An Inquiry into Fear and Pleasure

Flower Painting by Anita Nowinska

There is a lot of fear in our lives. But when we talk about fear we must also go into the question of pleasure, enjoyment, joy, and a sense of beauty in which there is no demand for expression.

Passion is freedom from the Ego, the centre for all lack of fulfilment

In lust (which can´t be compared with philosophical refined pleasure) there always is an ingenious form of striving – there is seeked, hunted, requested, fighted – so that you can preserve it, achieve it.

In passion there is not the slightest lack of fulfilment, and therefore there can neither be disappointment or pain.

Passion is freedom from the Ego, the centre for all lack of fulfilment.

Passion requires nothing, because it is.

In passion there is not the slightest lack of fulfilment, and therefore neither disappointment nor pain

In lust (which can´t be compared with philosophical refined pleasure) there always is an ingenious form of striving – there is seeked, hunted, requested, fighted – so that you can preserve it, achieve it.

In passion there is not the slightest lack of fulfilment, and therefore there can neither be disappointment or pain.

Passion is freedom from the Ego, the centre for all lack of fulfilment.

Passion requires nothing, because it is.

You must quite simply see that desire is a contradiction

There is always a contradiction in the desire.

You desire contradictionary things - which doesn´t mean, that you must destroy the desire, oppress, tame or sublimate it - you must quite simply see that the desire itself is a contradiction.

It is not the things you desire, but the nature of the desire itself, which is a contradiction.

And you must understand the nature of the desire before you can understand the conflict.

With ourselves we are in a condition of contradiction, and this condition is created by the desire - this, that we strive after lust, and try to avoid pain.

Passion is freedom from the Ego, the centre for all lack of fulfilment

In lust (which can´t be compared with philosophical refined pleasure) there always is an ingenious form of striving – there is seeked, hunted, requested, fighted – so that you can preserve it, achieve it.

In passion there is not the slightest lack of fulfilment, and therefore there can neither be disappointment nor pain.

Passion is freedom from the Ego, the centre for all lack of fulfilment.

Passion requires nothing, because it is.

It is fairly obvious, that there is conflict in the world because there is ruling discord in ourselves

It is fairly obvious, that there is conflict in the world because there is ruling discord in ourselves; a discord which shows itself outwards in society, in the Ego´s, and the other´s, activity.

Our images of life are filled with contradictions; that is to say: the Ego with its competitive lust and anxiety, and the other, which can be the ideal about living without conflict.

Herein there are a lot of mutual contradictory wishes, goals and initiatives.

If we are aware of this tension, we can in ourselves see how mutual contradictory desires, opposite assumptions, ideas and goals, move in separately directions.

When things become a requirement for your psychological and existential wellbeing, they get an all-important meaning

When the things only are of physical necessity for you, you limit them reasonably; but when they become a requirement for your psychological and existential wellbeing, they get an all-important meaning.

Being aware of that is to understand the satisfaction of your senses and your desire for lust.

If you want to understand the true, you must break away from such bonds.

In order to be able to break away from this desire for lust, you must begin with observing the needs you are familiar with, and in this is lying the right basis for understanding.

In desire there is both defence and surrender, and therefore conflict

Now and then you change - according to the strength of your desire - the image, the god, the object, of your sense impressions.

You are for instance fed up with one kind of lust, and therefore you seek a new influence, a new idea, a new symbol.

You reject the old sense impression and adopt a new, with new words, new meanings, new experiences.

You defend yourself against the old, and surrender to the new, which you consider as being superior, nobler and more satisfying.

In that way there is in the desire both defence and surrender, which is implying temptation; and naturally, when you evade from a certain symbol of desire, there is always an anxiety present, the anxiety of becoming disappointed when surrendering to the new symbol. 

Therefore desire contains conflict.

Usually there is displacement between sense stimulation, expression and action

You have for instance had a sexual feeling of lust; later you think about the lust in images - in the image language of the thought - and precisely because of this expression - the thought-activity in images – the lust increases.

At the same time you perhaps, surprised or offended, are observing your lust; the action then consists in, that on the one side you are seeking to endulge yourself in the lust, on the other hand you relate doubtful, astonished, offended to your own feeling.

When the lust is opposed there arises pain, anxiety, jealousy, annoyance, anger, brutality.

All this doesn´t mean, that you must not have lust, the problem is the displacements between sense stimulation, expression and action.

The mind, which is passively aware, allows life and energy to flow into presence and reality

In order to be able to see the truth you must also be able to feel, you must be endowed by passion after discovering, and having a great energy.

When you observe a tree and the moonlight on this tree, then there is beauty. Beauty is passion. In order to, that you can see the beauty in a tree, or the beauty in the moonlight on a tree, there must be passion, there must be intensity. In this intensity - this passion - there is no sympathy or antipathy at all, and therefore not the feelings, which follow these. The intensity is not personal, not yours or mine.

When there is lust there is yours or mine. But the mind, which is passively aware, allows life and energy to flow back from the past and the future, into presence and reality. The energy and the life, which are invested in sorrows and bindings, plans and problems, are flowing in, filling the Now, increasing the intensity and the consciousness in the Now.