• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 04:05
CEST 10:05
KST 17:05
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru3BGE Stara Zagora 2025: Info & Preview27Code S RO12 Preview: GuMiho, Bunny, SHIN, ByuN3The Memories We Share - Facing the Final(?) GSL47Code S RO12 Preview: Cure, Zoun, Solar, Creator4
Community News
BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack2Weekly Cups (June 2-8): herO doubles down1[BSL20] ProLeague: Bracket Stage & Dates9GSL Ro4 and Finals moved to Sunday June 15th13Weekly Cups (May 27-June 1): ByuN goes back-to-back0
StarCraft 2
General
Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing DreamHack Dallas 2025 - Official Replay Pack BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation
Tourneys
[GSL 2025] Code S:Season 2 - RO8 - Group A Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Bellum Gens Elite: Stara Zagora 2025 $3,500 WardiTV European League 2025 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
[G] Darkgrid Layout Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] PvT Cheese: 13 Gate Proxy Robo
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target Mutation # 474 Futile Resistance
Brood War
General
BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest Will foreigners ever be able to challenge Koreans?
Tourneys
[ASL19] Grand Finals [BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET NA Team League 6/8/2025 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games? Armies of Exigo - YesYes? Nintendo Switch Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
LiquidLegends to reintegrate into TL.net
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Vape Nation Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Maru Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
A Better Routine For Progame…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 32125 users

Perspective and Emotions

Blogs > NDDseer
Post a Reply
NDDseer
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
Australia204 Posts
July 15 2012 14:40 GMT
#1
I’m agnostic, but of all the religious faiths I’ve had some contact with, Buddhism seems to be most on the right track (the other’s all have valuable gems, but in general I find religions to be a support system for people who cannot cope without an authority figure/lack of implicit meaning to life).

Buddhism’s basic tenet is something like this:
We are slaves to the compulsion to fulfil lofty ideals, which is why we find things to desire
We get unhappy when we cannot reach our desires
Ergo, happiness is truly found by not desiring anything

A spiritual teacher of sorts once told me that proper self-awareness changes your life from an emotional rollercoaster (each day filled with moments of varying happiness, sadness, anger, joy etc.) to an emotional cruise (by internally monitoring and managing your own emotions and inner monologue your day becomes far less vulnerable to sudden peaks of joy crashing into troughs of frustration etc.). The way I visualise it is, if you graphed your happiness over a day, the range or amplitude would be a lot smaller but the mean, median and mode happiness values would be higher.

I think of myself as on the whole being quite calm and relaxed. I certainly have times that I’m happier or more melancholy, but nowhere near the extent that I observe in others. Many people spend all their time absorbed in their anger that they missed out on that one thing they REALLY wanted (in three days, or three months, or three years, it’ll be irrelevant so chill out) or suddenly exhilarated by achieving that thing that they wanted (the high only lasts until a minor disappointment crops up to ruin it). I understand this, it’s what I was like when I was younger. I talked about this to one of my friends who is particularly prone. His response was that the trajectory (smaller variation) of my emotions isn’t living life to the fullest. I disagree, because by maintaining a greater perspective on things I enjoy the moments of my life consistently and contentedly. The alternative is sudden bursts of exhilaration that are accompanied by even more frequent states of dissatisfaction. As I see it, this is ultimately unfulfilling and ensures personal emotional state at any moment in time is essentially random.

Still, it’s up to each person to decide the best way to live life. Maintaining this kind of perspective isn’t the default and at first isn’t easy, but I’m throwing it out there for others to try (or to discuss if you have tried it). The next time some disappointment occurs in your life, you become angry, pissed off, don’t let your mood crash but think to yourself if you will still be concerned about this issue in a years time. In 99% of cases, your logical mind knows you won’t, so why is it such a big deal now then? Let it go.

One year ago to the day, were you in a bad mood? If so, why or why not? … It must have been some pretty big life event if you still remember. In the words of Meher Baba, “Don’t worry, be happy.”

