What’s It All About?

People are like Peeps: crusty on the outside and gooey on the inside.

Does it ever feel to you like the world is falling apart? The list of issues caused by human activity is horrendous, isn’t it? We’ve got biodiversity loss, environmental disaster, potential nuclear holocaust, destructive artificial intelligence and societal collapse, just to name a few (List of Global Issues).

Given the problems we face individually and collectively, it seems a bit silly to think and talk about philosophy, let alone enjoyment. What does a person’s philosophy have to do with anything? The general perception is that philosophy is a waste of time; it doesn’t lead to a job and it’s not practical—both of which are, kind of true—but, in defense of philosophy, it’s also true that philosophy teaches skills like: analytical thinking—using logic and critical thought to analyze a situation—and critical thinking—making reasoned judgments that are logical and well thought out. Such skills are sadly lacking—especially in countries like the U.S.A, Canada and Mexico, not to mention South Africa and China and Russia, just to name a few.

Contrary to popular opinion, philosophy is important. Every single individual should think about their philosophy because it helps one to be well-rounded and enlightened, as in, “freed from ignorance and misinformation” and “based on full comprehension of the problems involved” (Merrium-Webster Dictionary). Philosophy “teaches us to ask good questions and examine popular opinions, core beliefs, and values” (On the Value of Philosophy).

Here is an example of critical thinking in action:

But as political theorist and writer of The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) said, “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” She saw philosophy as “human inaction” and said, “Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think” (“Dismantling the Ivory Tower of Thinking“).

That’s where enjoyment comes in.

The world is built on what people think about and what people think about is enjoyment. It’s why Disney World exists. It’s why people go to Paris and Rome. Everyone wants to enjoy life. Just like other animals, it’s why people want comfort and convenience and entertainment (even the scary kind). It’s why people shop and watch football and dance. It’s even why some people shoot others, invade countries, sanction murder or cheat at golf.

Whether it’s taking a shot of vodka for enjoyment, creating artificial intelligence or jumping off a cliff for fun (with a parachute, hopefully), most people spend their lifetime trying to enjoy themselves as much as possible, while they can, for as long as they can.

If we can match clear thinking skills with the motivator of enjoyment in harmony with nature, we have a recipe for well-thought out solutions that are good for everyone. Trouble is, when it comes to enjoyment, it’s often “full speed ahead!” regardless of consequences.

Cue music: 

“Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony, that’s life
Tryna make ends meet, you’re a slave to money then you die”

As sweet as enjoyment can be, there is a dark side.

Negative emotions, for example, can be enjoyable for some people. According to a study out of the Netherlands, “people sometimes willfully engage in activities that they know will evoke negative emotions, and even seem to enjoy these experiences. Someone who decides to go bungee jumping, for example, will most probably be aware that this activity will evoke fear. Apparently, the prospect of experiencing negative emotions will not always motivate people to refrain from engaging in a particular activity” (“The Dark Side of Enjoyment“).

Think of people who enjoy recreational drug taking who become drug addicts and lose everything, or people who enjoy alcohol who become alcoholics and lose everything, or gamblers who love gambling and lose everything, or sexual cheaters and deviants who commit crimes and lose everything, or people who enjoy shooting animals until they are gone or people who enjoy driving in a world paved-over for this purpose or people who enjoy roaring around town on a motorcycle until they hit a tree or people who enjoy big houses and garages so much they have the natural habitats of other animals destroyed for their pleasure.

In Zen one watches thoughts come and go without acting on them. It’s a good start and a nice break, but it might take a bit more. Not thinking can lead to a feeling of joy, but clear-headed thinking is not a bad thing—especially when operating heavy machinery.

As for feelings, feelings are choices. People choose anger over calm; they choose “fear over courage and misery over joy,” but if one can look at all sides without locking onto an ill-thought out idea or get emotionally engaged in a negative perspective, one can be free and happy.

According to Chinese wisdom, “Intellect can be enlightened only in a kind person. A person can be kind only when he has an enlightened intellect. One helps the other” (from Tolstoy’s A Calendar of Wisdom).

To enjoy is to choose to do so without expectation. There is a calmness when what one has, is all one wants. A relaxed feeling comes when one accepts what is “as is.” The flow of enjoyment can get blocked, however, like water through a crimped garden hose. When one says, “I might enjoy if such-and-such happens,” or, “when I have this-or-that,” this says, “I will enjoy, as long as things go my way.” With this attitude, if there is an inconvenience or disappointment, it’s like a fly on one’s butter: Enjoyment is thwarted.

But, with an objective-subjective perspective (and a philosophy of enjoyment), one can see beauty—even in a butterfly!

After thinking clearly, without personal opinion, without judgement of likes and dislikes, after duties are completed (or even during), breathe in and breathe out, like a bottle making music in the wind.

Consider what you have learned of molecular structures from scientists who foretold that nothing is solidly so. Picture yourself as an organic candle burning energy from the sun. See the world as art. Hear the world as art. Speak of peaceful things and enjoy the best of the world, not the worst.

What if everything is connected and you (and I) are the world itself in the form of our own consciousness? For when the lights go out the very last time, or at the end of day, isn’t it your own consciousness that makes it that way?

Easy does it is the word.

And, don’t forget:

Enjoy.

Enjoy Being Wise and Save the World At the Same Time

“You think that I don’t even mean a single word I say. It’s only words, and words are all I have to take your heart away” – The Bee Gees, “Words” (1968).

As has been said before, “the world is a mess and getting messier still” (To think or not: Zen, Tolstoy, Depression and Enjoyment).

The number of problems we face is astounding (UN Global Issues). It’s like the world is going to hell in a handbasket and we’re the cause. Go to any zoo, refugee camp or suburb. See for yourself. How can a person enjoy with a clear conscience when so much is wrong?

Singin’, “All we are saying, is: ‘Give peace a chance.'”

