18. Circumstantial Heaven, Experiential Hell
Circumstantial Heaven, Experiential Hell
by Ori
When we get hit, we feel pain
But if no one hits us, do we feel pleasure ?
In solitary confinement, we feel very much alone
But in a room full of people, do we now not feel alone?
When the circumstance is bad, we can expect a bad experience to follow.
But if you think that a good circumstance means a good experience, then we
need to spend some time together, because I’m afraid we have a lot to learn.
Pain is an experience that requires no conscious effort, but joy is different, it
requires you to know yourself, because it’s not something that happens to you,
but rather a happening that is generated within.
The mistake is to think that experience is always something that happens to us.
As if to say, that an exquisite restaurant guarantees an experience you will enjoy.
If you walk around with pain, no amount of fine cuisine will ever make you happy.
But if you are internally enjoying, even a street vendor can surprise you, and be a
revelation of delight.
The purpose of good circumstance is to protect you from pain, making room for
you to consciously create pleasure.
Joy is an experience, and the nature of experience is internal and subjective. So
it’s absolutely possible to create a circumstantial heaven, and at the same time
live in an experiential hell.
Ask yourself.
Are you mastering your circumstance or are you mastering your experience.
Because these are two very different types of affluence, and if you invest in one
and forsake the other, odds are, you will come across an unexpected disillusion,
followed by a substantial amount of pain.
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