Alan watts said society tells us what we ‘must’ be, and we ‘must’ be it voluntarily. That compulsory volunteer. They define tyranny as anything not forbidden being mandatory. Our freedom is just tyranny with the weight of moralism behind it. Japan has a very low crime rate, but a very high instance of self destructive behaviour. They are free like us, just more honest about it. Here we have this wonderful delusion that makes us turn our anxieties outward. Are we having fun yet? Are we supposed to be having fun? Oh yes, it’s mandatory.
For some accountability was obscure in their life. That not being clear, it also impairs responsibility. If there is no reaction then what is the basis for your action? If there is no basis, then how do you know if you’re doing any good or not? Not knowing how you affect the world is perhaps the ultimate anxiety, always striving never arriving. So, may I put you on the rack and tighten it enough to make you ache, but not to actually break anything so your brain will numb you or make you unconscious? Likely would feel better than what you endure now wouldn’t it? How do you manage? At least a physical manifestation is something specific to focus on. Thus more merciful.
Managing is not a choice made, but an uphill life. So what if you didn’t manage? What if you didn’t even acknowledge that context? What would life be like? Well myself I love chaos, but actually there is a third point. You will act. No matter what you will act. Life happens, and you will be motivated to act. What if that act came from you? Act instead of react, proactivity. Act instead of managing. Act and let your consequences come from your actions instead of always being the product of being acted on and only taking your reactions. Will the will to will. It’s in you anyway.
Just act…what heresy is this? You know me and my evil. I’ll have everyone being very natural and whole, healthy. Then where would the world be? I don’t act like anything. I act like I am, so that will likely get me into trouble and as often happens right back out of it again also.
The key to being anxiety free is acting. You have one natural imperative, and it isn’t actually padding a nest. It’s acting. Self expression which can be as simple as smiling when you feel like smiling. If you take a pets bed from it, it may be mildly distressed but will still act on its nature. It will find some place to sleep and likely some place very much like its bed, like your clothes. What we have is not a reward, nobody rewards squat. That part of life is not defined or agreed on, and likely never will be. What we have is an outgrowth of what we are.
The pets bed being taken away…did that happen to you? Metaphorically, did you lay down in other peoples “clothing”? Due to that circumstance and the desire to be good, the rage builds, because there is only one way to be good and others aren’t responding to that. Other things are being fake, and it’s the opposite of the truth. The real good is what comes from your core. What you already are. So we do not grow even by life experience. Our life experience has been a stumbling block more than a stepping stone. You grow by self experience. Some might say that that is just your thoughts and feelings, actually it’s not and if you confine self knowledge to those things you will forever be stuck in mental masturbation. Self knowledge comes from self expression. After, not before. You don’t see you. You see what you learned. But acting from your core, letting that ‘you’ be, and move, and be moved in the world. Choice. Action. Contemplate after or before choice, but when you choose act. Don’t act then react. Trying to fix it and be what you were taught to be. Act and let your action stand. Let it and you be seen.
What about the need to plan for the future and be prepared for future events? Can action now get in the way of that? No. It’s actually what prepares for that. If you seem stuck, if you seem unready, you won’t be more ready until you as a person grow. If you feel like you can do no more, it is the same as feeling you can have no more and thus nothing will be saved for the future. We’re all padding out nests for that proverbial rainy day, and the nest padding gets frittered away or isn’t used to actually make changes that let you adapt to future worries.
So the path of acting does not inhibit being prepared, it actually allows it.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~