Even though we know, “The whole surface of Earth is a series of connected ecosystems” and “every factor in an ecosystem depends on every other factor,” we continue to pave over ecosystems with joyous abandon (National Geographic).

But a change from soil and water to roads, suburbs and industry has a funny way of affecting plants and on animals depending on those plants.

We have pollution in the ocean twice the size of Texas (source). We have poverty, crime, racism, road rage, distrust, violence and an epidemic of death by drug addiction. We have cancers and viruses and the doctors and scientists who try to help us get death threats (‘I hope you die’: how COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists).

Image by Martin Shovel

It’s like nature is out to get us and humans don’t get it. Plants and animals go extinct as economics drive global destruction. People are more irrational than ever and no amount of intelligence, Artificial or otherwise, seems able to save us from ourselves.

So, what’s the answer? Is it escapism and surrender? Is it global conflict and action? Is it ruining your life worrying and not enjoying?

How can a run-of-the-mill human (one of 7.9 billion no less) make a difference, be a good ancestor, live a good life and enjoy good times with love and a calm state of mind?

In such a messed up world what can philosophy do?

Well… a lot actually.

Philosophy comes from the Greek “philein” and “sophia” meaning “lover of wisdom” (source). A lover of wisdom relates to any area where intelligence is shown. Wisdom is the ability to think and act using “knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight” (source). If we valued wisdom more than money, celebrity and immediate gratification, if we practiced wisdom religiously, as in, “with consistent and conscientious regularity” (Dictionary), we could easily solve all our problems both individually and collectively.

Psychology was born from philosophies dating back thousands of years (source). Philosophy is logic. Philosophy is religion stripped of wishful thinking. Philosophy is understanding yourself, other people, the world, and your relationship with the world and other people (source).

“Understanding” means to “stand in the midst of” from Old English understandan meaning “to comprehend, grasp the idea of, receive from a word or words or from a sign the idea it is intended to convey” (Etymology Online).

The answer starts with attention and self-awareness.

According to Kruger and Dunning (1999) without mental tools we can’t see our own incompetence. For example: “hunters who know the least about firearms also have the most inaccurate view of their firearm knowledge, and doctors with the worst patient-interviewing skills are the least likely to recognize their inadequacies” (The more inept you are the smarter you think you are).

There are so many websites endorsing the Dunning-Kruger Effect most people don’t question it, but they should: “Dunning-Kruger Effect Is Probably Not Real“. Truth is, if we’re not paying attention, we’re all susceptible to cognitive biases, as in, “systematic errors in thinking.”

Research shows, for example, there is an asymmetry in our thinking towards negativity, meaning, we register the negative more readily and frequently than positive (Negativity Bias).

But on the flip-side, we’re also susceptible to Optimism Bias whereby our brains are overly optimistic. “If,” for example, “you were asked to estimate how likely you are to experience divorce, illness, job loss, or an accident, you are likely to underestimate the probability that such events will ever impact your life” (source).

Positive events lead to feelings of well being, while negative events lead to risky behavior and not taking precautions (source).

Consciousness is being aware of your environment and body. Self-awareness is the recognition of that awareness. Self-awareness is how you understand feelings, motivations and desires (source). Whether you think overly negative or optimistic can depend on your mood. People are less optimistic in a bad mood and more optimistic in a good mood (source).

A mood is a “temporary state of mind or feeling” (Dictionary). Thinking is a way of dealing with moods. We can think our way out of a feeling by finding solutions to meet the need behind that feeling (University of Cape Town).

According to the World History Encyclopedia (2005, p. 409) the first philosopher was Zoroaster (aka Zarathustra) who lived somewhere between 1500 and 1000 BC (source).

Bachi Karkaria’s Zarathushtra (1974) 

Zoroaster praised “Ahura” (Lord) “Mazda” (Wisdom) and founded “Mazdayasna” which means “Worship of Wisdom.” Before the 6th century BC, philosophy and science were not separated from theology which probably explains how Zoroaster, the world’s first philosopher, started the world’s first monotheistic religion (source).

Imagine that! The first monotheistic God was Wisdom itself!

Starting with Pythagoras (570-495 BC)—who, incidentally, first coined the word “philosophy” (source)—Zoroaster’s followers taught ancient Greeks about the love of wisdom (source).

Pythagoras influenced Plato and Aristotle who influenced Western philosophy which influenced Christianity through medieval scholars like Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) who developed his own conclusions from Aristotelian ideas. 

Farrokh Bulsara before renaming.

Zoroaster’s religious philosophy is known for its motto ‘Good thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.’ It teaches sharing, generosity and kindness. What could be better? Even the rock star Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) born Farrokh Bulsara got into that.

Zoroaster was also the world’s first proponent of ecology through care of the earth (source).

Let us practice wisdom in thought, word and deed! Let us enjoy thinking, Air and a little ping pong.

We can be lovers of wisdom and save the world, one mind at a time.

Thinking, Being and Plucking

Now we look at three philosophies inspired by death and suffering. Two came from poets—carpe diem and To be or not to be—and one came from a beggar—Life is suffering—who started a religion.

After looking at all three, we’ll think about thinking and end by enjoying.

We begin with carpe diem.

Most people have heard of carpe diem. Robin Williams taught us all about it in Dead Poet’s Society (1989).

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines carpe diem as “the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future.” Google concurs saying, “used to urge someone to make the most of the present time and give little thought to the future.”

We moderns translate carpe diem as “seize the day.” It is assertive and refers to taking control or possession of something.

Advertisers use the expression to sell products—t-shirts, posters, beauty products, fragrances, necklaces, wine. They like to remind us that one day each and every one of us will be dead so we better buy their product and book that trip now before it’s too late!

In Carpe Diem Regained (2017), philosopher Roman Krznaric said that “seizing” the day brings to mind people who take what they can get and get things done.

