What depresses me more than anything.

[Goodheart]

There's too much world.

There's so much to read, so many movies to see, so many works I know are great but I'll never get around to them. Classics, moderns, life is too short.

Too many skills to master. I'd like to learn the piano, take up woodworking, do my own writing, finally master calculus, and on and on. Can't find the time for it all.

Too many places to see. Too many people to meet and befriend.

I guess it's a lot better than running out of things. But I'm so small within what we DO have that I find it all depressing.

Guess I shouldn't think about it.

[Botany]

1. Tiddlywinks!

[Goodheart]

3. And then again there are things that don't interest me AT ALL.

LOL

[Botany]

6. Try this book "Nature's Best Hope."

or this one

The Hidden Life of Trees

Game Changers

[Moostache]

2. I would only worry if you were on the opposite side of that thought...

Those whose minds are closed, whose lives are devoted only to a few small things and no contemplation of anything else are truly living the lives of quiet desperation we've all heard spoken of...

Seek every day to learn, experience or contemplate at least one new thing and you will live a fulfilling and meaningful life. SHARE that learning or curiosity with others? Now you're contributing to the species and now that meaning expands beyond your lifespan and into that of the species...

My biggest fears are that not enough people are thinking of the future of the species and are too wrapped up in the mundane and the trite to be bothered...THAT would be a tragic outcome for all, not just me or you or a select few.

Keep learning, keep living, keep sharing...that is the secret to life in a nutshell (to me anyway!!!)

[dawg]

4. I think that's a beautiful thing and something to be thankful for!

Even if science finds a way for us to all live to be 200, we won't run out! There will still be new music, new stories, new things to learn and discover.

Some people are dead years before their heart actually stops beating. They have no real interests or curiosity, and exist in a loop like a Westworld host. Thank your lucky stars you're not like them!

[Mike 03]

5. I hear you

It can be depressing. A few years ago I reluctantly gave away a bunch of theoretical physics and math textbooks. One of my goals had always been to learn enough calculus and differential equations to be able to at least read and understand the math of String Theory and quantum mechanics. At some point I realized that it was beyond my capabilities.

There are so many books I want to read and re-read. I wanted to master World War II and study the Vietnam War. I've temporarily put aside writing, music and painting, things I really miss.

Now my whole day is devoted to keeping up with what's going on in the world even though it doesn't increase my sense of control.

I'm just hoping we get a break in November so at least we don't have to be in flight-or-fight mode 24 hours a day and then maybe some of these other things can come back into our lives and we can pursue some of these other goals.

[genxlib]

7. As an alternative mindset

I highly recommend the book "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August"

https://www.amazon.com/First-Fifteen-Lives-Harry-August-ebook/dp/B00ECE9OD4

I found it a fascinating look at what life would be like if you had more time. Spoiler alert, it gets boring. There is a lot more to it than that but it made me appreciate the life I had more.

[Maraya1969]

8. I know some people her think I am a kook but I swear this philosophy has helped me so much.

https://www.happinessofbeing.com/

Much more at link:

Happiness is our essential being
Happiness lies deep within us, in the very core of our being. Happiness does not exist in any external object, but only in us, who are the consciousness that experiences happiness. Though we seem to derive happiness from external objects or experiences, the happiness that we thus enjoy in fact arises from within us.

Whatever turmoil our mind may be in, in the centre of our being there always exists a state of perfect peace and joy, like the calm in the eye of a storm. Desire and fear agitate our mind, and obscure from its vision the happiness that always exists within it. When a desire is satisfied, or the cause of a fear is removed, the surface agitation of our mind subsides, and in that temporary calm our mind enjoys a taste of its own innate happiness.

Happiness is thus a state of being — a state in which our mind’s habitual agitation is calmed. The activity of our mind disturbs it from its calm state of just being, and causes it to lose sight of its own innermost happiness. To enjoy happiness, therefore, all our mind need do is to cease all activity, returning calmly to its natural state of inactive being, as it does daily in deep sleep.

True happiness is therefore the happiness of just being, which is the perfect and absolute happiness that in mystical literature is known as ‘beatitude’. This true happiness of being is also described as ‘the peace of God, which passeth all understanding’, because it is experienced in full only in the perfectly peaceful state of just being, which is the state in which all mental activity has subsided in the clarity of unobstructed self-consciousness. That is, since it can be experienced perfectly only in the state in which we are conscious merely of our own essential being and not of any thoughts or objects, true happiness or peace is beyond all mental comprehension.

Not only does happiness exist within us — it is in fact our true nature, our essential being. The transient happiness that we seem to derive from external experiences, but which actually arises only from within ourself, is in reality nothing other than our own essential being. The more clearly we are conscious of our own essential being, the more deeply and intensely do we experience happiness.

The degree of happiness that we experience at any moment is directly proportionate to the degree of clarity with which we are then conscious of our true and essential being. Therefore happiness is not only our essential being, but is also our consciousness of our being. In fact, since we are the consciousness that experiences our own being as ‘I am’, we are both being and consciousness. In other words, our essential being is consciousness, or more precisely it is self-consciousness — consciousness that knows itself clearly as ‘I am’. Therefore, since our unobstructed consciousness of our own being is experienced by us as happiness, in our essential nature we are non-dual being, consciousness and happiness.

