Eric Bishop's Webpage

Why are you unsatisfied? Despite a high standard of living compared to all of human history, a large number of resources, a world that has never been more connected and easy to traverse, how have you never found an external circumstance that has led to any lasting feeling of peace?

You will never find this external circumstance, because you’re actively swindled into the idea of having a self that has the capacity for finding true satisfaction in external things. The culmination of thoughts and false ideas, which you call “you”, is like a flimsy raft you allow the currents of life to push into shaky waters. The raft is essentially all you’ve ever known, so despite the anxiety and fear it gives you as you head downstream, you’re even more afraid to abandon it. This dingy raft is your mind, whatever you call a personality, a performative construction that you hope fools others the way it fools you. A few patches to the leaky exterior might help, a new city, a new career, a new relationship, hobby, or achievement, but your raft has an affinity for rocks and useless obstacles, something that none of your craftsmanship has ever truly made up for.

But good news, you’ll be pleased when you notice that this raft is not you, that you’re a completely separate entity who has just been sailing in it for many years. You’ll then pay attention to its defects analytically, as you realize it was built by an external world that specializes in the wrong type of boats for the currents of life. Suddenly, it’s no longer your responsibility to repair something fundamentally flawed, or convince others that whatever you consider a “good personality” to be, has been working out for you all these years. Just by noticing the defective attitudes and perceptions that have routinely failed you up until now, you’ll have the first glimpse of something new. A conscious sailor should now know that working on a completely new boat is in order.