A Philosophy of Life (to enjoy)

Philosophy is all around us. It’s how people think. It’s even on billboards.

In the Way to Wisdom (1950), psychiatrist (and philosopher) Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) wrote, “the essence of philosophy is not the possession of truth but the search for truth… Philosophy means to be on the way” (p. 11).

“…the question,” writes Jaspers, “is not whether a philosophy is conscious or not, whether it is good or bad, muddled or clear. Anyone who rejects philosophy is himself unconsciously practicing philosophy” (p. 12).

In other words, even if you don’t think you have a philosophy of life, you probably do. You just don’t know it.

Source: Garfield Weekly

A philosophy of life is the mental framework (i.e. intelligence) for understanding the world and yourself in it. It’s how you decide what’s good and bad, what the meaning of life is (or, if there is one), and what the purpose of life is (or, if there is one).

How you think affects how you feel which affects what you do and how you live. People don’t think much about how (and what) they think about, but it’s quite possible that how people think is the most important thing there is.

As psychologist (and philosopher) William James (1842-1910) put it, “Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens out the widest vistas” (50 Philosophy Classics, p. 6).

Cue music:

There are basically two kinds of people: people (a few anyway) who have a clear philosophy of life that they use to guide their actions in peace and understanding and people (everybody else) who do not. 

It’s not that people don’t have a moral compass, it’s just they don’t know where it is (or how to use it).  

Look at “Karens,” for example. A “Karen” is a woman who acts entitled and uses privilege to demand her way at the expense of others. If you see a “Karen” in action in real life or in a YouTube compilation, you’ll see a woman who probably thinks she’s thinking clearly, but who is clearly out of her mind.

Image Source

If only “Karen” had a philosophy of life that was more congenial and less self-focused, but like Confucius said, “It is easy to hate and difficult to love.” Our default setting seems to be impulse and gut reaction.

People look to psychology and religion for answers but whereas philosophy seeks to explain right ways of behaving, psychology’s objective is not to study what is moral but to provide therapies and intervention, increasingly in pill form (as seen on TV).

Drug companies spend 19 times more money on advertising than on research and development. Source: Big Pharma.

As for religion, philosophers find meaning in religion to help people understand the truth of life. The difference being, whereas religion involves supernatural beliefs, ritual and faith without evidence, philosophy has no rituals and will only believe what is true by way of reasoning.

Source: “12 Times Calvin and Hobbes Taught Us About Philosophy and Religion”

To be wise means toggling between subjectivity, “My experience of being me from my perspective,” and objectivity, “A truth independent of my individual subjectivity and bias.”

Philosophies come in many forms. Every philosophy has its opposite. For example:

You’ve got your materialists—those who consider material possessions and comfort more important than ideals (or support the theory that nothing exists except matter).

A materialist.

And there are idealists—those who value ideals (aka principles) more than possessions. Both groups can be further broken down into individualists—independent, self-reliant—and groupists—those who see other people as group members rather than as individuals.

Exercise #42: Spot the philosophy of life of people in this video.

People they come together / People they fall apart / No one can stop us now / Cause we are all made of stars

What’s your philosophy?

If you don’t know what your philosophy is, try this: Look at what other philosophers have said throughout the ages to see what rings true. You can take a saying to heart and train your brain towards wisdom and change the world.

Commence brain training:

Eastern philosophy phrases (oldest to newest):

1. “If you correct your mind, the rest will fall into place….
   Love the world as your own self, then you can truly care for all things” – Lau Tzu (around 601-530 BC)
2. “The mind is everything. What you think you become…. Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways” – Gautama Buddha (around 563-483 BC)
3. “He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior….Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you” – Confucius (551-479 BC)
4. “Unruly beings are as unlimited as space, they cannot possibly all be overcome, but if I overcome thoughts of anger alone, this will be equivalent to vanquishing all foes” ― Śāntideva (685-763)

Middle Eastern philosophy (oldest to newest):

