Originally posted by mysticnoon
The expectations are in the anticipated rush and your belief that the rush will remain unchanged. That is where you may be limiting yourself.

How so?? Please elaborate.....

If a child achieves, through practice, to ride a bike unassisted than that produces a feeling of accomplishment. If an adult achieving, through practice, to win a Nobel prize it produces the same feeling of accomplishment or would you argue that the intensity of the experience will be greater in the adult because the task was greater??

How could the kid learning to ride his bike know this?? In his world, it would be the greatest achievement at that particular time in his life.

Peace

with my limited knowledhe of buddhism, your opening remarks remind me of a buddhist statement i bear close to me, it's part of the 4 noble truths and in summary what it says is that a lot of human suffering is caused by ourselves and thus can be solved by ourselves. causes for this suffering are longing for the things you can't reach (attachment, addiction,...) and the tendency to hate the things you ca't escape.

for me it helped my to be "ambitious" in another way: if i reach a goal, fine but wtf. if i miss a goal while i did what it required, fine as well, and wtf as well, as it really doesn't matter all that much. the day you die it will not be your ambitions that will pass tru your head. ask steve jobs in a couple of weeks (if that trash that calls itself a newspaper is right)

I remember when I used to be afraid of death, It was an unexplainable feeling, like an empty void inside, however, although the feeling is there, it is as if that void exists where even fear cannot thrive, where death and consciousness become one, beyond the physical perceptualisation of death.

Originally posted by NeverSleepingEyes
with my limited knowledhe of buddhism, your opening remarks remind me of a buddhist statement i bear close to me, it's part of the 4 noble truths and in summary what it says is that a lot of human suffering is caused by ourselves and thus can be solved by ourselves. causes for this suffering are longing for the things you can't reach (attachment, addiction,...) and the tendency to hate the things you ca't escape

Thanks for the reply NeverSleepingEyes,

Well your limited knowledge of Buddhism is still greater than my knowledge of the subject because I did not know any of this. It does sound very reasonable though, maybe I should look into that religion......

Personally I do not have any aspiration of reaching some enlightened state by rejecting things that may lead to suffering (Kinda like not drinking alcohol because of the hangover that will follow). I enjoy the rush of achievement but my whole point is that I do not expect the rush to get any bigger or better. Life is just a sequence of self induced rushes and naturally one does not want that to end........unless you realize that the rush is constantly the same. The notion that you are not missing out on anything when you die is my motivation for not caring whether I die tomorrow or when I am a hundred years old.

Peace

I'm not sure if I'm getting it right...what this thread is all about, I mean, but my view on this subject is the following...certainly I want to have plenty of money, not having to worry about working or paying my bills anymore, that would be just great, but my greatest ambition is having a life full of adventure, you know...to have plenty of crazy stories to tell my grandchildren when I'm in my 70's or 80's, things that would make them laugh out loud and say "Whoa gramps, you were a crazy m.f. , I'm not even sure if I believe this!". I think I have this lust for adventure inside me, that's the "rush" I want to feel 'till the day I die. I'm not really having any of it, though...thinking about it kind of makes me sad.