#139 | May 14, 2025 | 11:38

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🧠 Thought Stream

[philosophical revelation thought]: So now, this is what they mean of inflicting pain, suffering, if a person isn’t able to accept reality and hope, clinging on hope, clinging on wishful thinking, in a better state tomorrow.

[comparing thought]: Sometimes, at one point in my life, I would think of these people, the Buddhists, the meditators, those people who seemed successful, and then they are able to share their learnings with people who seemed lost, lost in their own thoughts, just lost, and I think of these people as, you know, they’ve become a parent, and now they know what it means to have a child, to take care of a child, to love a child, you know, just be a parent, and accepting as a parent, and doing the responsibility as a good parent, that you have this wisdom and deep understanding of what it takes to become a parent, and me is like a child, hearing all these wisdom passed down to generations, but it seems I just couldn’t get it, because I have to take the same path?

[questioning thought]: Was it the same path?

[universal human thought]: It’s like I have to go through the path of being human, but it is really painful.

[insight thought]: You become stagnant, because you’re clinging to the past, and you don’t have a better state than it is today, than what I have now.

[present reality thought]: Right now, I am a commercial cleaner.

[liberation thought]: No matter how I fantasize to be there, and that idea future of me, it just wouldn’t be possible, and that is causing me suffering every day, because of hope, and I invade those people who have reached that maturity, who have reached that level of understanding of what is life, really, what is reality is.

[releasing thought]: I don’t know what I’m thinking, but this is a big sigh. It’s like releasing all the tensions in my head, because I just couldn’t get over it.

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RESEARCH NOTE:

This entry captures what Buddhist psychology calls “the second arrow” – the suffering we create through resistance to reality. While the first arrow of pain is unavoidable, the second arrow of suffering comes from hoping things were different, creating what psychologists term “experiential avoidance.”

Source: Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

FURTHER EXPLORATION:

• Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (highly recommended! I’ve read this)
• The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chödrön (suggested by Claude AI)
• The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga (highly recommended! I’ve read this)

STANDARD DISCLAIMER:

WooshBrain connects personal experience with broader psychological concepts. While I aim for accuracy, these connections are starting points for exploration rather than definitive interpretations. I encourage readers to explore these ideas through their own research.

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