There's
nothing wrong
with being lit up. There's
nothing wrong
with being overjoyed. There's
nothing wrong
with being happy. Life, for almost everyone I know (myself
included ie especially myself included), wouldn't be
tolerable if it weren't for having at least one or more of these
experiences at least some of the time. And I'm not about to propose
anything to the contrary - far from it in fact.
In this conversation I do intend, however, to look at the
inverse experiences of being lit up, of being overjoyed,
of being happy: the experiences of being shut down, of being depressed,
of being sad, and how we try to avoid them. Then I intend to make a
powerful
observation about the essential nature of all experiences
- both the experiences we prefer as well as their
inverses.
If you were to say
why
you're shut down (which is to say if and when
you're shut down - because you are, at least from time to time) or
why
you're depressed or
why
you're sad, you'll probably have a good reason or two or
three for being shut down or for being depressed or for being sad.
You'll probably have it that being shut down or being depressed or
being sad is
in reaction
to something happening. You may even say you're shut down or you're
depressed or you're sad "because of" something.
If the truth is told, that's probably accurate. It's in the ballpark.
It's
good enough for
jazz.
Something in the circumstances triggers ie
reactivates
something in
the
machinery,
bringing on being shut down or being depressed or being sad. If you
continue to tell the truth about it, there'd be no doubt
being shut down or being depressed or being sad is in reaction to
something which reminds you of
a similar earlier
upset.
You're triggered even before you realize it. You're reactivated even
before you realize it. You're shut down or you're depressed or you're
sad even before you realize it - which is to say the
experience of being shut down or being depressed or being
sad comes on even before you realize it. And you and I
spend an inordinate amount of time looking for a way
out of ie looking for ways to avoid being shut
down, to avoid being depressed, to avoid being sad.
Here's the thing (I really want you to get this): being lit up and
being overjoyed and being happy come from the same place, from
the same triggering mechanism, from the same
reactivation machinery
as being shut down and as being depressed and as being sad. Yet who
spends as much time avoiding or trying to change or
trying to fix
being lit up or being overjoyed or being happy, as we spend avoiding or
trying to change or
trying to fix
being shut down and being depressed and being sad? Indeed, who spends
any time at all avoiding being lit up or avoiding being
overjoyed or avoiding being happy? Certainly not I. Certainly not most
of the people I know. And most likely not you either. Yet if the truth
be told, they all come from the same place. They're the same
class of experience. They're all triggered by
ie they're all
in reaction
to something circumstantial. They're all just
reactivation.
There it is. As I said earlier, I personally have no intention to do
anything about it. Without being lit up, without being overjoyed,
without being happy at least some of the time, Life for the most part
wouldn't be tolerable. I do however intend to suggest when you're
lit up like a 100 watt light bulb, when you're overjoyed, when you're
happy, consider Life hasn't changed. You're still
a machine,
only this time you're a machine experiencing being lit up
or experiencing being overjoyed or experiencing being happy. And
the machine
looks to being lit up and to being overjoyed and to being happy as a
way to escape the predicament of being
a machine
and as a way to avoid the domination of being
a machine
and as a way to get out from underneath the
tyranny
of being
a machine.
All of that's
inauthentic.
And it's just as
inauthentic
gravitating toward ie trying to be lit up or trying to be
overjoyed or trying to be happy as it is avoiding being shut down and
avoiding being depressed and avoiding being sad.
Now, be careful. I'm not saying don't be lit up. I'm not
saying don't be overjoyed. I'm not saying
don't be happy. I'm saying when you're lit up like a 100
watt light bulb be responsible for being lit up like a 100 watt
light bulb. Be responsible for the experience. You're just as
responsible for it as you are for being shut down.