[bedazzled]

10. That is a wonderful website. Challenging but wonderful

Have to send that to some friends...

[Maraya1969]

13. There are also many great teachers on Youtube. Type on Advaita and you'll

find them.


I've been to a few retreats in Portugal with Mooji and even stayed at his ashram for awhile.

[bedazzled]

17. Thank you for sharing

The last few weeks have been an opportunity for me to learn and important information is flowing like water!

[Mike 03]

11. I don't think you're a kook at all.

It's tricky when two such powerful ideas co-exist in the mind at the same time.

It seems to me that there's a decisive letting go that has to occur at some point that's hard to achieve. It's like being stuck between two rooms, one foot in one room and one foot in the other, and committing to the room you're talking about is hard because it's hard to let go of all the excitement going on in the other room.

If that makes sense.

But I love and understand the truth of what you're saying. The irony is, because of what's unfolding before us, it's probably actually never been easier to let go in the history of our species. Yet there are still "all the interesting things."

Now, I actually think a person can do both things: Let go completely (of attachments) and yet be engaged completely in the reality right in front of us.

[Maraya1969]

12. I find it very difficult to stay detached; or to stay attached to my own sense

of self awareness. Even though I have found that when I do that - I notice that a happiness comes in from nowhere and it feels really good. And I am sure about what Sri Maharshi says about happiness only originating in the Self because even if we think our happiness comes from say another person.....not every person feel the same happiness when they think of that person. So, in fact the happiness does come from within myself.

I have been watching Youtube videos about Ramana Maharshi's life and I am entirely entranced. He would sit somewhere and his legs were being eaten up by bugs and rodents and he did not even feel it because he was so consumed with his inner being. Compare that to myself who has spent years doting on every physical ache and pain that shows up and his life sounds like paradise to me!

And yet, the simple instructions are still hard for me to follow. Go figure.

I am really happy that you know what I am talking about though!

[Jamastiene]

14. I want to do some of the same things.

I can't afford to or do not have access to some of those things. I still dream of getting a tour bus and going and seeing places and sampling any crafts or woodworking classes along the way and see concerts sometimes tooo. It would be like a crafts/woodworking class tour with pleasure thrown in for good measure. Stop long enough to learn to throw pottery, then practice it, then find a concert somewhere and go see that. After that, go to the Grand Canyon and maybe find a good camping spot for a night and see it, then sort of hang out.

I want someone else to drive though. That is my only thing. I suck at driving to everyone else's standards and I can't see any scenery when I am driving anyhow.

I need to play the lottery more often than I do. I keep forgetting I allotted myself $50 to spend on lotto tickets for this year. I have only spent about $12 and got $11 back. I'm still limiting myself to only spending the $38 more though. I made a no rolling winnings back into buying more tickets and getting into trouble financially rule and I'm sticking to it, just like last year. Last year, I ended up $24 ahead. That is not enough to do what I want to do, unfortunately.

[Victor_c3]

15. I just turned 40 a few months back

My wife left me about 18 months ago to pursue a relationship with a high school crush of hers after we’d been together for nearly 15 years. Since then, I’ve been really taking stock in where I am in life. Overall, I’m really quite content where I am. I’ve had more than my share of adventure when I was in my 20’s. I lived in Europe for nearly 5 years and I spent 13 months in Iraq when I was in the Army. I started a family and have a great relationship with my two daughters and I spent the last 12 years basically settled down. That said, I’m really happy with the sudden change in my life.

The relationship with my ex was terrible. She was miserable and sometimes downright abusive.

I haven’t worked in 5 years due to severe PTSD, which presents its challenges, but also creates absolute income security for me. Aside from my desire to stay close to my children, I can go and live anywhere in the world I want. I’m extremely fortunate in that physically I’m in great shape and have a many great years ahead of me.

There are a ton of experiences that I wish to have, but I’ve done a lot too. I really want to hike the Appalachian Trail, visit bizarre places like North Korea and Iran and go on a nudist cruise with a girlfriend before she changes her mind!

Oddly enough, and not to gloat too much, I’ve played the piano since I was 8 and took 14 years of lessons. For the last 5 or so years, I’ve been practicing an average of 2 hours a day. It’s a skill that I’m grateful to have and when I play, it gives me a sense of fulfillment and completeness that I can’t describe. (Not to mention it’s often a turn on for some of the ladies too!)

So I’m thankful for what I’ve done and been through, but I’m also hungry to experience more.

[pecosbob]

16. Not enough time...Herodotus to Hamlet to the Hokey Pokey

I once compiled a list of the remaining books I'd like to read before I leave this world from one of those massive reference guides to published works but soon had enough on my list to exceed the time I had left to read them. This is my conundrum.


...and yes, I did slog all the way through Herodotus once upon a time.