Invision

This means that I would say the same thing to anybody, no matter if a leper or God, white or black hat. I talked to her at quite some length. She was involved with the deeper problems of humanity and the consequential affects of various socially systematic inadequacies. I indicated that I was concerned with the same problems and the way in which I dealt with them. I have not much recollection here, but any advice I had for her probably would have been that which concerned personal responsibility, and that she was not responsible. We can only be responsible for what we can affect. I am not going to feel guilty for what other people do. I am not going to feel emotionally responsible for what I cannot affect. Sheer waste of energy.

I have had that argument many times in later years as applied to the Buddhist concept of detachment. It is believed that one should detach oneself from one's emotional being. I always rejected this. The Buddhist premise is - life is sorrow, and if one wants happiness... What can one learn from happiness? No pain - no gain. They call it Ego - destroy the Ego. I could have done that back in my analysis period but I decided against it. What is the point of life without emotion? Or at least what fun would it be? What is life without emotional energy? More like a machine. I guess the premise is ecstatic rapture without emotion. Is it human? Personally I have always thought - why should I be here, if not to be human. Would seem that somebody then made a mistake. In the end I may have helped her. And I became interested in her as a person.

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