@Pseudo
Hi Pseudo, thanks for sharing, this is very interesting.
It sounds like you're a Diamond, strong, unbreakable, been through the pressure, the battle, the war.
An experienced warrior becomes wise from their wounds.
We start to understand that Life may be hard at times, but it doesn't have to be, it was never written into the rulebook of life to suffer and have a hard life.
The warrior chooses a new career, becomes a painter, the war games have ended for him.
Just like a child changing costumes in kindergarten dress ups, time for something new.
Sure other wars may go on but the painter has already won by not participating in the war, the struggle is over.
We start to understand that life doesn't happen to us, but through us.
Words are funny, they can mean multiple things to different people depending on context, especially when it's about the human journey.
When you say "giving up" if you mean to leave the body then I agree to never give up, however the other kind of giving up that is actually worth doing and something everyone should do; is giving up the character who is in the struggle, the suffering and the trying.
Do you rememberr Yoda?, He say's "do or do not, there is no try". In Yoda's saying, as you would know, he was referring to the final result of either done or not done.
Though I know it's a different context to what you were referring to, which was about having a go so that's really good too.
Something along the lines of - A plant which never opens it's leaves to catch the sunlight is unlikely to grow, or, A fisherman who never puts his line in the water is unlikely to catch a thing, and the millions of other examples as a fundamental part of reality of cause and effect, of doing or do-notting.
It is the trying character itself that can stand in our way of progress, imagine now that the mind is like a stage in a theater, and if the stage of the mind is occupied with the act of someone "trying" to get "there" towards some future oriented goal, then there is no room for the character who is already "there"(here), the one who has already made it, made it where?
To the present, the same place everyone is really trying to get to, it's already here.
And it is in this presence that we can recognise that life doesn't have to be a struggle, because this presence is undefined, it is a blank canvas for the painter to paint what they want, sure they can stick their old art story from the past on there, they could paint a struggle too, they can paint a hard life if they want, it's always their choice, and knowing it's their choice is when the paintbrush can be back in their hands to choose the colors and picture they prefer.
How did the painter win the war? He turned the page, painted something new.
The drivers seat is now free for us to drive our own life.
To give up the story of the "me" that creates the problems in the first place, frees up that driver seat.
"easier said than done" say's who? If I believe that character then maybe it's true but if i kick them off my stage I can run my own show, be my own master and steer my own ship.
The distance between change is only a couple of neurons, so really it's easier done than said.
The way to do this, to get the weeds by the roots once and for all involves a process of self-enquiry meditation, a form of inward looking, an inner action to the source, because the cause of your reality is you, without you there is no perceived reality.
Thoughts lead to emotions, emotions lead to behaviours and actions.
So the root is the thoughts and thoughts always belong to characters identities, little "me" like speech bubbles on comic books belonging to characters, find who they belong to, they belong to characters which aren't who we really are, we watched them all come and go like actors on the stage of life. As hinted in Shakespeares "All the worlds a stage"
The more you question inwardly by self enquiry meditation the more free, conscious and unlimited you become.
Don't be surprised when you discover, realise and remember; that you are God.
Namaskaram,
Guiding_Light
but Scotty had his head screwed on right and good advice is timeless.
