Mental ideas, thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires VS physical efforts, actions, reactions, activities, behaviors

There is neither right nor wrong that there are many people strongly believing in and promoting "The power of thoughts" or "The super mind power".

The thoughts are only 'powerful' upon turning into physical efforts/actions/activities that could be either constructive predominant or destructive predominant, depending on the state of mind, whether there is presence or absence of wisdom or correct understanding, or the absence or presence of ignorance or incorrect understanding, or the absence or presence of grasping, or the presence or absence of self-control.

Power, of any kind, is neither good nor bad.

Power (to create, maintain, and destroy) itself is intentionless.

Power can be used for something constructive or destructive, and/or both. It depends on how the power is being used, wisely or ignorantly.

Regardless of something constructive or destructive, it is also neither good nor bad, as all actions will lead to respective consequences of actions that are neither good nor bad, but only being what they are, as they are.

Such as birth and death is neither good nor bad, however, under the influence of the veil of ignorance, most people would perceive birth (creation and existence) as something auspicious and joyful, and death (destruction and ceased existence) as something inauspicious and painful sorrow, except for the birth and death of something or someone that they strongly dislike and disagree with, then the birth and the existence of that something or someone is being considered as inauspicious and sorrow deserving, while the death and the ceased existence of that something or someone is being considered as auspicious and celebration deserving.

Most of the time, what is being recognized as 'good and right and meaningful and prideful' or 'bad and wrong and meaningless and shameful' for the minds, are not necessarily the truth of what things are.

Such as there are many minds are being manipulated and conditioned to believe in and aspire to be ceaselessly achieving and accumulating and hoarding (to create and possess) endless wealth and possessions and pleasurable enjoyments that are deriving from exploiting all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment to the maximum (destruction), directly and indirectly, as the ultimate 'good and right and meaningful and prideful' thing to do in life.

One can develop and empower correct understanding and kindness while destroy and eliminate ignorance and consequences of ignorance in oneself, and vice versa, under the availability and utilization of power/energy/effort/action/activity, that also impact all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment, directly or indirectly, constructively or destructively.

If the mind that is functioning under the presence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness, that has the ability and opportunity to be performing physical actions via the organs of actions and speech/expression, but it is unwittingly being over-powered, determined, influenced, or prompted by the ceaseless voluntary and involuntary ideas/thoughts/feelings/emotions/desires of craving and aversion/urges prompted by the intentionless survival instinct, under the absence of correct understanding or self-control, then the ceaseless random ideas/thoughts/feelings/emotions/desires/urges will be spontaneously turning into voluntary and involuntary physical actions/reactions/activities via the organs of action and speech/expression that will give rise to the consequences of action and speech/expression (regardless of constructive or destructive) that would impact all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment in certain way, directly and indirectly.

And hence, many people think and believe that the thoughts that prompt/influence/determine the actions are most powerful, as it can determine the type of physical actions, or activities, or behaviors in certain way, regardless constructive predominant or destructive predominant.

That thinking and belief is valid as long as the mind is still functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, however, that is invalid upon the mind is free from the influence of the veil of ignorance, that knows Thyself, that is absent of grasping, or the idea of 'I' and egoism.

Under the influence of the veil of ignorance or under the absence of correct understanding, the mind is ignorantly, spontaneously, unwittingly, and reluctantly being over-powered and determined by both conscious and unconscious / intentional and intentionless / voluntary and involuntary / egoistic and ego-less / gross and subtle thought current/process/activity, a.k.a. the selfless impermanent limited and conditional restless modification of the mind, then the mind might be wittingly and unwittingly / intentionally and intentionlessly / randomly and deliberately generating ceaseless and boundless physical and verbal action/reaction/behavior via the organs of action and speech/expression being prompted/influenced/determined spontaneously by all those mental activities that might be constructive predominant or destructive predominant, and/or a mixture of both, towards oneself and others and the surrounding environment, directly and/or indirectly.

The thoughts are powerless, or the thought current/process/activity, or the restless modification of the mind under the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness, regardless of the tendency of good or bad, positive or negative, beneficial or harmful, constructive or destructive, and so on, that don't turn into physical efforts, actions, or speech/expression via the organs of action and speech/expression, are merely some selfless impermanent manifestation of names and forms in the form of thought waves/current/process/activities, that ceaselessly arising, changing, and passing away.

Actions are way more powerful than thoughts.

Thoughts initiate, prompt, give rise to, or turn into actions, or not, but the presence of the limited conscious physical and mental actions/efforts (especially engaging in regular physical and mental yoga and/or buddhism practice to quiet and annihilate the restless modification of the mind) can influence and render the thought activities, or influencing and modifying and rendering the mind thinking behavior pattern, or the modification and the state of the mind in certain way or not in certain way, either constructively (develop correct understanding) or destructively (eliminate the veil of ignorance), even if there is certain degrees of inevitable limitation.

No doubt that actions are being prompted by conscious/voluntary and unconscious/involuntary ideas, or thoughts, or feelings, or emotions, or memories, or wild imaginations, or inspirations, or aspirations, or desires, or urges, or survival instinct, and so on. But all those mental activities don't necessarily turn into physical efforts, or actions, or activities that give rise to the consequences/fruits of actions, especially under the presence of correct understanding and self-control, where the mind has the limited and conditional conscious awareness, conscious freewill, conscious initiation, conscious reasoning, conscious understanding, conscious filtering, conscious choice making, and conscious action taking, to act in certain way or not in certain way - Not being over-powered, or determined, or prompted spontaneously or unwittingly by the restless voluntary and involuntary mental thought activities, which can also become the predominant power that can be influencing and modifying and rendering the limited and conditional mind thinking and behavior pattern to be in certain way, that would be beneficial to all and everyone and everything directly and indirectly, selflessly and ego-lessly, unconditionally and indiscriminately.

That is exactly what the yoga and buddhism teachings and practice is about - To conquer/quiet/thin-out/slowdown/annihilate the restless modification of the mind, by the mind itself, not being over-powered or determined by the ceaseless manifestation of thought current/activities/process that is selflessly and non-selfly existing and functioning as what it is. - Yoga Citta Vritti Nirodhah

Just by thinking and desiring very hard repeatedly and continuously about having, or owning, or living in a house, but if without exerting any physical effort or action as well as under the non-availability of all kinds of supportive elements and conditions for either building or buying a house that the mind is thinking and desiring about, the thoughts or mental activities will not be materialized. Such thoughts or mental activities are powerless. Which is neither good nor bad. Which can be either beneficial or harmful to oneself and others and the surrounding environment, depending on the state of the mind.

Such as if there are some constructive and beneficial ideas or thoughts or desire arising in the mind, but somehow, the mind under the presence of conscious awareness chooses to ignore those ideas/thoughts/desires, or the mind is reluctant or doesn't have the motivation, or courage, or willpower, or determination to turn those ideas/thoughts/desires into physical actions/activities/efforts for materializing all those mental ideas/thoughts/desires. Such as there is the idea/thought/desire of, "I should, and I want to start exercising regularly," that doesn't turn into physical action/effort of performing some physical exercises at all.

Such as if there is ill-will towards someone or something arising in the mind, but it doesn't necessarily turn into physical effort, or action, or activity that actually causing certain harm unto anyone or anything, under the presence of correct understanding and self-control, then the ill-will or any kinds of impure thoughts/ideas/feelings/emotions/desires will just be coming and going in the mind, and don't give rise to any physical consequences.

What is even more powerful than actions and consequences of actions, is the presence of wisdom or correct understanding in the mind that is under the state of clarity upon the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness, where there is knowledge and understanding in the mind towards the selfless impermanent limited and conditional momentary finite existence and function of the mortal body and mind that is non-self, that doesn't even belong to the body and mind itself, where the mind that is conscious and semi-conscious, is consciously or semi-consciously aware of or witnessing all kinds of voluntary and involuntary thoughts/feelings/emotions/desires and don't desires/urges arising, changing, and passing away in the mind without grasping, without egoistic attachment, identification, desires of craving and aversion, comparison, judgment, or expectation, without being determined or over-powered or prompted spontaneously by the thoughts/feelings/emotions/desires and don't desires/urges to act, or react, or behave.

At the same time, such minds that are functioning under the presence of correct understanding have the limited and conditional conscious awareness, conscious freewill, conscious choice making, and conscious effort or action taking, to be standing as a third party to be reasoning and filtering the existing ideas, thoughts, feelings, emotions, or desires and don't desires, and make conscious choices of choosing and turning which mental thoughts/feelings/emotions/desires and don't desires/urges into physical action/activity/expression, to be performing actions that would be benefiting not only the body and mind itself, but also benefiting all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment directly or indirectly, while not performing actions that would be harming oneself and others and the surrounding environment, under the presence of clarity of thinking and correct understanding.

If the ceaseless thoughts/feelings/emotions/desires and don't desires don't turn into physical action/speech/expression via the organs of action/speech/expression, then there are no physical consequences of the ceaseless thoughts/feelings/emotions/desires and don't desires being what they are, however, if there is the presence of grasping, the mind might still be over-powered and disturbed greatly by the conscious and semi-conscious awareness/acknowledgement/perception/cognition towards all kinds of restless ideas/thoughts/feelings/emotions/desires and don't desires that ceaselessly arising, changing, and passing away, even if all those mental activities don't turn into physical actions/activities/efforts.

The entire world of human beings will be in absolute peace, when all existing human beings are resting in the state of unconsciousness/deep sleep/coma, under the complete absence of conscious or semi-conscious awareness, a.k.a. the complete absence of all kinds of egoistic impure human's activities/actions/reactions/behaviors that are ceaselessly being generated under the influence of the veil of ignorance under the presence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness upon the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness, where all and everything are merely being what they, as they are, neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, neither constructive nor destructive, and that ceaselessly changing at their own respective cause and pace, governed by the intentionless attributeless nature's law of cause and effect.

