PAINFUL NOT-HAVING < HAVING = NOT NEEDING (not not-having, not needing) < NOT NEEDING and NOT HAVING and LOVING < NOT NEEDING and HAVING and LOVING
PAINFUL NOT-HAVING
When you NEED something and don’t have it — it is painful.
If you truly need it — then it’s literally painful. It makes your life worse. It troubles you.
It becomes doubly painful in that you, understandably, set about solving that very problem. You strive to solve that problem, you struggle.
You internalize that NEED — need to solve the problem — and this itself becomes a source of stress and strife.
HAVING = NOT NEEDING (having / not needing)
Having is identical to not needing
This is because having alone is neutral
Look at everything you have and take for granted
You don’t wake up overwhelmed with gratitude to have eyes, have ears, have opportunities, have hands, have time, have love, have life
At your most conscious — you succeed at being grateful for that which is being — being right here right now
But even then you can’t possibly be grateful for everything you have. Because you can’t even conceive of everything you have.
You can’t — until it’s taken away from you
Not before can you conceive of not having (it) — can you conceive of having (it)
And you quickly get used to having it
You quickly forget NOT having it
And having becomes merely neutral
It merely becomes solution to the pain of NEEDING and NOT HAVING
Therefore such having is no different to NOT NEEDING.
NOT NEEDING and NOT HAVING and LOVING
Arguably such apathetic “having” can actually be negative, rather than neutral.
Because from the pain of needing — MOTIVATION emerges
You can’t overcome if there is nothing to overcome
You can’t have a character arch if there’s nothing changing, nothing moving, nothing challenging you to change you, change your life
NOT-HAVING can be a blessing.
NOT-HAVING is how you appreciate having
NOT-HAVING is how you go get it, go look for it, go fight for it — and LIVE
NOT-having can destroy the poison of overabundance, slothfulness, self-indulgence, complacency
The poison which kills you, which demobilises you, which makes you unmoving, stagnant, DEAD
And the poison which NUMBS you, DESENSITIZES you, detaches you
NOT-having can destroy that poison,
Make you care again
Make you WILL again
Make you appreciate again
Make you LOVE again
And,
since not-needing is nearly identical to having,
You derive all the benefits from NOT-HAVING — without suffering the pain of CRAVING
NOT NEEDING and HAVING and LOVING
NOT needing, HAVING and LOVING is the final form
You retain all the fire of NOT-having — except you actually DO HAVE.
You retain all the PASSION of NOT-HAVING, all the LOVE and APPRECIATION — except you actually DO HAVE
What difference does HAVING make?
It gives you even more options
And it protects you from the literal, physical, tangible problems of NOT-having
WHY NOT HAVE SOMETHING — if you can?
Why not have MORE OPTIONS?
Why not have MORE POWER?
Why not have MORE CONTROL?
Why not — if you retain your WILL, your FREEDOM, your APPRECIATION, your LOVE… and your DETACHMENT
“HAVING” in and of itself cannot be “negative”. It’s our attitudes to having, our attachment to having.
If you can stay very very conscious — you will experience LOVE AND GRATITUDE moment to moment.
If you take your time, give something ALL of your attention, as thought it’s the last time you get to enjoy it — you will experience this LOVE and PASSION and EXHILARATION — that used to intoxicate you before you had it
Except now you have it
Why not have it?
CONCLUSION
You really don’t want to NEED anything. It poisons you. And it makes you heavy, need is a burden.
HAVING is innately NEUTRAL — it protects you from the downsides of NOT-having
LOVING is you appreciating that which is before you. LOVING is what makes you love to live — and LIVING is how you LOVE AND CARE. The more ALIVE you are, the more passion in your heart, and the more LOVE and APPRECIATION and JOY.
NOT-having can motivate you to live more fully — thus bringing you closer to that love
But once you learn to LIVE COMPLETELY, every day like it’s your last day — then everything is a GIFT.
And whether you have or not have becomes immaterial. You just LIVE, and everything is a gift — and every gift you can only LOVE