Dalek Prime wrote:Jaded Sage wrote:You had one nice insight: it is not what we are attached to, it is that we are attached. That means we ourselves are the problem, and we ourselves, and nothing but ourselves, hold the solution. Because of my somewhat authoritative experience in this area, this suggests to me that nothing liberates except understanding.
Well, we are attached to existence by default, but it is understanding that we can let go of our attachment to existence, on our end, that is liberating.
I make no assumptions. Yes, I suppose there is something liberating in knowing the power is in our own hands, but that isn't what I mean. I mean that it is new understanding that results in liberations.
A single piece of information can change the way we view the world, and therefore the way we experience the world. I'm having trouble coming up with the right example, because mine tend to involve what can be sensitive issues for other people, which are also very complicated.
Once I was infatuated with a girl. She led me on, and it frustrated me. Then I learned something about her, and I understood why she did it. It no longer bothered me, and in fact, once I realized she was just playing hard to get, I very much enjoyed the whole thing.
My experience changed because I had a better understanding. Now, because I understood this one thing (and others), my entire experience of many things has changed, and improved drastically. I am no longer bothered by most things. For instance, little things, like honest mistakes, and instances of bad luck, even many great instances of bad luck, do not bother me at all, and I am working on liberating myself from even greater things than is wise to disclose.
Once I understood *that* there was no reason why little things should bother me (exactly *why* little things shouldn't bother me is what might vary from person to person) the little things stopped bothering me. Here is what might be too advanced too soon: even when some do bother me, it doesn't bother me that they bother me, and so I am unbothered by them. I actually find enjoyment in some of them. Little annoyances and inconveniences bring me real, deep, fun, because it feels good to experience them.
Here is what might certainly be too advanced too soon: long ago, I learned that no one is happy, not even the rich, beautiful, popular, well-laid, well-everything (that is why it is too advanced: if I say, 'money doesn't buy happiness,' you stop listening, and if I say, 'sex isn't everything,' you think I never get any, and if I say, 'being one of the cool kids amounts to less than nothing,' you think there's no way I know what I'm talking about). Like the legend of Prince Siddhartha leaving his castle and seeing three forms of suffering: sickness, old age, and death, I saw these three forms of success—and
here are three pieces of information that changed my experience—and I saw real instances, first hand, in person, of them being absolutely useless in providing happiness. Though it appears these things bring happiness, they simply do not. I learned from this, and a most so-obvious-everyone-has-forgotten-it insight came to me: one cannot let anything be the measure of what happiness is except what one alone feels; all else is a distraction, and distorts your examination. I also concluded that no one knows the recipe for happiness. Therefore I sought my own recipe and judged it based on my feelings alone. Since then, ignoring the opinions of others, and listening to my own experience, neverminding what they think brings happiness, but noticing only what makes me happy, I have achieved much happiness through much liberation, and continue to do so. The tragedy is, you cannot simply listen to what I have to say. You have to gain a new understanding for yourself. I can provide you with the reasoning, but you have to see it for yourself, I can tell you the stories, but you have to witness the truth of them yourself, I can lead you to water but you have to drink. The door to the other side is marked "NEW UNDERSTANDING." You have to knock, and you have to be the one to walk through it.