In class it was suggested that the meditations were void of joy. I think that they may not have a ton of room for elation however I do feel that different people feel joy in different ways. I think there is something joyful about being able to get along with your friends, enemies and your self. I find there to be a lot of joy in peace.
It was actually the other way around: I did find them to be very cold and almost apathetic when first reading them. but as I began to read through them again or try to interpret why I enjoyed certain ones, I found a kind of serenity in them.
ReplyDeleteI feel that while there may have been this sense of distance, that you're right Emily. There was joy in there as well and this sense of serenity and maybe even wisdom.
Maybe the reason that we are attracted to drama and jersey shore has to do with us being so far removed from what we were intended to be on a biological level. I feel that when humans were originally cave men nomad type beings we spent our days surviving..... hunting gathering, protecting our loved ones from trauma and we needed that type of stress to stay busy. We probably spent allot of time eating or trying to find food and finding time to sleep and fining time to make babies. We started to try living in places where it was harder to live so we adapted to these environments and we stared being born with thing that we did not ourselves invent. It was like the group knowledge started to out grow our personal needs and now hundreds of years later we have so many things that show how intelligent we are but are things that we don't need to be human. At this point we need so much unnatural stimulation to feel fulfilled that we have to push and push for the next most stimulating thing. We have to much given to us so its like we have no survival to partake in so we have to simulate the stress and stimulation of survival with video games, TV, flashy things, roller coasters, haunted houses, others pain, competitive sports ect......................
ReplyDeleteP.S. I am generally speaking about westerners in the above comment there are some places on earth where the inhabitants take part in really rough survival ........... most of those people don't watch reality tv either
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