Last week, I concluded a weekly series of 84 posts on the Tao Te Ching. This week, the slate is clean.
At this point, I find myself drawn to formulating a clear, concise, and comprehensive perspective on personal fulfillment, and what I’ve decided to do, moving forward, is neither usual nor typical.
My intention is to lay a foundation for the realization of personal fulfillment with which to create an energetic structure of words that follows this creative principle: “structure determines behavior”.
To this end, I will tap the wisdom found in the past 84 weeks of my life, as well as my own experience, even as I draw on Be Here Now with a focus that harmonizes practicality and spirituality.
I intend to write an ongoing series of blog posts that inform, inspire, and build on one another, not unlike putting together a puzzle with many pieces or letting an organism grow spontaneously.
The repetition to be found in such a series will be offset by the opportunity to read everything anew with a fresh perspective from the modification of established elements and the addition of new ones.
Where Would You Start?
If you were commissioned to outline a blueprint and to present a model for the ultimate realization of personal fulfillment, where would you start?
Would you start at the bottom, the foundation, and work your way up? Would you start at the top, at the pinnacle of personal fulfillment, and work your way down to the foundation?
Or would you start somewhere at or near the middle, in a place that serves easily to connect realization with foundation?
I could approach the content of this work in terms of theory and practice (professionally) or in terms of doctrine and practice (religiously), but my vision is to approach it in terms of context and practice.
For the purposes of clarity, I will be offsetting the elements of practice from the influence of context with block quotes.
Form, Structure, Substance, Orientation
Before a structure can even be built, it might prove useful to justify its use, in light of the fact that many people live their lives according to a narrative, but then, even a narrative has structure.
Such a structure requires a preliminary handle or visual on the form, substance, and orientation of personal fulfillment, which serves to lay a foundation that brings about the pinnacle of fulfillment.
The substance of personal fulfillment might include a clarification and elaboration of the following issues, some of which are more fundamental or essential than others to its realization:
- bridging soul and spirit with a body through heart and mind
- coordinating thought and feeling to manifest desired results
- finding harmony between contentment and improvement
- pure being and “having it all” at the apex of personal fulfillment
- bridging the gap between religious awakening and spiritual enlightenment
- the centrality of others in living and loving a life of meaning
- the contrasting value of toxicity in meaningful relationships
- finding or claiming your inner voice with a cosmic perspective
- the role of sexuality in seeking and finding personal fulfillment
In randomly generating these results with a pyramidal form in mind (for example), I would be inclined to feature number 8 in (or close to) the foundation and number 4 in (or near) the capstone.
In terms of orientation, a distinction between objective encounter and subjective experience would have us view the realization of fulfillment through objective eyes and ears and subjective eyes and ears.
An essential part of my fulfillment, for example, might include making or keeping what I know about object and subject clear and distinct.
Concluding Thoughts
An exploration into ultimacy requires a readiness and a willingness to effectively bypass personal bias and prejudice without losing or forgoing the juice of my own personal experience.
Having said this, I also realize I must rely on my own limited perspective of fulfillment as a point of reference for deepening, broadening, and ever expanding it towards an ultimate perspective.
The real test for me will be to forge a coherent perspective that manages to bring all of the forgoing considerations down to earth, so to speak, in ways that are both practical and meaningful.
In my next post, I begin the task of outlining a blueprint for what is to come in the weeks and months ahead.
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Next up: Ultimate Fulfillment 1
Note: these posts can be referenced under this new category: Ultimate