bigdaftjoe

peg as always love to you and yours, and as a hedonist i can only say do what makes you happy if you can make other people happy along the way cool, if you cant so be it. Life revolves around one thing you and yours, who you impregnate along the way to get yours dont really matter. if you can love that person and want to spend the rest of your life with them great if you dont or cant thats also cool, i love me more than anything but even i get sick of my company. the point im trying (badly) to make is that imo there is nothing more than what you currently have so squeeze every drop from every day dont miss a single opportunity and take fcuking chances

Peg

Hey, bigdaftjoe. I wholeheartedly concur. I like to say take life by the balls and give it a good shake.

Gridlock:
Desire as the want of something can be bad or good depending on its context and its intensity.

I do believe being content in what we have is part of happiness, but I also know that contentment can sometimes lead to complacency and stagnation and this too can lead to rocky times in a relationship.

I see desire as if it was a road trip. I will enjoy and be content in each leg of the trip as I travel it, but I will also look forward to the next leg in the trip.

__________________
"21st century man is not conquered by guns, nor by oppression, but by seduction."

"Pride to the human heart is like lard to the pig." Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"The best punch is the one that is both first, last, and ends the fight."

Rowlf

Peg, are you familiar with the concept of 'freedom through discipline'? I'm a big fan of it on a personal level. Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel is a fantastic example to explain what I am far less able to. It will take you no more than a couple of hours to read, if anyone fancies it. I reccommend it wholeheartedly.

Nothing to do with being a hedonist IMO. Just a sensible viewpoint borne out of a knowledge of the temporary nature of our lives. I wholeheartedly agree, mate. The nice thing is when something you do can make you and someone else happy at the same time. They're the biggest payoffs, I think.

Thank you all very much. You made me think lots, and I like that.:love:

Keyser Soze

That actually sounds a lot like my own life philosophy; but before I get the book, or see the movie, or even buy the T-shirt, is it anything to do with the idea that, in order to achieve the freedom to pursue the pleasures you want, you need the discipline to do the work needed to get up to speed for the pursuit?


Nothing wrong either with being a hedonist - me and Joe like our tipple, he'll tell ya...me more than him!!
:love:

You're welcome, and I think I speak for most of us established members here; we feel likewise, mate.

Keyser.

hackskii

Wow, very interesting the depth here.
I liked the read.

__________________
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." - George Carlin


Scott


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Rowlf

Goes further than that. In the 1930's Herrigel was living in Japan and wanted to learn about Zen. The only way to learn Zen is through one of the traditional disciplines (swordcraft, archery, calligraphy and flower arranging), as it can't be explained properly in any other way. Eventually he found a master who agreed to teach him Zen Archery. The book is his struggle with understanding it. Any lessons to be gained are simply lessons you draw yourself - the book does not seek to instruct. That's one of the reasons it's so easy to learn from, I think.

I'd love to know what your thoughts are on it.

Peg

Zen is a state of mind, I think. It is like water flowing, it is the learning of becoming one with all energy and force of life to see outside of yourself from another point of view.

You are right, you cannot instruct in it other than to teach the fullness of an art's discipline.
You learn of the freedom of discipline in the journey through discovery of seeking the excellence of the art no matter what it is that you pursue. The lessons you draw yourself will tend to be timeless lessons of revelation about life and humanity.

There are many levels of focused perseverence and endurance within the discipline choosen and each level will have with it a freedom learnt and a bondage revealed. It takes a lifetime to discover the full excellence of any disciplined art and the letting go of the bondages.

Christianity also teaches this freedom, but the discipline practiced is perhaps more difficult to comprehend as it encompasses all things and deals specifically with the discipline of self expressed in agape love.

KS, there can also be a freedom in the work and a bondage in the pleasure.

__________________
"21st century man is not conquered by guns, nor by oppression, but by seduction."

"Pride to the human heart is like lard to the pig." Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"The best punch is the one that is both first, last, and ends the fight."