It is 3:12 in the morning, I have not been able to sleep due to agonizing emotions and thoughts. I have been in hell for hours. Here is something that worked: next time you think of how much pain you are going through, realize that all of this must be easy stuff if you want to be a worthy man of God, and if you want to earn the name a true child of Reality.
Fooling yourself into looking for a reason to be happy:
In thinking about how anyone could be happy in a state in which the economy is miserable, I knew in the back of my head that it was certainly possible to be happy. I imagined a respected version of myself with a smile on my face and a persistent glorious attitude. Then I noticed that I begin to think of reasons why I would be so happy, and the answers flowed in: because I am alive, because even though I cannot find a job, I still have a roof over my head and clothes in stock, food to eat, and too much free time (even though I spend it worrying about getting a job).
Noticing the processes of my mind, I realized that if I just imagine a possibility, my mind will do its best to make sense of it (if I believe it is sensical to begin with). And so I realized that by imagining a state in which I am happy, I can “fool” my mind to come up with reasons why I am happy. Once I find reasons to be happy, it is like realizing that I was happy after all.
With this in mind, it seems that real life is a lot like a dream in the sense that the things that happen, do so because of the feeling in your actual body. By it, I also say that “thoughts are the shadows of feelings” (quote used by Alkaline Trio, coined by Nietzsche) and not the other way around. So that thoughts are inspired by the feelings we have even the thoughts are noted to come before the feeling and the feeling is even understood as being caused by a perception. This switch in causality is explained by the difference in seeing cheating wife trying to make the most of her life, and a cheating wife being inconsiderate and evil. One may say that the reason he feels angry is because he saw his wife abuse his trust, but in fact, it is the case that the reason he saw his wife abuse his trust is because it was anticipated by his anger… or else, if the event was anticipated by his compassion, he would have seen his wife taking desperate measures to seek her long lost happiness in life, or to get his attention or something like that.
Forget what people tell you about what the world is like, listen to the world itself.
If you have a goal, you have a reason to put up with stuff; let your goal be to be able to put up with stuff.
What is the correct way to ensure your happiness? As long as you know how to remain happy in the present, you will always be happy; in this way, you need nothing to ensure happiness in the future. Knowing this, I still do not try to be happy. It would be easier to begin practicing this if I knew that happiness is important, but I am not sure of this. I would not choose Happiness if it meant giving up Truth. But I am pretty sure they will turn out to be one and the same; what is the connection between Truth and Happiness? And how can I make sure I do not get lured by ignorant bliss? I will not seek to secure my happiness until I make sure it will not interfere with my search for Truth.
I believe that Happiness and Truth are the same thing, but I am cautious of ignorant bliss, I want to make sure that I do not become satisfied with mundane happiness.
It is so freaking stressful to hold this principle: I do not allow myself to smile, I do not allow myself to any kind of pleasure once I identify it, I deliberately bore myself insane, I do not look for easy solutions for things, I keep myself in the dark when a simple question will get me the a very satisfying answer; all because I know that as I feel happy, it will not be long until I regret allowing myself the luxury of having an answer. I would have just post-poned the inevitable suffering that my identity necessitates. I need to let go of this identity, and this may very well involve to let go of what I consider Truth to be.
Do not underestimate the power of the gods… they’re greatness, though incomplete, is enough to make a mortal think they are whole. Of these gods, there are many.