#value of play

[exploretolearn]

This is a false choice. We do not need to pick between play and academic rigor.

Wonderful NYTimes Op Ed by Bank Street thinkers 

[sylsabastian]

Extracting the Good

In the Universe that you would create, would you have people, individuals? "How does one learn from and adapt to suffering, proactively, without investing meaning in it?" By not investing, by Extracting. Nothing in and of itself has meaning. Meaning is something WE create, it is not in things. This to me, is a fundamentally vital understanding. It changes everything. Life, and meaning and sense, is not "out there."  It is all entirely within. We, and we alone, are the creators of meaning. If the meanings that you are getting make no sense then change them. That is the challenge, to find sense in the insensibility. To create sense. But it is sense only for yourself, it is always intensely personal, for it is only presumptuous to think we can know what is sensible to others. "How does one accept 'that life is unfair' in a functional way? Yes, definitely individuals. With free choice, just no suffering."

By re-starting our own personal world. By starting from the perspective of insisting, absolutely insisting, not because objectively it is or is not, but because we *have* to, because we cannot live in any other system, by insisting that it's ALL GOOD. Knowing also that Good is not necessarily Nice. Somehow, in some way, the world, the Universe, the System, is Good. To me, I have to insist on that view. Life is unacceptable otherwise. It doesn't matter if we cannot yet see it. It is a starting point. We are employing positive confirmation bias to its fullest effect. We have undertaken the task of creating meaning, for ultimately that is the truth of it. Anything can be seen from multiple perspectives. Absolute meanings are a myth. Everything can mean any number of things. The key is to understand that we are the ones that choose. We don't ever have to choose a single meaning either. Another myth. Since meaning is OUR choice, all meaning is completely a function of us, of our choices, of us selecting a particular meaning from the infinity of possible meanings. This understanding can be overwhelming in terms of personal responsibility. We have to step up and assume that responsibility, or stop living. There is no other way really if one rejects the complete pointlessness of suffering.

Now the task becomes one of finding positivity. How can I see the world, the world of horror and suffering and cruelty in a way that makes sense? In a way that works for me? How can it possibly be good? How can I Extract Good. This is the start. It doesn't matter if we cannot see it yet, we have chosen to believe that it is possible. We have chosen to believe Goodness is the order of the day, because we HAVE to, without that, we have nothing. But, we are honest, we are sincere, and we do not want to be delusional, or inaccurate. And in this we have to realize that varying perspectives can all be true. We can choose which we want to have foremost, which to emphasize and which to focus on. It is in the end always OUR choice.

So we start by Assuming Good and seeing how we can find it. It is not easy, but we have to start in the only place we can. The only place we can be entirely sure of all the component aspects, and that is, within ourselves. It is only inside the self that we can be free of assumptions, and thus also avoid the error of presuming for others. We cannot ever truly know the reality within another. We can always only guess.

Within ourselves, we can be sure. We can examine ourselves fully, and see where and how the suffering we experienced could have been good *for us.* What Good came out of the experience. We have set aside our preconceptions. We are on a new mission. The mission is to find the good, no matter what, because we have to. Without finding it, we only have suffering, and that is unacceptable, unless we wish to wallow in self-pity all our lives.

But the strange thing is, when we begin to look, we find all sorts of good FROM our sufferings, not IN them, but from them. Good as a result, as a consequence. If we are scrupulously honest we see how oftentimes WE are the chief perpetrators of our suffering by refusing to learn, by refusing to change, to adapt, to grow, by clinging. We take responsibility. We learn to abstract, because we must, for it is there that we see that there is a part of us that comes with positions and perspective, beliefs and likes, tendencies and predilections. That part needs to learn, it is not perfect, but it is our core. Some of its makeup is deeply entrenched, and problematic. So it takes extreme measures to shake it from this rigidity. But, it is learn, or suffer. That is the new order of the day.

At first we are only choosing to adopt this new stance out of expediency, this new posture that there IS goodness to it all, and that we are making every effort to look for goodness, to find it, to create it. But soon, if we are honest, scrupulously honest, we start to see sensibility, we see that we did in fact derive some good from what was at the time not experienced thus. We come to understand that Good is not necessarily nice. We examine the entirety of events. We look at the delicate beginnings. We ask, at what point could I have chosen a different path to the one I did take? How would  I have known to take a different path. And if we are again scrupulously honest, we begin to see a recurring pattern. Always, in the beginnings, there was an easy way, a time we could have chosen to change in some way. Those early opportunities always involved learning and changing. But we didn't, so the pattern escalates, making the lesson a bit more forceful. And if we still do not learn it continues to escalate until we do.

