'I AM HERE', WHAT DRIVES ME? From the moment we’re born we are basically choosing, over and over again, ‘to be’ or ‘not to be’...
I just am, I ‘be’. My only real choices of existence are ‘to be’ to my maximum or to die.
To ‘be’ to my maximum (to ‘thrive) is subjective to each person/creature. One creature’s ‘thriving’ state could be another creature’s ‘suffering’ state.
What we all have in common is that we all ‘want to be here’ until we ‘cease to be’ (when we pass away from one of many occurrences) OR when we choose to end our own existence (what we call ‘suicide’).
‘WANTING’ FOR OURSELVES
What we all have in common is that we all ‘want to be here’ until we ‘cease to be here.’
We all ‘want’...
‘Wanting’ - wanting to do/have/be - could be interchanged with the drive that we also call a number of different words, such as ‘loving / nurturing / caring for ourselves.’
WHAT IS ‘WANTING FOR OURSELVES’?
‘Wanting’ is literally the drive to ‘BE’ to our maximum. I want to ‘do’ in order to ‘be’.I want to ‘have’ in order to be. I want to ‘be’ in this state (eg. relaxed, happy) in order to feel that I am ‘being’ to my maximum.
We ‘want’ so that we can ‘thrive.’
Every single one of our thoughts and actions is driven by some sort of ‘wanting.’ We either want a state of being (excitement, peace, comfort - or maybe we even want to feel tormented and to suffer) or we want to consume (sustenance or water).
The ‘wanting’ to do/have/be is just a way to thrive.
WHAT IS THRIVING?
We are ‘here’ and our only drive, that we ALL have in common, is to ‘be here the best we can, for ourselves, in this moment’, whatever that means for each of us. It may be curling up alone (because that’s what we want right now) or dancing the night away.
Thriving is purely ‘being to our maximum’. It is wanting AND having those wants met and satisfied, over and over again, until a time comes when they aren’t met or satisfied enough (and we cease to trust that they will be again, or at least not soon enough) and then, sometimes, we choose to ‘cease to be’ (to die).
That’s it: we are ALL driven by want and what appeals to us. (What ‘appeals to us’ is just what we ‘want’ to enable us to thrive, whatever that means to each of us).
EVERYONE’S THRIVING IS BESPOKE TO THEM: IS THERE A COMMON EXPERIENCE?
Being to our maximum - having our fullest existence - whatever that means for each of us.... That’s what we all have in common in our ‘thriving’.
WHAT IS OUR STATE OF EXISTENCE WHEN WE’RE NOT THRIVING?
We are not thriving when our wants (which are entirely unique to each of us) are not met to such an extent that one of 2 things occurs...
1. We grow increasingly driven to find a way to thrive and eventually, we thrive again. [Eg. We want money. We get increasingly driven to HAVE money and eventually we have that want met.].
2. We cease to exist. [Eg. We are drowning: we need air but cannot get it. We die.]
WHAT IS SUFFERING?
Suffering is where we haven’t - at least yet - turned a situation to our advantage.
Suffering is where our wants/needs haven’t been met.
We can turn ‘suffering’ into an opportunity to ‘be to our maximum’ (read more about this in the HANDBOOK).