“Last night I lost the world, and gained the universe.” ― C. JoyBell C.
We’ve all got things we want out of life – hopes, dreams, bucket lists, etc. – and it’s generally recommended that we remain steadfast in our attempt to bring these things to fruition. In fact, it’s sometimes suggested that in order to achieve these things, we must sacrifice other concerns and stay fixated on our dreams with single-minded focus.
Depending on what your dreams are, this may be a good thing or a bad thing on the very face of it. Many have let personal relationships wane in favor of chasing dollars, or mortgaged their future for perceived shortcuts toward their goal. But I’m going to suggest that regardless of the nature of your goals, you need to let them go – for the good of yourself, and the world at large.
For this to make sense, I’ve got to define what I mean by “let go”. I’m not calling for a grand spiritual attempt to release all desire, or promoting a life of inaction rooted in the nihilistic notion of life as a meaningless exercise in futility. I’m mostly saying that we’ve got to keep things in perspective and recognize that desires must serve man if they are to be beneficial forces in our lives - man must not be made to serve them.
Of course, this includes you as the goal-seeker, but it also indicates that the fulfillment of your desires must not come at the expense of others. Obviously, we don’t want to let desire take hold of us in a way that leads to self-destructive behavior, and we don’t want to become a monster either; shoving others into the mud as we trample over their backs. But this distinction isn't always as obvious as it seems…
You’ve probably heard the advice “release your attachment to the outcome”; typically as a means by which we may maintain happiness throughout the process of attaining goals, not making our happiness dependent upon their attainment. This is sound advice, but it’s not the whole story. Not only do we have to find joy in the journey, but we also need to be willing to drop the whole thing in an instant if we have cause to believe our goal is inappropriate somehow.
You may have spent years trying to achieve something, when suddenly introspection or experience reveals that your goal is off-target relative to your underlying desires, or even detrimental to yourself or others. If you’ve mentally anchored your self-image to this goal, or made it a defining aspect of your life, you will find this very difficult to do upon that realization. The mind is very adept at twisting logic to devise justifications that keep you bound to that habitual striving.
It's prudent to sacrifice the dream in advance - you must relinquish the belief that you need it to be happy, successful, or satisfied. On a more profound note, you exist as a conscious being perceiving various phenomena, and that consciousness is fundamentally untouched by what's perceived (this includes your own thoughts, emotions, or external conditions). You may still have the desire, and that’s fine (it’s just another perceived phenomenon), but it cannot be permitted to take priority over your momentary happiness, or those aspects of your character that make a you a good, responsible person.
My Story
When I was a teenager, I become swept up in the cultural paradigm of dollar-worship. I was intent on becoming rich! I studied money and investing; listened to all the big “success” coaches; devised a plan for achieving my goal, and poured all of my most precious resource – attention – into the achievement of that goal.
As time wore on, however, my personal growth yielded other realizations. I started to see how this goal was not intrinsically related to my core desires. I didn’t really want money, but the emotional state I believed that money would provide. I saw that the desire for money – and what it could buy - was being purposefully promoted in the culture, and being leveraged by other greedy individuals to serve their own needs, at the expense of the rest of the world.
The money chase was a diversion. It stood in the place of the only means by which I may find true happiness and satisfaction – by learning to gain internal control over my own emotional state. This was a shirking of my natural responsibility (all are charged with the duty to use the tool of their mind responsibly), but it was also leaving little attention left to spend on other important endeavors, like truly understanding the difference between right and wrong, what it means to be a friend to humanity, and milking those things I already had for all the enjoyment they could provide.
What was I to do with this new information? I had studied for years, day and night. All my thought was bent upon this one goal. I was only two months into my new job as a stockbroker. I was finally “making it”, and everyone had celebrated my success. My realization was completely inconsistent with the plan...
Luckily, I’ve always been rather reluctant to embrace a lie. I’m also stubbornly resistant to acting against my inspiration. I was now inspired to act in accord with this newly discovered truth – and there was no doubt in my mind that it was truth indeed. So, there was really only one thing to do – burn the whole thing down to the ground.
I quit the job immediately. I was no longer the guy telling everyone who would listen about sound financial strategies, or asserting my destiny of wealth. Pride, dreams, identity, and everything I’d made my life about – all down the drain in one fell swoop.
I felt pretty disheartened. Even quite embarrassed. I struggled through this time because I had not prepared myself for such a radical diversion from the intended course. I was attached to the dream. I had wrapped myself up in the goal. Instead of letting it go peacefully, of my own free will, I felt like it had been torn away from me. Not by another person, but by the universe, and truth itself.
