posted November 03, 2009 06:35 AM         

~ Arthur Schopenhauer

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Arthur Schopenhauer (22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher known for his atheistic pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the fundamental question of whether reason alone can unlock answers about the world.

Schopenhauer's most influential work, The World as Will and Representation, emphasized the role of man's basic motivation, which Schopenhauer called will.

His analysis of will led him to the conclusion that emotional, physical, and sexual desires can never be fulfilled. Consequently, he favored a lifestyle of negating human desires, similar to the teachings of Buddhism and Vedanta.

Schopenhauer's metaphysical analysis of will, his views on human motivation and desire, and his aphoristic writing style influenced many well-known thinkers including Friedrich Nietzsche,[1] Richard Wagner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein,[2] and Sigmund Freud.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer

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posted November 03, 2009 06:37 AM         

Elder Paisios - On Pain of Heart

First of all, Elder Paisios tells us that, for love to blossom in the heart, we must pray with pain of heart. Once he was asked, "We pray, Elder, and our thoughts go here and there. Why?"

"Because it is prayer without pain!" replied the Elder. "To pray with the heart, we must hurt. Just as when we hit our hand or some other part of our body, our mind (nous) ("Nous: the highest faculty or power of the human soul, called by the Holy Fathers "the eye of the soul," St. John Damascene, and "the spiritual nature of man," St. Isaac the Syrian) is gathered to the point we are hurting, so also for the mind to gather in the heart, the heart must hurt."

The Elder was then asked, "How can we preserve ourselves in this state when we don’t have some problem, some pain?"

He replied, "We should make the other’s pain our own!! We must love the other, must hurt for him, so that we can pray for him. We must come out little by little from our own self and begin to love, to hurt for other people as well, for our family first then for the large family of Adam, of God" (Athanasios Rakovalis, Talks with Father Paisios (Thessalonica, Greece: Orthodox Kypseli, 2000), pp. 123-24).

At another time the Elder said, "The more one hurts, the more divine consolation one receives, because otherwise it is not possible to stand the pain... God especially consoles those who hurt for others" (Ibid.,p. 124).

To his spiritual children the Elder wrote: "To some people your love will be expressed with joy and to others it will be expressed with your pain. You will consider everyone your brother or your sister, for we are all children of Eve (of the large family of Adam, of God). Then, in your prayer you will say: ‘My God, help those first who are in greater need, whether they are alive or reposed brothers in the Lord.’ At that point, you will share your heart with the whole world and you will have nothing but immense love, which is Christ" (Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, Epistles, p. 50).

http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/elder_paisios_mount_athos.htm#_Toc61 750931

posted November 03, 2009 09:16 AM         

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I once read this astro book that describes 3 sun signs as the ones most prone to depression (or maybe most likely to be always in a depressed mood or to whom depression is a natural state. LOL) -- Scorpio, Capricorn and one that I don't remember. Would you guys know what the other sign is? Cancer maybe?

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posted November 03, 2009 09:34 AM         

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Sag is the other one.

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Yup. Only we cover it up by being silly.

I use my melancholy as a motivational tool.

You can't sink any deeper that this. Nothing can offend you. You have thought and accepted the worst already. Now go out and fight, carrying all that sorrow within. You have nothing to lose.

posted November 04, 2009 02:58 PM         

I think that's true.

People that try to be happy all the time and ignore their so-called 'negative' emotions are fighting a losing battle. Sometimes you have to allow yourself to be sad, angry, depressed, jealous, etc. so you can really feel those emotions, experience them, learn from them and THEN move on.

Then you can really appreciate the 'positive' emotions when they happen.