Just by keep thinking repeatedly and forcefully about something doesn't 'make' that something to be happening or be materialized. One needs to perform physical action or exert physical effort to 'make' that something to be happening or be materialized.

Such as by thinking and desiring (wishful thinking) that all and everything in the house will become all clean and tidy but without exerting any physical efforts/actions/activities to be physically cleaning and tidying the entire house as well as engaging in ceaseless maintenance to be maintaining the cleanliness and tidiness of everything, won't make the house become clean and tidy.

Just by thinking repeatedly about "I want to know the answer of this doubt/calculation/puzzle/problem/non-understanding/happening" doesn't make the answer appears, but it is the continuous mental and/or physical effort of reasoning, or calculating, or solution finding, or problem solving, or inquiring, or investigating, that will lead the mind to see or know the answer.

That is why the world is continuously being in a state of madness, reflecting that there are many egoistic impure minds functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, where the egoistic impure restless modification of the many minds, of all kinds of random impure thought activities, are spontaneously/ignorantly turning into physical efforts/actions/activities that give rise to the consequences of all that.

Positive thinking, or a large group of people meditating and generating collective positive and kind thought towards the manifestation of goodness, joyfulness, peace, and harmony in the world, doesn't stop all kinds of badness or painful suffering/desperation/difficulty from happening ceaselessly everywhere in the world, and it doesn't make the world become more peaceful and harmony, and less unrest and violence. If that is possible, then the world is already a perfect peaceful and harmony place, and there won't be so much unnecessary endless suffering and desperation and difficulty in the world of human beings deriving from the boundless ignorance and consequences of ignorance of the minds of human beings. What 'super mind power'? What 'power of thoughts'? What 'collective positive mind power'?

The entire yoga and buddhism practice is about conquering/thinning-out/silencing/annihilating the restless modification or thought activities of the mind, by the mind itself.

It has to come from all and everyone themselves to be free from the influence of the veil of ignorance by themselves, to have the quiet peaceful state of mind that gives rise to the clarity of thinking and correct understanding, to stop performing actions/reactions/activities/behaviors that hurt all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment directly and indirectly, under the presence of the limited conscious awareness, conscious freewill, conscious initiative, conscious understanding, conscious effort, and conscious action taking to promote and maintain peace and harmony among all and everyone in the world of many diversities that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

None and nothing belong to anyone or anything

"What is ignorance?"

"Why the minds that are highly educated, knowledgeable, intelligent, creative, successful, or accomplished are not necessarily being free from ignorance?"

"How to be free from ignorance?"

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 

Ignorance, is not knowing the truth of Selflessness and Non-self in all and everyone and everything, a.k.a. "None and nothing belong to anyone or anything."

Ignorance is nothing to do with the presence and absence or the different degrees of education, knowledge, intelligence, creativity, success, and accomplishment.

It has nothing to do with lack of education, or lack of knowledge, or poor/absence of cognitive intelligence, or stupidity, or laziness, or bad karma, or sin, and etc.

Ignorance is not something bad, or evil, or weak, or punishable, or shame deserving, even if under the influence of ignorance, the minds ignorantly keep generating hurtful damaging action/reaction/activity/behavior/desire/aspiration that hurt all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment, directly and indirectly, intentionally and unintentionally.

The educated and knowledgeable minds might have been accumulating lots of knowledge and might know many things, such as the minds might know and understand that the earth is not flat, and that the earth is turning at a particular speed while orbits around the sun at a particular speed under the influence of the selfless power of gravitation, that generates the false impression of time/day and night/year/sunrise and sunset, or there are essential elements that provide essential needs for supporting the generation and maintenance of life existence, and the mind might know a lot about engineering, architecture, finance and business management and investment, biology, chemistry, physiology, neurology, geography, creativity, invention, innovation, agriculture, or different types of skills and productivity, but the minds might not know or understand towards the truth of Selflessness and Non-self, as the minds are being conditioned and limited by the egoistic mind thinking and behavior pattern that is deriving from and empowered by the natural veil of ignorance.

The minds might be over-powered by and identifying with the presence of all kinds of thoughts, feelings, emotions, imaginations, memories flashback, and desires, or the presence of the idea of 'I' and egoism of grasping, attachment, identification, craving and aversion, comparison, judgment, and expectation, or the presence of all kinds of duality and impurities such as the sense of self-esteem and self-worth, the sense of ownership and belonging, the sense of separateness and loneliness, the sense of pride and shame, the sense of goodness and badness, positiveness and negativeness, happiness and unhappiness, joyfulness and joylessness, meaningfulness and meaninglessness, deserving and undeserving, superiority and inferiority, righteousness and wrongfulness, appropriateness and inappropriateness, selfishness, possessiveness, obsession, greed, dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, hatred, jealousy, envy, grief, painful sorrow, uncomfortable or painful sensations, hurts, victimized, intimidation, humiliation, fear, worry, anticipation, wild imagination, longing, insecurity, insufficiency, protectiveness, offensiveness, defensiveness, aggressiveness, violence, and so on (restlessness), being conditioned and limited (influenced/threatened/tempted/moulded/restricted) by the existing inherited and/or adopted worldly egoistic impure ancestral/cultural/spiritual/religious/political/national/commercial/family/community/social/educational ideas, beliefs, values, practices, desires, inspirations, aspirations, and visions, for the mind to think, to reason, to evaluate, to understand, to desire, to act and react, or to behave in certain way and not in certain way (the conditional mind thinking and behavior pattern).

The existence of ignorance, is due to the natural intentionless manifestation of the veil of ignorance in the modification of the mind being what it is, as it is. It is a natural selfless intentionless manifestation in all minds that have the normal functionality of a selfless and non-self, limited and conditional, impermanent and restless modification of a perceptive cognitive intellectual emotional thinking and acting mind, that manifests along with the formation and activation of the selfless restless gross and subtle or conscious and unconscious thought current/activity/process or modification of the mind throughout the three states of consciousness, semi-consciousness, and unconsciousness, that are essential for the selfless formation of life existence and function as well as the inevitable ceaseless life maintenance until the body and mind ceased functioning and existing.

Not only that there is the restless gross and subtle brain activity (conscious/semi-conscious/unconscious internal and external inputs processing and outputs responding) happening throughout the states of consciousness and semi-consciousness, but there is also continuous subtle thought current/process or brain activity (unconscious autonomous inputs processing and outputs responding) during the state of unconsciousness/deep sleep/coma that is essential for life maintenance, unless there is complete cut-off from energy supply or complete energy depletion, or there is complete brain dead and/or complete failure of the life supporting organs or the life supporting systems.

The mind that is functioning under the presence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness upon the state of consciousness (wakeful state) and semi-consciousness (sleep and dream state) might be aware of the conscious and semi-conscious restless random thought activity/current/process, but it might not be aware of the underlying ongoing ceaseless autonomous involuntary subtle thought current/activity/process for life maintenance, not to say, upon the state of unconsciousness (deep sleep/coma), there is complete absence of conscious awareness and egoistic self assertive voluntary activity.

There is the presence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness in the mind to be aware of the conscious and semi-conscious restless random thought activity/current/process upon the states of consciousness (wakefulness) and semi-consciousness (sleep and dream state).

Such as under the state of consciousness, the mind that is fully conscious is consciously aware of certain physical/mental/emotional conscious activity of thoughts, feelings, emotions, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, reasoning, problem solving, choice making, memories, imaginations, desires, actions, reactions, interactions, communications, and etc, while under the state of semi-consciousness, the mind that is semi-conscious is semi-aware of the state of not fully awake or the state of sleeping as well as the selfless manifestation of dream during the state of semi-consciousness or the sleep and dream state, where the mind wakes up and remembers all or certain part of the dream, a.k.a. the mind is aware of itself witnessing the semi-conscious/voluntary and unconscious/involuntary thought activity during the sleep and dream state (I slept and/or there was dreaming). Or, the mind wakes up doesn't know/remember anything that had been happening internally in the body and mind and externally in the surrounding environment after falling asleep - unconscious/deep sleep/coma/complete absence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness.

The manifestation of dreams a.k.a. the subtle involuntary thought current processing and 'digesting'/'filtering'/'discarding'/'reconstructing' the ceaseless and boundless random inputs and outputs, activities, interactions, memories, wild imaginations, desires, and physical/mental/emotional tension built up, might be happening during the state of semi-consciousness (presence of semi-conscious awareness) and throughout the state of unconsciousness (absence of conscious awareness), however, the mind that is in sleep and deep sleep state under the absence of conscious awareness might not be aware of and/or remember the dreams.

Not being consciously aware of and don't remember the dream (the subtle involuntary thought activities during sleep) doesn't mean that there is no dreaming, or absence of the subtle thought process/current/activity processing all kinds of ceaseless conscious and unconscious inputs and outputs.

Some minds might even have the presence of conscious awareness in the sleep and dream state, where the mind is aware of or witnessing the ceaseless subtle involuntary random thought current/activity/process of processing/digesting/filtering/discarding/reconstructing all kinds of inputs during sleep state that is being referred as 'the manifestation of dreams', and these minds have the limited conscious awareness and freewill to be interfering with the dreams or the subtle thought activity during the sleep and dream state (the subtle ego-less involuntary thought current/activity/process is being dominated and interrupted by the egoistic voluntary thought current/activity/process).

That is how extremely restless and busy the modification of the mind is.

That is why the highly importance of the observation of renunciation and dispassion and the practice of silence (mauna) in solitude and seclusion, to limit and minimize all kinds of conscious and unconscious mind inputs, especially all kinds of worldly egoistic affairs/activities/interactions/communications/ties and connections as much as possible, on top of engaging in the persistent regular practice of asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, and dhyana, to be quieting/calming/reducing the speed and volume of the conscious and unconscious thought current/activity/process, diligently and practically.