This is a harsh truth about ourselves. How we do not learn, how we cling. It is ever thus. Once we see this pattern it is the beginning of Magic in our lives. There is really no other way to describe it. For magic is the impossible. And we have indeed found something impossible, and that is the mechanisms that prompt the learning. the happenstances, the confluence of circumstances that comes together to conspire if one will, that create the exact circumstances that are ideal for us to learn what we needed to, or need to learn. The learning is always in connection to our deep deep personal beliefs and personal insistences. That is where the problems stem from. In essence, in our essence actually, but in essence, it is our lack of personal freedom. A lack we are responsible for. Our inner cores are too limited, they are still adhering to a limited set of rules, otherwise known as beliefs, attitudes, perspectives. Anytime we cling to anything, it is limiting in the grand scheme.

Any particular belief, attitude or perspective is limiting under certain circumstances. So we need to have them all. Only then will we be able to be free, for only then will we be able to shift and find within ourselves that which is Appropriate for the circumstances we find ourselves in. Only then are we able to venture out into the unknown and whatever comes is no problem, we can handle it, because we can be anything, and thus be everything, and thus be truly free.

But there is a complication. And that is that we do not wish to be alone. We want others. But if we want others in the world, do we not also have to want this same freedom for them? Do we not have to accept that what they like and want may be different from ours? Until we are all perfect, until that time when we have learned all, until that time we are going to of necessity always be in a bubble of some sort, a bubble of our own making. A bubble that is projected as a result of our wants and desires, our likes and dislikes, our beliefs, attitudes and perspectives. And we have to afford that same freedom to others, and understand that they too are creating bubbles. And we have to know that the problem with bubbles is that they lead to unintended consequences. We only perceive what is inside the bubble, but the bubbles as a whole also impact what is outside the bubble. We do not see this easily about our own bubble, but we feel it indeed and see it about the bubbles of others.

We have to understand the necessity of this, and accept it, that is, if we wish to have others, and wish for them also to have freedom, for that is the reality of it. We are on the path to Freedom. And it is the clinging to limitations, or to our unfinished selves as if they were already perfect that is really the cause of all the suffering.

So, for me, I choose to insist that I cannot possibly know what exactly another needs to learn. Only for myself. And I see clearly that all the "suffering" in my life was always awesome in some way. It was always connected to ME, personally, in a deeply intimate way. And I see also how I skipped much suffering by understanding the underlying mechanism. Once I fully embraced the concept that there CAN be good, I just have to be the one that has to make the effort to find it, then I did, and do, find the good. It is certainly not easy. But inevitably when we don't, then it is simply a matter of not looking at things from the appropriate perspective. That is usually because we cling, and are reluctant to give up that in which we are deeply invested. But this is a truth we have to accept, that we could spend a lifetime building a house of cards.

Everything we may have built internally may turn out to be worthless. We have to be able to chuck it and let it go, no matter how much is invested into it. Once we become aware that it is a dead end, we have to let go and start anew. We are most reluctant to do this, but when we do, it is always most most awesome, liberating and joyful. We have to make the effort to learn from past experiences, and remember the joy and freedom when we let go in the past. That makes it easier to do so in the now.

Our quest for freedom is thus a quest for fluidity, flexibility and adaptability, for those are the keys to being able to be Appropriate. And in Appropriateness lies Perfection. <3

"So your approach is to look for the good in all suffering? And you mainly see your suffering as some form of resistance to change?"

Not look for Good IN suffering. There is no good IN suffering, only for masochists. No, it is to extract good FROM suffering. For if I do not, then all I am left with is the suffering. I Insist on finding it. I insist that it *can* be found, for I insist that the Universe is ultimately benign. Again, I insist because I HAVE to, for without this insistence on ultimate Good, I have nothing. It is the insistence of necessity. The Magic comes when we find the Good, completely against expectation, for we cannot just let go of our perceptions and experiences and the truths of those. It is not looking to change them in any way, simply to find new ways to look at them. To engage the Magic Levers of Perspective and Perception. "It is not the world that has to change. It is us that needs to change. Then the world too will change." And, “If we do not make the best of it, we will (probably) have is the worst of it.”

