Is controlling aspiration actually liberation or is it only an elevated form of giving up? Because on one level, yes. Obviously. The disparity between what is and what should be leads to suffering, we've known this forever, it's nothing new. And theoretically you can close that gap from either direction: get more or want less. But wanting less is not neutral. It's not a psychological trick you can pull and get away with it. When you happy with less, you're also training yourself to stop pushing against constraints that maybe shouldn't exist in the first place. And I don't know how to distinguish the good contentment from the bad. The kind that makes you complicit to your diminishing self. That's obviously ego driven status competition, not real need. Easy to diagnose as a problem. But what about someone who is working full time, who can't afford basic stability? If they're unhappy, is that out of control aspiration or is that just accurate perception of an unjust situation? I think what you're describing works if you're beyond some sort of baseline of security. Then yeah, then additional wanting becomes optional, becomes something that you can investigate and potentially let go of. Below that baseline though? Telling people to control their aspiration is almost violent. Maybe the real skill isn't the skill of wanting less. Maybe it's learning how to differentiate between wants from out of actual needs and wants from out of comparison and status anxiety. Those require totally different responses.
Is controlling aspiration actually liberation or is it only an elevated form of giving up? Because on one level, yes. Obviously. The disparity between what is and what should be leads to suffering, we've known this forever, it's nothing new. And theoretically you can close that gap from either direction: get more or want less. But wanting less is not neutral. It's not a psychological trick you can pull and get away with it. When you happy with less, you're also training yourself to stop pushing against constraints that maybe shouldn't exist in the first place. And I don't know how to distinguish the good contentment from the bad. The kind that makes you complicit to your diminishing self. That's obviously ego driven status competition, not real need. Easy to diagnose as a problem. But what about someone who is working full time, who can't afford basic stability? If they're unhappy, is that out of control aspiration or is that just accurate perception of an unjust situation? I think what you're describing works if you're beyond some sort of baseline of security. Then yeah, then additional wanting becomes optional, becomes something that you can investigate and potentially let go of. Below that baseline though? Telling people to control their aspiration is almost violent. Maybe the real skill isn't the skill of wanting less. Maybe it's learning how to differentiate between wants from out of actual needs and wants from out of comparison and status anxiety. Those require totally different responses.

Is controlling aspiration actually liberation or is it only an elevated form of giving up? Because on one level, yes. Obviously. The disparity between what is and what should be leads to suffering, we've known this forever, it's nothing new. And theoretically you can close that gap from either direction: get more or want less. But wanting less is not neutral. It's not a psychological trick you can pull and get away with it. When you happy with less, you're also training yourself to stop pushing against constraints that maybe shouldn't exist in the first place. And I don't know how to distinguish the good contentment from the bad. The kind that makes you complicit to your diminishing self. That's obviously ego driven status competition, not real need. Easy to diagnose as a problem. But what about someone who is working full time, who can't afford basic stability? If they're unhappy, is that out of control aspiration or is that just accurate perception of an unjust situation? I think what you're describing works if you're beyond some sort of baseline of security. Then yeah, then additional wanting becomes optional, becomes something that you can investigate and potentially let go of. Below that baseline though? Telling people to control their aspiration is almost violent. Maybe the real skill isn't the skill of wanting less. Maybe it's learning how to differentiate between wants from out of actual needs and wants from out of comparison and status anxiety. Those require totally different responses.

Is controlling aspiration actually liberation or is it only an elevated form of giving up? Because on one level, yes. Obviously. The disparity between what is and what should be leads to suffering, we've known this forever, it's nothing new. And theoretically you can close that gap from either direction: get more or want less. But wanting less is not neutral. It's not a psychological trick you can pull and get away with it. When you happy with less, you're also training yourself to stop pushing against constraints that maybe shouldn't exist in the first place. And I don't know how to distinguish the good contentment from the bad. The kind that makes you complicit to your diminishing self. That's obviously ego driven status competition, not real need. Easy to diagnose as a problem. But what about someone who is working full time, who can't afford basic stability? If they're unhappy, is that out of control aspiration or is that just accurate perception of an unjust situation? I think what you're describing works if you're beyond some sort of baseline of security. Then yeah, then additional wanting becomes optional, becomes something that you can investigate and potentially let go of. Below that baseline though? Telling people to control their aspiration is almost violent. Maybe the real skill isn't the skill of wanting less. Maybe it's learning how to differentiate between wants from out of actual needs and wants from out of comparison and status anxiety. Those require totally different responses.