And I thought Late Static Bindings were complicated.
Jon
· 4 months ago
From what I understand (no expert) its main tenants are acceptance and flow - those are hard concepts to master, or even to step into. To accept the chaos around us - like not just out in the world but in our own minds, in our lives - and then to give up, and be pulled by those things... The Tao sounds easy, but its not. It says its supposed to be effortless, but that assumes that we can just step into our own suffering and own it with everything that we have. Its effortless after we have fought for so long against the flow of our lives, and we realize to simply stop trying to fight the river and turn and face down stream - but that can take an entire life, even with the knowledge that turning and going with the flow is what is needed.
Sometimes I don't want to be sad when its what I need most in the world, or I want to talk to people when really what I need is alone time - and sometimes I need to talk to people and I try and be alone and it never 'works'.
It really is easiest to 'give up' and accept the sadness, lonliness and alienation that come with being alive - and its crazy to think how much I've run in my life, run away from these things - and realize that so many industries are built around helping people run away from the sensations of sadness, lonliness and dispair. Drugs, dieting, medication, self-help, dating, alcohol, consumerism - almost anything can be used as a means to escape. And I get why people run, because those sensations are painful, especially when everyone around you is making these things out to be a failure - like if you experience these things you are doing something wrong. And I get why people stop running, because you wake up and realize that 5 or 10 years have gone by and you have little to show for the passed time, like you've been on a treadmill, and still with that basic, unalterable anxiety of just being in the world.
I think the Tao tells us to stop trying to obliterate what's in us, but rather to accept the basic anxiety, basic sadness and to give up and just accept it - and accept its energy and let it take us.
All Comments
Sometimes I don't want to be sad when its what I need most in the world, or I want to talk to people when really what I need is alone time - and sometimes I need to talk to people and I try and be alone and it never 'works'.
It really is easiest to 'give up' and accept the sadness, lonliness and alienation that come with being alive - and its crazy to think how much I've run in my life, run away from these things - and realize that so many industries are built around helping people run away from the sensations of sadness, lonliness and dispair. Drugs, dieting, medication, self-help, dating, alcohol, consumerism - almost anything can be used as a means to escape. And I get why people run, because those sensations are painful, especially when everyone around you is making these things out to be a failure - like if you experience these things you are doing something wrong. And I get why people stop running, because you wake up and realize that 5 or 10 years have gone by and you have little to show for the passed time, like you've been on a treadmill, and still with that basic, unalterable anxiety of just being in the world.
I think the Tao tells us to stop trying to obliterate what's in us, but rather to accept the basic anxiety, basic sadness and to give up and just accept it - and accept its energy and let it take us.