1. “Patience is beautiful” – Arabic proverb
2. “A reflective, contented mind is the best possession….With an open mind, seek and listen to all the highest ideals. Consider the most enlightened thoughts. Then choose your path, person by person, each for oneself” – Zoroaster (around 628-551 BC)
3. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today”–  Jesus (1-33) Matt. 6:34
4. “Instead of resisting to changes, surrender. Let life be with you, not against you.  If you think ‘My life will be upside down’ don’t worry. How do you know down is not better than upside?” – Shams Tabrizi aka Rumi (1185–1248)

Excerpt from Existential Comic #344

Western philosophy (oldest to newest):

1. “The brave man is he who overcomes not only his enemies but his pleasures”– Democritus (460-370 BC)
2. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”– Aristotle (385–322 BC)
3. “Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of one’s desires, but by the removal of desire”– Epictetus (50-135)
4. “Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but of how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness” – Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

Conclusion: Study wise phrases. Make them a habit of mind and enjoy them. You'll be a beacon of wisdom in no time, and remember: It's the path that matters, not the destination.

Enjoy A “You-day-mon-I-am!” Inspiration

This is the world. The world is as it is. It is not as it isn’t. The world is an interconnected balancing act. Some people say humans came from the hand of God. Some say they came from aliens or from rocks, water and sunshine, but any way you slice it, it’s really quite amazing.

Cue music: Ravel, “Bolero”.

Like alternating current (AC) and direct current (dc), the world is positive and negative. Clickety-clack. Clickety-clack. One thing leads to another on the train of days we call life. We hope something incredible will happen—if we’re lucky, if we’re blessed, if a genie grants our wish—but magic doesn’t come from outside.

It is an interaction.

As Sir Isaac Newton observed, “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,” which means, “The bigger the push, the bigger the push back” (Propulsion). It’s like ping pong.

Everything is put into place and goes from there. There are good people. There are bad people. Sometimes good people are bad. Sometimes bad people are good. They’re inconsistent and situational even when they think they’re being spiritual (and/or reasonable).

The world is beautiful and horrible at intervals. We oscillate between positive and negative emotions every minute on our way to enjoying. Throughout history it hasn’t just been girls who wanna have fun. It’s everyone.

Everything humans do revolves around surviving and enjoying. They go together like bread and butter. It’s hard to enjoy if you’re not surviving and if you’re surviving without enjoying, what’s the point?

High-income countries have the highest prevalence of heavy episodic drinking (source).

That could explain why suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the world. Globally, one million people commit suicide each year (source). 44,193 Americans commit suicide each year and of those, many are drug and alcohol related (source). 

Party on, Dude.

The trick is to enjoy, but not all enjoyment is equal. Behind the eyes of another is a consciousness that is as you are. The workings of another’s mind is reflected in words and actions. If you’re not enjoying, you could do some rewiring. Neurons that “fire together, wire together” (source). Everyone’s brain is capable of physical change.

Neurons firing at the same time develop a physical connection. Through self-awareness and mindful practice you can structure yourself sane, sensible, and not prone to weeping.

We all want to experience as many joy filled experiences as we can. Las Vegas and Disneyland were built on that desire. It’s why we love eating doughnuts (as opposed to just looking at them).

Let’s get started.

In this age of entertainment, where people are immersed in computer generated fantasy or escape through drugs and alcohol, it’s interesting to see that people are still singing, “I can’t get no satisfaction. ‘Cause I try and I try and I try,” like Mick Jagger (“Satisfaction”).

Why is there no satisfaction?

Everyone is searching for something but what that “something” is is sometimes uncertain. Watch reality TV and you’ll see how messed up people can be. It’s as if everyone should be assigned a psychologist at birth to guide them through life.

The ancient Greeks proposed two opposing philosophical traditions for how to find happiness. Aristotle (384-322 BC) called them: (1) eudaimonia (you-day-monia)—right action leading to “well-being” and the “good life,” and (2) hedonic enjoyment—the pursuit of pleasure from sensual self-indulgence.

Eudiamonia combines “eu” meaning “good” and “daimon” meaning “spirit” (“god” or “godlike”). Eudiamonia literally means “having a good guardian spirit”.

Socrates’ daimon.

In psychology daimonic refers to one’s drive towards individuation—the things that distinguish you from everybody else.