For many years after, I struggled to navigate this course, which was so divergent from what the culture had taught me to value. If money was no longer the goal, what was? And everyone else still believes in the money thing, so they would no doubt see me as a failure, and downright crazy. It was difficult work to shake off my perception of their perception and stand firm in my own self-valuation.
In time, I came to understand more about what it means to be a human being. With my attention freed up to spend on other studies, I learned about the true nature of morality. Coupled with my experience, I was able to release my attachment to goals, and this made it easier to embrace the sacrifices necessary for a moral person to maintain their character in a largely immoral world.
Breaking the Binds
Are you willing - even excited - to embrace such sacrifices? Probably not, if you’re attached to your goals. What if tomorrow you realized that your goal was inconsistent with your true desire? What if you realized that everything you built your life around was inconsistent with a relatively "minor" moral point? Would you let it slide and sacrifice just a small bit of your character for the sake of staying on the course you’ve plotted for yourself?
There aren't really any “minor” truths, and our personal character (what we do whether anyone is watching or not) is more important than any worldly goal. What about the goal of survival? Are you attached to that goal? Would you place it above right action, if living right meant dying?
Right action means living in accord with truth, and morality is merely the truth of human action and its consequences. If the consequences of your actions are recognized to be detrimental, can you make the necessary change? In order to do so, you cannot have your goal at the top of your priority list. You’ve got to be willing to throw it all away in an instant. This is much easier to do if you’ve let it go previous to that critical moment of choice.
Take some time to consider what’s truly important in your life – why do you strive for your particular dreams? What is it you’re really seeking? Is there anything that takes precedence over helping to create a world wherein everyone can pursue their own happiness, without being imposed upon by the pursuit of others? Is what you really want “out there” anyway, or it something internally-derived?
I guess it comes down to introspection. It’s not about releasing goals because it sounds like a good idea, but because you recognize the true nature of desire itself. Desire is a springboard, inspiring us to action so we may enjoy the beneficial expansion that results. The thing desired is not inherently valuable, but only as a means by which we can facilitate all that is good in the world.
That which serves freedom – the authentic expression of the being – is what we call good. That which does not is hollow, and will ultimately fail to satisfy. What falls into each category is a determination that you must make by careful, earnest analysis. In any case, it behooves us to free ourselves from attachment in order to make us more nimble and capable in this endeavor... and the best time to do make such beneficial changes is always right now.
Thanks for checking in!
Brian Blackwell
Relevant articles supporting a deeper understanding of the ideas presented above may be found here:
Dear Brian,
what a good story your life writes you. The catharsis you caused yourself is quite an impressive achievement. You've arrived at the bottom, you've dared to bend out of safety and you've felt the full pain that this loss of identity has inflicted on you. I think you have to hit the total ground before you are aware of the culturally conditioned influence (which has been there since there have been people trading with each other).
When you feel really dirty, when you recognize the madness that drove you and to which you never gave real faith, is an important step taken. What others do or leave should not be more important than what your integrity and wisdom tells you.
There are people who do not dare to leave the security of prosperity and if they do not have an awakening experience of what they must have, if before the belief in wealth was so strong, they may never experience it. Then there are those who do not believe so much in becoming rich and famous in the first place. How beautiful it is that we are all quite different, even if it does not look like it on the surface.
One can free oneself from goals and desires and yet still unerringly follow the path of one's life. I feel grateful to those who reveal their stories (like you do here) and to those who teach me to reveal to me a different kind of reality that is at least a thousand times better than any status quo. I think we all sniff the lie in the prayer wheel of financial success. You can almost tell people how exhausting they find it to continue to believe in it. But it is probably every single task to walk the road. One cannot walk for the other.
To answer your question: I am looking for a peaceful mind. I'm looking for inspiration. I find it in people and teachings that mean something to me. I learn. I am still looking for ways not to constantly hold my mistakes against myself and blame others for their mistakes. This is a lifelong practice and learning and never stops.
Earlier I gave a funny analogy of Alan Watts to someone in the commentary. I think it's so good that I'm copying it in here for you:
You do such good writings. I am missing to hear from you more often. And then I forget to visit your blog, only to finally come here and see that I am again a little late. :)
Sincerely,
Erika
I regret not being here more often lately, but my inspiration relative to other matters has taken most of my free time. It's always good to hear from you.
I know I have the power to withdraw my attention from the negative behaviors of others, and the problems of the world. I used to reside in this space. I also know that by freeing one's own mind and heart, that this act answers for all, and they need not delve into every particular area to heal it individually. But I am struggling with the appropriateness of this choice...