It’s the philosophical equivalent of actor Shia LaBeouf screaming at us to “DO IT! JUST DO IT! DON’T LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS!“

People use the phrase as a warning or direct order to take charge of your own happiness and make the most of it, but then the question becomes: “How do you carpe diem?”

Carpe diem first appeared in 20 BC in book 1.11 of the Odes by Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 BC – 8 BC), aka Horace. 

Horace’s poem emphasizes the fleeting nature of time. He says we shouldn’t worry about how long we live or waste time talking (presumably about death). Most translations say Horace told us to “Seize the present; put very little trust in tomorrow (the future)” (Wikipedia). 

Years later Jesus (1-33) is quoted as saying something similar, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matt. 6:34).

No offence.

It’s no surprise that Horace and Jesus advised us not to worry about the future. Life was short in ancient days. If you include infant mortality (and crucifixion), life expectancy in the Roman Empire was about 22–33 years (source).

Trouble is, carpe diem doesn’t actually mean seize the day.

Horace has been lost in translation and distorted by modern culture. According to Latin scholars, carpe diem is really a horticultural metaphor designed to encourage people to enjoy the sensory experience of nature (source).

Funny how nature isn’t part of carpe diem today.

(Then again, maybe it isn’t.)

Carpe this!

Carpe comes from carpō meaning to “pick or pluck” fruit when it’s ready and diem comes from dies which means “day.”

“Pluck the day [as it is ripe]” or “enjoy the moment” is a more accurate translation than “seize,” as in, “take hold of suddenly and forcibly” or “take (an opportunity or initiative) eagerly and decisively.”

It’s a subtle difference but philosophically speaking, it’s huge. Instead of a fist pump to “Seize the day!” and assert one’s will, it’s an open palm receiving what is given by nature (of which we are).

Cue music: “Think About It” by SAULT.

But what if you can’t enjoy the sensory experience of nature? What if you’ve thought yourself into not wanting to live? What then?

In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet asks himself if he should suffer the misery of life (a “sea of troubles”) or should he kill himself (“take arms against a sea of troubles”) to end “heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks.”

But then Hamlet wonders if there is an afterlife, and if there is, what if that afterlife is worse than life?

Source

Hamlet’s question of life and death is a question of existence and nothingness, but according to Harvard professor Jeffrey R. Wilson (2017), “To be, or not to be” is not what it seems to be (source). Hamlet could be faking because he knows someone’s listening.

Wilson points out how philosophy and drama are different. Philosophy is about knowing whereas drama is about doing.

Years before Hamlet debated life vs. death and Horace had his horticultural insight as master of a country estate, another aristocrat, Siddhartha Gautama (the “Buddha”) (c. 5th-4th century BC), bummed everybody out with his Noble Truths including: “birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering, union with what is displeasing is suffering, separation from what is pleasing is suffering and not getting what one wants is suffering” (source).

That’s a lot of suffering. You can’t win, so why even try?

According to this philosophy you’re born to suffer, but if you accept that life is crap, you won’t be surprised when it is crappy or expect it to be any other way.

If the Buddha worked in IT.
“Philosophy Tech Support”, Existential Comics 51: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/51

This idea that we cause ourselves suffering by resisting what is, is something Stoics, Epicureans and Bill W., founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, also discovered.

Gautama maintained that things which cause pleasure eventually fail because when we like something we think about it and we want it again (and again…) and it’s the craving that causes trouble.

The idea is that suffering is created by our craving for pleasure, but if Guatama had an Electroencephalography (EEG) to show brain activity in psychological states, he would see that liking and wanting are in “two different motivation systems in your brain” (source).

Unconscious thinking (System 1) is fast, intuitive, and emotional whereas conscious thinking (System 2) is slower, more deliberative and logical.

In Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) psychologist and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman (1934- ) explains how the two systems drive the way we think and make choices. Kahneman challenges the idea that “people are generally rational” because errors arise not just from emotions that can cloud judgement, but from our built-in brain machinery.

If you eat fried chicken, for example, you are conscious of the taste and smell in the present moment, but if you want fried chicken, that wanting could be unconscious because you smelled chicken as you walked by. It’s like a button was pushed in your brain (and you didn’t know).

The trick is to slow thinking down. Forget Hamlet’s mental perambulations and remember Horace’s advice to enjoy nature with your senses. Watch what you’re thinking to identify biases and become aware of what’s going on in your brain and all around.

It’s all interconnected.

Now we dance, eat an apple, and enjoy simply.

Much love.

Self-awareness and Subtle Enjoyment

If you look up the word “subtle” in the dictionary, you will find a word that’s ill-defined, indistinct, faint and mysterious. That’s what it is. It’s something elusive.

If something is hard to understand, it’s probably subtle. Feeling self-aware is subtle. Feeling spiritual is subtle. Such things are subtle because no one is quite sure how to explain them.

Feeling self-aware of subtle things in your surroundings with your senses is mind blowing. When self-aware, you are not bored, ever. You are conscious of feelings and desires, but not manipulated by them.

You can see where your thoughts and emotions are trying to take you but you are not taken by them.

You are free to cultivate peace of mind like a philosopher gardener: pulling negative emotions as if they were weeds and watering positive emotions as if they were flowers.

You are free to listen to “A Whiter Shade of Pale” repeatedly for no apparent reason. Feeling love is enough. The subtle enjoyment of yourself is enough. Living, breathing, thinking, feeling, loving and attending this miraculous world with senses attuned, is enough.

Like flightless birds — possibly peacocks or more probably turkeys — we fly on the ground, imagining ourselves 30,000 feet above looking down. And so we begin, cue music: “Flying.”

The Cambridge dictionary defines subtle as: “not loud, bright, noticeable or obvious.” When you achieve something in a quiet way without attracting attention, you are subtle. Something subtle is “small but important” (like you and your enjoyment).

