Self-Actualization: The Path of Spirituality?

[bomohwkl]

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write,
if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.
This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's
desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become
actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one
is capable of becoming ..."

I am sure every man DESIRES to fullfill his potential. There is unlimited potential for us to GROW. Life without suffering is good but imagine life without suffering and without a chance to fulfill our potential is boring. Buddha achieved enlightenment and he fullfilled his potential to be a GREAT teacher.

Life is about maximizing our happiness, isn't it? The goal of eternal existence is to be happy by conscious control of ourselves. So, it looks like self-actualization is also a path of happiness, a path of spirituality?

Some of the interesting quotes of self-actalization

The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.

- Malcolm S Forbes

Starting out to make money is the greatest mistkake in life. Do whay you fell you have a flair of doing and if you are good enough at it, the money will come.

- Greer Garson

Enthuasiasm is one of the most powerful enegines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful and you will accopolish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthuasiasm.

- Raphi Waldo Emerson

[Alisima]

Life is not about maximizing happiness. It is about living.

[bomohwkl]

Life is not about maximizing happiness. It is about living.

It is about living in order to SUFFER? Or It is about living in order to fulfil our potential?

[Alisima]

Life is not about maximizing happiness. It is about living.

It is about living in order to SUFFER? Or It is about living in order to fulfil our potential?

There is no goal, there is no "in order to ...blablabla..."

It is the path.

[bomohwkl]

Alisima wrote:

There is no goal, there is no "in order to ...blablabla..."

It is the path

A path without a direction I presume? Can you explain to me, in what ways of your life which you have applied such philosophy.

[Alisima]

Alisima wrote:

There is no goal, there is no "in order to ...blablabla..."

It is the path

A path without a direction I presume?

The direction presents itself.

Can you explain to me, in what ways of your life which you have applied such philosophy.

I have often used the analogy of a child playing. It doesn't play for some sort of end result, it plays because it plays.

Similar, one should live.

[bomohwkl]

Alisima wrote:

I have often used the analogy of a child playing. It doesn't play for some sort of end result, it plays because it plays.

Similar, one should live.

Everyone wants to be a child. No resposibilities, no worries.When a child cries, the mother comforts him/her.The child life seems to be the happiest and the most care-free moment of a lifetime (from an adult perception). Hence, it plays because the act of playing DERIVES ENJOYMENT. Will a child play a boiling kettle and continue to play with the boiling water? Of course, the enjoyment is not the end result, it is the BY PRODUCT of playing.

When one lives outside the shelter of parents, one would understand that the happiness and care-free moment have to earn yourself. Young people who are still living under the protection of parents tends to have difficulty to understand. The lack of experience itself is the cause.

Hence, the act of living should derive happiness and enjoyment.

If you live outside protection and shelter of your parents, you have earned the happiness yourself.

In short, it is to live a life that the act of living is happiness.

Hence we need to KNOW how to live in order to have such moment of happiness.

Happiness and what are the things that derive happiness are very individual.

Growing is making such moment longer and higher.