Re: Secular Sunday ACT-Friendly Sermon from Alain De Botton

[Guest guest]

Not really ACT in the way I know ACT to be honest.

>

> I think De Botton unknowingly captures some of the reasons why the ACT

approach of acknowledging the reality of suffering in life is so helpful. I

highly recommend people watch this, they will enjoy it a lot. De Botton is

wonderful for the soul.

>

> http://vimeo.com/10601416

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks a million for posting this, it is wonderful to see someone who practices what they preach.  I am all for facing reality just as it is, and here is one of those rare voices that needs to be celebrated.

 

I think De Botton unknowingly captures some of the reasons why the ACT approach of acknowledging the reality of suffering in life is so helpful. I highly recommend people watch this, they will enjoy it a lot. De Botton is wonderful for the soul.

http://vimeo.com/10601416

[Guest guest]

Teriffic stuff, so it's not just me then.

Kv

>

> I think De Botton unknowingly captures some of the reasons why the ACT

approach of acknowledging the reality of suffering in life is so

helpful. I highly recommend people watch this, they will enjoy it a lot.

De Botton is wonderful for the soul.

>

> http://vimeo.com/10601416

>

[Guest guest]

When I was a boy I remember being so happy quite a lot of the time,

although there were problems with my low self esteem causing some

profound pain and despair at times. But I loved nature, the moon, the

stars, the rain, windy days, sunny days, countryside, the seaside, the

trains, (Oh, and especially the girls - I was always full of romantic

dreams). It was just wow!

I was just speaking to my girlfriend about this just a minute ago but

she said she doesn't remember ever feeling happy. Funny thing is, my

last girlfriend said the same thing. I sometimes used to think that

perhaps we feel so happy in childhood because it gives us the incentive

to forever struggle on trying to find it again, and so life carries on

and the human race survives. Hmmm, but perhaps I can be happy again,

afterall, I was quite a lot of the time as a child.

Kv

> >

> > I think De Botton unknowingly captures some of the reasons why the

ACT

> approach of acknowledging the reality of suffering in life is so

> helpful. I highly recommend people watch this, they will enjoy it a

lot.

> De Botton is wonderful for the soul.

> >

> > http://vimeo.com/10601416

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Your comment about your childhood reminds me of a quote from Schopenhauer:

" Happiness always lies in the future, or else in the past, and the present

moment may be compared to a dark cloud which the wind drives over the sunny

plain: before it and behind it, everything looks wonderful, but directly under

it, there is always a shadow. "

I think we drastically overestimate how good the past was. It's a neurochemical

thing--the memories are tacked onto certain sweet, yet bittersweet, emotions

that were not actually there when the past took place.

If you feel like commiserating, Schopenhauer finishes the quote:

" Life presents itself as a continual deception in small things as in great. If

it has promised, it does not keep its word, unless to show how little worth

desiring were the things desired: thus we are deluded now by hope, now by what

was hoped for. If it has given, it did so in order to take. The enchantment of

distance shows us paradises which vanish like optical illusions when we have

allowed ourselves to be mocked by them. Happiness always lies in the future, or

else in the past, and the present moment may be compared to a dark cloud which

the wind drives over the sunny plain: before it and behind it, everything looks

wonderful, but directly under it, there is always a shadow. The present is

therefore always insufficient; but the future is uncertain, and the past

irrevocable. Life with its hourly, daily, weekly, yearly, little, greater, and

great misfortunes, with its deluded hopes and its accidents destroying all our

calculations, bears so distinctly the impression of something with which we must

become disgusted, that it is hard to conceive how one has been able to mistake

this and allow oneself to be persuaded that life is there in order to be happy.

Rather that continual illusion and disillusion, and also the nature of life

throughout, presents itself to us as intended and calculated to awaken the

conviction that nothing at all is worth our striving, our efforts and struggles,

that all good things are vanity, the world in all its ends bankrupt, and life a

business which does not cover its expenses; -- so that our will may turn away

from it. "

I love reading this guy. He's hilarious. But he's not trying to be, he's being

serious. I think he makes a valid point, one that when fully understood, can

become the basis for dropping the struggle to for happiness (which, ironically,

is the only way to get some happiness in this world).

> > >

> > > I think De Botton unknowingly captures some of the reasons why the

> ACT

> > approach of acknowledging the reality of suffering in life is so

> > helpful. I highly recommend people watch this, they will enjoy it a

> lot.

> > De Botton is wonderful for the soul.

> > >

> > > http://vimeo.com/10601416

> > >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks for posting, Rato. That lecture by Alain De Bottom has had a

profound effect on me, and it came at a time when I was in a very

painful dilemna about something and it seems to have put all these

things into perspective for me. Today I found myself much more mindful

and able to tollerate pain more.

Kv

> > >

> > > I think De Botton unknowingly captures some of the reasons why the

> ACT

> > approach of acknowledging the reality of suffering in life is so

> > helpful. I highly recommend people watch this, they will enjoy it a

> lot.

> > De Botton is wonderful for the soul.

> > >

> > > http://vimeo.com/10601416

> > >

> >

>