Spot the ptarmigan. It’s “white in front of you” (source).

Something subtle is “delicate in meaning or intent” and “difficult to analyze or describe.”

Subtle goes with words like “nebulous” which means muddled and ambiguous, “complex” — something with interconnected parts and “rarefied,” something high, lofty and exalted (source). 

How do you describe a spiritual experience standing in stillness with a ptarmigan?

It’s subtle.

Suddenly you’re aware of a world that wasn’t there.

Perceiving something subtle takes sensitivity and a penetrating intellect. Subtle things are like the silent ‘b’ in the word “sub” which is hidden in the word subtle and also hides beneath surfaces.

A subtle liar is cunning. Advertisers advertise their brand of enjoyment then let you down when what you expect doesn’t happen. People fall for it because they picture the ultimate enjoyment as being rich like a shark or dragon billionaire on TV, but it’s a subtle trick. They call it envy.

By Robert Crumb.

We might not like feeling envious, afraid, irritated, angry, sad, frustrated, impatient etc., but, “What are you gonna do?“

There’s nothing you can do except maybe become self-aware, but then, how do you do that?

Think catch and release fishing.

You cast your line and wait. When you catch a fish, you look at it, then let it go. So too with an emotion or thought. You catch one, look at it, then let it go (or act on it – if it means surviving).

“A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.” – W.C. Fields

People love to imagine winning the lottery. They equate happiness with Las Vegas decadence, which is fine, if you want your enjoyment shallow. If you’d like something deeper, something profound, like a personal “Revolution” for a rock and roll philosopher, well then: go subtle.

Subtle enjoyment will give you chills (in a good way)!

Imagine hearing the song “Lemon Tree” in a store. It makes you think of your underwear which has a lemon pattern. Your eyes fall on a picture of a lemonade stand and you smell lemon-fresh Lysol in the air.

Just as you’re thinking, “That’s funny,” someone walks up to you and offers a cookie sample. What kind? Lemon (of course).

What are the chances? It’s like the world is trying to tell you something (about lemons?). It’s subtle. And you smile. You enjoy a thrill and you wonder, “Is it me?” (for more on this phenomenon see: And then).

As journalist Brian Bethune observed, “Humans have an innate tendency to ascribe random and natural events to conscious agents and a hunger to belong to something larger than ourselves – both militant atheists and fervent believers can agree on this” (Maclean’s, Ap. 2015, p. 41).

If you want to experience subtle enjoyment, look at the world with soft eyes.

Lisa Miller, clinical psychologist at Columbia University Teachers College, says that a strong self-concept, religiosity, spiritual connection and, “An intensely felt, transcendental sense of a relationship with God, the universe, nature or whatever you identify with as a higher power” actually “confers a protective effect in all kinds of disorders” (Maclean’s, Ap. 2015, p. 41-42).

The trouble with self-aware subtle (spiritual) enjoyment is that it disappears in noise, aggression, decadence, bright lights and vacuous parties and these are the things people are attracted to.

Subtle enjoyment goes unnoticed because people don’t see it. They think it’s boring because they don’t know it.

To breathe, to watch the sky, to eat a lemon, to watch birds fly, such things are boring to people acclimatized to constant mental stimulation without downtime but that constant stimulation makes everything seem boring. Attention spans are waning! Bored people get depressed.

Bored people get addicted to sex, drugs and alcohol. Bored people don’t enjoy work or school very well.

“Go ask Alice, when she’s feeling ten feet tall,” (hear: “White Rabbit“)

Quiet activities and stillness in nature might strike a lot of people as boring, but the most profound moments of pure transcendent enjoyment can only happen when your mind is quiet and the world inside you is not quite boisterous.

When a profound feeling of subtle enjoyment hits you, you know you should be bored, but you’re not. A subtle feeling  of peace and calm can hit anywhere, anytime.

So, be ready.

Something subtle is hard to see. It’s something discreet and low-key. Enjoyment is like that. It doesn’t have to be in your face. It can be subtle. Sometimes all it takes is a little Boogie-woogie.

Go! Be subtle. And then, enjoy it.

The Point of Enjoyment

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” ~ Lewis Carroll

A point, whether of an idea, joke or tapered object, is always arrived at in the immediate. You get the point when you get the point. Even if you don’t get the point right away, when you do get it, you get it at a precise moment.

In the game of darts you get points by getting the point of your dart to stick to a point aimed at, but over and above the mechanics of the game the real point is to enjoy it.

But why? Why do we enjoy what we do?

Lawn darts were enjoyed in the 1980s: 6,700 people were treated in hospital and three children died.

Science says that enjoyment is a matter of brain chemistry. A characteristic of people with depression and mental illness is anhedonia: an inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences.

Art by Murfish.

Brain expert Dr. Stuber PhD might say (and did), “GABA neurons located in the VTA are just microns away from dopamine and are negative regulators of dopamine function… A dysfunction in these GABA neurons might potentially underlie different aspects of neuropsychiatric illness, such as depression” (UNC Healthcare).

Psychologists treat happiness as if it’s mysterious. They recommend working on a meaningful career, spending time with friends, savoring the day and so on, but happiness doesn’t come from outside.

Assuming your GABA neurons aren’t buzz-killing dopamine release, there are as many ways to enjoy as there are people but it boils down to one thing: We enjoy what we enjoy (because we enjoy it).

It’s circular – like Donna Summer singing, “Love to love you baby.”

X is true because of Y. Y is true because of X. We dance because it’s enjoyable. It’s enjoyable because we dance. We play to have fun and have fun when we play. If we’re forced to play, it isn’t play anymore. It’s emotion first, then realization and confabulation.

“Now we dance.“

If the point of enjoyment is to enjoy, the question is: What is the meaning of true enjoyment? This was asked in Quora (a question-and-answer site) and people responded. (Note: names have been changed to protect the anonymous).

