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Creative Limitation
What’s the point of Sacrifice?
Living in a time of great hardships and famines for the peasants, he sold all of his possessions to feed the local villagers, and also fasted to give away his food to the needy. Fu once undertook a long hunger fast to protest against the king’s treatment of the poor. He announced that he would finish the fast with a fiery self-immolation, as an offering to benefit all suffering beings. At the culmination of his fast, many of his followers offered to burn themselves in his place, some going to the extent of burning their fingers or cutting off their ears as offerings and engaging in other ascetic extremes. They finally convinced Fu to abandon his plan.
I’ve been giving things up lately as sort of a personal exercise in restraint. With the exception of one late night drunken $3.00 bar hotdog and some flecks of bacon in a cup of potato soup, I’ve been avoiding meat for about the past two weeks. I also haven’t consumed any alcohol. And I’ve been trying to minimize my reckless swearing. The swearing is actually the hardest part, because my language patterns are so deeply ingrained. Words just come out without my meaning or realizing it.
Now, it’s not that I’m morally opposed to any of the above. It’s more that it’s an experiment in breaking patterns, replacing automatic behavior with intention. I’m not sure how long my experiment will last, but I’m learning a lot from it. At first, all this stuff was really difficult to give up, but now I’m kind of enjoying it. It’s almost as though limiting yourself in certain arbitrary ways forces you to get more creative with how you approach things. In some sense, it’s like being asked to describe how the sky looks on a clear day without being allowed to use the word “blue.” Or it’s like in the Simpsons when Mr. Burns tells Lenny that he’s going to fire him unless he can explain why he shouldn’t without using the letter “e”. Lenny responds, “Uh, ok… um, I’m a good work, guy…” Of course, Mr. Burns fires him anyway, but the whole thing I think is a useful exercise. Try it out sometime. Get rid of (permanently or temporarily) something in your life which you’ve always taken to be essential, and see what you can come up with without it.
May 10th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
This may or may not be tangential to your post, but one thing I’ve noticed lately is that every single bad habit that I’ve eliminated has been conquered not explicitly through intention but rather through hard-core pain and suffering that has “burned” away the desire to continue the habit. Everything I know has been learned that way. Which leads me to believe (perhaps) that in fact pain is the only way to make spiritual progress of any kind.
Of course I don’t like this. What are your thoughts?
May 10th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Yeah, I really need to give up coffee. And poor excuses for not doing certain things.
May 10th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
“And I’ve been trying to minimize my reckless swearing. The swearing is actually the hardest part, ”
Tip: Hang out around old ladies. No, I’m not kidding. Of course, you live in a port city, so all your neighbors are probably used to salty sailor language. If you can find a way to spend some time around old ladies in the US South, you’ll be saying “Golly Gee Willakers, God Bless It I’m Miffed and Perturbed!’ even while you’re engaged in disposing of your enemy’s remains.
Another free tip: I quit drinking cold turkey & almost on a dime (had to finish the fifth…) after getting do deep into the scotch that I actually grabbed me a weapon and went looking for someone at 4 am. It’s a stupid and embarrassing story, so I won’t elaborate. Suffice it to say that for some people, Ethyl can be a dangerous mistress. But it’s better to fuck up enormously and scare yourself straight than to go on with the minor errors that occurr with functional alcoholism. If you’ve outrun your time with the bottle but still can’t give it up, maybe it’s time to frighten the living hell out of yourself.
This is recommended only to the daring and those who realize that their life is their own. Risks are risks, and Going Big for the sake of the wagon might actually end you up dead, incarcerated, crippled or insane.
Don’t mistake me. Intoxication is a natural part of human life, but you gotta know your limits. (He says, gorked out his mind on caffeine.)
-z
May 10th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
“Yeah, I really need to give up coffee.”
Remember that research thing that came out a few months ago? Something like Americans on average get more antioxidants from coffee than from any other food source.
Caffeine also improves brain function, circulation etc. I’ve been drinking the stuff since high school, and so have always kept up somewhat with all the basic medical research. I am yet to meet any convincing evidence that coffee is anything but a wholesome, healthy tonic for body mind and soul. Plus it makes your rant uncontrollably on the internet.
