Lost in Particulars

Without some understanding of our psychology, we are leaves in the wind.

Unfortunately, the idea of working on oneself has acquired the lousy smell of spiritual things, with notions of becoming a “better person” or, in psychologists’ terms, becoming well-adjusted. The only legitimate reason for self-work is to reduce our pain and become inwardly free, so please ditch all notions of living up to some external set of standards.

One of the most essential ideas in self-work is not getting lost in particulars and looking at the mechanics of our psychological behavior and, ultimately, laws. The difficulty here is that when an emotion arises, we wholly become that emotion, be it anger, love, enthusiasm, envy, or hatred. Once an emotion has us and owns us, observing and trying to understand it is impossible.