Somehow I'm having issues responding to your comment and now it's showing up as deleted...but luckily I had it open on another tab so I'm reposting it here so people can enjoy it like I did:
"The act of consumption is defined by the application of some resource toward a goal. Sans a goal, there wouldn't be any consumption – only matter ch…
Somehow I'm having issues responding to your comment and now it's showing up as deleted...but luckily I had it open on another tab so I'm reposting it here so people can enjoy it like I did:
"The act of consumption is defined by the application of some resource toward a goal. Sans a goal, there wouldn't be any consumption – only matter changing forms. Having a clear goal means having some values which can either be attained or frustrated. And values can't be separated from our integration with the physical world. If human beings were disembodied ghosts we would have no cause to prefer one state of affairs over another. (This is true even if your values happen to be rotten ones.)
It is certainly possible to act without clearly grasping the values which make our consumption meaningful or meaningless - i.e., to fake value-attainment by expending resources in a way that doesn't lead to a purposed outcome. I recently bought a new baby grand piano. I would very much care if it had lousy tone or the damper pedal didn't work right. So I have a more exacting set of specifications than say, a rich guy who doesn't play it and just wants a shiny showpiece in his living room. My standards in this area are related to my life goals and aesthetic preferences developed over thousands of hours of practice and study. The more explicit and integrated your values, the better consumer you become. I think I would call that becoming more spiritual. (Please don't ask about my $500 espresso machine.)
I don't believe in ego in the sense of a 'lower self'; rather, it's possible to have a lack of clarity about the nature of your mind, experience, and relationship to the world around you. If that is the case, the only inner voice worth listening to is the inquisitive one. The soft asceticism of relinquishing identification with your possessions and actions is not the right approach here. Instead, lean into your identification with these aspects of your existence and ask why they have a place in your life. This is *my* piano that *I* bought because the bright timbre makes the bass in Chopin's Ballade in g minor stand out against the treble, which emulates the sensation of an active mind's most expansive and sublime engagement with the world. Also it was discounted." - Original comment by Benjamin Stringer, author of Black Sheep essay: https://www.wetheblacksheep.com/p/the-unfriend-me-pledge?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Our conception of ego seems to be the source of some mild consternation. I find it most helpful to think of ego as limited in perception and wisdom rather than as a lower self that's separate from the whole or as "bad". It's the limited perception and resulting lack of wisdom that's the root of the issues with ego, not some inherent evil. There are reams to be written about this. More to come.
Somehow I'm having issues responding to your comment and now it's showing up as deleted...but luckily I had it open on another tab so I'm reposting it here so people can enjoy it like I did:
"The act of consumption is defined by the application of some resource toward a goal. Sans a goal, there wouldn't be any consumption – only matter changing forms. Having a clear goal means having some values which can either be attained or frustrated. And values can't be separated from our integration with the physical world. If human beings were disembodied ghosts we would have no cause to prefer one state of affairs over another. (This is true even if your values happen to be rotten ones.)
It is certainly possible to act without clearly grasping the values which make our consumption meaningful or meaningless - i.e., to fake value-attainment by expending resources in a way that doesn't lead to a purposed outcome. I recently bought a new baby grand piano. I would very much care if it had lousy tone or the damper pedal didn't work right. So I have a more exacting set of specifications than say, a rich guy who doesn't play it and just wants a shiny showpiece in his living room. My standards in this area are related to my life goals and aesthetic preferences developed over thousands of hours of practice and study. The more explicit and integrated your values, the better consumer you become. I think I would call that becoming more spiritual. (Please don't ask about my $500 espresso machine.)
I don't believe in ego in the sense of a 'lower self'; rather, it's possible to have a lack of clarity about the nature of your mind, experience, and relationship to the world around you. If that is the case, the only inner voice worth listening to is the inquisitive one. The soft asceticism of relinquishing identification with your possessions and actions is not the right approach here. Instead, lean into your identification with these aspects of your existence and ask why they have a place in your life. This is *my* piano that *I* bought because the bright timbre makes the bass in Chopin's Ballade in g minor stand out against the treble, which emulates the sensation of an active mind's most expansive and sublime engagement with the world. Also it was discounted." - Original comment by Benjamin Stringer, author of Black Sheep essay: https://www.wetheblacksheep.com/p/the-unfriend-me-pledge?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Our conception of ego seems to be the source of some mild consternation. I find it most helpful to think of ego as limited in perception and wisdom rather than as a lower self that's separate from the whole or as "bad". It's the limited perception and resulting lack of wisdom that's the root of the issues with ego, not some inherent evil. There are reams to be written about this. More to come.
Thank you for clarifying Mark! Ego as limited perception makes sense to me.