The veil of ignorance (the busy restless random gross and subtle thought current of ceaseless voluntary and involuntary thought after thought arising and passing away) is always there as it is, manifesting along with the ceaseless and restless continuous conscious/semi-conscious/unconscious modification of the mind, however, it is only valid or prevail (being the intentionless veil of ignorance/hindrance/murkiness) upon the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness under the presence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness (there is the conscious and semi-conscious awareness/acknowledgement towards the existence and function of the body and mind, a.k.a. the arising of the idea of 'I', or the ego, or the sense of separateness), while it is invalid or doesn't serve any purpose of being the veil of ignorance/hindrance/murkiness upon the state of unconsciousness, under the complete absence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness in the mind that is unconscious (there is no conscious awareness/acknowledgement towards the existence and function of the body and mind, a.k.a. absence of the idea of 'I', or the ego, or the sense of separateness).

The mind awareness is temporary absence, or cut-off, or disconnected, during the state of unconsciousness/deep sleep/coma (temporary cutting off from conscious and semi-conscious physical and mental activity, a.k.a. complete rest and sleep, is highly essential for life existence and function, especially when there is the presence of illness, or injury, or traumatic impact), where there is no conscious or semi-conscious perceptive/cognitive/intellectual/emotional/thinking/acting self-assertive thought current/process/activity, but only the presence of subtle autonomous thought current or brain activity happening ceaselessly to be maintaining the non-self life existence and function of the selfless impermanent limited and conditional body and mind.

There is no perception of time in the state of unconsciousness, or upon the complete absence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness in deep sleep or coma, even though unconscious subtle involuntary brain/thought activity is continuously happening.

Such as the mind wakes up from the state of deep sleep or complete absence of conscious/semi-conscious awareness for a prolonged duration would be thinking that, "I thought I have just lied down or gone to sleep for a moment."

Meanwhile, there is the perception of time in the sleep and dream state where the mind is aware or semi-aware of itself witnessing the subtle involuntary brain/thought activities that is happening under extremely high speed (so called dreams) and the mind wakes up from the state of sleep and dream state for a very short duration, remembering the entire process of the dream (the subtle involuntary thought activity/process/current that it witnessed and remembered), would be thinking that, "I thought I have been gone for many days/weeks/months/years," or "I had a very long dream."

This indicates that 'time', or 'past and future', or 'existence that is not in NOW, that is before and after or beyond NOW', is merely the perception or reflection of physical and mental activities/movements/impermanent changes/growing, decaying, or aging process/thought process or thinking, that are happening under a particular speed being perceived by the perceptive cognitive mind under the presence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness under the function of memory and remembering.

This allows the mind to know and understand towards Timelessness, or there is only NOW, or there is only this existence in NOW, and it is ceaselessly changing (formation, growth, decay, and disintegration under specific pace/speed governed by the nature's law of cause and effect) in between the beginning of existence and ceased existence.

The realization towards Selflessness and Non-self and Timelessness, will also allow the mind to know and understand towards there is NO past or future continuous different separate life existences of a permanent independent immortal infinite individual self identity/consciousness/soul/spirit (that doesn't exist) ceaselessly undergoing the beginningless and endless countless reincarnations of ceaseless births and deaths reincarnating into countless separate different life existences transitioning under many different realms/worlds/spheres being determined by the belief of past and present ceaseless accumulation of boundless inexhaustible good/bad/neutral karma or merits and virtues and sins, being generated through the ceaseless and boundless thoughts, actions, and speech that are being perceived or categorized as good/bad/neutral/neither good nor bad, based on the specific inherited and/or adopted ancestral/cultural/spiritual/religious ideas, beliefs, story telling, fairy tales, values, desires, and practices in the mind.

In certain cases, under the usage of certain drug substances or hypnotism (induced state of trance/hypnotized), similar to the perception/experience of vivid dream (that appeared to be realistic), the mind strongly thinks and believes that, "I saw my previous past lives," not knowing that all kinds of images/names and forms/experiences/perceptions that the mind witnessed/perceived/experienced/remembered under such states of mind, are merely part of the selfless random manifestation of restless thought activities/current/process that ceaselessly arising, changing, and passing away, processing the ceaseless gross and subtle/conscious and unconscious boundless physical and mental inputs and outputs/sights/sounds/smells/tastes/sensations/thoughts/ideas/feelings/emotions/desires/urges/memories/wild imaginations/inspirations/aspirations, and etc.

That is why the highly importance of renunciation to be moving away from all kinds of worldly egoistic affairs, activities, ties and connections, interactions, or communications, to be observing silence (mauna) in solitude and seclusion, to be quieting and silencing the restless modification of the mind practically and effectively, to attain direct realization towards knowing Thyself, while refraining from activities that stimulate the restless thought activities/current/process, such as novels, magazines, and newspapers reading, fictional and non-fictional story listening, TV and movies and advertisements watching, social media scrolling, or engaging in such influential activity involving the usage of drugs substances/hypnotism that empowers ignorance and the idea of 'I' and egoism, although it is the freedom of the minds for what they want to do or don't do with the selfless impermanent limited and conditional momentary non-self life existence and function that doesn't even belong to the body and mind itself. There is neither right nor wrong.

Under the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness, the thought current/activity/process or the modification of the mind, is a mix of egoistic voluntary (the presence of self awareness and self assertiveness a.k.a. the conscious and semi-conscious ego, of limited conscious freewill of choice making, thinking, and acting) and ego-less involuntary activity (the absence of the conscious and semi-conscious ego, of limited autonomous involuntary activity prompted by the selfless survival instinct, just like the earth is rotating and orbits around the sun prompted by the selfless power of gravitation).

Under the state of unconsciousness, there is only ego-less autonomous brain activity for life maintenance prompted by the selfless survival instinct.

Regardless of egoistic voluntary or ego-less involuntary activity, all are selfless, impermanent, limited, conditional, and non-self. This understanding is highly important in order to proceed in the process of self-inquiry.

The veil of ignorance - The selfless autonomous manifestation of the idea of 'I'/the ego/the conscious and semi-conscious awareness, or acknowledgement, or perception, or cognition towards the existence and modification of the body and mind as well as the surrounding environment of everything that is not this particular body and mind (the sense of separateness), that gives rise to and empowered by egoism of grasping, attachment, identification, craving and aversion, comparison, judgment, and expectation, that gives rise to and empowered by all kinds of impurities, and that gives rise to and empowered by the restless thought current/process/activity (restlessness).

Unwittingly, or naturally, autonomously, and ignorantly being hindered/veiled/obstructed by the veil of ignorance, the conscious/semi-conscious mind under the presence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness upon the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness cannot see/know/understand things or the perception of names and forms (clearly) as they are, where it is being ignorant towards the truth of Selflessness and Non-self in all kinds of names and forms, or it is being ignorant towards the selfless impermanent limited and conditional existence and function of the body and mind that is non-self, that doesn't even belong to the body and mind itself.

The mind doesn't know Thyself is due to the natural formation of the intentionless veil of ignorance/hindrance/murkiness/restlessness.

Because of not knowing Thyself, on top of under the influence of the veil of ignorance, the mind keeps generating actions/reactions/responses/activities/behaviors through the organs of action and speech that would be hurting itself and others and the surrounding environment ignorantly, intentionally and unintentionally, randomly and deliberately.

The mind that knows Thyself, will also know that "There is none and nothing belong to anyone or anything" - The truth of Selflessness and Non-self in all and everything, including the momentary impermanent limited and conditional mortal existence and function of the body and mind itself, not to say, all and everything that is related to the body and mind (under the presence of grasping/attachment/identification/possession/ownership/belonging/pride/self-esteem/self-worth/self-expansion or procreation) - my ancestor, my parents, my children, my siblings, my spouse, my family, my community, my ethnicity, my tribe, my birth place, my country, my nationality, my friends, my effort, my hard work, my initiation, my action and fruit of action, my achievement and contribution, my reputation, my status, my job, my business, my livelihood, my survival, my happiness, my ability and disability, my home, my house, my land, my property, my belongings, my health, my wealth, my suffering, my enjoyments, my ideas and point of views, my belief, my culture, my spirituality, my religion, my inspiration and aspiration, and etc. 

The minds that know Thyself and the truth of "None and nothing belong to anyone or anything" are free from the sense of separateness, selfishness, possessiveness, sense of ownership and belonging, pride and shame, superiority and inferiority, discrimination, insecurity, fear, worry, anger, hatred, dissatisfaction, disappointment, violence, or fighting within oneself and towards others and the surrounding environment that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

That is the essence of the upmost essential peace and harmony in oneself, in the relationship, in the family, in the community, in the world of many diversities that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

To be free from ignorance, the mind needs to inquire towards what does it mean about "None and nothing belong to anyone or anything." Or, about what does the terms of Selflessness and Non-self really mean.

It has to come from the direct self inquiry and direct self realization of the mind itself towards knowing Thyself, or knowing the truth of Selflessness and Non-self.

It is not that difficult for the mind to reason and understand towards what is impermanence, limitation, and conditional, but it is quite challenging (and yet it's possible) for the mind to inquire/investigate and know what is Selflessness and Non-self, even if the mind thinks that it sort of understands, but not really, or not completely, not until the mind is completely free from the influence of the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness (the annihilation/absence of the veil of ignorance), to see things as they are, where the mind sees the selfless and non-self existence/function/modification/manifestation of itself through the reflection reflected upon the all pervading, all presence, all existence, all knowledge, selfless, timeless, attributeless universal consciousness that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

The minds that know and understand this, will know that there are many different individual body and mind of different qualities of names and forms and characteristics and personalities and impermanent changes, but there is no individual consciousness that belong to the many different individual body and mind respectively.

The selfless body and mind is finite, impermanent, conditional, and limited. The selfless universal consciousness is infinite, permanent, unconditional, and unlimited.

