language. We are always coming up with new words and idioms that allow us to express more of what we see and feel. When we write, we tend to follow our shared norms as we currently understand them, unless we are intentionally trying to imitate a past form of life.

329. Desires And Needs

I feel a strong need for something, but I cannot have it right away. I have to think about how to get it, and through practical reasoning, come up with a plan to obtain it. Once I have a plan, I also form an intention to carry it out, which is a kind of desire.

At this point, it’s easy to become confused. I know that I have to meet my need, and I might think I should do so by fulfilling my desire. The desire might even feel more compelling than the need, because it is definite, clear, and tells me exactly what to do. I like the certainty the desire provides, so I give myself over to it and I allow it to take control.