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The Three Lamps

Creative solutions depend on the existence of problems. Problems, therefore, are opportunities to evolve, to collaborate, and to investigate.


LAMP 1

We want to evolve.

All human action is effort made to either satisfy a drive or experience meaning. Those drives contain clear or distorted views of reality. Satiation and meaning are not necessarily related. As already discussed, meaning can only be “experienced” when effort is made to enhance the existence of something to which we acknowledge a connection and for which we accept responsibility. This “responsibility-connection” can be as limited as “myself” or as inconceivable as “all phenomena”. Therefore, the "amount of meaning" we consistently experience is either finite (when self-focused) or infinite (when considering others and the future wellbeing of others).

To “evolve” is to experience irreversible and ever-refining “health-insight” – physical, financial, emotional, mental, creative, and “spiritual”. The desire to evolve has no end. That is, no “amount of health” created in any dimension of life satiates the desire to evolve, itself. When evolving, an individual desires to continue evolving, to refine the ability to evolve, and to share that evolution with others.

LAMP 2

There's only one problem.

The inability to recognize the shared, common aim within individuals – the desire to evolve – is the singular source of conflict that all humans experience.

This conflict stems from “the surface” as the inability to empathize with individuals who are either thriving or not thriving (creating envy or condemnation of “other” within oneself). From “the depths”, this conflict stems from the inability to completely identify with individuals who are either thriving or not thriving (creating envy or condemnation of “other” within oneself).

Recognition of the commonality of motive is the fabric from which inner and outer harmony is created. Outer harmony is established when a collective of individuals agree to honor each other, as well as a common set of principles. Outer conflict is always the result of disagreements between individuals. Therefore, outer conflict must ultimately be resolved at the individual level. Individual, or inner, conflict is resolved first through study and practice, then through realization. Ultimately, harmony is established when evolution is understood to be a collective responsibility.


LAMP 3

Satiation is cyclical, but meaning isn't.

Satiation cycles “express themselves” rhythmically, in time frames ranging from the minuscule to the inconceivable, and are common to all individuals. For example, “my body” wants to breathe every moment, wants to eat every few hours, and wants to sleep everyday. Some part of “me” wants to continually satisfy the incessant arising of my desires for companionship, success, pleasure, sustenance, and so on. Do these "wants" belong to me alone? Or does my experience of these common “wants” indicate something deeper?

Most individuals experience satiation as a “self-centered” pursuit or performance of necessary activities. That is, in order to live, there are certain things "I" need to do. Knowing the meaning of life is not one of those things. But when a satiation cycle is challenged, the question of meaning often arises. That is, a crisis is often the catalyst in the search for meaning.

Without the experience of suffering, we are not afforded the opportunity to investigate its causes – or to relate to the suffering of others. Creative solutions depend on the existence of problems. Problems, therefore, are opportunities to evolve, to collaborate, and to investigate.

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