We can not begin to discuss what is true and what is not without first acknowledging the flawed sensor through which we experience the world: the mind.
Impermanence (anicca) is one of the fundamental characteristic of all things that are perceivable by the mind. Indeed, I have found that to assume something to be permanent is always a fast track to suffering. Be it wanting your beloved pet to live forever, or wanting the happy times to last forever, all of these misunderstandings result in suffering. We are all born with a time limit, and only after accepting this limit can we continue to live the correct way. Upon further inspection, there is a connection between procrastination and this kind of misunderstanding (that things are permanent). If you think about it, procrastination has an embedded assumption that "tomorrow will be the same as today". There's no rush to finish what must be done, because I can do it tomorrow, and the conditions will be the same tomorrow. This is fundamentally untrue. As an example, I learned this the hard way when I procrastinated on doing a batch of laundry, putting it off day after day. Th...
Like most kids from my culture, I was raised to be obedient. In a way, this is a good survival technique for a child. If the world is hostile, follow a capable leader. However, problems arise when this understanding of life is carried into adulthood, into morality and how I conduct myself. At school, the teachers' morality become my morality. At work, the boss's morality becomes mine. Sometimes even confident friends or particularly vocal people on the internet would become my moral guide. This logic fails in the face of reality that sometimes (actually often times) the leader is misguided. Many leaders in my life taught me how to survive the environment that they are familiar with, but not truly what is what. Believing them results in a somewhat functional life in the short term, but upon closer introspection, this was a slow drip of poison that would cause great suffering in the long run. Had I not embarked on this journey to see things truly as they are, I can imagine myself...
If you present a false self, you are safe from potential enemies who seek to find your weakness, but you will also block yourself from finding the potential friends who seek to help.
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