Tommy said enjoyment is, “Celebrating life, not one’s life; just life!”  Dieter said enjoyment is, “Living the moment.”

Sally listed enjoyments: “Looking at the smile of a new born baby. Eating Mango by plucking and stealing it from an orchard. Getting wet in rain without bothering about getting wet.”

Simon says, “Enjoy!”

Simon said, “Everyone has different meaning of enjoyment! They have different source of enjoyment but for me … it’s something which I do for myself!”

And there it is.

Maybe there’s a little Simon in all of us. There’s just something about one’s self that makes it special to one’s self. To you, there’s no you quite like you.

Psychologists say it’s good to love one’s self. Why, if there was no you – no you as a living organism with thoughts and feelings in an environment – there would be…what?

But vain self-importance blocks the flow of enjoyment like crimping a garden hose. When things don’t go the way we want, we’re unhappy so the trick is to loosen up and enjoy what you get (see post: Is it serious?).

We have a limited idea of who we are. Yes, we are each a bag of skin crowned by a cranium, but do we end in skin? What about air in lungs and energy from the sun in our bellies? Going into atoms we see nothing there – just energy waves. We’re energy waves. Not that this matters when you stub your toe, but a “hard” world is softened with a realization of how interconnected and diaphanous (light and insubstantial) this all is.

Philosopher Alan Watts saw interconnections, saying, “where there are no flowers there are no bees, and where there are no bees there are no flowers. They’re really one organism” (Conversation With Myself).

A dandelion seed has fine hairs allowing it to ride on the wind. The wind is, in a manner of speaking, a part of itself. Why do advertisers associate their product with love and happiness? It isn’t the product in itself that we want: it’s the feeling the product is said to impart.

What you love is what you enjoy. Enjoyment is a one step process: Express love for something and you are happy.

Author of The Element (2009), Ken Robinson, said, “To be in your element you have to love it… Being good at something is not a good enough reason to do it…It’s about finding the thing that resonates within you most fully” (see Ken Robinson video).

There’s a little verse from an ancient Hindu text called the Rig Veda that tells of the tree of life and two birds. One bird eats the tree’s fruit (some good some bad) and the other watches. They represent two aspects of ourselves. We are the bird eating – we participate in the action of life (killing and eating), experiencing joy and sorrow – but in contemplation, we are the second bird who watches. The trick is to be aware of the second bird watching the first bird participating.

You walk into a forest and suddenly you are struck by the wonder of this place. You feel the mystery of being and life itself. A cedar waxwing flies by. That such a creature should be there! That the universe should be here! That’s something that excites you to wonder. Take a deep breath and simply enjoy (see also: The Point of Enjoyment 2).

Enjoy An Insight

Ever have one of those days? Everybody does. It’s a real bummer of a day (bummer is hippie speak for misfortune). It’s one of those days when you say to yourself, “Why me?” or “Why now?”

You’re up before the sun “working in a coal mine, going down down,” and someone says, “Lord! I am soooo tired. How long can this go on?” Not that you actually work in a coal mine (unless you do). We’re talking metaphor. We all work in a coal mine of one kind or another. Even those who don’t work, work in a coal mine of a kind.

It’s on a “one of those days” day that you look for a sign that there’s more to life. Not that you’re superstitious. It’s just that when life is boring, pointless and terrible, most of us look for a sign that there’s more to it. Even those who don’t believe in miracles look for them.

But few people see signs these days and those who do are maligned. We might crave a vision but all we have is TV. It’s not because the signs aren’t there that we don’t see them.

We don’t see them because we’re either not paying attention or we lack imagination. It takes a special kind of sensitivity to subtlety for a person to see signs and put it together.

In 1989 two math professors wrote “Methods for Studying Coincidences” in which they outlined four sources for most coincidences: 1) a hidden cause, 2) the psychology of a person, including memory and perception, 3) multiplicity of endpoints, including the counting of “close” or nearly alike events as if they were identical, and 4) the law of truly large numbers – given enough events, almost any coincidence is bound to occur.

They found that most puzzling coincidences arise in the mind of the observer. Therein is the magic! That’s the answer! You alone see the sign! You create magic by tuning into it!

Coincidence?

If you pay attention and if you lighten up and if you go for silly walks now and then you will become familiar with wonderful oddities (for complete instructions see: Ministry of Silly Walks) .

Call it coincidence. Call it ironic, moronic or divine. Call it just one of those things. Beyond rationalization, confabulation and logical explanation, there are times when weird things happen and you are in a perfect position to see them (see earlier post: “Enjoy What Is And Take What Comes“).

The Slant.

Let’s say you’re on your way to get your blood tested. As you peddle past a pretty storybook house with a fountain, you’re reminded of fairy-land pictures you’ve seen. The thought occurs to you that you and everyone you know will soon be dead.

It sounds gloomy, but at this moment it isn’t. Knowing that everything you know and have ever known will soon be gone has a way of putting things in perspective (see earlier post “Enjoy A Bad Day“).

What’s the worse case scenario in any situation? You could die. But you know that’s going to happen anyway so, as Dire Straits put it, “Why worry?”

No sooner do you have this realization when you see a sign. But it isn’t the sign that catches your attention. It’s the sign spinner. Stopped at a streetlight, you watch the sign spinner. Suddenly life doesn’t seem so bad.

And you hear music coming from somewhere. It’s Tommy James and the Shondells singing Draggin’ the Line which goes: “Makin’ a livin’ the old, hard way. Takin’ and givin’ my day by day. / I dig snow and rain and the bright sunshine…/ My dog Sam eats purple flowers.
Ain’t got much, but what we got’s ours… / I feel fine!”

What you thought was going to be “one of those days” changes into something beautiful when you open yourself to connection and possibility.

