If you don't mind a winding tangent (thank you for posting the original article, BTW; it nicely sums up a concept I've been trying to wrap my brain around for years. And if you do mind a winding tangent, I apologize):
When you strip away all the florid language, dukkha tends to arise from the human tendency to overthink things
This is a point I have struggled with for a long time. I want to understand my personal spiritual path, but I realized very early on that "don't overthink things" is an important step on said path, for me. Which means that if I analyze my path too closely, I am stepping off said path. But I cannot see where the path is if I don't analyze it at all.
Note that "struggle" in the above context is not itself an example of dukkha; I take great pleasure and satisfaction in wrestling with these concepts, and believe that to a certain extent, I cannot step off my spiritual path, since that implies a "correct" path, which I'm not sure exists. This sort of inherent contradiction is why I often consider myself a Discordian, in addition to whatever else I am.
I want to have this sort of discussion more often.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-24 06:22 pm (UTC)When you strip away all the florid language, dukkha tends to arise from the human tendency to overthink things
This is a point I have struggled with for a long time. I want to understand my personal spiritual path, but I realized very early on that "don't overthink things" is an important step on said path, for me. Which means that if I analyze my path too closely, I am stepping off said path. But I cannot see where the path is if I don't analyze it at all.
Note that "struggle" in the above context is not itself an example of dukkha; I take great pleasure and satisfaction in wrestling with these concepts, and believe that to a certain extent, I cannot step off my spiritual path, since that implies a "correct" path, which I'm not sure exists. This sort of inherent contradiction is why I often consider myself a Discordian, in addition to whatever else I am.
I want to have this sort of discussion more often.