This is a phenomenon I constantly battle internally in my consciousness when assessing the various layers of musical composition.
So if we stop ourselves from thinking about music as we listen, the result would then consist of "experiencing/feeling" music?
The mechanics of it being a mindless, automatic response to the auditory stimulation. (neurotransmitter release/binding)
I don't know where I'm going with this, but how do you all listen to/analyze/experience particular music of your liking?
Because of this, the satisfaction of listening to music isn't only auditory or aesthetic, but also an identity satisfaction, of feeling one's ideas about oneself confirmed.
It's probably true that humans inject identity ideas into everything, so this is nothing special to music. But it's a strange situation, since music per se is the most abstract of the arts and this extra layer we put on top of it is so obviously extrinsic.
Then again, I listen to loads of ambient instrumental soundscapey stuff so it might be a genre that is given to analysis.
On the other hand, I get a similar problem every time I've tried to play a musical instrument. I try drumming and it initially sounds pleasing, at which point I think to myself "hey, I'm drumming!" and it all quickly goes to hell.
I feel that to be a little rediculous.
You can't control the future, but I feel that intelligent planning is important.
That kind of black-and-white thinking is exactly what the article is nudging you into letting go of. Nowhere does it say not to have goals. Rather, it says not to confuse those goals with reality, not to spend all your time protecting a hypothetical future when you can only ever live in the present. Nowhere does it say work towards nothing. Rather, it says work is something to be experienced for its own sake, rather than just as some suffering to get through in order to achieve an end.
Yes, take life as it comes, including the fact that setting goals and working towards them might be something that makes you happy. However, when goals become obsessions and happy work turns to fear of failure and anxiety, you're defeating the entire purpose of setting goals and working in the first place.
Gen. Eisenhower had a quote he liked: "In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable."
Edit: Having read the article again I'm not so sure that it is truly so laissez-faire. I can vouch for the idea of self-improvement via letting go, for instance. I have improved myself over time, but it only started happening once I stopped caring so much about improving myself and instead let myself drift into being better bit by bit.
Likewise I've found that I feel better about myself and the world the more I allow myself to simply drift and experience it. Conversely I get more agitated and worried the more I try to swim in the current of existence. That doesn't mean I just tread water, you have to meet Maslow's needs after all. But once those needs are met it's prudent to step back every once in awhile, there won't always be a later to push important things off to.
Your goal is to lose x pounds by y date? You can't really control that. What you can control is what you eat today, and how you exercise today. (Which could be based on what you did the day before)
It's a little like the "goals vs systems" thinking from Scott Adams.
An author's personal life is not indicative of their wisdom, or perspective. After all this life is simply a variety of events that just happen, all of which can't be perfect, or just the way you want. Life is just the way it is, and you, as a human being, are molded around it. Cognitively that's how a human being works, we learn, and we grow. See it for what life is, and go with it. After a while you'll develop your own perspective from wherever you stand.
But that's just the way I see things...
Alcoholism is very much a disease.
Do you hesitate to take advice from people with cardiovascular disease?