The minds that know and understand this, will also know the truth of about the creation and existence of the many different worldly egoistic ideas, beliefs, fairy tales, justifications, values, practices, desires, inspirations, aspirations, visions, ambitions, wishful thinking, or empowerment in the world of human beings that are mostly functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, such as the belief of karma (good/bad/neutral karma), or merits and sins, or the almighty creator/controller/authority/judge of the universe, or the after life upon death, or the ceaseless reincarnation of a permanent independent infinite immortal individual self identity/consciousness/spirit/soul, as well as all kinds of superstitions and myths.

Without the presence of consciousness/awareness, upon the state of unconsciousness, under the absence of conscious and semi-conscious awareness, there is no "I am thinking", "I am inquiring", "I am meditating", "I am enjoying", "I am suffering", "I am good", "I am bad", "I am happy", "I am sad", "I am calmed", "I am disturbed", "I see", "I hear", "I smell", "I taste", "I feel", "I touch", "I act and react", "I know", "I understand", or "I think I know and understand."

It is merely the selfless perceptive mind under the presence of conscious/semi-conscious awareness being aware of the selfless restless modification of the mind existing and functioning being what it is, as it is, that is neither good nor bad, and that is ceaselessly changing (different states of mind).

Time, or the notion of the past and the future, or age, or moment, or second, or minute, or hour, or day, or month, or year, is merely the reflection of the ceaseless impermanent changes of the selfless and non-self formation, growth, ceased growing, decay, and disintegration process of the mortal physical body and mind, as well as the reflection of ceaseless physical and mental activity/movement at a particular speed, or the sleep/wake cycle, or the breath coming and going, or the heart beats one after another, or the planets self-rotating while orbit around the sun at a particular speed, being perceived by the mind that is conscious/semi-conscious under the presence of conscious/semi-conscious awareness on top of the function of memory and remembering.

There is only NOW, and it is always NOW, and everything in NOW is ceaselessly changing.

The minds that know and understand this, will also know that there is no continuous past existence(s) or future existence(s) (ceaseless continuous reincarnation - the cultural/spiritual/religious/commercial belief of the infinite wheel of births and deaths transitioning under different realms/worlds/spheres) of a permanent independent immortal infinite existence of an individual self identity/consciousness/spirit/soul (that doesn't exist) in anyone or anything, where there is only this selfless and non-self momentary impermanent limited and conditional mortal existence in NOW, and it is impermanent, limited, and conditional.

In NOW, this is what the body and mind is, this is where the body and mind is, this is how the body and mind is, this is what the mind perceives/experiences/acknowledges/comes in contact with/conscious of, and everything that is existing here and everywhere throughout the infinite space, in NOW, is ceaselessly changing/moving/aging/decaying/disintegrating/decomposing, and ceased existing, under a particular speed and cause.

That is why the minds that truly understand this, they are appreciating and making good use of the existence and function of the body and mind that is still existing and functioning under the selfless support of the selfless energy and many different elements, in NOW, to be performing action that will be benefiting oneself and all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment, indiscriminately and unconditionally, without grasping. All actions are being performed effortlessly without forcing the body and mind beyond its limitation.

Just be kind, be generous, and let go.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 

To perform self-inquiry to be inquiring towards the truth of itself, there is prerequisite of preparing the mind by diligently purifying and sharpening the intellectual reasoning power (free from the influence of worldly passionate egoistic impure ideas, beliefs, values, desires, and practices), turning the restless outgoing tendency of the mind that ceaselessly chasing after the objects of the senses inwards resting upon the selfless universal consciousness, which also leads towards rendering the restless modification of the mind one-pointed, focus, calm, and quiet (desirelessness/stillness/silence), where the conscious/semi-conscious mind under the presence of conscious/semi-conscious awareness stands as the silent selfless witness witnessing the selfless and non-self thought activity/process/current or modification of the mind without grasping, attachment, identification, craving, aversion, comparison, judgment, or expectation. 

It is because of the presence of conscious/semi-conscious awareness that is why the mind is perceiving/knowing/acknowledging/sensing/doubting/thinking/reasoning/understanding/remembering/imagining/projecting/anticipating/acting/reacting/seeing/hearing/smelling/tasting/enjoying/suffering/and etc.

There is no conscious self-assertive intellectual cognitive reasoning or discrimination, intention, duality, or suffering and enjoyment in the state of unconsciousness.

The yoga and/or buddhism practice and observation if being practiced as they are, under the presence of basic correct understanding and mentality, served as the tools that help the mind to purify and quiet the restless impure egoistic modification of the mind, to allow the rendered pure and quiet and ego-less mind to have a precious glimpse towards the truth of Selflessness and Non-self under the presence of the limited conscious awareness during the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness (the rendered state of meditation/stillness/silence/one-pointedness that is also impermanent).

There is nothing spiritual, or religious, or mystical, or extraordinary, or miraculous, or magical, or unreachable about all this.

The minds that understand this, are devoid of justification, debate, argument, or fighting, and will only make use of the selfless impermanent limited and conditional momentary life existence and function of the body and mind on top of the existing available energy, physical and mental condition, knowledge, learning, experience, ability, and opportunity to be looking after oneself, others, and the surrounding environment that doesn't belong to anyone or anything, selflessly, indiscriminately, and unconditionally, without grasping.

Do not blind-believing, blind-following, blind-agreeing/disagreeing, blind-practicing, blind-glorifying, blind-worshiping, or blind-propagating anything from anywhere and anyone. 

Inquire the truth of everything, including all that is here, and attain direct self realization, and be free.

The core pillar and other elements that build and support and empower a country

Different houses can be built under many different types of materials and elements of different degrees of durability and functionalities, that can be having different types of architectural designs, sizes, shapes, layouts, functional spaces, functional rooms, positioning, directions, characteristics, appearances, essential equipment, safety features, and etc, that are being built in accordance to the existing landscape, the surrounding environment, the climate, the weather, the way of living or daily routine and habitual activity of those who will be living in the house, and etc. Other than providing a refuge and shelter for rest, the house also needs to be somewhat (if not perfectly) durable, safe, and functional for everyday living.

Similarly, there are many different elements that can help to build and support and empower a country, such as good quality of living, sufficiency, government agency, public service, basic infrastructure, housing, logistic, livelihood, basic and higher education, skills and talents, health care, science and technology, community welfare, food productivity, air quality, clean water, hygiene, rubbish and waste management and treatment, all kinds of maintenance, safety elements and features, social security, national security, internal political stability, international diplomacy, and etc, under the presence of a conducive livable condition or atmosphere.

If the conducive livable condition is absent or not available (such as climate collapse or Eco system collapse - extreme heat and cold / extreme wet and dry, not to say, war and violence, or global economy collapse, or chronic pandemic), even the most developed and wealthiest country in the world will also fall apart and be unlivable.

No matter what are the many different elements that play their own specific roles in the process of building and supporting and empowering a country, there should be one main core foundation pillar that is strong enough on its own to uphold the entire country independently that needs to be there rooted in the centre, where it doesn't matter if all or some of the other secondary elements or pillars that might provide some additional specific support and empowerment for the country are either non-existing, or are corrupted and fragile, or are broken and collapsing, but at least there is this one strong foundation pillar at the centre that is upholding the entire country in one piece (resilience).

And that resilient core centre pillar is about the majority (if not all) of the people who are permanently or impermanently residing in the country are free from the influence of the veil of ignorance, that are mentally and emotionally independent or matured, that have clarity of thinking and correct understanding, or wisdom and kindness.

It is okay and there is nothing wrong about having certain inevitable physical and financial/livelihood/survival limitation and dependency onto some others or one another, but the upmost important element or pillar of any relationship/family/community/country or the world of many diversity that doesn't belong to anyone or anything, is the presence of mental and emotional independence or maturity, a.k.a. the clarity of thinking and correct understanding in the minds.

Because if the people who live in the house are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, where everyone, especially the head of the house occupants, is selfish/possessive/jealous/greedy/violent/hurtful/prideful, or mentally and emotionally immature (mentally ill or corrupted), and that doesn't look after the general maintenance and well-being of all and everything inside and outside the house, but instead ceaselessly causing unnecessary damages to all and everything ignorantly, wittingly and unwittingly, the house as well as everyone who are living in the house will be suffering from many unnecessary damages that could have been avoided.

Even the most beautiful functional house with all kinds of advance higher technology features and conveniences, and that are decorated with the most beautiful decorative items and collections, will also become a ruin, or a rubbish dump, or a warehouse of junks, or a perfect disease cultivator, if it is being occupied by people that keep damaging all and everything in the house wittingly and unwittingly, that is addicted to endless creativity, accumulation, and hoarding of all kinds of stuff, and that don't have the correct understanding, or initiative, or enthusiasm, or attention, or effort, to be looking after the cleanliness, tidiness, general welfare, and ceaseless maintenance of all and everything of the house internally and externally.

Even if there is one or a few people in the house restlessly trying their best to keep the house in good condition and tidiness, to clean up the mess that is being generated by the others repeatedly, but the ceaseless selfish and damaging activity and behavior of the others in the house will keep generating ceaseless unnecessary problems and damages to the house and the house occupants, and that will cause those who try to keep the house in good condition and tidiness to be in a state of continuous exhaustion, and eventually, breaking down.

Even if there is the best of the best leader in the country, but if the majority of the people of the country are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, where many people keep acting and behaving ignorantly that keep hurting and damaging all and everyone and everything, wittingly and unwittingly, the country will still be a mess. 

Even the presence of higher education or advance science and technology in the country also cannot guarantee that the people in the country are free from the influence of the veil of ignorance, including the people that are highly educated, knowledgeable, intelligent, successful, accomplished, and holding certain impactful/powerful/influential position. All these don't guarantee that the mind is wise and kind.

Wisdom and kindness is the core of everything.

