[Mb-civic] A Sense Of Futurelessness

[Ian]

Cheeseburger:

You speak of "re-creating" oneself in order to "keep sane in the midst of
madness."

When I studied yoga and Eastern philosophy with Swami Satchidananda, he had
a really great "homily" of sorts.  It went something like this:

"When we are born, we are "fine"; we are simply the "I am."  As we grow, we
begin to "de-fine" ourselves: "I am" alive, "I am" a boy, "I am" white, "I
am" small, etc.  As we get older, we continue this "de-fining" process: I am
a human being, I am an American, I am a New Yorker, I am a doctor, I am
smart, etc.  The process of "de-fining" creates constant stress.  At some
point, we find that we have so "de-fined" ourselves that we realize we need
to start to "re-fine" ourselves, by stepping back from all the ways in which
we have "de-fined" the "I am."  Psychology calls this "getting in touch with
the child within."  Whatever one calls it, it is the only way to regain
personal peace in our lives."

I heard this when I was 17 years old.  I never forgot it.

Peace.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cheeseburger" <maxfury at granderiver.net>
To: "mb-civic" <mb-civic at islandlists.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 11:52 PM
Subject: [Mb-civic] A Sense Of Futurelessness


> Re:  A Sense Of Futurelessness
>
>
> Haase wrote:
>
> ====
> Well Sartre said hell is other people
> but dont despair too much
> doesnt socrates basically say in a famous speech
> that the world is going to hell in a handbasket?
> ======
>
>
> 1. Although Sartre might be right in one sense of the matter, as there are
> truly some actual humans who tend to delight in making Life miserable for
> whomever and whatever they can, he must never have had dark spirit-like
> flying creatures sit on his bed late at night and murmur "Why can't I
screw
> this guy like I can screw the others...?"
>
> 2.  To despair too much has never been good when one is trying to best
> oblivion and its servants.  The person who wrote a previous post enquiring
> something like "whatever happened to walks in the woods, etc etc etc..."
was
> basically right.  Those are the (natural) things that keep people sane in
> the midst of the madness.  If they don't occasionally re-create
themselves,
> they are drawn into the black hole of endless victimization, or better
put,
> the waiting room to the entrance of "Hell" (trust me, the magazine choices
> there suck bigtime).  However, therein lay the quandry, as in Ian's post
> about 70-80 percent of earth's population have been and are living in a
> basic living hell already, if one thinks about it constantly, one goes mad
> (some people), however, if one stops thinking about it, one begins (some)
to
> feel guilty.  Regardless, whether despairing or being full of joy, at
least
> trying to do something to help those who need it in the face of apparently
> insurmountable odds reinforced by the malicious wills of those who helped
to
> create such devastation of humanity and earth's creatures and resources,
is
> at least something to do inbetween programming one's vcr.  However, on the
> other hand, tears are all some people have ever known, and there is no one
> present to instruct them otherwise.
>
> 3.  Socrates would fit right in in a crucial role in today's Modern
American
> Propaganda movement, led by tyrants and populated by apparently some of
the
> most ignorant people in the world who will believe just about anyone and
> anything as they themselves are just too lazy (or too? busy) to do any
form
> of research, validation or investigation.  He would speak his mind, some
> people would get together in a back room and make some plans, and then
offer
> him a Budweiser laced with strichnine.
>
>
> The more things change, the more they stay the same.
>
>
>
> Cheeseburger
>
> .
>
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