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lurkette · 10-30-2003, 07:51 AM

Eldaire, I TOTALLY get where you're coming from. I can't really put my finger on it, either, but I feel like I was born into the middle of something that's so much bigger than me, a struggle that's amorphous and everywhere and so complex, and I can't entirely see the outline of it. I think it's called "the human condition." Maybe not all humans have gone through this in all eras, but I think in this society at this time there's this confusion of spiritual aspirations and material aspirations and personal aspirations and they're all sort of warring with each other, and if you stop to think about it for very long you get dizzy. It's very tempting to just drift along and not see the patterns that push you this way and that, but the fact is most of us are not, to a large extent, fully self-determining (if that's possible) or even self-aware. There's a book called 'Foucault for Beginners' that's a pretty good intro to theories of power and discourse, and if you like it you might want to read some more of Foucault's works.

I think what's at the heart of your (and my) confusion is "how to live a good life." The trap is to look outside yourself for a definition of "the good life." We're told to be materially successful; we're told to pursue professional fulfilment and 'self-actualization'; we're told to be self-denying and anti-materialistic; we're told to pursue spiritual enlightenment. There are all of these contradictory messages from culture and counter-culture (two sides of the same hand, or at least two symbiotes sucking the life from each other), and you can't possible satisfy all of the standards that you would set for yourself if you let yourself be dicated by external criteria for personal success. The real challenge is to find the still voice inside yourself - not the chattering monkey mind that tells you you SHOULD do this or that - but the intuition that resonates to a particular path.

PM me if you'd like to chat further.

10-30-2003, 07:51 AM	#4 (permalink)
lurkette My future is coming on Moderator Emeritus Location: east of the sun and west of the moon	Eldaire, I TOTALLY get where you're coming from. I can't really put my finger on it, either, but I feel like I was born into the middle of something that's so much bigger than me, a struggle that's amorphous and everywhere and so complex, and I can't entirely see the outline of it. I think it's called "the human condition." Maybe not all humans have gone through this in all eras, but I think in this society at this time there's this confusion of spiritual aspirations and material aspirations and personal aspirations and they're all sort of warring with each other, and if you stop to think about it for very long you get dizzy. It's very tempting to just drift along and not see the patterns that push you this way and that, but the fact is most of us are not, to a large extent, fully self-determining (if that's possible) or even self-aware. There's a book called 'Foucault for Beginners' that's a pretty good intro to theories of power and discourse, and if you like it you might want to read some more of Foucault's works. I think what's at the heart of your (and my) confusion is "how to live a good life." The trap is to look outside yourself for a definition of "the good life." We're told to be materially successful; we're told to pursue professional fulfilment and 'self-actualization'; we're told to be self-denying and anti-materialistic; we're told to pursue spiritual enlightenment. There are all of these contradictory messages from culture and counter-culture (two sides of the same hand, or at least two symbiotes sucking the life from each other), and you can't possible satisfy all of the standards that you would set for yourself if you let yourself be dicated by external criteria for personal success. The real challenge is to find the still voice inside yourself - not the chattering monkey mind that tells you you SHOULD do this or that - but the intuition that resonates to a particular path. PM me if you'd like to chat further. __________________ "If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." - Anatole France