feelings

Question: "I have been giving my long-lived internal conflicts about what I want, this degree or that, some friends, a mate, whatever. I find myself in the same quandary of "You needn't want those things" and "It's perfectly normal to have/want those things". I'm giving more consideration to resigning to it, of not seeking these things out and potentially living a life of isolation and destitution. But I also wonder, is that the wrong approach to the right perspective?"


Don’t bother telling yourself that you should feel differently than you do. It draws focus away from a sincere investigation of what you are feeling now.

Friends are beautiful, having a partner is wonderful. But those things are truly at their best when you are bringing all of yourself, your peace and your happiness, to the relationship.

It is not that we shouldn’t be open to new connections and life’s opportunities. But that we needn’t wait for things to align according to our preferences before allowing ourselves peace and happiness and love.

You definitely hit the nail on the head: right perspective, wrong approach.

Because outer things cannot give you happiness, and cannot truly take your peace, then wanting or not wanting, obtaining or rejecting, neither really matters. What matters is going within.

Renunciation and detachment are inner things. They make room for the obviousness of your Existential Fullness. You need not renounce the things of this world, only your false belief that they can give you something you don’t already have. You need not be detached toward people, just in recognition of the inevitability of change.

Being alive is never isolated. We talk about life without really remaining in touch with being alive. Don’t resign yourself to life of this or that, don’t long for a life of this or that. What you are longing for is aliveness, which has never left you.

Unhinge from reliance on circumstances and thoughts, experience from the abundance of your living heart, and you will never know a moment of isolation and destitution ever again.