Professor Explains How Your Employer Exploits You

Meditation is Self Knowledge

Feeling

Feelings are always temporary. But we give them continuity through thought and identification, a memory with which we identify. Which is another way of saying thinking creates them; we are doing it; you are doing it. Inevitably you will have to ask the question, Who is "you", the "I", the "me": It is also thought. Giving feeling continuity is a way of making yourself feel like "you" are doing something. It's all false.

Using thought to create a feeling immediately creates its opposite.

Nailed it

Rotten World

It is clear that the world is not right and the more aware of it you become, it is often the case the more anxious and depressed you might become. On the other hand, there are plenty of very happy people who are simply unconscious; of course, they're happy, they don't know what's really happening around them. But I think there is something beyond these two situations. It is the person fully aware of the garbage that is the world, but is conscious of their own mind. The question is then asked, "Am I psychologically a part of that world?" It is not a question of how to escape it, but a question of whether I am a part of this rotten world, psychologically. The answer is in the question.

Conditioning

Conditioning occurs when you are in an environment and must respond to it and can either resist it or are forced to respond to it in a certain way; aggressive environments, for instance, often require aggressive responses. There will be those who want to impose the conditioning on you, your ability to resist is dependent on whether you actually can. Your response might be that you must conform to keep from being completely overwhelmed by the environment; ironically, in the end, you are thus overwhelmed by the environment and conditioned by it.

Help

I've come to the conclusion that much of the "help" you get is generally supervision and advice. Most people don't need either, they actually need help. Not sure people know what help actually is anymore.

Substantive Help

I've been taking care of my mother who has dementia now for several years. A difficult task to put it mildly. What I find interesting  is the help offered by both people and agencies is generally not substantive. It takes the form of advice and a few material items here and there, like latex gloves and baby wipes. But giving me a block of time in which I can recuperate by getting respite care for my mom, is non-existent mostly or limited and very temporary. It makes me think of the god-awful neoliberal Clintonian era of welfare reform in which poor people were given shoddy advice, forced to take classes on how to get a job taught by clueless government workers and some second-hand clothes for job interviews. Surely we can offer something more substantive than egoistic advice and second hand clothes.

The assumption is that the person in need is really just too dumb and needs to be shown a few over simplistic things and be sent on their way.

This all comes from an era in which people can brag about working hard on valueless things and provide nothing of creative value or of the heart and soul and be considered heroes of the archaic Protestant work ethic. We give nothing of value to the people. We have no real concern for anyone but ourselves. This is an approach informed by the Me Generation that has left a lasting impression on people, giving them the idea that their own egos take precedence over people's lives overall. Tossing advice someone's way is truly cavalier and, mostly, rude, because it is condescending and usually not really helpful. Someone in dire straits needs physical security and something real for the heart and soul.

Millennials

I'll never understand the complaints about millennials that go around these days. I remember about 10 years ago I used to hang out with a group of young people and I was astounded at the complete 180 in attitude they had compared to my generation and generations before me. I mean, I heard none of the bigoted nonsense, I was treated like a normal person and finally felt comfortable hanging out with a group of people. It was almost like all of a sudden everyone was thinking like me. So, I have none of that negative attitude towards millennials that some people have these days. I'm just thinking, Thank God this younger generation exists, who are accustomed to a more inclusive atmosphere and a more understanding approach.