If you found my reflections on life interesting, check out my first blog post here:

------

I started off my writing today on a completely different topic, but couldn’t find the train of thought to form it into a coherently structured post. When I do, expect a post entitled “The Path To Happiness”.

If you found this post a productive or insightful use of your time, my previous blog post can be found here:

Things That Matter In Life


[On balance, and qq about cheese] "Sure some strategies might be easier to execute, but you can do them too - you have the same tools as your opponent, including your race selection." - Pokebunny
hypercube
Profile Joined April 2010
Hungary2735 Posts
July 15 2012 21:28 GMT
#2
I don't really know much about the spiritual or metaphysical aspects of Buddhism. I imagine if I did I wouldn't be a huge fan of them. But I really like the concept of mindfulness.

For those who haven't heard the term before, mindfulness means paying attention on purpose, moment by moment and non-judgementally. It usually means paying attention to your thoughts, feelings and emotions but it could just as well mean paying attention to some activity or another person.

It's a great tool for dealing with negative emotions without avoiding them or letting them completely overwhelm me. But for me it also makes small positive experiences more "real" or vivid. It sounds cliche but sometimes it's nice to stop for a second and experience the present moment in it's entirity.
"Sending people in rockets to other planets is a waste of money better spent on sending rockets into people on this planet."
radscorpion9
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Canada2252 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-15 22:03:37
July 15 2012 22:00 GMT
#3
I'm not sure if Buddhism truly is about not desiring anything, but if it is...don't you think that kind of destroys any meaning and value in life? If you no longer have any aspirations or drive to achieve things (because in doing so, we think we become happier), then what are you reduced to? Someone who can just work at a minimum wage job living off the bare minimums, and nothing else matters because one can brainwash him/herself to believe that? Its kind of disturbing to think that people could accept that as an ideal way to live.

It also suggests that people should accept problems and injustices without desiring any change. If they were Buddhists, would women, or LGBT people, or people of different race have tried to achieve social equality with the philosophy that their desires for X is what causes them pain? Wouldn't they be happier just embracing the idea that if they had no desires for social equality, they would feel better and at peace?

Now I'm pretty skeptical that that's what Buddhism advocates, so I'm thinking there's a misunderstanding here somewhere. I did do a little spiritual reading myself from authors like "Eckhart Tolle". If I remember correctly, what he advocates isn't that people have no desires, just that they have no *attachment* to those desires. More specifically, that there is no egoic investment in a particular identity that needs to be defended against criticism and constantly built up to make oneself feel better.

That to me makes more sense, and is something Tolle suggests can be achieved by maintaining an awareness of the present moment and what you are doing. But besides all that, like hypercube said it actually brings a feeling of peace. I have personally experienced some pretty profound levels of peace and happiness when meditating, unfortunately its pretty difficult to do
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1h 25m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech69
trigger 28
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 32864
TY 973
Pusan 504
ToSsGirL 303
Shine 133
Aegong 121
Leta 109
EffOrt 79
BeSt 52
Movie 47
[ Show more ]
NotJumperer 30
NaDa 26
Sharp 12
Dota 2
XcaliburYe246
BananaSlamJamma219
Fuzer 168
420jenkins42
Counter-Strike
shoxiejesuss652
Stewie2K599
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor132
Other Games
summit1g6316
ceh9303
Happy105
Pyrionflax72
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream5075
Other Games
gamesdonequick597
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 62
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 25
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Upcoming Events
GSL Code S
1h 25m
Rogue vs GuMiho
Maru vs Solar
Online Event
15h 55m
Replay Cast
17h 55m
GSL Code S
1d 1h
herO vs Zoun
Classic vs Bunny
The PondCast
1d 1h
Replay Cast
1d 15h
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
OSC
2 days
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
SOOP
3 days
[ Show More ]
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
WardiTV Invitational
3 days
Cheesadelphia
3 days
CSO Cup
3 days
GSL Code S
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Wardi Open
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Cure vs Percival
ByuN vs Spirit
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 17: Qualifier 2
BGE Stara Zagora 2025
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
2025 GSL S2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025
BLAST Open Spring 2025

Upcoming

Copa Latinoamericana 4
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.