Ultimately it comes down to: How can I get value from this? Get value without sacrificing myself, my beliefs, my principles. It is done by adding new dimensions to our being, Finding new Ways of Being, that do not cancel us, but extend us. It is not changing what is, but developing new ways to look at what is. New ways in addition to the old. Not to replace them. Then we can choose which to give priority, which to emphasize, which to hold dear to our hearts, which we allow to predominate in our lives. But always, ALL the perspectives and approaches and views of life are within us. That is freedom, choosing. But we first have to develop the Tools of Choice.

I mean also most explicitly: That is how I see things, how I have chosen to see things, to live. If I did not choose a Path of resolute positivity I would certainly be dead now. My heart would have been crushed by the Sadness of the World a long time ago. It is the price of insight and understanding, it leads us to connect with the sadness of the reality. But we cannot allow that. We have to find another way, and a Way of Ignorance is not the way either. To retreat from awareness is not an option in the long run.

"Yes, from, not, in. Words are the tools of accurate thought."

It's cool to me how things work out, and how they come at goals from different angles. :)

Yes. Words manifest.

"Find the good from suffering, not in suffering..."

I extract it. A small but huge difference. *We* have to make the effort. Find a way of perceiving that allows us to extract good, create good thus for ourselves. And it is not bullshit either. I see how from supposed "suffering" I was extended, how my awareness grew, how I developed patience, tolerance, acceptance etc. There are so many ways to learn and thus get good, then I can so easily extract good, or find it. It comes from perspective shifting, and that is simply another way of saying expanding or extending our awareness. The key that I mean is that it is us that changes to see the good. The good is not inherent, neither is bad. Everything is in everything. It is up to us to choose how we will relate, how we will choose to look at what is, and what we will choose to see, what we will choose to find, what we will choose to Extract.

"I guess I find a way to make some good for myself.

Yes, I know it's expedient. It makes life more workable for one."

Bottom line is: I insist on finding Value, no matter what.

Yes, we have to, we don't really have a choice, unless we choose immersion in suffering.

To me, the long-term Universal purpose of it all is to truly get us to learn that we DO in fact create the world. Using the formulae below. We describe it and thus create it. WE are in fact the ones that are doing the translating of energy into mass. The filters of our beliefs are that which creates a world in which we create what we are aware of. It's the unintended consequences of our limited awareness that comes and bites us in the arse. :) :)

*E=mc² is also a spiritual expression.

(See ROS0) E=mc² is so much more.

Exploring E=mc² opens up incredible possibilities.

E=mc² ties so much together.

m=E/c², or: matter is energy slowed down.

"Cool,"

:)

"I can do it. Because it's expedient. Bcos it's likely to produce spectacular results. But I'm not going to buy into the underlying belief that this Universe is anything but created by an intelligent entity that's both Evil and Good, at the same time. And is in everything, in you, in me."

Implications, it's all about the Implications.

It's created by YOU, you are that entity.

That is the bottom line.

"That's merely my angle at this moment.

Sure, if there's a god. Then that God's in everything. And therefore I am also god."

The Universe and gods and anything else are all just descriptions of convenience, consequence of belief manifestation. We are trying to become Aware of Ourselves. For there to be awareness of self there has to be TWO. It cannot be any other way. At least two.

"Sure."

To me, we always were god the universe and everything. There is probably only us. And the awareness of that aloneness is probably what leads to the creation of the world and everything and others etc. It is a way for us to come to terms with that supreme fact. At least, this perspective for me fits the facts the most. And for me adopting this perspective makes the most sense of everything. Until something better comes along. So, our nascent awareness is learning how to create worlds, learning and testing and applying trial and error. That is why the Enhancing of Awareness is to me the Meaning and Purpose of Life. Because, as long as our awareness is limited, at least as long as it is not in the realm of abstracts, then we will be intending without knowing the full consequences of that intent.

Now it doesn't matter what one believes really in this regard, but that fact of Intending without full awareness has to be considered. It is the same with assuming, We know we have limited awareness, yet we insist on assuming that we know, that we know suffering and so on have no value, we insist that they are only bad, and that precludes us from moving to a point of awareness where we can see how, yes, they may not always be nice, but, in the long long term, maybe they have to be Good. Even if I cannot prove that, I have to believe it, for otherwise I am just screwed. :)

"I like that last post, above."

Yes me too. :)

I am going fairly quick, other stuff also happening simultaneously, so not expressing always as nice as I'd like. But all good.

By and by will elaborate.

"Same here. [....]

Hoping that'll be quite quick. Then I can return to our convo."