Really though, why stress on your coffee intake when there’s so many other worthy matters for your precious Will energy. Let your coffee habit run free. It’s legal and safe. Why worry?
May 10th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
I’ve been ordered by my doctor to give up coffee, which if you knew me personally you would know is a supreme act of self-sacrifice. Turns out all of my health complaints, rather than being evidence of chronic disease or lethal infection (the existence of either seems to have been disproven by several diagnostic tests), can be traced back to caffeine consumption.
I’m decreasing one notch on the coffee pot every week (down to 4 from
. I’m feeling very fuzzy and am not liking it much.
May 10th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I’ve never been into coffee myself. One of the other things I should have added to this post is that there seems to be a big difference between being forced to give something up and doing so voluntarily…
May 10th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Okay, this one last post and then I’ll shut up…
slomo said:
“I’ve been ordered by my doctor to give up coffee, which if you knew me personally you would know is a supreme act of self-sacrifice. Turns out all of my health complaints, rather than being evidence of chronic disease or lethal infection (the existence of either seems to have been disproven by several diagnostic tests), can be traced back to caffeine consumption.”
Please don’t be offended if I am skeptical. There is really no other possible cause of your ailments? No alcohol, fatty foods, bad air, allergies, hormone imbalance, smoking, depression, anything at all? I don’t know your symptoms, of course, and I don’t wish for you to reveal that personal info here or elsewhere. Nor do I want to discourage you from complying with your doctor, but I really am not convinced. Open to new evidence, yes, but still operating under the “Coffee is good for you” hypothesis. You are welcome to tell me more (email or forums) or not.
# Tim Boucher Says:
May 10th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
“I’ve never been into coffee myself. One of the other things I should have added to this post is that there seems to be a big difference between being forced to give something up and doing so voluntarily…”
I was kind of trying to describe a middle ground or blend of the two things: succeeeding at voluntarily giving up a habit by putting yourself into a position where you are forced to quit. This kind of goes to slomo’s first post where it is proposed that “pain is the only way.” I kind of agree with that idea. Pain may not be the only way, but it sure is one of the surest. See also: vipassana meditation. Full and open experience of discomfort purifies the … self? soul? consciousness? something …
At any rate, the idea is that if you are 100 percent conscious of the present moment during a time of pain, you reduce your actual suffering by becoming aware of the impermanence of that pain (and the impermanent nature of all reality) and so you become less reactive and more appropriate in your behavior, leading to a less compulsive way of life.
Or something. I’m rambling. Sorry.
May 10th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
There’s always dentistry sans anaesthesia.
Kidding.
Changing linguistic patterns is a tough one, and very good for your brain indeed.
It’s interesting that you’re experimenting with breaking patterns. I’ve been thinking along the same lines. For example, I don’t think I’ve gone a full day without glasses or contacts since I was six. I thought it might be an interesting excercise to walk around half-blind for a day.
May 10th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
In one of his lectures, Joseph Campbell describes the two different ways to get people to do something — instill a sense of aspiration or one of fear. Thinking about this idea over the last year or so, it made me realize how our culture is essentially entirely fear-based. Esepcially with schooling — its “get good grades or else”
When running into struggles of my own in recent months/years when trying to make lifestyle changes, I’ve realized that I (and I imagine many others) are very not used to doing things for our own personal (aspirational) reasons.
The biggest downside about my job, for example, is that I have no one busting my ass everyday (as might be typical). As great as this is, it has certainly taught me how undeveloped of a self-starter I am. And this is coming from someone who cherishes self-education, independence, etc.
May 10th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
i think there’s a lot of value to sacrifice if it’s being done for a reason, mainly for a ‘know thyself’/self-control kind of thing. crowley used to counsel his disciples to get rid of using the words i, me and mine.
but what about sacrificing sacrifice? that sounds weird, but i’m serious. if you’re hung up on a particular kind of sacrifice (no TV, no coffee, etc.), i think sometimes it’s good to take an hour or two to sacrifice your sacrifice (within reason, of course).
May 10th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Er, well, yes, some of the symptoms are personal. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink much, and my fat intake isn’t extreme (one way or the other). Air/environment should be fine, except perhaps for the dog (who I’d never get rid of anyway). Don’t know about hormone imbalance, although none was suggested by my doctor.
