I wrote this entry during many evenings, trying to reason specific human behaviour and mind-sets. In the last few months, I faced so many people complaining about inescapable life situations. For me, it often seems like human race defines itself by a weak mentality and a bad consciousness. I couldn’t listen to these stories any longer without writing down my own point of view – mostly daydreaming and reflecting about fundamental attitudes. But fundamentally, my biggest inner gap came up by knowing that all the power of both close friends and acquaintances is lost without any good reason. I want to share my thoughts, views and results that I was able to form.
Let’s start at the very beginning: Psychologically, this phenomenon most people face, is called a purpose psychosis. Human actions cannot be carried out in this condition because of inhibiting ideas or anxiety. It’s obvious that you limit yourself when you only see bad aspects in life. But this discrepancy of our inner self turns into a more problematic topic when you can’t get out of this condition, just like a vicious circle. I researched many different books, articles, writings and audios. Mostly, I got encouraged by Alan Watts, a British philosopher of the last century, listening to around a dozen hours of audio tape of his lectures and seminars. He professes:
“A person, who thinks all the time, has nothing to think about except thoughts. It loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusion by thoughts, which doesn’t mean that thinking is bad. Like everything else, it’s useful in moderation. So-called civilized people have increasingly become crazy and self-destructive. Through excessive thinking, they have lost touch with reality. That’s to say we confuse signs, words, numbers, symbols and ideas with the real world. Most of us would rather have money than tangible wealth and a great occasion is somehow spoiled for us, unless it is photographed. And, to read about it the next day in the newspaper is oddly more fun for us than the original event. This is a disaster. As a result of confusing the real world of nature with mere signs, such as bank balances or contracts, we are destroying nature. We are so tied up in our minds that we've lost our senses. Time to wake up to what is reality. Obviously no one can say, because it isn’t words, it isn’t material, it’s just an idea.”
In other words, people are overchallanged with subjects that form surreality. We forget to understand the distinction of whether something is good or bad. We often face seemingly inevitable life situations, where it all appears to be a blind alley, most of us bottling all up trying to look more ‘perfect’ or more ‘voided of trouble’, ‘untouchable’ or ‘invulnerable’. Emotions are suppressed and feelings introverted. All this happens in a place called society – how cynical. But that isn't as much of a blind alley as it sounds, because if you discover a blind alley, it tells us something: Watch the flow of water when it crosses over an area of land and you will see, that it puts out fingers and some of them stop, because they come into two blind alleys. The water doesn't pursue that course. It simply arises and finds a way it can go, but it never uses any effort. It only uses gravity: It takes the line of least resistance and eventually finds a course. We should accept this concept too. People are too often to be found opposing or denying the state of affairs. We’re trying to pursue the course of the water. Hinduism and Buddhism tells, that the course of water, which symbolises the course of life in this regard, arises in the arms of our action. Watts claims:
“Once we are up against this possibility, we see, that the distinction between what we do and what happens to us is obliterated. And therefore, Hindus and Buddhist say, that if you ran into a catastrophe, it was your Karma. (…) That means far more than that it is a punishment for something you did wrong in the past. That is a legalistic view of karma. But a naturalistic view of Karma is in fact that what happens to you is what you do. And in a certain sense you want what happens to you. We could use want, and notice how we use this word, it means desire and it means to lack or to need. So it's rather alarming really when you consider, that you always get what you want. Invariably.”
So, everything that comes to you is a return of what goes out of you. Yes, obviously, that's absurd if you confine the definition of yourself to your voluntarily conscious behaviour. That's a ridiculous definition of oneself. What you haven't realized is that doing as you will isn’t a new kind of behaviour, that you suddenly put on and say: From now on I'm going to do as I want to. You have to realize first, that this is what you've always been doing and you can look at this from a very simple point of view. Well now, what about the people who did good and who did the things that they didn't want to do? Everyone’s mother once said that sometimes we have to do things we don't like to do. You can always say the kid debated the mother and did the thing that it didn't like, because that was the better part of wisdom. In other words, if it hadn't done it, something worse could have happened, so we chose one of two evils and when you find yourself in a situation where you have to choose the lesser of two evils, then you feel like you want out of this situation taking the easiest way and take the line of these resistors, so that's your doing and now you can pursue that.
This begs the question of the background for these human inconsistencies. The age may have an enormous influence, but in my opinion, most peoples struggles refer to society - confining myself to grown-ups of my age, love and success are the most common causes. These two necessities can be looked upon from three different perspectives.
At first, I’d like to focus on love. It’s one of the most precious things in life. When I’m talking about love, I’m restricting myself to the affection towards a partner. You can’t actually do something about or control your feelings in this matter too much. What I frequently see is that people limit themselves for their partner in causes that concern the course of their life. A harmonious relationship should at least grant pursuing your goals and will never end at a blind alley therefore. True love will always find it’s course. As you can guess, this also speaks for the opposite, broken relationships. An old quote tells: Love and understanding are seldom found together. We should make the contrary out of it. Don’t ever get your goals limited. According to John Strelecky, author of the book “The Why Café”, people should follow their own so-called PFE, the purpose for existence. This means things that you would like to do or achieve or which actually matter to you, would give you continued fulfilment. A person who is following his PFE would then become self-driven and content that he is making progress towards something more meaningful.
Growing older is also mostly driven by the aspiration for success. Constantly, we’re reflecting what’s good or right for us, for our personal future. Thereby, we forget to follow our own path by comparing and orienting ourselves to others while neglecting our own needs. Even at school, and furthermore at university, a feeling of anxiety to fail is communicated. Be strong enough to resist and take care of yourself - this will lead to success.
Linking these two needs, love should encourage success: Similar interests, lifestyle and characteristics will provide the base for your relationship, welfare and achievements. It’s so important to harmonize in a way both partners can realize their full potential.
Finally, take the time you need every day and follow your own path - you should meet your own needs first. Don’t live your life just for others, live with them. Get in touch with nature and watch the course of it – that means to live with and to learn from nature. If you have never been on a mountain, you can never tell what it’s like at the zenith and how to get there. Get out of your comfort zone, climb the highest hills and feel pure fulfilment.
Love
Paintings were drawn by Franz Widmar, my great-great-uncle, who was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, in 1915 and a student of the famous Oskar Kokoschka. In this collection, he thematises poverty and social injustice at the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he lived from 1950. I chose this paintings for my blog because it raises hope where all hope is rather frustrated. Franz Widmar died in 1995. May he rest in peace.