Eudiamonia asks you to live in accordance with your daimon or “true self” and hedonism asks you to enjoy an experience where you believe you’re getting what you want and feel the pleasant affects of that belief (source).

But ideas change over time. Daemonic is now associated with a fiend motivated by a spiritual force that is evil, but daimonia is really about a feeling of unrest that forces you into an unknown that leads you to “self-destruction and/or self-discovery” (source).

In “Two Conceptions of Happiness…” psychologist Alan S. Waterman writes, “The daimon is an ideal in the sense of being an excellence, a perfection toward which one strives and, hence, it can give meaning and direction to one’s life” (p. 678).

Socrates and Plato thought human beings wanted eudaimonia more than anything and Aristotle—that eudimoniac!—rejected hedonism saying, “The many, the most vulgar, seemingly conceive the good and happiness as pleasure… they appear completely slavish, since the life they decide on is a life for grazing animals” (Aristotle, 1985, p. 7).

But Epicurus—the hedonist who was like Jesus (Christians and Epicureans shared social practices)—put the two opposites together. He didn’t advocate pursuing any and every pleasure. He identified eudaimonia (the flourishing life) with the life of pleasure and freedom from distress (Eudaimonia).

To shape a state of mind that is eudaimonic, here’s what to do:

First, cultivate virtue through: (1) apatheia (literally “being without passions” like a stoic) and (2) ataraxia (literally being “without trouble” or “tranquillity” like a hedonist). Second, stop thinking like a critic. Third, sing, “Chh chh-chh, uh, chh chh-chh, uh. In the summertime, when the weather is hot. You can stretch right up and touch the sky” (“In the Summertime”).

The world—Reality—is a hand in your face waving, “Hey Dude! Wake up Dude! (Reality sounds a lot like Keanu Reeves). “See that sky? That’s me! See those trees? That’s me too, Dude! If you see the world, you’re in the world. You’re the world seeing itself! WHOA! That’s heavy, Dude.”

Reality answers every question. It speaks every minute. Even when you’re sleeping, reality sleeps with you. The wheels are in motion—spinning, spinning.

Reality says, “Feel the grass under your feet. Incredible, right? The reality of your feet and grass feeling is reality happening. You don’t have to believe there are flowers. There are flowers! There are hummingbirds, rhinoceros, butterflies and robins fluffing feathers under sprinklers.” 

But like in dream where all the roads are congested as you choke on exhaust feeling “stuck in the middle” on this “eve of destruction”, is there anything you can do? Of course there is!

Do nothing.

It’s an effortless Chinese wu wei non-doing in harmony kind of thing. Practice not doing and enjoy yourself in not so doing. It doesn’t mean you’re a slug. It  means to sing, “Don’t worry about a thing because everything’s gonna be all right” (“Don’t Worry About A Thing”). Let muscular tension go. Relax and let time pass (see also: Enjoyment and Enlightenment and A New Way of Looking).

Just duck it. Duck it all anyway. Like a duck in a pond, float without purpose or boredom. Let your face go slack like an idiot and enjoy it. Float with euphoria and swim in living. The whole environment is the duck that’s in it.

“Quack. Quack.”

Feel aware of yourself feeling aware in the world you’re in and like Daniel Boone sing, “Hey, hey, hey, it’s a beautiful day” (“Beautiful Sunday”).

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy.

References

Aristotle. (1985). Nicomachean ethics. (T. Irwin, Trans.). Indianapolis,
IN: Hackett.

Waterman, A. S. (1990). Personal expressiveness: Philosophical and
psychological foundations. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 11,47-74.

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.

Enjoy An Interlude

Which of the following statements are true or false?

#1: Life itself is pleasurable. 

#2: Life is pleasurable like a Pérez Prado mambo. 

#3: Life is pleasurable in a pretty English cottage. 

#4: Life is pleasurable in Syrian rubble. If you answered true to all of the statements, you are probably an irritant to people who find life pleasurable only on condition. To think life itself is pleasurable runs countrary to industrial desires for comfort and convenience (see also: Polarities… and Wisdom).

If you answered false to any statement, it’s probably hard to imagine finding life pleasurable in deplorable conditions.

Surely suffering psychologically in a Syrian city scarred by destruction and murder is not as pleasurable as having Jennifer Lopez sit on your shoulder?