There is needless of the existence of egoistic politics, or politicians, or manmade rules and regulations in the world, not to say, corrupted politicians and government have no place or opportunity to be existing in anywhere if the majority of the people are free from the influence of the veil of ignorance, that have clarity of thinking and correct understanding, and that are wise and kind.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

Superiority and inferiority vs neither superior nor inferior

There is a bridge that is made only to hold certain limited weight, and that can only accommodate a single person to cross over the river at one time.

Under the influence of the veil of ignorance, many minds are being conditioned by the worldly egoistic idea, belief, values, and practice about the existence of superiority and inferiority (ranking/title/position/power/authority/caste/family background/lineage/social status/skin colour/gender/physical appearance/mental state/physical and mental ability and disability/accomplishment and non-accomplishment/success and failure/educational opportunity and achievement/nationality and citizenship/spirituality and religion/etc), where the minds would discriminate and acknowledge and identify themselves and others as 'who is superior and who is inferior', or 'who is more or less superior and who is less or more inferior than the others'.

The ones that identify themselves as more superior than the others, would think and believe that they rightfully have the priority to cross the bridge first before the others who are more inferior than them, while the others who think and believe that they are more inferior than the others should autonomously let the others whom they think and believe as more superior to cross first.

Most of the time, the ones that identify themselves as more superior than all the others (from both sides of the river) are all insisting that they themselves have the priority and that they should cross first, and hence, all of them cross the bridge at the same time and end up getting stuck in the middle of the bridge, and if out of pride and arrogance, where none of them would retreat, the bridge will eventually collapse and so are all those prideful arrogant minds.

Meanwhile, the ones that identify themselves as more inferior than the others (from both sides of the river) are all insisting that they themselves shouldn't cross the bridge not until the other cross first, and hence, none of them would cross the bridge, and just wait for the others from the other side of the river to cross first.

The minds that are free from the sense of superiority and inferiority, where they don't identify themselves and/or others as more or less superior or inferior, they would acknowledge one another and cross the bridge one after another, regardless of who goes first, without any problem.

The bridge doesn't belong to anyone, even if the bridge was built by someone, under the initiation, effort, support, idea, and design of someone.

There is neither more priority nor less priority in anyone.

All and everyone respect one another. 

All and everyone just take their turn to cross the bridge, one after another.

All and everyone would show thankfulness to each and everyone upon crossing, one by one, one after another, smoothly.

All and everyone would also look after the condition of the bridge that benefits all and everyone to cross from both sides of the river.

Needless to have superiority and inferiority, or more and less priority.

Needless to fight against one another (bullying, over-powering, sabotaging, and conquering one another).

Needless to have pride or shame.

Needless to have arrogance or humility.

But all and everyone just be kind and help one another (from being dependent to become independent).

There are many minds might think and believe that this is merely an unrealistic ideology/philosophy, that it doesn't work or cannot exist in the world of human beings that is strongly being empowered and rooted in selfishness, pride, sense of ownership and belonging, possessiveness, greed, endless accumulation and hoarding of wealth and enjoyment, as well as 'governed by' the sense of superiority and inferiority, in order to survive and prosper, is merely because they are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance.

Just as there are parents/teachers would think and believe that the children/students need to be brought up/disciplined/moulded/conditioned by force under the presence of threatening painful physical and mental intimidation and punishment, if not, by temptation under the presence and absence of reward, in order for them to become 'good' and 'obedient' and 'successful' and 'giving back' in the way that the parents/teachers expect them to be.

Just as many minds would think and believe that they need to be the bully that bully others, in order not to be bullied by the others.

The world of human beings doesn't need to be like that, at all.

Sustainable survival and prosperity (sufficiency, neither insufficiency nor abundance) for all and everyone will be there as it is, naturally, upon more minds are free from the influence of the veil of ignorance, under the absence of the sense of superiority and inferiority (even if there are many existing inevitable differences and conditions as well as there are different degrees of livelihood or financial development, opportunity, and status among all and everyone in different regions and areas), when there are more kindness and generosity while less cruelty and selfishness, under the absence of pride, sense of ownership and belonging, possessiveness, greed, endless accumulation and hoarding of wealth and enjoyment, or boundless ambitious aspirations and ambitions that exploit and destroy all and everyone and everything to the maximum, where the minds understand that none and nothing belong to anyone or anything, while all and everyone has the basic universal common sense or conscience to be kind to and look after oneself as well as one another, in order to support and develop and empower a conducive healthy living environment and condition for all and everyone, indiscriminately and unconditionally.

The ones that cross the bridge before or after one another, it's not because of who is more superior or inferior, or who is younger or elder, or who is male or female, or who is darker or fairer skin colour, or who is more or less beautiful and attractive, or who is more or less successful and contributing, or who has more or less priority, or who deserves more or less respect, or who has higher or lower ranking/title/caste/power/authority, but all and everyone naturally and wittingly coordinate with one another to create a smooth flow of movement or traffic under the presence of correct understanding or clarity.

Under the presence of certain emergency situation, the ones that have the need or urgency to go first will go first, under the acknowledgement and understanding of all and everyone. Such as on the road, where all drivers will autonomously move their car aside and allow the ambulance to pass urgently.

That action or behavior should come from the presence of basic universal common sense, or conscience, or kindness/generosity, deriving from the presence of correct understanding or clarity in the mind, not because of there is the existence of manmade law and order or rules and regulations that the drivers are being threatened and will be prosecuted with certain type of prosecution and punishment, if they don't obey the law and order about all drivers should move their car aside to allow the emergency ambulance to pass smoothly.

If all the minds in the world are free from the influence of the veil of ignorance, where all minds are functioning under the presence of correct understanding or clarity, there is needless of all those manmade worldly egoistic rules and regulations or law and order that only serves very little or completely no effect of 'controlling' people's activity and behavior in certain way and not in certain way, where the minds, especially those so called 'world leaders or law makers that were either self-proclaimed or being given certain power of authority by the people that impact all and everyone and everything directly and indirectly', that are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance will still be acting and behaving ignorantly regardless of whether they will be prosecuted and punished under the presence of local and global international law and order, or not, and whether their ranking/title/power of authority will be stripped off, or not. These minds that are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance will still be continuously acting and behaving ignorantly in the way that hurt all and everyone and everything, due to the absence of correct understanding or clarity in these minds.

That is why the upmost important element or the core pillar/foundation/structure to build, or support, or empower a relationship, or a family, or a community, or a country, or a world, or the highest duty of all humanity, is about the mind conquest, or the mind conscious evolution, or the annihilation of the veil of ignorance in the mind, by the mind itself. 

The king is a powerless 'king' upon none see and acknowledge him as the king. The power of a king is given and empowered by the people.

The bully is a powerless 'bully' upon none play along 'the game of the bully and the victim of bully' with it. The power of bully is given and empowered by the ones who accept the bullying, that entertain the bully, and that give attention, acknowledgement, and importance to the bully and its bullying.

The belief and values is nothing upon none believe in it or practice it.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

To speak or not to speak

The wise don't speak much.

They speak only what and when is necessary to speak.

They only engage in dhamma talk, or the truth of what things are. 

The others engage in random restless vain talk, small talk, big talk, interacting, chit-chatting, socializing, flirting, commenting, praising, criticizing, gossiping, slandering, arguing, debating, justifying, manipulating, politicking, scheming, plotting, complaining, moaning, bitching, back-biting, sabotaging, boasting, glorifying, belittling, humiliating, shaming, intimidating, threatening, bullying, story telling, lying, envying, admiring, possessing, clinging, craving, longing, flattering, mourning, comforting, provoking, claiming, proclaiming, blaming, joking, teasing, competing, comparing, judging, expecting, encouraging, discouraging, creating, hoarding, destroying, interfering, controlling, forcing, persuading, luring, tempting, converting, accumulating, empowering, and etc, while righteously think and believe that such action or activity is highly essential for developing and maintaining physical and mental health well being.

The minds justify and proclaim that all those activities are normal and healthy human's behavior, that all human beings are born like that (to be socializing/talking/interacting/mingling), and that it is part of the survival instinct for actively engaging in such activities in order not only to survive but also to expand and prosper, a.k.a. GREED/craving/clinging/longing (to endlessly create and hoard and enjoy more than basic needs for survival).

The wise understand that such ideas, thinking, belief, values, and practice, or such common activities of human beings, are merely the by-products of ignorance or mental corruption/illness, of some physical and mental habits or the conditional thinking and behavior pattern that is partially genetic inherited/engineered but mostly being influenced, developed, cultured, conditioned, and empowered in such way from young (parenting and community social influence), which can be reversed or renounced, by the mind itself, under the presence of the limited conscious awareness, conscious freewill, conscious choice, conscious desire, and conscious effort.

Such as the veil of ignorance that gives rise to the by-products and consequences of ignorance, manifests and exists 'naturally' and 'autonomously' in all minds from the beginning of the selfless impermanent limited and conditional formation and operation of the existence and function of the mind that is non-self, that doesn't even belong to the mind itself, or all minds are existing and functioning under the presence of the veil of ignorance (the selfless impermanent limited and conditional random restless thought process/thought current/modification of the mind under the presence and absence of consciousness/awareness), however, it is absolutely possible for the mind to be aware of that, and be free from that, via self-inquiry and self-realization, under self-initiation and self-effort, by quieting and silencing the restless modification of the mind/thought process/thought current (a.k.a. the annihilation of the veil of ignorance), through the practice of silence under the observation of renunciation, dispassion, solitude, and seclusion, under the help of asana, pranayama, yama, niyama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi, under the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness, to render the mind one-pointed (stillness/non-wavering) and quiet (the state of clarity).

