Y'know, thats the hardest thing to face.
That there are no saviors or Magic Parents out there.
After my mother died, I had no surviving parents.
A wise older cousin said, "When both my parents were dead, I suddenly faced that there was no one standing between me and death.
"No one standing between me and the abyss."
He gave a manly laugh and said, kindly, "Sorry to depress the hell out of you."
Vera made a quite interesting point.
"Don't depend on gurus, leaders, website owners, or
network administrators.
Take responsibility for your own efforts. That’s not cold, that’s just common sense."
Doesnt mean we cannot benefit from their expertise.
But while appreciating that expertise, we must retain our agency to our own full capacity. And that means taking what steps are available to us.
Such as backing up our most prized information.
And that is where so many get into trouble.
When we appreciate someone or something so much that we lot go of what agency we do have.
We dont have absolute control over life. But we do have agency. At least some agency.
Agency is linked to capacity.
And what amount of agency we have -- dont give it to anyone, not even someone who can induce ecstacies.
Ecstacy doesnt prove divinity. It does not prove anything.
And it can be produced by the right combo of neurotransmitters affecting certain portions of our nervous system.
If anyone wants two educational resources
The film
Kumare.
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www.google.com]
The producer, Indian born, was distressed by the shady gurus he met in India. He decided to take on the role of a guru in Sedona, AZ, and to his increasing surprise, found that people believed in his role. They were willing to do anything.
What perturbed him was that he found himself being changed by their adulation.
Even after he revealed he was an ordinary man, just one person was infuriated with him. Most of the rest continued to believe they had benefitted from him.
Brad Warner's review of Kumare on the Suicide Girls website is well worth reading. Warner is a practicing Zen Buddhist and teacher. He is troubled by how many people want him to take responsibility for them or give them Answers.
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suicidegirlsblog.com]
B) Marc Lewis Memoirs of My Addicted Brain -- Lewis takes us on the story of his life, and uses his knowledge as a cognitive scientist to describe what each drug and situation did with his brain. He covers everything from falling in lust, losing interest after finding it, the risk taking rush of burglarizing doctors offices to get drugs and RX forms, alcohol, cough syrup, cannabis, LSD, cocaine, smoking opium.
About craving and striving, he tells us, bluntly, "Dopamine provides thrust".