You did say that you would choose the same again if you had to: Crap and freedom rather than half-cosy and no freedom. Now consider that from a Universal Perspective. One in which a lifetime is an insignificant blip. If all this got you to Fluid Reality, as I call it, to that point where we are masters of converting energy into mass, masters of the description, would we not need an enhanced awareness for that? If we were the creators of our realities, would we not need that? For otherwise do we not run the risk of conceiving of something and then having it manifest, and possibly we manifest where we forget that we had the power to make ourselves forget for instance. So we have to have discipline, and impeccability, and all of the good characteristics. And awareness of consequence, of Implication. The ability to extrapolate, so that we do not inadvertently create that which we do not want.

It is too why play and the ability to play, and the ability to create play, is vitally important. For play is created meaning. Creating and ascribing meaning from nothing. And that is the ultimate existential hurdle to awareness. To realize that there is no meaning to anything ultimately. If we want meaning, we have to create it for ourselves.

I do have to add ..., the way I express may not indicate it, but nothing of what I share with you is lightly come by. I mean I am not simply clutching or speculating. It is all extensive. There is much behind it, And I have made inordinate efforts to connect it. Connect it to all that is known, to verify, to have proofs and so on. I mean it is not just some stuff I happen to believe. It is a real system. It stands by itself. How to communicate it all is the challenge. I mean it's a lifetime of daily continuous work and verifying and proving, within context, and finding perspectives from which it all makes sense.

I only say this because expressing and communicating it all is a vast challenge. There is so so so much. Extracting it all and getting it out in a coherent whole is difficult, especially because it is relating to that which is so most personal to all. The challenge lies in finding a means of expression that matches.

Now also, humility and modesty. They are huge to me. And from that I absolutely never ever assume that even though it all makes sense to me, it is in fact so. The entirety of my philosophy can stand alone I believe. BUT, I never ever ever assume that this is actually so. It simply seems that way to me now. And that too is part of the challenge and joy of communicating it all. To find flaws. To fix holes if there are, and I assume there are, and of course to improve the communication of it all. That is a known Problem. :) :)

Haha, I wrestled with this a long time, accepting the validity of my system, of the entirety of it. Modesty precluded me from even thinking of it as a complete philosophical/psychological system. But there is no denying it alas. So I have to deal with the consequences of that and accept responsibility also. Thus I cannot engage, and share myself  without also attempting to communicate the whole system, for that system is ME. It is not something I created, like most philosophical systems, that is outside of me, a theory thus. No, no never that. It has to be lived. be useful. Thus my philosophy, my entire system, is also me. I mention because that was an expressed intent by you, to know me. Otherwise I would be happy and content to just have my communications be directed at me, as all my posts are, they are me knowing me better. :) :) <3

"I know that a lot's gone into it."

Cool <3

"Since you were 11...."

10, yeah :)

:)

"I've been listening."

I mean also that I have made effort to answer that which is not answered in philosophy and psychology in general. And we come from such a system of modesty that it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that we cannot find answers because after all, who are we? It is very very easy to get trapped thus. We assume we cannot do something unordinary because our modesty insists we are ordinary. And we are, but the unordinary can and does come from the ordinary. It was ever thus in all of history. When we dig deeper into the accomplishments of humanity, the people involved were always in the end just people. :) We have to learn to apply this thinking also to ourselves, to understand that no matter how simple and ordinary and flawed we know we are, we cannot let that be an impediment in any way. We can do and accomplish in spite of ourselves. And that is an achievement to celebrate.

"Exactly. We're all just people. And creators."

I am very very satisfied and happy with the completeness of my personal system. That completeness involves complexity, inordinate complexity. Lol like code of large software, but it works lol. The trick is in expressing it all, keeping it all in awareness. And for that I have to continually upgrade the hardware, or lol, find better ways of making the software work on the existing hardware. And upgrade and refine the software again.  A fine challenge.

So also all my communications are windows, and they are like trying to know a house by looking through the windows. We have to look through all of them, and then only we may at some point have enough to begin to put together a consistent view of the whole, one that is internally consistent to itself, not one that is made from our assumptions and preconceptions. It is difficult, even when we do it to ourselves, more so with others ofc. But it's fun, as long as we can hang in there and hold off until we have looked through numerous windows, to all parts of the house. :)

It never never fails to astonish and delight me, the ways our Intents manifest. That is one of the keys. To place our awareness on our Intents, all of them, no matter how small, and maintain an awareness of them. That way we can connect them to the now.

And when we do, that is when we see the Magic.

[All photographs by Elevia_Helen_iPhotography. With permission.]

Syldinada.blogspot.com

[dempseypark]

Article from Parks & Recreation magazine out of the States that promotes parks as a place for play, not for fear.