Even when the mind is alone being isolated from all the others and without any active physical/mental/verbal social interaction or communication or mingling with any other minds, the mind is still restlessly functioning as what it is, the random restless selfless impermanent thought process/thought current/modification of the mind is ceaselessly happening under the presence and absence of consciousness/awareness, consciously and unconsciously undergoing the selfless impermanent states of mind (selfless impermanent changes of ceaseless births and deaths of countless thoughts after thoughts of ceaseless ideas/feelings/emotions/states/memories/imaginations/dreams arising, changing, and passing away) selflessly and ceaselessly processing the mind perception/cognition towards all kinds of names and forms, of sight, sound, smell, taste, sensation, feeling, emotion, thought, memory, imagination, dream, problem solving, solution finding, reasoning, understanding, learning, experiencing, surviving, choosing, desiring, discriminating, and etc.

The mind that understands this, will also understand that the saying/information/proclamation about the cause of loneliness, or depression, or meaninglessness, or joylessness, or some other forms of mental problem or illness, is the lack of or the complete absence of physical/mental/verbal social interaction or communication or mingling with some other minds, is incorrect.

Even when a body and mind that doesn't have the organ of speech or doesn't have the language ability to express and communicate, and/or doesn't have the organs of action to be doing something physical, it doesn't determine the function and the state of mind, or its understanding and non-understanding, unless there is complete absence of the existence and function of the perceptive cognitive intellectual emotional thinking and acting mind or faculty, or if there is complete absence of conscious awareness.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Inquire towards ignorance and justification and the belief of karma

There is no doubt that there are many evitable painful suffering and desperation or difficulty that are truly unnecessary, but are happening everywhere in the world deriving from the ignorance and consequences of ignorance in the minds of the human beings that are functioning under the veil of ignorance, on top of there are certain inevitable painful suffering in all and everyone (regardless of good or bad behavior, wise or ignorant, kind or unkind, happy or unhappy, healthy or unhealthy, and etc) that come along with the momentary existence and function of the mortal physical body and mind that is selfless, impermanent, limited, conditional, and non-self.

Unless the physical body is being formed and born under the absence of the conscious thinking and acting faculty functioning under the presence of conscious awareness upon the state of consciousness to be perceiving/recognizing/discriminating/experiencing pleasurable enjoyment and painful suffering consciously, if not, the minds that come with the conscious thinking and acting faculty functioning under the presence of conscious awareness and intellectual cognition of perceiving/recognizing/discriminating/acknowledging or being aware of pleasurable enjoyment as well as the evitable and inevitable painful suffering and difficulty, they can develop correct understanding towards what is going on in the mind, to know Thyself, to transcend or overcome all those evitable and inevitable painful suffering and difficulty in oneself and/or in the others, if they want, and out of their own conscious awareness, conscious freewill, conscious initiation, and conscious effort or action taking under the presence of intense yearning towards liberation/knowledge/freedom/peace, to be free from suffering, under the presence of immovable determination and perseverance and some basic correct understanding or intellectual reasoning power.

There is nothing wrong and it is true that, regardless of whether the minds that are having a rather easy and comfortable life without much difficulty or suffering to deal with, or the minds that are dealing with certain painful suffering and difficulty in life, will think and believe and feel that they are limited and powerless (vulnerability), where they are aware of the many painful suffering and difficulty in all the others or in themselves, but they can't change or interfere with many things that are not in their control and are beyond their capability, even if they have the goodwill and kindness of want to help the world or themselves to have less painful suffering and difficulty, as much as possible.

The minds that are having a rather easy and comfortable life without much difficulty or suffering to deal with, is nothing to do with 'karma', or 'good karma', or 'merits and virtues', or 'blessing from the so called almighty creator/controller/authority/judge of the universe'.

The minds that are dealing with certain painful suffering and difficulty in life, is nothing to do with 'karma', or 'bad karma', or 'sins', or 'punishment from the so called almighty creator/controller/authority/judge of the universe'.

The reality of the minds can't change or interfere with many things that are not in their control and are beyond their capability, as well as the presence of limitation, or powerlessness, or vulnerability, is nothing to do with 'karma', or 'bad karma', or 'sins', or 'punishment from the so called almighty creator/controller/authority/judge of the universe'.

Some minds understood and acknowledged that they are limited and powerless, even if they themselves are having a rather easy and comfortable life, but they are aware of there are many others are undergoing and dealing with certain painful suffering and desperation or difficulty in life, while they would do whatever they can to help to relieve and reduce the painful suffering and desperation in all the others as much as possible, even when they can just ignore all that, not doing anything, and be comfortable in their own easy and comfortable life, even if they can't change or interfere with many things that are not in their control and are beyond their capability, without the sense of guilt or pride and shame, and without the need of justification towards anything.

Some minds understood and acknowledged that they are limited and powerless, as they themselves are undergoing and dealing with certain painful suffering and difficulty, while they might or might not be doing whatever they can to relieve and reduce the painful suffering and difficulty in themselves, as well as simultaneously, they might or might not be also doing whatever they can to help to relieve and reduce the painful suffering and difficulty in all the others, even if they can't change or interfere with many things in themselves or in the others that are not in their control and are beyond their capability, without the sense of guilt or pride and shame, and without the need of justification towards anything.

That is the essential basic correct understanding or mentality.

There is nothing wrong or bad or negative with the perception/acknowledgement/understanding/realization of there is presence of limitation, powerlessness, or vulnerability in the minds, that there are many things that are not in the control of anyone and that are beyond their capability to change or interfere with.

Meanwhile, under the absence of correct understanding or mentality, some minds are troubled or over-whelmed by the sense of guilt or pride and shame, upon the presence of limitation, powerlessness, or vulnerability in themselves towards many things that are not in the control of themselves and that are beyond their capability to change or interfere with, where they need to have some reasonable justifications to justify the many painful suffering and desperation or difficulty in themselves that are not in their control, that they can't change, that they can't do much to help to relieve or reduce the painful suffering and desperation or difficulty in themselves, or in the others, while they themselves need to deal with their own painful suffering and difficulty, so that they can feel better about themselves for being limited, powerless, or vulnerable.

Some minds that are having the privilege to be enjoying a rather easy and comfortable life, devoid of the painful suffering and desperation or difficulty that many others are dealing with, however, they are being troubled or over-whelmed by the sense of guilt or pride and shame, and they don't like the sense of vulnerability, powerlessness, and limitation in themself, where they need to have some reasonable justifications to justify the many painful suffering and desperation or difficulty in the others that are not in their control, that they can't change, that they can't do much to help to relieve or reduce the painful suffering and desperation or difficulty in the others, and hence, they choose to just ignore all that and be comfortable in their own life, but then there is the sense of guilt or pride and shame as well as powerlessness and limitation in them, where they want to think and believe and acknowledge that they are good and righteous people, that they are not selfish, where they would donate some money here and there, or to do some charity work from time to time, or regularly, in order to empower the sense of kindness, generosity, powerfulness, and unselfishness, to over-come the sense of powerlessness, limitation, selfishness, and guilt.

While some highly empathetic minds will feel disturbed and depressed by the sense of vulnerability, powerlessness, and limitation towards all the painful suffering and desperation in the others that they can't change, that they can't help to relieve or reduce, even after they continuously give everything that they can give, that they have, to help others as much as they can, to the point of depriving and damaging their own over-all well-being, but there are still inevitable painful suffering as well as ceaseless and boundless evitable painful suffering and desperation or difficulty in many others that are deriving from the ignorance and consequences of ignorance either inflicted by themselves and/or by some others. They might also need to have some reasonable justifications to justify towards all kinds of painful suffering and desperation or difficulty, in order to feel better and less disturbed.

There is nothing wrong with all that, as all the minds have their own freedom of thinking, understanding, action/reaction, and expression.

It is all good, regardless of whether the minds are troubled or not troubled by the sense of powerlessness and limitation, or the sense of guilt or pride and shame, or the sense of selfishness and unselfishness, but at least the minds are trying to do something if they can, to help to relieve or reduce the painful suffering and desperation in the world or in themselves, even if there are many things that they can't change or interfere, that are beyond their capability.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 

Meanwhile, there are many minds that are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance would be deliberately or randomly, wittingly or unwittingly, intentionally or intentionlessly, inflicting and promoting painful suffering and difficulty unto themselves and/or the others, directly or indirectly.

Some of these minds might be troubled by the sense of guilt and regret, while some are guiltless while taking pride in such 'accomplishment' of being 'successfully' inflicting and promoting painful suffering and difficulty unto the others and/or themselves, because it gives rise to and empowers the sense of powerfulness in them, that they can destroy something or anything that they want, as they wish, easily, instead of feeling vulnerable, powerless, and limited dealing with the undesirable reality of they can't change or interfere with many things in themselves or in the others that are not in their control and are beyond their capability, but the activity of hurting and destroying someone or everyone and something or anything that are destructible, is not difficult.

These minds might or might not need some justifications to justify their hurtful destructive behaviors that inflict and promote painful suffering and difficulty in the others and/or in themselves.

And hence, there come the idea, belief, values, and practice of 'karma', or more precisely, 'bad karma' or 'sins', or 'punishment from the so called almighty creator/controller/authority/judge of the universe', stands as the reasonable justification to justify what the minds think and believe that needed to be justified, that is nothing but complicates everything even more, while empowers the ignorance in oneself and in others that are still functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance.

"It is all because of my/your/our/their/his/her own 'bad karma' or 'sins'."

Regardless of the presence of painful suffering and difficulty in oneself, or in the others, regardless of evitable or inevitable, regardless of the evitable painful suffering and difficulty are being inflicted and promoted deliberately or randomly, wittingly or unwittingly, intentionally or intentionlessly, unto themselves and/or the others, directly or indirectly.

"I am suffering, or you are suffering, regardless of whether it is inflicted by oneself or by others, are all because of 'bad karma' or 'sins'."

"It is good to burn-off the 'bad karma' or to repent the 'sins' by undergoing all kinds of painful suffering and difficulty in oneself or in others, regardless of being inflicted and promoted by oneself and/or others."

"I need to inflict painful suffering and difficulty unto myself to burn-off the 'bad karma', or to reduce the 'sins'."