Deception permeates this world. Are we not charged with giving truth a voice in this environment? In my personal and social experience I find that even the most "spiritually aware" people have a culturally-indoctrinated blind spot relative to the powers that hold this world hostage. Even if they are enlightened about their true nature and act in accord with it, causing no harm is not good enough when there are rabid wolves at the door. They must be stopped, and others must be warned - is this not so?
If someone is actively siphoning money out of your bank account every day, is our attention misplaced by actively trying to stop them? Is it misplaced by warning others against their aggression?
Please advise, and enjoy the day!
I cannot answer you, I got sick and must stay in bed. Just wanted to let you know. I will answer when I feel recovered. After that, I will have a steemit break myself.
I hope you are OK. Respond only if inspired, even if it's a year from now. I will wait :)
Amazing post, well written as always - Getting down to the true true causal factors of the global condition.
I have been along a similar path, with very different manifestations.
Societies view of competition and how it relates to wealth is based on secondary psychopathy and the "crabs in a bucket" mentality. Becoming wealthy is tough, staying there after is the real challenge. Why is this?
The concepts you discuss here are the basic principals of Alchemy and Hermetics, two of my favorite Mystery Teachings.
Thanks for the Great Work!
Hey Jay - thanks so much. It's tough to balance unity and individuality within a culture steeped in competition and self-focus. The breakdown of the person-to-person tribal mindset (where its easily apparent how we all rise or fall together) leaves everyone isolated with government as the go-between. Our common humanity and shared fate as a species should be the bond that links us together, but instead the state becomes the ostensible "unifying" factor.
People I've never met assert that I am part of this "partnership" called "The United States", and that voting and law is how we cooperate, yet I cannot get them to understand and respect natural law rights which are rooted in our very nature as human beings.
So be a good law-abiding citizen and you've done your part for the tribe. If the way I relate to you is legal, then I've fulfilled my obligation to you (and mankind on the whole). This is the perverted form of unity that fills the receptor site where true unity should reside, and it's rooted in an unnatural (and impossible) act of abdication.
"Let us relieve you of the troublesome responsibilities of life - we will arbitrate your interactions, we will handle the organization of society, we will dictate morality and act as your protector... Our yoke is easy, our burden light - just pay your taxes and obey our agents, and everything else will be taken care of...
[cough] at the expense of your very soul and everything that makes you human [cough]
see? Here you lose it again ;-)
Exactly! Our shared reality is what makes us "one". Through a true understanding of Natural Law and Morality our responsibilities become apparent.
In theory our societal structure itself is not the problem, rather the people within it. The dominance of psychopathy (especially taking into account the very limited percentage of the population in which primary psychopathy actually exists) could not be possible within an educated, self-respecting population - nor could most of the social injustices we witness today.
Hi Jay! I find that so many of these discussions leave us remiss due to a glaring omission - who (or what) is at the head of all this, and why the cultural mindset is what it is. We talk about how to best organize society, and what morality means, and historical examples, etc. but this is all rather premature. The necessary first step hasn't been completed - a cult deprogramming.
You know how it goes - the back and forth with statists, trying to make them see clear logic - but amidst all the faux-practical talk about borders, delegation, protection, and roads lies the obscenely ludicrous fact that this whole thing is a Satanic cult with its vile tentacles in the very souls of the people having the discussion.
Do we need government or not? How can this be discussed without first understanding what it is? And never mind what it is philosophically (the invalid and immoral belief in non-existent authority), but what it is in the most practical possible terms is a seething horde of baby-drinking vampires.
The notion of fixing it, or getting it to a "reasonable" size, or thinking of it as having anything to do with protection or social organization is a complete red herring. But getting this fact to be accepted (which, if understood, would no doubt compel more strongly than any appeal to logic or morality) is actually more difficult to get across than the already nigh-impossible rational or moral argument. Bringing it up is a surefire way to close someone's mind irreversibly.
This is the awe-inspiring efficacy of the cultural mind-control. I'm no master of the flies-and-honey formula. I try to be calm and deliberate in my writings, but I'm more of a "here's the truth, choke on it" kind of person, due to many long years of philosophical study and the resistance to lucid thought I've encountered from others on nearly every topic imaginable. I resent having to prance around spreading rose pedals to get someone to listen to reason. But some soft-spoken spoken with a fuse left to burn has to coax these people out of their sea-bottom depth delusion or everything is damned to hell.
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Great stuff.