Getting What We Want

Carl

[cite] Carl:[/cite]For me, it really comes down to this: which mode of observation feels 'truer'?

I guess this all started because I asserted that the conversations (thoughts & speech) we have about ourselves, life, and others is what makes us who we are. Similar to attitude but I actually think your attitude is created by what you say (or think). Why I brought animals into it, I don't know. How would I ever know what an animal is or isn't thinking? I am not even sure I know what I am thinking.

I am an intuitive (expressive) person but I also lean strong on the logic side. I am keenly aware of my lack of facts. Even what I think I observe, may not be what it appears. But I can operate without facts and make a best guess.

It is not even so much that it is true that our conversations make us who were are, but it may leave an opening in life for those who find they are stuck.

[cite] Carl:[/cite]differences (which is why Taoism has such low regard for the them).

Maybe I am not a taoist and never will be. I think you can learn as much by observing the differences as the similarities. In any case, I am not so much interested in what is true as I am in how things work, especially the emotional & spiritual aspects of the human.

[cite] Carl:[/cite](2) Next, are you not taking liberties with the meaning of emotion

I didn't think I was. I even checked the dictionary and thought what I was talking about fit the definition. I actually don't know what animals are feeling or thinking. Pain is not an emotion (look at your definition). Sadness is, according to my thinking and your definition.

I know I can feel pain physically. I can react to pain by withdrawing from the perceived cause of it (without thinking about it first). Animals seem to react in the same way and I assume have similar brain processes that control that. I don't know that they don't have emotion about it (like sadness). But I think my sadness is based on the conversation I have about what just happened, not a physical sensation, though, a physical sensation may accompany it. My sadness can last a lot longer than the event because I keep that conversation going. Why I would choose to put myself through this kind of misery, I have yet to figure out. I know the sadness leaves when I drop the story about it and move on.

When I began, I made the assertion that animals don't do this. I now see that I don't know that they don't. But I know that I do.

This is not going to affect my eating habits. Hmm, I wonder if I have a steak in the freezer....

Carl

We only get out of life what we truly want (our dharma). If we don't know what we truly want, we go round and round searching, [chref=20]up to a terrace in spring[/chref] or other [chref=24]'excessive food and useless excrescences'[/chref]. If and when we [chref=16]return[/chref] to what we truly want, we can't have it until we [chref=1]rid ourselves of desire[/chref] to have it. Only by giving up the need, [chref=64]desire[/chref], want, wish, hope, and longing are we able to [chref=8]settle where none would like to be[/chref]. Weird, eh? But supremely just!