That book

Do you actually believe the above?

(that’s not meant to be a perjorative question, although it sounds one – personally, I don’t believe it, but could see how you could take either point of view)

It seems a rather fatalistic view of the human condition. Does a kayakist who paddles hard in the direction he wants to go in have a better time than the kayakist who allows the river to guide them? Does he see finer things, and enjoy the ride more? Is he bound to be more satisfied?

Dunno. I think it was Buddha who once said that it was possible (perhaps indeed common? I can’t remember) to reach nirvana without being aware of having done it; he said this as a chastisement of those who focussed on the goal rather than the path to enlightenment: concerning yourself with nirvana is somewhat missing the wood for the trees.

I get the feeling from those who live life “to the full” that existance just becomes a box-ticking exercise on a limitless list. To say that living life “actively” is more fulfilling and therefore makes a being great seems to be missing the point of life to me. Like going to a themepark, and making sure that you rush around to get on every ride. A noisy existence.

I think I’m also predisposed to declining the view that it’s possible to judge someone else’s life (to the extent that someone’s worth cannot be measured; and therefore isn’t even a relativist concept as, say, good or bad).

The big question is, how does one know what sort of a life one wants to create? How many of our ideas about we think we want are actually just gathered from other people, or guesses? It’s easy to assume that because we’re not (entirely) happy, it’s because we haven’t got something or aren’t doing something.. I’ve certainly spent too many years floundering about trying to figure this.

I’ve been pondering this fragment from Chaung Tzu a lot recently:

“If you persist in trying to attain what is never attained (It is Tao’s gift),
if you persist in making effort to obtain what effort cannot get,
if you persist in reasoning about what cannot be understood,
you will be destroyed by the very thing you seek.

“To know when to stop,
to know when you can get no further by your own action,
this is the right beginning!”

Basically, I’ve just realised I don’t have a clue what I’m doing I gather this revelation is a useful one in the long term, but right now it’s a little dispiriting..

Aid: this is one of the points that the book brings up. If the business doesn’t allow me to succeed in life, what’s the point in doing it?

Business is simply a way to get where I’m going – the same as any job is, but this way I have more control.

I haven’t finished reading it yet, but that’s what I’ve got from it so far.