Having long reckoned with the relationship between cynicism and hope, I often say that cynics — who are the people most deserving of our pity — are just brokenhearted optimists. There is both a lovely confluence and a lovely inversion of these ideas in the assertion that “hope is optimism with a broken heart.” Of course, we each arrive at these notions so trapped in our own frames of reference, so saturated with our subjective experience, that no two portraits of a mental state or emotional orientation could ever possibly be precisely alike.
What is certain is that no matter what we call this openhearted yearning for betterment, pulsating beneath it is the infinite vulnerability of remaining unmet — all daring is forever haunted by the spectre of crushing disappointment, and there is nothing more daring than a reach from the real to the ideal.
And yet this yearning springs from our most fundamental nature. Living with it and living up to it is the highest homage we can pay, and must pay, to the unbidden gift of life.
With an eye to “the necessary and urgent need to love life and one another, despite the casual cruelty of the world,” we explore Mind Noise
TRANSCRIPT
0:01 I have no time for cynicism. It’s hugely misplaced this time and I remain optimistic. I think we can move beyond anxiety, dread, and despair if there’s a promise of something shifting within us spiritually. 0:18 I think there’s potential in the air, a sort of an under undercurrent, a creativity and a radical collective move towards a more empathetic and enhanced existence. 0:30 It does seem possible even against the criminal incompetence of our governments, the planet’s ailing health, the divisiveness that exists everywhere in the shocking lacks of lack of mercy than forgiveness where so many people seem to harbor such an irreparable animosity towards the world and each other. 0:48 Even still, I have hope. Collective grief can bring extraordinary change, a kind of conversion of the spirit, and with it a great opportunity, we can seize this opportunity or we can squander it and let it pass. 1:03 I hope it’s the former. I feel there is a readiness for what, despite what we are led to believe is going to work out to be a great result. 1:14 The relationship between Sy cynicism and hope, I often say that cynics are the people most deserving of our pity. They’re just brokenhearted optimists. 1:25 There’s such a lovely confluence and lovely inversion of these ideas. When you sit and think about it, hope is optimism and optimism is lost with a broken heart. 1:38 So I think we can take heed from these ideas and genuinely come back to the importance of a vision. But that of course, we arrive at these notions trapped in our own frames of reference, so saturated with our mind noise, our subjective experience, that no two portraits of a mental state or emotional orientation could ever possibly be alike. 2:03 What is certain that no matter what we call this open-hearted yearning for betterment, pulsating beneath it is the infinite vulnerability of remaining unmet, all daring, forever haunted by the specter of crushing disappointment. 2:19 And there is nothing more daring than a reach from the real to the idea in yet this yearning springs from our most fundamental nature. 2:29 Living with it and living up to it is the highest homage we can pay and must pay to the Un Biden gift of life with an energy to the necessary and urgent need to love life and one another despite the casual cruelty of the world. 2:48 I think we, our work in a way has become an explicit rejection of cism and negativity. I have no time for it. 2:57 I mean literally From a personal perspective, no time for censure or or relentless condemnation. No time for the whole cycle of perpetual blame others that do that sort of thing. 3:10 I haven’t the stomach for it, nor the time life is too bloody short and it needs to be awed. In my experience, nothing seeds cynicism more readily than the withholding of forgiveness. 3:24 Forgiveness of others or of the world or of luck, or of mother’s circumstance or of above all ourselves. Self-forgiveness is indeed the most potential antidote to cynicism. 3:36 I know I shine a light, a sideways gleam on, on this illumination half a century after the philosophers such as Eric from made his countercultural case for why self-love is the foundation of a sane society. 3:55 I believe art is the instrument of self-forgiveness. We all have regrets and most of us know that those regrets are excruciating as they can be, are the things that help us lead and improve our lives. 4:09 Or rather, there are certain regrets that as they emerge, can accompany us on the incremental betterment of our lives. Regrets are forever floating to the surface. 4:19 They require our attention. You have to do something with them. One way is to seek forgiveness by making what might be called living amends, by using whatever gifts you may have in order to help rehabilitate the world. 4:33 For many of us, our creative contribution, our art, or our purpose, we use the term to live and give our gifts to other, to decide that happiness of others and hap and our contribution to the world is our greatest way to rehabilitate ourselves. 4:52 Sometimes we live with incomprehensible losses, losses of a parent, a partner, a friend, a family member. And art does have the ability to save us in so many different ways. 5:05 It can act as a point of salvation because it has the potential to put back into the world. And that in itself is a way of making amends, of reconciling us with the world. 5:17 Art therefore has the power to redress the balance of things, of our wrongs, of our sins. And by sins, I don’t mean things on offense to God, but I think things that are offense to ourselves, the things that make it hard to live with ourselves, that harden us and become part of our character, they are forms of suffering that weigh us down terribly and separate us from the world. 5:43 I call it mind noise. And I believe that the goodness can work its way through those things by working through our suffering and working through our regrets to forgiveness of ourselves through an elemental Sense of an art. 5:59 Now, anyone who says they don’t have any regret, regrets is just living an unconsidered life. Sometimes they deny it, sometimes they say that there is no benefit of forgiveness. 6:13 One, your path to self-forgiveness is to arrive at a place where you can see that your day-to-day actions are making the world a measurably better place rather than a worse place. 6:25 We call it link or sync it. That is simple stuff available to everyone to arrive at that place with a certain amount of humility. 6:35 When you have mind noise, this mind noise rattles around in your brain and causes you to dwell in a sense of regret. 6:44 And I think if you’ve done the due process, if you’ve done the discards and you get up every day and you’re doing your self-talk and there are still regrets, I think it’s time for forgiveness. 6:54 Forgiveness comes in the form of giving, giving more, making the world a better place considering the value of the lives that you contribute to and the value of the work that you do in the world, and turning your work into art. 7:11 Too often people come to work with a me mechanistic approach. They approach their work as if it’s something to deliver an outcome, but it’s not. 7:20 Your work is an opportunity to contribute to the world. Whatever you do in your work, whether it’s building houses or selling underpants or doing apps on the internet, work out how this is a contribution to the world and value that more than the profit you make. 7:40 In this way. Work becomes art, and art becomes a process. And the process is a way of enjoying the years of your life to get past cynicism, to get past negativity, to get past that awful thing that goes on inside people’s brain, which is mind noise that draws them down and down into the darkness. 8:01 You can live in the light, you can walk around with mobile meditation as long as your work has a purpose greater than income. 8:09 This is Chris. You have a beautiful day. Bye for now.
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