Babies need to cry. They come into this world and must survive. They are selfish, demanding, and loud. It is a physiological, built-in mechanism, and necessary for survival. And that is fine. But why do you, a grown adult, do the same thing? You are selfish, demanding, and loud. But is this necessary for your survival? Why has this same mechanism followed you into adulthood?
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15 Comments
This is nothing to take personally, of course.
Although, you probably should.
Interesting question? But i think that people have a very loud voice when being a child and than they loose it they get conform with the society which tells them to be silent and do what they are told to do. So I say to you, cry out, like it to cry, feel your voice and your inner vibrations of aliveness, allow yourself to be different, to get mad, feel it it is wonderful. Forget to think everything over into every little detail and smile and enjoy the moment. Read a poem, look at a self-portrait of Rembrandt, read Sören Kirkegaard who was a great philosopher and a playful and wonderful master of words.
One sentence, thought came into my mind when I lay in my bed this morning.
We have to realize that we all live in a world of craze, insight and out-sight, don’t fight it, inhale it, and watch how you becoming restful and calm, with a smile on your heart.
with respect
iamasimpelman
Hi, iamasimpelman
I could not have said it better. We are here. Don’t fight it, revel in it. Life is for living and learning. Your approach is from the positive, contributing and nurturing side of our existence. I think Takuin was examining the negative, demanding part of us.
I have my theory as to why this behavior of demanding continues well into adulthood. The media. They feed our learned helplessness, our belief that we are victims of the world even if the world is of our own making. I think people around the world are no longer buying into this crap. Seeing this is the first step to freedom.
Right now the world is seeing a major shift in it’s economic underpinnings. People no longer have faith (belief) in it’s, or the worlds, currencies. Like Tinkerbell, if you don’t believe in something, it dies. Currencies are simply mediums by which we circulate and exchange a commonly held value system. ( I am not an economist, this is just how I see it). At some point we will see the human race adopt a new way of valuing and exchanging that value. As Eckhart Tolle said, doing will replace the old paradigm of getting, or something like that.
Perhaps we never did mature, Takuin, only our bodies. Hence the infantile behavior. I can admit to this being true in my case. Maybe we need to look at the totality of the race, see it as one organism fulfilling it’s destiny, maturing and preparing to take it’s place in the cosmos as an adolescent soon. Perhaps our consciousness will begin to access the teacher within instead of waiting for one to appear and who will tell us all that somehow, magically, we are saved if we just believe in him.
That’s probably more that you asked for, but it’s your fault. It is a great question! Bottom line; live like iamasimpelman suggests, head first with all your heart, but don’t forget to give, give, give. As Jesus and countless other sages taught us, giving and getting are the same thing, and there is only one Life being lived.
I am not condoning negative behavior but in my experience it always stems from pain.
I watched a young individual with autism recently literally howl in anguish over his inability to, essentially, make his reality and the reality of the “typical” world mesh enough for him to function. I realized later that we kind of all do this to some degree, the pain of our existence or our perceptions make us lash out. It’s not so much wrong as counter productive.
I agree with Eric that giving is important and with iamasimpleman that living life with less overthinking and cynicism might be helpful as well.
But my short answer to why we do it is simply that we hurt, just as babies do.
iamasimpelman,
That is a bit different than what I meant, but you went into it wonderfully. Your point on the enjoyment of the moment is well made.
It is a playfulness, and something that can never really be lost. It may be covered up, but never lost.
Eric,
Nicely said. And the media may indeed accelerate this activity. However, we have not always had the media, but we have always had this problem.
No matter the time period or level of technology, humans have always seemed to behave in certain ways. I don’t accept that it has to continue, but it seems to have happened this way throughout history. I question these activities to find out what is really going on beneath it all.
Who knows? But it seems this freedom will not come through accumulation. We have supreme levels of technology throughout the world, yet we still grunt and stab at each other with pointy sticks. The outer achievements do not come together with the inner “knowing” (for lack of a better word).
So instead of a frightened, uncertain, dangerous caveman with a pointy stick, we have a frightened, uncertain, dangerous cavemen with gun and a home theater system.
I do not think we are approaching an age of enlightenment. All of the knowledge and technical achievements have not helped, in the sense we are speaking. We are the same creatures as our ancestors; they hoped to be set free by God, knowledge, or whatever else, and we hope for the same thing. But no one can do it for us.
If there is an age of enlightenment, it is now. It has always been now. It is within every moment of every second, in every petal of every flower, and it is inescapable.
But no one can give it to you.
Amysue,
You made a great point when you said,
It is not wrong at all. In fact, in order to see these things as they arise within us, we cannot resist or condemn.
People often ask, “Where do I begin?” You begin with what you have. And if what you have is selfishness, greed, or a need to lash out, you begin there. It arises and you see it; not out of a need to get away from it, or to actively resist it; you watch, observe and see where it goes and what it does. It only has the power one assigns to it.
This pure observation is similar to the realization of the emperor having no clothes, and it comes to an end.
We learn feelings essentially like Pawlow’s dogs. Reality is distorted by feelings and if I can separate one from the other, then my world changes and I can see the things in front of me clearly.
German, anyone? Please read Simplify Gefühle and Gelernte Gefühle.
Now this is amusing. My comment to your question about fracturing could have been put here also.
In the growth cycle, there is a period of disintegration followed by integration at a new higher level. If we get stuck in the disintegration stage, we are left out of balance, anxious, grumpy. We become focused on me, what I don’t have, what I don’t want.
From another angle, we may refer to this as ego behavior that arises when the me is unsatisfied. As noted, ego is a natural stage of development but one we should outgrow.
Eric
Thanks for your thoughts on the Age of Enlightenment. It is interesting – no one can give it to you nor can you take it. If it is coming, there are a lot of people with catching up to do. But perhaps its like you suggest. It is only now. There simply may be a lot more people ‘there’ soon.
tokumei,
Who will separate these feelings? Are you, the separator, in some way different from what is being separated? Could there be another way through the mess?
You are obviously right, takuin:
… (I) AM the things in front of (me/my) eyes … without being a separator. But who can walk that way?
Tokumei,
No, you are obviously right. It is your teaching and it is your responsibility to see. It is all up to you.
This may be important for you. You have seen part of this illusion; the I is no different from what it wishes to be free from. The who – the person doing – tries to separate itself in order to achieve a “higher” state. It sees what is really there, and rather than accept it and start anew, it pushes away, violently trying to force itself into a new way of living.
The answer to your question is fluid and alive, and coming to a fixed conclusion will only bring more frustration. Can you see the answer without your conclusion?
Takuin, the remark “But who can walk that way?” was the reply to your “Could there be another way through the mess?”, so the answer is fluid and alive, and coming to a fixed conclusion will only bring more frustration;-)
Tokumei,
Ah, I see now. I misunderstood what you meant. Thank you for pointing it out.