Jump forward: now you’re in a lab cubicle waiting for a nurse to take your blood. You’re listening to the Moody Blues sing “Tuesday Afternoon” and you think, “That’s funny. It is a Tuesday afternoon!”

The nurse comes in and prepares the syringe. You avert your eyes and on the wall you see a picture of a fountain. It looks like the fountain you saw earlier by the storybook house that reminded you of pictures that you once saw of a fairyland of love. They say that fountains symbolize joy and peace and water is the sign of calmness. All you know is that you like water fountains.

You may look back on your life like a Dickens’ novel. Life seems planned but little accidental meetings and experiences turn out to be main features of the plot. At this minute, looking around at the world as you do, you suddenly have an insight.

You marvel at the wonder of life and in so doing, enjoy it.

Internal Multitudes and Enjoyment Decisions

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) is called a romantic. He painted pictures of people looking out at sunsets, moonlit landscapes, cemeteries, morning mists, barren forests and ruins.

A Walk at Dusk – completed shortly before a stroke in 1835 (Getty Museum).

It’s easy to imagine entering a Friedrich’s painting to enjoy a melancholy meander at dusk in misty autumn stillness, to contemplate life and death, to feel the music of this mad world and wonder: Can I be wise?

The trouble with wisdom according to Slovenian Slavoj Žižek, is that it’s conformist. Wisdom can be used to rationalize participation in enjoyments better avoided or to avoid enjoyments sadly missed.

“Whatever you do, a wise man will come along to justify it,” says Žižek (I’m generally opposed to wisdom).

You could say, “What the hell!” and quote the wisdom of Horace (Roman poet) made famous by a Dead Poets Society: “Carpe diem. Seize the day! Enjoy the day, pluck the day when it is ripe” (Phrase-finder)…

… or you could play it safe with wisdom of camel retention, “Tie your camel first then put your trust in Allah” (Daily Hadith Online)…

…or you could quote wisdom encouraging you not to worry about anything, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Mathew 6:25-34).

Walt Whitman in 1891. He died in 1892.

It was Walt Whitman who said, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes)” (Song of Myself). He probably didn’t realize how right he was.

There are multitudes of opposing views within each of us. It’s how we think.

David Eagleman writes, “Brains are like representative democracies. They are built of multiple, over-lapping experts who weigh in and compete over different choices…There is an on going conversation among the different factions of your brain, each competing to control the single output channel of your behavior” (Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, p. 107).

At its most basic, our brains are in a two-party system. One side renders decisions based on emotion (like a romantic) and the other bases decisions on reason (like a mathematician).

A person’s brain is like a bag of jelly-beans. Each jelly-bean has a flavour of thought. When you’re offered something to enjoy, factions will argue in front of a brain “boss” who listens and renders a decision about what to do.

Let’s say you’re life is going well. You enjoy yourself (for the most part), but someone comes along who has everything you want. You compare yourself and find yourself lacking. A faction of jelly-beans gets envious – Team Envy – and another faction feels ashamed for feeling envy.

When factions within your brain present conflicting arguments, what’s your brain-boss going to do?

Nietzsche (1844-1900)

You could turn to philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who encouraged people to embrace envy. Nietzsche’s perspective is explained thus, “a great-souled person – an Übermensch – rises above their circumstances and difficulties to embrace whatever life throws at them… He recommends that we own up to envy, use it to inspire us to action, put up a heroic fight and if we fail, to mourn with solemn dignity” (Philosophy, Nietzsche).

You could turn to psychologist Mary Lamia who writes, “You may idealize another person when you are envious…When you experience envy… you have an opportunity to learn about yourself…” (Jealousy and Envy). “Negative interpersonal experiences that leave you feeling… jealousy, envy, anger, or rage can alert you to the possibility of shame contagion…Don’t be afraid to accept responsibility… Only then can you forgive yourself” (Psychology Today –Shame).

You could turn to a story about what happens when three great spiritual leaders taste vinegar:

1,000 year Old Man Rock Near Quanzhou, Fujian Province , China.

“Confucius found it sour, much as he found the world, full of degenerate people and Buddha found it bitter, much as he found the world to be full of suffering, but Lau Tzu found the world sweet. He saw an underlying harmony” (Eastern Philosophy).

Lau Tzu said that we need to find effortless action, a sort of purposeful acceptance of the world and to make time for stillness (Lessons and Thoughts) which brings us back to Friedrich’s paintings.

Woman before the Setting Sun (1818)

Maybe all we need to do to feel absolute free enjoyment is to do what people in a Friedrich’s painting do. Go for a misty stroll alone or with another. Gaze at the moon. Sit in sunshine. Visit a cemetery. Let the jelly-beans within stop their debating for awhile. Sing a song at sunset to yourself. Uncomplicate your life and be in the world.

As Bert Dreyfus puts it, “in fully absorbed coping, mind and world cannot be separated…” or as Sartre said, “When I run after a streetcar, when I look at the time, when I am absorbed in contemplating a portrait, there is no I. . . . I am then plunged into the world of objects… but me, I have disappeared” (Mind-reason and being-in-the-world).

So too can you enjoy this merging with the world and be wise.

Wisdom and Enjoyment

Louis. A  friend to everyone. Enjoying.

Every philosophy has a central reference point. The central reference point here is that life is to be enjoyed. What could be simpler? Enjoy life. But then: Is all enjoyment equal? Does anything go? 

Much has been said of sensual awareness in the natural environment, of beauty, of peace, of simple pleasures, of self-control, of kindness, of humility, of humour in all things and so on – all good stuff albeit not what a seeker of excitement would envision; nevertheless, in all this, it’s clear: Not all enjoyment is equal and not everything that can be done should be.

It’s a matter of wisdom.

Between thinking expressed here and your interpretation of this thinking, a wise heart is nurtured.

