Yield (when your bliss feels like a curse)
2 comments
May I attempt to interpret/summarize your prose?
The first two paragraphs state that a person's mind is able to feverishly focus on a matter. Paragraphs 3 and 4 say that curiosity and 'obsession' elicits originality. The next paragraph says that people can create unique order from chaos (figure stuff out). Paragraph 6 says that obsession will lead to self discovery ('alignment with the universe') and happiness ('bliss'). Paragraph 7 asks if this obsession is malignant (a 'curse').
The next two paragraphs seem to be the heart of the essay. It says to not 'yield' (settle) to sub-prime responses to your 'obsession' or curiosity. Also, the 'novel' response to your obsession will be a guiding light for people with similar 'obsessions' as yourself.
Was I close to your intended meaning?
The first two paragraphs state that a person's mind is able to feverishly focus on a matter. Paragraphs 3 and 4 say that curiosity and 'obsession' elicits originality. The next paragraph says that people can create unique order from chaos (figure stuff out). Paragraph 6 says that obsession will lead to self discovery ('alignment with the universe') and happiness ('bliss'). Paragraph 7 asks if this obsession is malignant (a 'curse').
The next two paragraphs seem to be the heart of the essay. It says to not 'yield' (settle) to sub-prime responses to your 'obsession' or curiosity. Also, the 'novel' response to your obsession will be a guiding light for people with similar 'obsessions' as yourself.
Was I close to your intended meaning?
yea, i think thats a close interpretation! thanks!
So much of what you are saying is a combination of honest, reflective, and wise, however I disagree with one main point: "As strong-willed as humans can be, we cannot voluntarily sustain a state of suffering." As a person familiar with emotional masochism I would have to disagree. I think that the majority of people do sustain a state of suffering for a whole host of reasons that range from self hatred, a mirroring of ones past without awareness of personal responsibility for the imitation of parental emotional patterns (and perhaps even out of a loyalty to the family mantle of martyrhood and pain), to the simple desire to be in control, and so forth. With that said you are right: to yield is the only way. But (to play the devils advocate) I dare say that sometimes yielding is the very thing we forget when we become caught up in the cycle of playing the ever obstinate victim. To refuse to yield becomes the unhealthy obsession, and so we are lost to ourselves, lost to ourselves, lost to ourselves.
masochism is deriving pleasure from what would be considered pain by the majority. I think we should hope that us humans have a predisposition to seek pleasure (even when veiled in apparent pain). have you ever read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle?
Because of the fleeting nature of our memory our minds are uniquely conducive to effortless hyper-specialization. The more you think of something, the more you think of something.
It is, then, curiosity, fascination or obsession that enables one to experience a cognitive leap in conceptual understanding. If one lacks the means to satisfy the appetite of obsession with real-world experience he will resort to using imagination, the Sweet-n-Low of experience.
The centripetal momentum of what is, essentially, a positive feedback loop is the mechanism by which the emergence of novel thinking occurs. Novel thinking excites us, naturally. Satisfies our obsession, momentarily, just enough feeling of light to allow us to persist emotionally despite illusory outward resistance.
All that is in existence has emerged from chaos. What we perceive as order is unimaginably complex... chaos, still. Only now, mechanisms for ephemeral forms of order are within the reach of increasingly conscious forms to manipulate. Therefore it is the nature of the universe for one to become consumed with the flavor of thought he so choose.
To "follow thy bliss" is to be in alignment with the universe. Trust that your current obsession will lead you to place thy hand next to those who will together lift the vail of uncertainty and fear to reveal truth and solace.
Do artists really toil away in obscurity? Is the gift of a provocative vision really a gift AND a curse? Are those who see "differently" fated to a solitary existence?
No.
As strong-willed as humans can be, we cannot voluntarily sustain a state of suffering. So it is the power of the network that all nodes have one beautifully simple rule of operation from which all novelty emerges... yield. Yield to that which will not let you "conform and live blissfully ignorant". Do not try to find your mother's embrace in a stranger, know it's significance in your mind exists for the purpose of compassion not imitation. All institutions are a juxtaposition to your pursuit of happiness when you rely to heavily on them. Do not let the scorn of women or organization send you on a journey which destination is redemption, but instead yield... you don't belong, yield.
Then proceed until the short bursts of light become long slow paces and you become the beam of light your son will follow.