"I am doing you a favor to help you to burn-off your 'bad karma', or to reduce your 'sins', by inflicting painful suffering and difficulty unto you."

Ignorance deriving from ignorance and empowers ignorance.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Inquire the truth of everything.

Regardless of evitable or inevitable painful suffering and difficulty, or all kinds of abusive family ties and connection, broken relationship, unhappiness, hardship, difficult condition, difficult situation, undesirable happening, limitation, disability, illness, injury, painful sensation, weakness, stiffness, ill treatment and prejudice or disagreement and dislike from others, and failure, it is not due to 'bad karma' or 'sins'.

Inevitable painful suffering and difficulty are merely the inevitable permanent unchanging all time truth of the selfless impermanent limited conditional and non-self momentary existence and function of the mortal physical body and the perceptive cognitive intellectual emotional thinking and acting mind being what they are, as they are, existing and functioning under the presence of conscious/semi-conscious awareness upon the state of consciousness and semi-consciousness, being conscious/aware of the physical body is undergoing inevitable selfless impermanent changes of decay and disintegration as well as the restless thought process or modification of the mind (restlessness), of ceaseless life maintenance, endless hunger and thirst, exhaustion, weakness, stiffness, illness, injury, discomfort, painful sensations, limitation, disability, aging, and death.

All THAT are not due to 'bad karma' or 'sins'.

Not to say, 

All kinds of additional evitable unnecessary painful suffering and difficulty that don't need to be there at all, that are being inflicted, generated, and promoted unto oneself and/or the others, out of ignorance, by the minds that are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, either deliberately or randomly, wittingly or unwittingly, intentionally or intentionlessly, and directly or indirectly.

That is not due to 'bad karma' or 'sins'. 

The minds that inquire and realize this, will know towards the truth of 'the idea, belief, values, and practice of karma' that is being created and used as a reasonable justification for many things or behaviors that are hurtful and destructive, that inflict and promote evitable painful suffering and difficulty in oneself and unto the others, as well as justifying the inevitable painful suffering in the mortal physical body existing and functioning under different bodily systems, operating under the mechanism/function/modification of the conscious perceptive cognitive intellectual emotional thinking and acting mind, on top of the survival instinct that ceaselessly maintaining life existence in the background autonomously/non-consciously throughout the different states of consciousness, just for being existing and functioning selflessly, impermanently, limitedly, conditionally, and non-selfly, for a momentary fleeting short duration in this world of diverse names and forms that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

Some minds also use 'the idea, belief, values, and practice of karma and ceaseless reincarnation of endless births and deaths of endless momentary life existences transitioning in different realms/worlds/spheres' as a tool to manipulate, or threaten, or intimidate, or bully, or oppress, or exploit, or abuse others to be or not to be in certain way, in order to gratify all one's desires, as well as using that as the excuse/justification to hurt and punish the others, upon one's desires are not being gratified.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Under the presence of grasping under the influence of the veil of ignorance, the minds are being over-powered by the mind perception/awareness/acknowledgement towards all kinds of evitable and inevitable painful suffering and difficulty.

Under the absence of grasping under the absence of the veil of ignorance, the minds transcend or over-come and not being disturbed by the mind perception/awareness/acknowledgement towards all kinds of evitable and inevitable painful suffering and difficulty.

It doesn't mean that all kinds of evitable and inevitable suffering disappear or stop existing in the world, or in life, or in oneself and/or others upon the direct realization towards the truth of all these, but suffering doesn't and cannot arise or manifest in the mind that is devoid of grasping and the veil of ignorance, while resting in unconditional peace amidst all kinds of unpleasant and even painful evitable and inevitable impermanent changes in the physical body and modification of the mind, and upon coming in contact with evitable and inevitable undesirable and unpleasant events, happenings, affairs, conditions, situations, ties and connections, relationships, interactions, and activities in the surrounding environment.

And more importantly, such mind doesn't hurt oneself and others and the surrounding environment under the presence of clarity, or wisdom and unconditional peace. 

There is nothing super extraordinary, mystical, spiritual, or magical, about the mind, or the modification of the mind, or the mind thinking behavior pattern, or the conquest of the mind, or the ONE all pervading infinite selfless universal consciousness, or yoga and the self-realized yogi, or buddhism and the enlightened buddha, or the presence and absence of pleasurable enjoyment and painful suffering, as well as the veil of ignorance and the by-products of ignorance in the perceptive cognitive intellectual emotional thinking and acting mind, of all kinds of duality, selfishness, possessiveness, sense of belonging, self-righteousness, offensiveness, defensiveness, cruelty, violence, unrest, hurtful and destructive behaviors, actions, and reactions, all kinds of comforting story telling and justifications, and the direct self realization towards the truth of all these names and forms, of knowing Thyself, or knowing the truth of Selflessness, Impermanence, Limitation, Conditional, and Non-self in all and everything, that enables the mind to transcend the selfless impermanent limited conditional restless modification of itself that doesn't even belong to the conscious mind/perceiver/knower/experiencer/thinker/action performer itself, and transcending the mind perception/awareness/acknowledgement towards all kinds of dualities, or towards all kinds of names and forms manifesting, coming, and going under different qualities, and that ceaselessly changing in between arising and passing away, where the mind doesn't hurt itself and others and the surrounding environment, and is resting upon unconditional peace, being undetermined and undisturbed by the ignorance and consequences of ignorance of all the others, or all kinds of madness in the world of ignorance and egoism.

Limitation, powerlessness, and vulnerability is the universal truth of all and everything. It is neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, neither meaningful nor meaningless.

Inquire the truth of everything. 

Inquire towards pride that doesn't need to be there at all

There are many things that are being believed, recognized, evaluated, and practiced in the world as something good or something bad, are not necessarily the truth of what things are. There are something that the minds think and believe and evaluate as 'good and righteous', or 'the right and important things to do and promote', might be harming towards all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment directly or indirectly, such as the sense of pride, a sentimental idea/feeling/identification/quality/name and form in the form of thinking/thought, that is selfless, impermanent, limited, conditional, and non-self.

There is no sense of pride in babies not until they are being influenced and encouraged by the surrounding egoistic minds to pick up, learn, develop, project, as well as being limited and conditioned (ruined) by the sense of pride that doesn't need to be there at all, to grow as they are, to live life as it is, to keep learning and improving, and to become physically, mentally, and emotionally matured or independent as well as responsible human beings that perform actions, duties, and responsibilities for looking after oneself and others and the surrounding environment.

Just as the idea of 'I' or the ego, the sense of pride is something that manifests in the mind in the form of thinking/thought process under the presence of consciousness upon the state of consciousness, that is being planted and encouraged in the mind as 'the good and righteous and important thing/value/quality/sentiment/motivation to be developed and empowered and holding onto, by the surrounding minds that are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness, in order to feel good and meaningful, or accomplished and superior or powerful about themselves and life existence, in the midst of dealing with many things that they don't understand, that they perceived/understood/recognized as painful, fearful, intimidation, or suffering due to the inevitable presence of unknown or uncertainty or limitation, as well as dealing with the selfless impermanent limited and conditional changes in all and everything that are mostly unpleasant, undesirable, disagreeable, and non-enjoyable, that the minds don't like and don't want.

The sun, the moon, the earth, the oxygen, the water, the plants, the energy, the cells, the organs, the senses, the nerves, the blood and blood vessels, the hormones, the glands, the bones, the muscles, the tendons, the ligaments, the joints, the connective tissues, the membranes, the skin, the hair, and all and everything in this world of selfless names and forms don't need pride to be existing and functioning as what they are.

It is only the egoistic minds (the thinking and acting faculty of the brains) functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, would think and believe that it is highly essential and healthy, or good and righteous to develop and empower the sense of pride, to take pride in oneself and everything that is 'pride deserving'.

Regardless of eastern or western countries/regions, since the beginning of the conscious mind cognition formation and operation process in the mother's womb before birth and especially in the continuous development and growing process after birth, many minds are being developed and growing up being influenced and conditioned by everyone and all kinds of inputs from everywhere (parents, care takers, siblings, relatives, friends, teachers, classmates, schoolmates, community, public media, commercial advertisements, work place, private and public organization, and etc) about, "You need to develop and empower the sense of pride by taking pride in yourself and your identity of who you are and what you are and where you came from, as well as in what you do and achieve, or in your actions and the fruit of your actions."

"Be proud of yourself, your origin, your roots, your birth place, your family, your parents, your ancestors, your siblings, your community, your tribe, your ethnicity, your people, your school, your classmates and schoolmates, your academic and sports achievement, your job, your colleagues and friends, your career achievement, your spouse, your children, your culture, your belief and values, your spirituality, your religion, your nationality, your country, your passion, your vision, your aspiration, your ability, your strength, your talent, your skill, your uniqueness, your authenticity, your look and appearance, your ideas and creativity, your generosity, your goodwill, your contribution, your hard work, your outstanding performance, your success, your social status, your financial status, and your wealth and possession."

"You need to become the 'good/righteous/successful/accomplished/virtuous/respectable/recognized/deserving' person that you yourself will be proud of, and to also make all and everyone be proud of you, especially your parents, your family, your siblings, your children, your friends, your relatives, your neighbourhood, your community, your classmates/schoolmates/teachers/colleagues/bosses/employers/employees, your leaders/followers, your country, and maybe the entire world of all the others that don't have any personal connection or relationship with you."

"Do and achieve something that is pride, acknowledgement, recognition, praise, and respect deserving from yourself and from others. Take pride in doing and achieving and possessing something good and righteous and virtuous, and take shame in doing and achieving and possessing something bad and wrongful and sinful. Without pride, or without anything about yourself that you and others can be proud of, you are nobody and worthless, because it shows that you are a failure and your life is meaningless, and you should be ashamed of yourself for not being able to do and achieve and possess something that can make yourself and others to be proud of."