It was said: “The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away…So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart” (Psalm 90, King James Bible). To gain a wise heart, count your days and enjoy them, for they are numbered.

Hesiod (circa 650 BC)

Hesiod, an 8th Century BC Greek poet and farmer, wrote: “… man is best who sees the truth himself. Good too is he who listens to wise counsel. But who is neither wise himself nor willing to ponder wisdom is not worth a straw” (source: Goodreads). Do you listen to wise counsel or do you think you know it all? Are you worth a straw?

Philosophy is a critical reflection. It is the love of wisdom. It is human. You can analyze the world you’re in and question what passes for common sense (Critchley, 2001) but is it wise to get worked up about it? Wisdom is a way of seeing the big picture. Enjoy wisely.

Real enjoyment isn’t what ant-like machine people say it is. Ant-like machine-people are absorbed in digital worlds outside of nature. Ant-like machine people tend to be nihilistic. In nihilism life is meaningless. In nihilism nothing has meaning and that’s not much fun, so the trick to enjoying life freely is to find something that has meaning and to find meaning, you make it yourself. You are the meaning maker. In this philosophy, it doesn’t take much to enjoy. You can find meaning (and enjoy it) by simply enjoying the beauty and fragrance of flowers. A flower’s meaning is that it lives and is beautiful. It’s a matter of attention.

Attention. Attention. Attention.

Real enjoyment is wise and not careless, cruel and stupid. Real enjoyment is not crude or puerile, as in, childishly silly and trivial. Real enjoyment is not usually found in a paved landscape.

A paved-over landscape makes the world a parking lot. Real enjoyment is not computer devices or money, contrary to popular opinion and behaviour. Real enjoyment is not found in booze, drugs, sexual misconduct and gratuitous giggles at the expense of others.

Go Bach (pun intended) to a time when you felt divine (as in excellent, fantastic and delightful). Walk. Walk if you can. If you can’t roll. Walk and roll! That’s it. Live beauty. It’s in the mind. Enjoyment is not a gregarious mob. It’s a peach and other innocuous small things (see post Get Small). Enjoyment isn’t necessarily about bigger and better or the American dream.

Enjoyment is a Gestalt. It’s outside in nature and inside a cozy Howard’s End corner of your own where you can “keep the aspidistra flying” like Wolf Solent” or “Siddhartha” and eat “grapes of wrath” “far from the madding crowd”.

Enjoyment is contemplative. It’s subtle. It’s sublime. To any decision the central question to ask is: Is it wise?

For example: Developers build sub-divisions, a carpet of roads, endless house-boxes, box stores and parking lots. It may be enjoyable, but: Is it wise? The developers enjoy getting rich. Workers enjoy working. People enjoy flooring, cars, packaged food and drink. This is progress! This is success and economics, but, again: Is it wise?

Middle-aged children enjoy beer and mean-spirited jokes. Stereotypical he-men enjoy loud trucks, beer, loud motorcycles and testosterone. Stereotypical women enjoy buying what isn’t needed. Commuters enjoy express-ways lined by animal splatters, but: Is it wise?

A philosopher can only smile and do what can be done with a sense of humour. The highest happiness is a reflective life and an examined life, but an unlived life marked by frustration is not worth examining.

One must live and in living enjoy what is good.

Religion put faces to good and evil. Such faces were made real by imagination. To some people the supernatural is more real than a planet under siege – they hardly notice the droughts, endangered animals, floods and chaos – but good and evil come in the guise of ordinary people like ourselves doing what they do without being wise.

Good is kind. Evil is not. In any situation one may behave well or reprehensibly. We slip, but we get up and try to enjoy ourselves gently. We say stupid things on occasion. Personality and a personal philosophy (or lack thereof) say more than we realize. Look at yourself. Are you good? Are you bad? Are you both? What are your ideals?

Do the right thing. Look at the big picture and enjoy wisely.

What’s your philosophy?

If you’ve reached adulthood, it’s probably clear to you by now that everyone has to face good times and bad. There are ups and downs and how you deal with them depends on your philosophy.

Whether knowingly or not, everyone has a philosophy. The trick is to keep it simple. Find a philosophy that’s right for you.

With the Philosophy of Enjoyment, from The First Step to the Will to Enjoy, the goal of life is to enjoy.

This isn’t to say that you enjoy yourself at the expense of others. Enjoying yourself at the expense of others will lead to trouble. If you think you are more important than other creatures (think Presidents, movie stars and or billionaires) you are not. True enjoyment requires kindness, humility and sensitivity.

Helping others to enjoy themselves is enjoyable and if you hurt others, they will enjoy hurting you. It’s a ping-pong thing.All creatures are alone, together. Whether duck or human, it’s appropriate to enjoy.

If enjoyment is selfish, then every living creature is selfish. Even helping another could be construed as selfish. It’s all in how you look at it.

The keys to enjoyment are found in sensual awareness and contemplation. You don’t need a particular lifestyle with lots of possessions or acquaintances or admiration from the crowd. You don’t need luxury. Those things might be enjoyable, but they’re not necessary.

Professional philosophers debate the nature of enjoyment and happiness, but you know what it’s about. You know when you are enjoying yourself and when you are not. You know that when others are not enjoying themselves, its better when they are.

If you have a philosophy of enjoyment, morality is simple. What is good is kind and what is evil is cruel. It’s what children know. It’s natural. Trouble rises when people get unnatural.

Imagine that you are a cloud hovering above a city. What do you see?

You see a few people enjoying themselves in a park (a few sky watching), but the majority are busy acting like ants in an ant hill or wasps in a wasp nest.

Why is that?

People act like ants and or wasps because they’ve lost touch with enjoyment. They’re busy for the sake of business. In the battle of life, they think it’s a survival-of-the-fittest game. They don’t realize that survival for the sake of survival isn’t what it’s about.

