Was just catching up on @Azriel 's responses to you. I agree with everything he said. I’ll reply over there.
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Cease learning, and you end all trouble.
Yes and no: there’s a difference between them,
and between good and bad too.
But must I fear what others fear? How absurd!
Others can find happiness in their family celebrations;
I alone feel no joy, like an infant who hasn’t learned to smile yet.
In my isolation, I seem to drift forever,
destination nowhere, while others have their place in the world.
Others have enough; I alone have nothing.
I am a man of no mind, so they say.
Most people are bright enough to know everything;
I alone am muddled.
Most people are so sure of themselves;
I alone am unsure.
I am a fool, yes, a fool drifting on the ocean,
blown forever aimless by the wind.
Other people have their goals,
but I alone am dull and uncouth.
I alone am different from others,
and value drawing sustenance from the mother.
(From Hinton’s 2015 translation of the Dao De Jing)
The Original:
絕學無憂。唯之與阿，相去幾何？善之與惡，相去若何？人之所畏，不可不畏；荒兮，其未央哉！
眾人熙熙，如享太牢，如登春台。我獨泊兮，其未兆；如嬰兒之未孩；儽儽兮，若無所歸。眾人皆有餘，而我獨若遺。我愚人之心也哉！沌沌兮。
俗人昭昭，我獨昏昏；俗人察察，我獨悶悶。澹兮，其若海；飉兮，若無止。眾人皆有以，而我獨頑且鄙。我獨異於人，而貴食母。
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The Bad News: You barely have any capacity to accommodate reality.
The Good News: You have nothing real to complain about.
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The best prayer in this world is an action.
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One of my happy early memories is of listening to this song with my dad. He loved to sing along with it. My sister and I would come in for the chorus that everyone knows.
I love you, Dad.
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Meta-awareness
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The notion that an idea is accurate or “true” simply because most people endorse or believe it, is a standard and common notion; and it is also ridiculous.
Common sense prioritizes practicality and expedience. It does not prioritize accuracy.
In other words, if a particular idea seems to “get the job done” for a sufficient number of people, and manages, or seems to manage to get them what they need, that idea will be accepted (and defended) as the gospel truth.
In the same way, if a given idea, while accurate, fails (whether discursively or instrumentally) to “get us what we want“, it will be rejected and roundly dismissed.
This is not a problem; but it should be recognized as one of the limitations in how we normally think.
We are not wired for accuracy; we are wired for survival. In those special conditions where the two overlap, we have managed to learn a few things.
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Here is a remix that for me utterly elevated the original:
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And this, mid-20s when I first heard it randomly some Internet cafe in northeastern China, I think. Love at first listen. Blessedly post-hip-hop. Excellent use of breakbeats, samples, jazz modes, strings orchestration, and yet somehow minimalistic at the same time.
Happy camper, I was:
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Beautiful Queen
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Curating my dream DJ set (part 1)
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And here, a perfect song (check the subtle, understated congas):
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This takes me back to 1996.
Do you really think that in the years to come—living in this vast Cosmos—you are not going to learn anything that dramatically shifts your current understandings and views?
If that’s true, I’m a bit sad for you.
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Couple of general notes I want to put here:
- Every workout is a work order
When you exercise you’re informing your bodymind of what you want it to produce and create. When you run and get tired, you’re ‘ordering’ more energy and more active metabolism. When you lift heavy things, you’re ‘ordering’ more muscular development.
Think of your workouts as work orders and you’ll immediately be more motivated. You’ll also proceed in a better-balanced way if you remember that there’s a limit to how much you can request in just one work order. And if you become familiar with the pacing of how your work orders get fulfilled.
- If you learn from your past then it was not a waste; it was research.
It’s on you where to draw the artificial lines of past, present, and future. Those are choices.
When you accept the present moment as ‘in progress’ and ‘in process’, you’ll find that it’s too early to make a damning final judgment.
Set your lines appropriately. Let them work for you.
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It’s often not about the impossibility of tasks; it’s about how, when, and where my mind gets overwhelmed in the processing of those tasks.
That’s a very different thing.
And people very frequently make the mistake of treating impossibility of processing as if its impossibility of achieving. Don’t do that.
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