And even, some people take pride in themselves for being selfish, nasty, cruel, aggressive, violent, possessive, control freak, and hurtful, while also encouraging and empowering their own children, friends, and community to be the same.

Nope. None need to develop and be empowered to have pride in oneself, or to be proud of oneself for something or anything at all, not to say, to make some others to be proud of oneself for something that everyone think and believe as 'pride deserving', in order to motivate oneself to be 'good' and do 'good' and become 'successful' and live life 'meaningfully', to perform all one's duties and responsibilities of looking after oneself and others and the surrounding environment unconditionally and indiscriminately, or to refrain oneself from be 'bad' and do 'bad' and become a 'failure' and live life 'meaninglessly'.

The presence of pride, or the development and empowerment of the sense of pride/deserving/worthiness/satisfaction/self-esteem/self-worth/confidence/success/superiority/meaningfulness/powerfulness, with the initial 'good' intention to motivate the minds/the children/the youngsters/the adolescence/the students/the adults/the workers/the community to be 'good and righteous and successful', and to avoid being 'bad and wrongful and failure', regardless of being proud of something that the mind thinks, believes, and recognizes as the quality of good or bad, positive or negative, right or wrong, success or failure, deserving or non-deserving, worthy or worthless, prideful or shameful, meaningful or meaningless, and so on, is merely the by-product of ignorance and egoism, that lead to unnecessary mental blockage and illness, that gives rise to many kinds of detrimental side-effects or destructive behaviors that hurt oneself and others and the surrounding environment, directly and indirectly, wittingly and unwittingly.

Even many of the highly intelligent, educated, knowledgeable, talented, skillful, inspired, aspiring, ambitious, or highly 'successful' and 'accomplished' minds, that have the possibility and opportunity to be holding certain influential powerful and impactful position, such as political negotiation, money talking, business influencing, policy making, law making, mental health advocating, social media influencing, decision making, and action taking that are impacting and affecting all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment in the world, are also being conditioned and motivated by such common egoistic idea, thinking, belief, values, practice, inspiration, and aspiration about the presence, development, empowerment, possession, and clinging towards the sense of pride, that is being seen as a 'good and righteous and highly essential and important thing' to have and to be encouraged and empowered in the minds of the human beings.

If the minds haven't been being conditioned and empowered in such way, the world won't be what it is now, full of all kinds of evitable ongoing hurtful destructive activities and affairs that hurt oneself and others and the surrounding environment in the pursue of attaining and keep attaining higher and higher fleeting sense of pride/deserving/worthiness/satisfaction/self-esteem/self-worth/confidence/success/superiority/meaningfulness/powerfulness, that might benefit and uplift oneself and one's particular community for a very momentary short duration, but that will hurt and impact all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment for a prolonged duration, directly and indirectly, including oneself and one's particular community.

All and everyone and everything will be affected and impacted upon the collapse of the Eco system, or the climate, or the livable atmosphere and condition, and/or the survival or livelihood of many people that depends mostly on the local and global economy that inter-affecting one another as well as among the many different types of businesses and jobs or industrialized productivity, directly and indirectly, that is heavily depending on the ceaseless excessive exploitation, manipulation, and destruction towards all and everything and the surrounding environment, in order to generate higher and higher income, or profit, or success, or enjoyment, of ceaseless accumulation and hoarding limitless wealth and boundless possessions and pleasurable enjoyments, in order to sustain and boost their fleeting sense of pride. No matter how much money, or wealth, or power, or success, or possessions, or enjoyments, or pride that anyone have, is not going to save them from the consequences of such ignorance and endless greed.

Even so, that is nothing to do with 'karma', or 'bad karma', or 'sins'. It is merely ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

The world doesn't need to be like this, but it is what it is, full of all kinds of ignorance and consequences of ignorance, in everywhere.

It's everyone's freedom to be what they are, as they are, even if all and everyone are being ignorant and ambitious and prideful, or restlessly chasing after and boosting the sense of pride, a.k.a. the sense of self-esteem and self-worth, or confidence, or satisfaction, or accomplishment, or success, or superiority, or meaningfulness, or powerfulness, that are wittingly and unwittingly exploiting, manipulating, and hurting all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment, directly and indirectly, in the pursue of possessing, developing, empowering, and clinging onto the sense of pride coming from the gratification of endless and boundless greedy desires, aspirations, visions, and ambitions of achieving 'the desirable and enjoyable joyful and meaningful life in a world that one desires'.

It is understandable that why most minds have intense fear towards letting go the sense of pride, or letting go the pursue of possessing and empowering as well as sustaining the fleeting sense of pride, because they were being told/taught/educated/conditioned/influenced from young that "Pride and Shame towards oneself and everything about oneself as well as towards all the others, is the most important thing, quality, sentiment, or value about life existence that everyone need to attain/possess/have/empower (what is pride deserving) or to avoid/eliminate/destroy/punish (what is shame deserving)."

Whenever someone manages to do or achieve something, there is the 'natural and ethical' response or reaction, or practice and obligation of the others to be cheering and giving encouragement, support, acknowledgement, recognition, and appreciation of, "Yeah! Keep it up!", "Well done!", "I am so proud of you!", "We are so proud of you!", "You must be so proud of yourself!", "You are so deserving!", or "You are so amazing!", as well as, "You are unlimited! You should go further and further, and you can achieve higher and higher", that is nothing but empowering the ego and the egoism as well as greed in most minds that are not mentally and emotionally independent, that also hinders the development towards mental and emotional maturity or independence.

All these so called 'positive encouragements' are being seen as something 'good', 'positive', 'healthy', and 'essential' for the minds that are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, but not knowing or unaware of the destructive side-effects of that, empowering egoism and ignorance in oneself and in others.

Once there is absence of such pleasing, or uplifting, or promotive response or reaction from any others at all or from time to time, these minds will be demotivated and depressed, and feel inferior, weak, useless, shameful, undeserving, failure, unnoticed, unloved, unsupported, left-out, and meaningless. The minds are being conditioned or inspired to be highly ambitious to do and achieve something or everything that deserves pride and respect from oneself and from others, as well as to never be contented, that one must continuously be highly ambitious to keep doing something 'great' to keep achieving more and more and higher and higher success, power, wealth, and enjoyments, endlessly, until there is nothing left to be exploited in this world that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

Just as many minds have intense anxiety or fear towards the unknown and rejection towards 'Simplicity', or have fear towards letting go whatever they have been told to believe, uphold, aspire, practice, and pursue since young, or reluctant to let go certain kinds of limited and conditional privilege, convenience, comfort, and enjoyment that they have, that are more or less deriving from continuous ongoing excessive exploitation and destruction towards the over-all well-being of all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment, that can be avoided, that is unnecessary, that is nothing to do with 'basic survival', 'sufficiency', 'good quality of living', and 'true happiness'.

The minds that have already developed or endowed with mental and emotional maturity or independence, they don't need to have pride in oneself for anything, not to say, to be receiving such egoistic pleasing, or uplifting, or promotive response or reaction from oneself or others to motivate them to continuously perform actions to look after and benefit oneself and others and the surrounding environment, or to keep learning and improving, or to feel appreciated, approved, acknowledged, recognized, loved, supported, or good and meaningful about themselves and life existence, and they are free from greed or endless ambition (craving) to achieve ceaseless higher and higher success in many things in order to be continuously receiving love, attention, support, encouragement, acknowledgement, recognition, approval, praise and compliments, and appreciation from oneself and all the others.

At the same time, they allow all these worldly egoistic practice, values, ethics, response, or reaction of all and everyone in the surrounding environment to be there, or not, but they are not being determined, or disturbed, or influenced, or limited, or conditioned, or promoted and demoted, by the presence or absence of all those egoistic names and forms, ideas, values, practice, or activities, that are meant to be either uplifting/complimenting/encouraging or hammering/criticizing/discouraging, but it is not necessarily beneficial but even harmful to all and everyone and everything and the surrounding environment that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

The minds that are devoid of the sense of pride, that are mentally and emotionally matured or independent, they are free from the common hurtful destructive possessiveness and sense of belonging, offensiveness and defensiveness, or anger and hatred that exist in the prideful minds that are functioning under the influence of the veil of ignorance, upon coming in contact with something that is unpleasant, undesirable, disagreeable, or non-enjoyable and even painful, internally or externally.

The sense of pride co-existing with the sense of shame. They are the two sides of a coin.

The minds that understand this, they will know that, "Do things that will make you happy," or "Take pride in yourself and everything about yourself that is worthy and pride deserving," is only a momentary soothing effect, but it is not the solution to all kinds of unhappiness, or the disturbed dissatisfied painful suffering state of mind, and instead, it is empowering egoism and ignorance, which is the root cause of all kinds of unhappiness or the disturbed dissatisfied painful suffering state of mind as well as hurtful behaviors.

It has to come from the conscious awareness, conscious understanding, conscious freewill or choice making, conscious initiation, and conscious effort or action taking, of the mind itself, to be free from the sense of pride and shame that doesn't need to be existing at all.

The mind will realize the truth of all those conditional worldly egoistic ideas, thinking, beliefs, values, practices, inspirations, aspirations, visions, or endless and boundless ambitions, upon letting go the sense of pride or the need of possessing/developing/empowering/sustaining the sense of pride, or superiority, or success, or powerfulness, that exist in order to avoid or over-come the sense of shame, or inferiority, or failure, or vulnerability, where the sense of pride and shame, superiority and inferiority, success and failure, powerfulness and powerlessness (weakness/vulnerability/limitation/disability/failure/non-accomplishment/insecurity/fear), as well as goodness and badness, positiveness and negativeness, rightfulness and wrongfulness, meaningfulness and meaninglessness, deserving and undeserving, and so on, don't need to be existing in the mind at all.

There will be unconditional peace in oneself.

One will stop hurting oneself and others and the surrounding environment.

Inquire the truth of everything.