And what about the guy who loves bananas but is denied? For such a one, a banana would be a pleasure beyond measure! Maybe pleasure isn’t in satisfaction but denial? Today we think about thinking and enter a no-thinking-thinking zone.

We drop in to see what condition your condition is in and in a moment of silence or as trippy water music plays, we ponder the mind where all psychological suffering begins (and ends).

When you open your eyes, what do you see? A world opening in seeing.

But does knowing the cause of psychological suffering stop suffering? A drug addict knows the cause of his suffering but knowing doesn’t stop him. We know we make a mess, but knowing doesn’t stop us. Knowing isn’t helping! Selfing isn’t helping! Maybe a no self would be better?

We don’t need self-reflection but self-expansion.

A  truth can hide  in plain sight when you are preoccupied. Reality is obscured by how you see the world. Freedom comes when you can see your self self–thinking.

By singing “I’ve Got To Be Me” (a bill of goods to impress dames) we create a Sid Vicious circle and think our way into a “me” way of thinking where trouble begins.

“…jovial… without anything envious, malicious, mischievous, or despicable… yields that peculiar delight… in Falstaff’s company” (source).

It isn’t about “me” or “we” thinking. It’s all just thinking.

Break free of me-thinking and sing “I want to break free!” by Queen.

In taking time to not do anything but relax and think about thinking you break free of trying to be because you already are.

Everything is a giant puzzle held together by nothing, but don’t take it serious.

Enjoy eating bananas when you can and when you can’t, c’est la vie.

Here we come to a truth, but as the mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) said, “Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth we shall never know it” (Thoughts).

Relativists argue, “all points of view are equally valid” (source), but is something true because it pleases you like a Rick Nelson chorus, “But it’s all right now. I learned my lesson well. You see, ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself” (“Garden Party”)?

If you are blind and someone says, “The sky is blue,” unless you know blue, you won’t know if it’s true. If someone says, “The answer is 42!” (see: answer to life, universe and everything), how do you know?

The crux of the matter is that truth cannot be conveyed to another. In the TV show Boardwalk Empire Arnold Rothstein repeated something Blaise Pascal said, “All of man’s troubles come from his inability to sit in a quiet room by himself.” In an interval without a goal, we sit quiet and let troubles go by not hanging on.

There are labels we ascribe to ourselves that become self-fulfilling. When you look at the world from within a bag of skin, whether you think the world is good, bad or indifferent depends on your way of thinking. It’s more than about having a positive attitude or being self-reflective. It’s about letting go of ego and seeing Reality.

The world you see has a thin film of personality covering it. You imagine who you are through flashbacks, inspirations and self-talk (see: Levels of Enjoyment). Self-talk comes as a voice. In comics it’s a cloud of words. On TV it’s voice-over narration like when Pete did it in The Family Guy or as portrayed in Fight Club except with swearing.

We narrate ourselves into being and the life we are leading but in so doing we don’t see reality.

When the words in your head vanish and the cartoon cloud goes empty, where do you go? Without self-talk are you animal, vegetable, or spiritual?

As long as you think of ‘me and my thoughts’ and ‘me and outside world’ there will be conflict between with no peace of mind.

We think of thoughts as train cars connected on a track puff-puffing somewhere saying, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can” which is fine for getting to a destination but not so for enjoying.

If you want to slip out of “I-think-I-can” thinking and enjoy peace of mind, shift your centre outward like Copernicus and pick up good vibrations.

“Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer” Nic Copernicus.

People thought the Sun went around the Earth (a 2012 study found one in four Americans still do), until Copernicus went far out and saw the big picture.

In noticing how things are connected by nothing, in calmly breathing and heart beating, in stilling circular thinking – not doing, sitting quiet, walking across a parking lot, on a beach, up a tree, on a bus, in a store, eating a banana on the floor… in not-doing you are an integrated personality no longer conscious of having a personality! In being ordinary in reality there is tranquility.

Between thought and not trying (on occasion), a profound realization and peaceful sensation beyond explanation spontaneously arrives in body and mind like snow gently falling and all you do is enjoy enjoying.

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.