And they are not just good feelings in prospering altruism I think. It’s something like a small fulfillment hinting of the wholistic world the Work leads towards. Good feelings can also be shadowed by something that keeps the good feeling from being fulfilling, like in the ice-cream example. I would like to think fulfillment is a better word, but its meaning and current can be also twisted just like the feeling of good gets easily twisted in our tortured composition.Malja wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:50 pmI used to think that there is no "true" altruism, because nobody would do anything for others if they wouldn´t somehow gain some satisfaction from it.Polyhymnia wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:05 pm But isn't that one of the big ethical questions about altruism? Does it stop being honest altruism if the benefit runs both ways?
Now I think that´s just how we´re built: universal principles work through the chemicals in our bodies and receiving delight from altruistic actions doesn´t lessen their value.
You wouldn´t have the energy to keep on doing them without the good feelings.
My strategy with dishes has been to own as little as possible so that no big mountains can form and devastate me. When I cook I usually have time to do the few dishes left from yesterday and the morning while the stove is heating. For me it’s about small steps: going to the kitchen is easier when you know there’s not alot of dishes, cooking doesn’t take so much when there’s dishes ready to be put on the stove and you know you are not going to make a mount of dishes, for during the heating you have time to do the previous ones. This isn’t working always, for I haven’t quite gotten in to truly minimalistic with my belongings (having to own quite a bit of containers for doing berry picking and freezing them, and having additional dishes for guests, or rather a guest if we’re talking about a whole meal). Then there’s seasons I’m unable to deal with that sort of stuff. Why?Malja wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:50 pm I struggle with the channeling of my resources too. I hate that I have to (or should) use my capacity to counting pennies, because it seems to me that the time and effort spend is taken from more important matters, so it´s refreshing to know that it doesn´t necessarily have to be so. My spending is mostly linked with my passionate dedication in performing as little household chores as possible, so I keep on consuming way too much rather expensive snacks in order to avoid cooking and washing the dishes.
I guess its got to do with hope. The dish situation is hopeless and thus devastating and I got tons of other things that feel more important to go through. But everything is shadowed and blurred by the devastation in one corner of the life. Realizing the meaning in everyday chores can be very fulfilling. (I must admit I have washed my windows in this apartment where I’ve lived over half a decade maybe once if even that!) I think the same can happen between romantic relationships; hope for a working relationship is lost after one going down. All the optimism and trust for such a thing being able to work is taken from you and there’s just this devastating heaviness. There’s no hope, for in the previous relationship some of those little steps weren’t taken, and this creates a black hole where all energy and optimism is drawn until something (or in the relationship context) someone is found that can take that crucial step without falling through. In the world of occultism where such holes are discovered all the time as the pace of walking the path is accelerated by consciously taking the yoke on ones shoulders, one ends up painfully aware of these holes. It’s important to give others chances to making through them, and realize that not everybody has done it the same way. The pessimism, which easily lifts its head, if the pace of life has been too crowded to give chances to deeply reflect every aspect and situation of what has happened in it, can actually twist ones views and make one blind to the achievements of others, whether its about some other solution to the same steps or accumulation of further steps that make it look like one of the previous steps weren’t taken. Of this last bit, those seeing Lucifer and Christ ultimately as one propably has alot of experiences; being straightforward, clarity seeking and executing virtues to the best of ones abilities can actually start look like one is dodging the shadow, while in reality it can actually be that one is constantly in touch with it in a burning union. But even from that point a bark can form around and some aspect of Satan, for example, to be underpresented, which isn't optimal for every situation.
Dodged the money thing here, but it's still about economics and distribution of energy!
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