WE MAKE UP STUFF
THEN WE CREATE SUFFERING FROM THIS FICTITIOUS STUFF - IS THIS SILLY?
STOP THIS! PLEASE...
If you see what is actually happening in life, then you will be able to stop victimzing yourself.
Thus, you'll no longer be playing the victim. And you can just get on with applying your power in life to create more of what you truly want that is of true value.
THE "RUDE" QUESTION, BUT IMMENSELY CLARIFYING
Byron Katie came out of years of depression by asking the simple question: Is it true?
And then because some people answered yes to what they "emotionally" believed was true, she then asked the question that would engage their higher brains: "Is it absolutely, provably true, without a doubt?" [I paraphrased it here to add in more adjectives to tie it down emphatically.]
If you applied that test and then heeded your answer, you would eliminate a massive amount of your suffering. Your suffering would virtually disappear in a cloud of smoke.
Yes, it is true, whether started by God or gods or just naturally, that we went through evolution and developed better and better mechanisms to have us survive better. This is all great - and it helps us survive, with a wonderful mechanism that produces patterns to associate with possible threats and then to stimulate us with chemicals (feelings) to get us in gear to handle the threats.
BUT THE IRONY IS...
The irony here is that we developed, for better survival, a higher brain, but we've failed to apply it to all the cultural beliefs and myths and stuff we made up to discern if it is real and true and workable.
Our brains created, and then reinforced and repeated, "rules" for survival - and then misapplied them to things that are not survival issues.
We created a game that says if I behave rightly I'll be loved and then I will be fed by the powerful big people, whom I am dependent on since I am powerless. Sounds silly, but based on the level at which we are governed by what we made up and suffer by it, there must be truth in there since the level of our suffering seems to be quite high - and surely we do not suffer for no reason at all! (Duh!)
We took "being a good kid" and what we thought was required and created all sorts of false criteria around it, so that we created our reacting as if we are not ok, as if we are threatened, if we didn't meet up to that false criteria that does not actually matter at all for survival.
We need merely to look at what we've set up and examine it for truth - and then let go of all the false failures, all the "not enoughs", all the misery about "what is missing", all the "I'll be happy when..." - and look at the ascertainable truths in life, ones which create a "more than enough" realization about that which we have, for sure, with which to live a happy life. And then we should be able to see that there is nothing to fear in not arriving at something that is strictly made-up, a fiction, and certainly not a valid expectation or yardstick to judge ourselves by.
IS THERE ANY BASIS FOR THIS IN REALITY?
I ask you if there is truly any basis for these, in reality, in the real world, rather than in the fictionalizations of a child's mind, held on to even though we are adults. It is time to be aware of (and determine for ourselves) what the truth is - and what it isn't!
Can I actually "be bad", as a person? Or is it true, instead, that I just do things the best I can with limited awareness (i.e. I use a poor strategy that doesn't work to get what I think I want)?
Can I logically be worthless and is that any criteria for being able to live on earth? If I am living on earth, how silly is it to set up some criteria for being worthy enough to live on earth - I'm here, ain't I? - so it is a moot question!
Do I really have to be "good enough"? Who made that one up? (Or do I just need to use my power, even if limited, to get more of what I want, to just add bonuses on top of what I have, for sure?)
Am I really dependent on circumstances or other people for happiness - or do I actually have the power to create that for myself? Is there really anything to get upset about if I don't get enough of more than I must have? (One of the two sources of suffering, per the Buddha, is wanting "more" and "more", being in a never enough state always, and suffering from the shortage, as it it was real.)
Am I really a victim of some mysterious force within me that dominates me to have me be defeated in losing weight and other good things for me? Is that just a mysterious, fictional "man behind the curtain" figment of my imagination? And if it is, then don't I have the full power in life to create what I want, if I learn enough to do so - and I can learn enough, as it is proven that other human beings no more intelligent/capable than me have learned?
It is silly to believe "I am not good enough" and "there's something wrong here" and "if I don't achieve x, then I am unhappy because of that".
You need not suffer from playing games based on the stuff you made up and then the stuff you made up to deal with the stuff you made up. It is all fictional, and doth not exist in reality!
Read and understand thoroughly the fallacy behind the Blame, Fault, Good/Bad, Right/Wrong, Criticism, Anger, Punishment Syndrome. It is vital that you blow this one out of the water, totally - for it will dramatically affect your happiness. And, of course, read and see the myths and falsities and stuff that you made up, so that you can be free of that. See the Thoughts, Realities, Truths section.
THINK ABOUT IT - AND DECIDE
Should I continue to treat myself so badly, so disrespectfully? After all, this is a precious life, a life worth experiencing wonderfully, without suffering. D'ya think?!!!!!
What really matters? Someone else not doing right or not happy or..
IS IT SILLY?
To answer the question posed in the title: Yes and no. It's not silly from the viewpoint that we are just human and we tend to have an efficient system of just duplicating what we are told and also making lazy (efficient) conclusions. But, yes, it is clearly seen as silly once we see the nonsense we took in and left unexamined - it is silly that we are hurting ourselves with it.
There is no "silly" that exists in reality. It is totally a fabricated label that we have made up meaning for...
AS I LISTEN AND SEE THROUGH WHAT PEOPLE SAY, I FEEL GREAT COMPASSION
As I sit listening to other human beings, I see how they are caught in the illusions, how deeply they believe in them and how they are the truth. I see the illusions, as that is what I have been trained to do, much as Buddhists and other disciplines. They are meaningless in reality, but what matters is that they mean something to them. They don't see that they created a fiction and then followed the scripts and created their being victims of it.
And I am deeply touched, deeply sympathetic - and, when I stop to think about it, I feel sadness that my fellow human beings are suffering. The stuff that causes them to suffer is not real, but the suffering (the result) is real. I am so moved by that - and from it I am so very much committed to helping them remove that suffering. I am not yet sure how much of a difference I can make in the limited time I have left, but I think this is by far the most valuable thing I can do with my life - and, of course, I'll be doing what I value most and therein creating a gread addtion to my happiness in life.
I truly live in heaven, with the most phenomenal creation ever to occur in the universe: human beings, incredibly wonderful creatures, living within the practical limits of being human and doing it within their 'human nature'. 'Tis wonderful! 'Tis miraculous!
A LIFE UNEXAMINED
