There is only one work we have in this life: self-creation. We have to take that most seriously, out of everything we have to do. Because everyone we love most - everyone we love, plus everyone we meet or even chance across - will have the blessing and the benefit of who we choose to be.
We want to be a blessing, to those we love. We are the ones who make ourselves a blessing.
We want to be a blessing, to those we love. We are the ones who make ourselves a blessing.
Comments
Do you feel you've made progress? Sometimes I feel I'm a hundred times more effective than I used to be or would have been, if I wasn't trying. Other times I feel I'm possibly kidding myself.
I agree. We create, every day, who we are; and the face we show the world is the one they take with them when they leave our presence. I wish more people would think about that.
Pearl
@jorg - nope! I think I know who that is, though. Is he the guy who wrote the one where he's God, talking to himself? Or wait - is he the one where he's got a gorilla for a guru? I'm 60% sure he's one of those two. I'm going to post this first, google second!
Still, if Mr. NDW expresses the above idea in any form, he's got to be thousands of years late for being original with it. And good on him, if so! A preoccupation with novelty of conception is the bugaboo of third-rate creatives.
Conversations With God.
I totally read that when I was 19. Some chick gave it to me. Lord, she was hot. I experimented with the technique myself after, and it worked! I was able to get God to say the craziest shit. Crazy.
In fact, I think I have a post around here that is kind of a take on that whole idea. Yeah! Here it is.
The gorilla guru one was Daniel Quinn.
I know we differ on this some aspects of this point, but these days I prefer to think that the goal of the self is to eliminate the self, preferably through selflessness, and that maybe self-creation can be accomplished through self-destruction, in the kindest possible sense of the term.
Am I successful in this? Well...
For my own self, I figure my goal should be to be less and less attached to any particular part of who I am and how I act. To hopefully be able to see clear enough what parts don't work, and hopefully keep what does - but not be too precious about it?
I'm not too sure I'm successful either! But I can't see the self as a thing to destroy. I can't. See, I always see others around me and say: this is what the world is worth. These people. All of them. Each of them. Their selves. By extension, the self.
The self - meaning each individual one of us - is the only thing worth getting out of this world.