260820: Inner & Outer Powers
Reading le Guin's translation of the Tao Te Ching, I am struck that so many spiritual texts see the pursuits of
(1) worldly power
(2) spiritual satisfaction, inner contentment, happiness
...as totally inimical. A classic problem for elites wondering whether they should meditate/become more Buddhist! "Will it disable the desire that is a precondition of my elite status, productivity, and ability to materially or structurally transform the world? Aren't desire and suffering precisely those affective states which motivate organisms' behavior?"
I think there's truth in this, and it poses a problem for those working through new worldviews & psychotools.
One maneuver is to reattach drives of personal ambition to a drive toward collective flourishing.
That is, contra these texts, I think perhaps the very best life does still strive toward Greatness. However, it has a thick & considered & integrated rather than thin & mimetic sense of what Greatness comprises.
Along these lines I am looking for a way to strive without suffering.