Tag: philosophy

Disappointment is always proportional to expectation. To say so may be an unnecessary platitude, but the truth is that it takes an incredibly great strength to put the brakes on big, imponderable dreams at moments when they seem plausible. If one does not do it, one risks the equally incredibly great disappointments that come with them, the risk of which perhaps justifies repeating this platitude until the brain is convinced that, often, the best thing to do is not to dream.

Life really is an endless cycle of frustration when one lives wanting, and always wanting more and more, without the mind being capable of a flash of divine wisdom and putting a brake and an end to this lamentable human tendency towards greed and dissatisfaction. Few things impress as much as realizing the power of this ancient Buddhist truth, applicable to all people of all times and which seems to have been proclaimed by someone who has seen everything and understood everything.

We must go back and back to the Dhammapada, to always remember that peace is the enemy of desire, and that pleasures of any kind hide a poisonous background that the wise must avoid. The world drives them, which is why it is necessary to be an enemy of the world. To give in, aware of this infallible dynamic, is to turn life into an incalculably torturous experience.

By Leopardi:

Chi ha disperato di se stesso, o per qualunque ragione, si ama meno vivamente, è meno invidioso, odia meno i suoi simili, ed è quindi più suscettibile di amicizia per questa parte, o almeno in minor contraddizione con lei. Chi più si ama meno può amare.

In fact, every virtuous relationship that can exist between two human beings is based on what goes against self-love, that is, modesty, benevolence and selflessness. Without these virtues, there is nothing to be done, and relationships will never be anything more than a terrain of interests and disputes in which those involved gain far less than they can imagine.