Movement

       Making progress towards a personal goal

       Even if we don't attain it yet

Suffices

       Is enough to keep us going

       Because it generates payback

Is it also necessary?

Yes, if happiness is necessary

And if we can't find happiness

Unless we are progressing,

Growing, going goalward

It's all we can ask of ourselves

Yet it's enough

       Samsara -- it's all there is

       Yet it's enough --

       It's Nirvana too

       At least potentially

       (Why not actually?)

       If it is in actuality

       Then it's perfect

       If life's perfect, why act?

       Why grow, why have goals, why move?

       It's perfect in that

       It's perfect once things are set in motion

       And it allows us relative free will up until then

              The only decisions

              Where we might excercise freedom

              Are those where we consciously

              Weigh alternatives and factors --

              Otherwise the deciding is done for us

              Which is certainly not free will

              But, even when we might think

              That we are acting freely

              We arrive at our decision

              Through the give and take

              Of various factors

              Which may or may not be

              Strictly logical,

              But the dynamic of that arrival

              Must of necessity be logical

              And thus deterministic

              Once set in motion

              Decision results are "perfect" --

              But even during the deciding

              Perfection is in effect

       Why have even the illusion of free will?

       So we'll feel free,

       So we'll grow and advance,

       As long as we don't see it's an illusion?

       Why grow and advance?

       To eventually be company

       For the Great Designer?

       Is that all?

Is happiness necessary?

No, it's only the soul's most vocal goal

Is progress required for us to be happy?

No, we can have (shallow) joy

(Wallowing) in a (stagnant) no-growth life

       But I picture a happy couple,

       Unpretentious, maybe farmers

       In a third world country --

       They do not change nor seek to change (grow)

       Yet remain happy

       Through their day-to-day routine

       (E.g., work, raising their children)

       Is the key that they need no growth

       Because they are already in tune?

       And not even consciously...

       Is growth then return to being in tune?

       Is distance from being in tune then

       Due to an illusion of imperfection

       That we have to unlearn?

       (A forgetting of perfection has occurred)

       The distance is not from perfection

       But from constant awareness of

       The perfection that is always there

       In-tune-ness, distance from ongoing action

       Maximizing long-term benefit

       (Minimize that distance, delta, error)

       Ongoing approximation to Big Self (via being good)

              May not be in awareness

       Quality of instant karma

              May not be in awareness

       How can we separate

       "Obvious" feedback

       From "instant karma" feedback?

       Obvious is physical, direct --

       Karma is logical, trend within direct (derivative?)

       Awareness of what constitutes benefit

       (Especially maximal)

              What constitutes maximal long-term benefit?

              Is it determined?

              Perhaps we can revise

              Our definitions of benefit

              As time goes by,

              Even though there is a

              Maximal path at all times?

              We can evaluate our performance

              Against our idea of

              Maximal benefit action,

              But perhaps this only approximates

              The "actual" evaluation,

              Performed by the ultimate arbiter (judge),

              The Big Self

              Error minimization

              Is still just reaction --

              How do we generate, discover

              Plans for action rather than reaction?

              (Synthesis rather than analysis)

       But awareness is not necessary

       For the happy couple --

       They live the perfection,

       Their every act is in tune

       We need awareness first

       Because we are creatures of intellect;

       If we can eventually become

       Constantly aware so that

       Each of our conscious acts is in tune,

       Then we can phase out forced awareness

       As doing in tune becomes automatic

       But, isn't all doing perfect, in tune?

       Yes and no

       Yes, all doing is perfect absolutely

       But can be relatively imperfect

       (Relative to one's standards,

       Goals, expectations, perceptions)

       If one judges

       (Measures against some criterion),

       An intellectual process

       What about how happy or unhappy one is made

       Due either to self- or outside input, actions...

       Even with no intellectualizing?

       One can simply react naturally

       To events, good or bad --

       Doings that have negative or neutral impact

       Would hardly be called perfect

       One related thought,

       If not necessarily the whole answer,

       Is that it is for us to see

       The perfection in what might appear less than perfect;

       For example, finding the lesson

       In something that happens

       Which we at first might

       Interpret negatively

       What is doing in tune?

       Is there anything but?

       Is it that we are consciously doing

       That opens the door

       For doing out of tune,

       Or at least the appearance of such to us?

       And/or that we are

       Consciously interpreting

       The results of doing

       Or of inputs in general?

       Again, at least relative out-of-tuneness is allowed

       If we judge events against

       Our standards, expectations, etc.