When we went over the food allergy thing, she emphasized coffee as being a possible cause, and also related to other symptoms that would not be associated with a food allergy.
Anxiety/depression/stress could easily be related, though.
Actually, the coffee ritual is getting to be kind of overdone. It would be easier to get out of the house in the morning without it, so it’s probably a good thing to cut down on the coffee drinking.
Anyway, blah blah blah…
May 10th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
I’ve always held to the “everything in moderation, nothing in excess, especially excessive moderation” maxim, to which I balance with some moderate excess on occasion.
The middle path is defintely more favorable to aging sinews and organs however. It’s a good balance to take up someting of value as you cast other things away.
What ever happened to “fasting”? Conspicuoulsy absent from today’s church as a discipline.
I have a friend who loves coffee, but only drinks it between Thanksgiving and New Years. I guess because he can.
May 10th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
Sort of like reverse Lent.
May 11th, 2006 at 5:21 am
i have never known anyone`s illness to be derived from coffee alone. physical ailments can be exacerbated by large amounts certainly, and emotional issues are amplifyed through caffiene intake, especially anxiety. i see many clients for anxiety and one issue is coffee intake. switcing off is difficult enough at times without drugs coursing through your viens.
i am not a doctor of medicine though, so this should be only considered as an experienced opinion.
but in terms of sacrifice, the best way to alter a behaviour is substitutuion. that is self-explanitory. for some, more pervasive habits, dissociation can be effective, as it is with phobias. dissociation works by having you see yourself, in a meditative state, (or light trance), as witnessing yourself doing the behaviour as a disinterested third party. you can then see yourself changing the habit without emotional attachment to the process.
this process then allows you to negotiate a set of perameters for new behaviour in ways that are positive. then you can compare states, with the habit and without, and make distinctions. this process is a bit schitzophrenic initially, but is very powerful. with some repitition the distinctions become blurred to the point where you can`t tell which behaviour was the original one…………and you can then make a rational choice.
May 12th, 2006 at 9:16 am
You know how I achieved Zen one time? I went a week without coffee (because I was sick and to speed recovery I cut out as many acidifying substances as I could) — then — I drank coffee again.
In this sort of ‘rebirth’ of my Caffeinated Self, I understood everything. I was at peace, in a state of perfect awareness, and at the same time bouncing off the walls (of my mind) with brilliant idea after brilliant idea. One of the best (drug-induced) highs I’ve ever experienced.
So if you have an important paper to write, speech to give, or meeting to participate in.. anything where a razor-sharp wit and perfect rational clarity combined with a Zenlike awareness might come in handy… you know what to do.
May 12th, 2006 at 9:46 am
This is a great topic Tim.
I find those who are ‘free’ from the shackles of religious dogma tend to become a little too ‘free’ — a bit like teeneagers who move out of their parents’ place and aren’t quite sure how to parent themselves.
Those of us who strongly question established authorities and their ‘rules’ have the difficult task of becoming our own authorities and deciding the ‘rules’ for ourselves. This is one of the real challenges isn’t it. We’re certainly not encouraged to ‘rule ourselves’ by our society - by the competing authorities - and not coincidentally we are not trained to do so effectively, at all (quite the contrary - we’re literally the competition in a fight for dominance of our own minds).
So most of us basically give up and hand over the responsibility to the ‘qualified experts’. Others of us don’t. But for those of us who don’t, since we’ve now thrown into question most of what we’ve been taught, we really then have to examine what our own motivations, goals and best interests are. This is good, when we actually do it, and do it well, because then our actions and choices - choices like voluntary ’sacrifice’ of a given substance or practice - become deliberate and, hopefully a lot more constructive than otherwise.
As to ’sacrifice’ in my own life, I prefer not to call it that because it locks me into an extreme. ‘Discipline’ and ’self-limitation’ I find more useful terms. I may take limitation of something to the point of complete sacrifice of that thing, when necessary, but generally the ‘everything in moderation, including moderation’ approach works for me.
May 12th, 2006 at 9:48 am
Actually your title, ‘Creative Limitation’ (which I just actually noticed) sums up that last paragraph quite perfectly.