Hey, what's up!
I suppose everybody fantasizes about things, but to me it seems like dreams rarely turn out the way you think they would. Nothing really does. Even if, what then? So you accomplished perfection and became some kind of master of the universe. You're some enlightened, godlike being! Then you realize what goes up must come down, or how this too shall pass, and now you're afraid of losing it all. Your health, your money, your partner. And you will! Maybe you start dreaming about some idealized version of the past, ironically enough. Anything but the actual present.
Then there's the dreams that don't come true. The shoulda coulda type of stuff. Like you being attached to some unrealized notion of greatness and the aforementioned notion of perfection. Either way, you chasing your dreams is akin to a donkey chasing a carrot dangling from a stick. Some kind of psychological placeholder meant to distract you from whatever -this- is. Even that idea might turn into another object to chase, like the concept of mindfulness or spirituality.
Don't get me wrong, doesn't mean you shouldn't have goals, but... I don't really know. I'm starting to think nobody does and essentially life is just like staying at a remote bus stop, or a train station. You arrive and you have about 80 years to kill, until you catch your next connection. Nothing really matters ultimately, besides your decision on how to spend that time. Personally I've been feeling disllusioned with my own desires, my dreams, and figure my chase is hollow. At least it doesn't seem worth the effort, in terms of its cost-benefit ratio. I just wish I was happy with what I've got, in some unattached kind of way. Or rather without death-grasping the past in the face of change.
Heard some interesting thing regarding buddhism. They have a concept called the hell of hungry ghosts afaik, which seems to be an allegory for personal desire. The hungry ghosts have thin long necks and big bellies, so their appetite can never be fulfilled just due to the nature of YOU, as in you being the cause of your own suffering. I'm sure I'm butchering the idea, but maybe you get what I'm trying to say.
Circling back to spirituality for a moment. I haven't read the Alchemist but your descriptions reminded me a lot about other self-help books and movies like Eat, Pray, Love. There's this idea called spiritual materialism that seems to apply. Heard the argument how sometimes being "spiritual" still might be a cleverly disguised expression of the same materialistic vanity. It's not like those status symbols were gone, it just that the fast cars, the golden wrist watches, and sexy women were replaced with stuff like zafus, yoga pants, prayer beads, or mental objects for that matter. So instead of bragging about your job you end up bragging about how egoless you are, or how long you can sit. You know, one-upmanship.
Oh btw. good read! Can't wait to read the next one!
I always think about this too - what will happen if I achieve a particular dream? In fact, I was able to realize some dreams and it was astonishing for me to notice that I wasn't thrilled as I was before or as I should have. I have started to think that nothing makes me ecstatic - fulfilling dreams should be able to do that, no?
It's okay to dream but not at the expense of ruining your present. Life is too short to long for a certain type of future or regret over shoulda coulda past.
This mindset...! We forget that nothing really matters. Just a couple of decades to kill. But our life gets affected by the social constructs intentionally or unintentionally.
Never heard of it before. But a perfect example.
Couldn't agree more.
Thank you for stopping by. It was an enlightening comment.
Oh, my pleasure :-)!
Yeah, I guess so. In theory fulfilling your dreams should be this amazing experience, and it might be, for a day or two. At least that's what the back of the shampoo bottle says, when I'm bored enough to read it. Hell, maybe it will take years, but sooner or later you'll be getting that itch again. I know I do.
Part of the issue might be the overdrawn, unrealistic expectations we tend to have, rather than striving towards things on principle. On the other hand, the same Buddhist mandala depicting the hell of hungry ghosts argues that the wheel of life is being propelled by a mix of hatred, greed, and delusion at its center. Kinda relating to the whole idea about desire being the root of our suffering. The things we want, the things we don't want, our hopes and dreams, about as much as our fears and anxieties. Life IS suffering, but not necessarily in the agony kind of sense, but in terms of a type of chronic dissatisfaction, no matter if we fulfill our dreams or not.
Ok, so good so far, life is suffering caused by desire. What now? Should you desire to not desire? That's paradoxical, but Buddhists seem to argue for a start maybe just desire less. The paradox itself seems to be partially related to the idea doing and non-doing, which is paradoxical as well. What's personal action and what isn't? Clearly, if someone was hanging with one hand from a cliff and you just stood there doing nothing, that would be an action?! So now you're stuck and don't know what to do anymore, but either way you're still here. So what is it? And who are you supposed to be in the first place?
To me life seems like a deterministic chain-reaction, even though there might be some randomness to the equation. Either way, you're part of this sea of co-dependent phenomena influencing each other in some kind of unfathomable dynamic, where every action or non-action ripples through time and space. Like waves. In terms of that philosophical Daoism seems to argue your individual suffering might come from you trying to go against the dynamic, like holding on to a dream when it's time to let go. Or maybe remaining stagnant when you should've started paddling.
The Daoists got a few neat metaphors. In context of the ideal of "effortless action" they argue pulling on grass doesn't make it grow any faster, for example. But then at other times they argue effortlessness is actually the result of persistent hard work, but then maybe the absence of any type of forced effort at all. I guess it's a mix of all that, all depending on the situation.
Either way, I hope you like word salad :-)
Have a good one,
grebmot
This comment is curated by @ event-horizon.