Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are

by J. Jennifer Matthews

Oh alienating desire, that poison of the mind, which makes my my friends’ faces foreign; the blue sky dull, food tasteless, and my passions mere shades, however fervently I pursue them!

The fact is, we can't improve and improve, and finally get to ourselves. It won’t work and it’s not necessary. We are already ourselves.

If we want to appreciate the mystery of life, it is essential to evade the compulsion of our desires by understanding that there does not need to be anything else in our current situations. There is no greater feeling, state, or condition that we have to achieve. There is no lesser or more limited feeling, state, or condition that we have to be liberated from. This is it.

We can experience profound joy if we give ourselves permission to. Instead we look outside ourselves for a perfect situation. And it is the act of looking that takes us away from our happiness.

Satisfying our angry impulses does not lead to the dissipation of these impulses. In fact, if we give vent to anger frequently, we may get fixated on anger.