138. I Do Not Need To Know

I’m outside, sitting on a comfortable chair. It’s a lounger, so I’m almost lying down. The sun is oppressively hot but I’ve positioned myself in the shade of a huge tree, so the temperature is pleasant. There’s barely any wind and only a wisp or two of cloud in the sky. By my side, I have a cold sugary drink and the novel I’ve been reading. I should be able to relax.

137. From Intention To Attachment

There are always many different things I could do. After considering the available options, I choose one over the others, which means I form an intention to pursue it. I then do whatever is necessary to fulfill my intention. This is an entirely normal way to go about life, but it can also be problematic.

The problem originates in my closeness to the intention. I might see it as not just something I would like to do, but as something I must do. This means I’ve become attached to the intention. I identify with it, and as such, I see its fulfillment as necessary for my own fulfillment. I become my own manager, carefully directing my attention and controlling my actions to satisfy the intention.

136. The Missing Thing

There is something you can see that no one else sees. It’s missing from the world, but it’s real for you, and you think others should see it too. So you decide to make it into something real — you decide to create an artwork.

Your first attempt does not go well. The resulting work doesn’t seem to express what you’re trying to show. When you look at it, you can see the outlines of your idea, but others either can’t see it or they see something else entirely. You aren’t happy about this because you really want the missing thing to be seen.

135. We Will Do Anything

We will do anything to avoid the problem. We will devise countless means of escaping confrontation. We will put up walls. We will isolate ourselves. We will do whatever we must to limit meaningful contact with the other. We will cut off anyone who sees through us and anyone who sees more than they should. We will hide from others because they might force us to change and we want nothing less than to change. We want everything to stay exactly the same. We want to maintain our comfortable lives and we will go to great lengths to preserve them. We will use every tool at our disposal. We will say anything, do anything, just so that we do not have to consider the problem. We will spend hours, days, years looking for reasons to justify our lives and even invent them if none are readily available. We will lie and cheat. We will say whatever must be said to keep ourselves safe and secure. We will cast blame on others, not because they are at fault, but to highlight our own innocence in contrast. We will run from any talk of responsibility. We cannot handle even the possibility that we might be guilty. We will condemn anything and anyone if it gives us a chance to escape. We will even physically flee if we must. We will leave the room, the city, and maybe even the country. We will abandon everyone we know. We will create wholly new versions of ourselves. We will do this and more if it means we can get away from looking at the problem. We will try all of these things and still we will fail. We will always fail. We will fail because the problem was never anything we could run from, never something we could escape. We will fail because the problem has always been us.

134. Stubbornness As A Virtue

When someone refuses to do something wrong regardless of the personal consequences, we see their stubbornness as courageous. They are committed to doing the right thing even though they might be harmed, and this is exactly the kind of steadfastness we support and encourage.

When someone refuses to consider that they might be caught up in a misunderstanding, we see their stubbornness as ignorant. They are unwilling to accept that there might be more to the situation than they already know, and this is exactly the kind of closedmindedness we detest and condemn.

133. An Encouraging Smile

He says he’s struggling. He says he’s feeling lost. He says he feels like he’s wasting his life. He says he doesn’t find any meaning in anything. He says everything seems pointless.

She listens and nods as he talks. He looks at her with a pleading face, a face that still carries some hope. She asks him if he has ever tried meditation. He laughs, because it seems obvious that he has. Everyone has tried it, he tells her, but it doesn’t do anything.

132. Authority Is Insidious

If someone imposes an ultimatum on you, you immediately feel annoyed. They are threatening you with a bad outcome in an attempt to force you to do what they want. Even if you want the same thing as they do, you’re frustrated because you believe you could have easily reached an amicable agreement. But now you feel like you’re being coerced.

Every time an authority demands you do something, you are being given an ultimatum. You will comply with the authority because you feel the consequences of noncompliance would be too much to bear. You know you’re being coerced, but you feel there’s no real alternative. If you don’t feel this way, then the authority is not actually an authority. It is you who is the authority, for you agree with it and you would do what you are being told to do anyway.

131. The Power Of Reflection

A strong feeling is often short-lived. Someone harms me, and I immediately become angry. My anger is an intuitive response to what has happened to me. It’s also a signal that there is a problem that requires my attention. Once the problem has been resolved or removed, the feeling dissipates quickly.

But I might later reflect on the memory of what happened and form a concern that it could happen again. This concern is not an intuition but an intentional response. It’s a product of my reflective consciousness and it comes from my judgment of what happened and the potential I see for it to happen again in the future. If I become attached to this new intention, I will begin to suffer from anxiety, and this feeling will last for as long as I remain attached.

130. The Human Project

Every human being contributes something to the whole of humanity. We each have projects we have chosen for ourselves. Sometimes these projects are shared with others, like when we raise a family or work for an organization, and sometimes they are largely individual efforts where we help others indirectly. We each have particular goals we want to achieve and we do this through dedication to our projects.

The combination of all of our projects together has brought humanity to its present point. Most of our efforts never aimed at this specific point, and yet this is where we find ourselves because our individual contributions have built on each other. From an objective standpoint, it might seem like humanity is merely expanding its reach and understanding for no reason other than because it can.