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Veritas
Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Death by Obligation
#4633691 - 09/08/05 11:59 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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I believe that Life energy flows through everything, and that conscious beings can choose whether they expand to allow more flow, or contract to allow less flow.
When I act or speak freely, out of my own intrinsic motivation, and without fear of loss or reprisal, there is no energy "cost" involved.
Even if the action requires a great deal of physical energy (helping a friend move, clearing an overgrown backyard for a garden, biking across town to pick up groceries), I feel no depletion afterward.
However, when I act or speak out of obligation or duty, the energy cost seems much higher than the action would warrant. Afterward, I feel drained and dull. I often wonder if those who receive from me out of obligation experience this energy drain, too.
The more I examine it, the more offering gifts to others out of a sense of duty appears akin to bringing them roadkill.
"Here you go!" I would say grudgingly, handing them a flat opossum. If they dared to be less than grateful, I would hold a grudge and think how unappreciated I was.
What are your thoughts on the place duty has in our lives?
Does it feel different for you to act out of obligation?
How does your motivation seem to effect your energy, if at all?
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Death by Obligation [Re: Veritas]
#4633712 - 09/08/05 12:03 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Absolutely dear one. Obligation cannot contain love, without love, where is the gift?
I like your avatar and sig.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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MJF
Human Being
Registered: 06/27/05
Posts: 1,823
Loc: Between 15 and 45 degrees long...
Last seen: 4 months, 29 days
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Re: Death by Obligation [Re: Icelander]
#4633788 - 09/08/05 12:26 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Definetly feels different to act out of obligation. I also think it prohibits me from being as creative because I am forcing myself to do somethign when I'd rather be doing something else.
edit: sometimes I even feel guilty or weak for doing the things i'm expected to do. i think i would feel much better about doing them if i wasn't obligated to.
Edited by MJF (09/08/05 02:49 PM)
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SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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Re: Death by Obligation [Re: Veritas]
#4634149 - 09/08/05 02:39 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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What are your thoughts on the place duty has in our lives?
Does it feel different for you to act out of obligation?
How does your motivation seem to effect your energy, if at all?
This kind of relates to something I've contemplated much lately. I've noticed not only in myself but in others, many times, the tendency to become resentful towards obligation placed on ourselves. It seems that such animosity and resent stems from the illusion that such obligations and "duties" are intrinsically real, concrete in it's facticity, if you will. It can seem like a real drag when we truly believe that taking out the trash or doing our homework or exercising or creation of any sorts are things which are a sine qua non to our reality. From this, further attitudes and behavior that causes further stress is likely to result.
But when it is realized that objectively, there is no intrinsic duty or obligation in this universe, world, or place... That in reality, there is nothing to do, then the illusion of such a "heavy load" becomes dissipated, and from this cognitive awareness, comes the gift of doing all those things that were once percieved as a drag, obligation and burden, with a more playful and creative attitude. The roles of power become reversed... Instead of obligations seemingly bossing oneself around like a slave, one becomes the free-spirited master of their own matter-at-hand.
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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gettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
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I typed a long reply that didn't go through earlier and it revolved around the "resentment" issue you mentioned Skorp.
Funny how we spend a lot of time working on not having expectations but rarely do we talk about how we deal with the expectations others and society have put on us to "give" to them in some way when, we just don't feel like it.
I think there is conflict between wanting to keep our actions real and genuine versus superficial because of obligatory expectations imposed on us by societal norms, rules of etiquette, or any expectation in general.
Good topic to raise Veritas.
-------------------- Ahuwale ka nane huna.
Edited by gettinjiggywithit (09/08/05 03:05 PM)
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TheGus
The Walrus
Registered: 09/07/05
Posts: 387
Last seen: 16 years, 1 month
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i do find it interesting, i often find myself drained by relatively simple tasks that i just don't want to do, while i will have insurmountble amounts of energy in doing a task that is much harder as long as it is something i enjoy.
i often also do not buy things for friends for their birthday, i feel it as an obligation that i do not need to meet, as i do not expect them to get me a gift because i expect it. I do however often give things to people and do things for them rather of my own biding, not of an obligated accord.
-------------------- "It is easier to teach a computer to play chess than to build a mudpie."Sherry Turkle Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts"-Einstein I pity the fool who break traffic laws with $870,000 of drugs in the car. -mo0nlite_sonata Psythos
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SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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Re: Death by Obligation [Re: TheGus]
#4634265 - 09/08/05 03:06 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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"Q. I have one of the maladies described in your books, that of a burdensome sense of responsibility, attended by guilty feelings that I am not doing my part in life. Can you cure me?
A. The facts can. Your sense of responsibility is false, created by the illusion that you understand life. The moment you honestly and clearly see that you don't know what to do, release appears. Illusions create false duties, which create false guilts."
Pathways to Perfect Living, p. 49
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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MJF
Human Being
Registered: 06/27/05
Posts: 1,823
Loc: Between 15 and 45 degrees long...
Last seen: 4 months, 29 days
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I like that.
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Swami
Eggshell Walker
Registered: 01/18/00
Posts: 15,413
Loc: In the hen house
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Re: Death by Obligation [Re: Veritas]
#4634717 - 09/08/05 04:39 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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I know I should respond, but I feel spent...
-------------------- The proof is in the pudding.
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Delusion_of_Self
Stranger
Registered: 03/14/05
Posts: 230
Last seen: 18 years, 5 months
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Re: Death by Obligation [Re: Veritas]
#4634808 - 09/08/05 05:16 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Veritas said: I believe that Life energy flows through everything, and that conscious beings can choose whether they expand to allow more flow, or contract to allow less flow.
When I act or speak freely, out of my own intrinsic motivation, and without fear of loss or reprisal, there is no energy "cost" involved.
Even if the action requires a great deal of physical energy (helping a friend move, clearing an overgrown backyard for a garden, biking across town to pick up groceries), I feel no depletion afterward.
However, when I act or speak out of obligation or duty, the energy cost seems much higher than the action would warrant. Afterward, I feel drained and dull. I often wonder if those who receive from me out of obligation experience this energy drain, too.
The more I examine it, the more offering gifts to others out of a sense of duty appears akin to bringing them roadkill.
"Here you go!" I would say grudgingly, handing them a flat opossum. If they dared to be less than grateful, I would hold a grudge and think how unappreciated I was.
What are your thoughts on the place duty has in our lives?
Does it feel different for you to act out of obligation?
How does your motivation seem to effect your energy, if at all?
I agree with you. There is a difference. It really costs nothing to let things flow. When acting out of the heart you do feel unity that propels you together.
-------------------- "It is never a question of belief; the only scientific attitude one can take on any subject is whether it is true. The law of gravitation worked as efficiently before Newton as after him. The cosmos would be fairly chaotic if its laws could not operate without the sanction of human belief." -- Sri Yukteswar
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Delusion_of_Self
Stranger
Registered: 03/14/05
Posts: 230
Last seen: 18 years, 5 months
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Re: Death by Obligation [Re: Swami]
#4634810 - 09/08/05 05:16 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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There's always tomorrow...
-------------------- "It is never a question of belief; the only scientific attitude one can take on any subject is whether it is true. The law of gravitation worked as efficiently before Newton as after him. The cosmos would be fairly chaotic if its laws could not operate without the sanction of human belief." -- Sri Yukteswar
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