People conclude that life is suffering so they go about doing just that. They get technological, industrial, mechanical and electronic. They lose touch with nature. They choose virtual over a real. They favour artificial intelligence over biological.

One reason for ant hill behaviour relates to the type of person each unique individual is. There are basically two types of people: There are saints and there are earth-creatures. People get lost between two extremes. Let’s break it down.

A saint’s mind is fixed on pity. Sadness is the prevailing emotion. Other people are the priority and suffering love is the ideal. For a saint personal enjoyment is pretty much irrelevant. Saints thrive on abstractions, not sensations.

A saint is sad about the tragedy of life because there is poverty, starvation and disease. Saints feel sorry for people but not themselves. Saints feel superior. Saints aren’t funny. They don’t laugh at the absurdities of life. They take it all very serious.

Earth-creatures on the other hand, are just the opposite.

Happiness is the prevailing emotion in earth-creatures. Self is the priority.

Earth-creatures are happiness seekers. They understand what drives other selves to do what they do because they have a self and they do it too.

Earth-creatures live sensuously on food and drink. They cope with tragedy and focus on beauty. Unlike a saint who may see life as tragic, earth-creatures like to laugh because life is comic. Humour helps them enjoy life. They know ecstasy comes and goes.Earth-creatures (including some humans) enjoy the lightness of being. They value humility over superiority and power. They live for sunshine and rain and if they are like that woman in a Rolling Stones’ song, they might even be a rainbow (see: “She’s A Rainbow“).

Despite death, disease and starvation, earth-creatures can experience moments of elation from simple things like a drop of rain, a kiss, a kind word, the sight of a happy dog’s wagging tail, a country road, a piece of bread and jam, a hot beverage, a friend.

So, what’s it going to be? Which would you rather be: a saint or an earth-creature?

What’s your philosophy?

The Art of Day-dreaming

The Philosophy of Enjoyment combines the sensibilities of a Walt Whitman or Leonard Cohen – poetical – with a Charlie Chaplin or Jerry Seinfeld – comical. The basic idea is to experience life sensuously (like a poet) and lightly (like a comic). Life and enjoyment are synonymous, but just because you’re alive doesn’t mean you’re enjoying it. For some people death isn’t hard: life is.

But if you practice the art of day-dreaming, even when life is hard, it’s still enjoyable. With a poet-comic sensibility, you can have ecstatic moments without having to do anything but relax, observe and chill. It’s a matter of practicing a few mental tricks.

The first trick is to focus on your senses. This goes back to earlier posts like “Getting Small: Concentrate” and “The Will To Enjoy: How to be more conscious“. Stop what you’re doing and ask yourself: What am I seeing? What’s that smell? (Is it me?) What am I hearing? tasting? touching?

Look from the periphery of your eyes. Go discreetly into a zone where you meet your surroundings. Beyond everything that you think you are, you’re still just a sensuous organic unit. People get a false sense of superiority. They let their senses get dull through lack of attention. Life becomes an abstract affair.

Look to the animals

Watch the way a dog or a cat sniffs the air (ignore how they sniff each other). Watch their ears. Watch the way a sparrow looks around and listens. Compare that to how people stare straight ahead or at electronic devices.Go outside or look out the window. Slip out of a miserable mock-reality into a real reality of secret thoughts that only you can have. Allow yourself to day-dream about nothing in particular.

You’ve had lovely sensations wafted upon you in the past. Remember those. Create those again. Feel yourself somewhere between boredom and bliss. Enjoy a thousand vague and delicious impressions.

Relish every morsel of food and drop of drink that enters your mouth. Relish every idle, dreamy and carefree thought that you have.

Work so you have time for leisure. Make introversion and loneliness your strength. Make weakness your strength. Experience every nuance of country-roads, gardens, old walls, leafy lanes, wood paths and twilight harbours.

Devour life and defy it to get in your way of enjoyment.

In situations with difficult people, study them from your observation post (yourself). Experiment with yourself. Imagine seeing out of their eyes. You don’t have to love them or like them, just be kind to them. Sympathize with them.

Everyone is doing their best to feel enjoyment. It’s just that some people don’t get it. They can’t laugh at themselves. Enjoyment eludes them. Help them. If you feel annoyed, ask: What’s funny about this?

Look at people with a comedian’s eye, not to be mean, vulgar or glib, but to help yourself enjoy them and yourself with them and they you.

Picture yourself as the Good Humor Ice cream man. Switch from serious to good humorous. Alter your default settings by first focusing on your senses and then tell yourself to lighten up. Do something silly. Be free. People really are quite funny especially when they’re not trying.

The grand trick is to never have a single day without impressing into your memory stuff like a particular road, a specific tree, a particular treat, flights of birds, gusts of wind, interconnecting rain-rings in a puddle, hot afternoon fragrances… whatever!

Don’t worry if annoying things happen. Of course they happen! Annoying things are always bound to happen. Train yourself to get beyond them and be amused by them.

Beyond your five senses, humour could be your sixth. There’s nothing unseen about it. It’s available to everyone. You can’t help seeing what you see, but you can shape how you see. Combine your Walt Whitman Song of Myself with your Charlie Chaplin A Dog’s Life.In an annoying situation, you have two options: You can get all serious and feel ill-treated (not enjoyable) or you can be light without care. Ill-treatment is nothing to you. What do you expect? Who are you anyway?

Nobody. You are just another body envelope. Why not be the light?

The trick is to be absolutely determined to enjoy yourself. Don’t take yourself or life too serious. You know how it will end. Force yourself to enjoy. Will it to happen. Play music that gives you a charge of courage to forge ahead.

Go Buster Keaton on everybody and sing, “Don’t Bring Me Down!” to yourself without caring if anyone hears. Let “Enjoyment!” be your battle cry. Plunge into the experience of living. The water’s fine, even when it isn’t, and when it isn’t: It’s even better.

Enjoy.