Yeah well, once you managed to convince yourself that you “want nothing” you would also need to convince a lot of your relations about the same thing, otherwise they will inevitably coin your lifestyle as “failure”, more or less openly. Ahhh, want versus need *hmmm*… The best approach is still to make shitloads of money. That way, you can very well afford to want nothing and it won’t hurt as much as if you cannot afford anything anyway.
Wanting is a spiritual instinct. Does a plant “want” sunlight? Our spirit wants to connect with the source of spirituality. Material things are like a grow-lite to a plant, feels good for a minute but doesn’t really satisfy.
So to rectify our relationship with material things we can cultivate detachment. I mean, we are IN the world right now, so let’s take advantage of that, but don’t let it overwhelm us. That’s detachment. You’re here, but don’t let it get you down.
You’re in NYC, right? Google the New York City Baha’i Center. Someone there will be able to talk about it better than I can in a comment box.
Be Happy!
“A true seeker …must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth. ”
- from the writings of the Baha’i Faith http://www.amazon.com/Kitab-i-Iqan-Book-Certitude-Baha-llah/dp/1931847088
Touch screens create fingerprints! Everytime you touch the touch screen, you need to wipe off fingerprints! Touch screens create counterproductivity!! And should all be burnt in a big pile in front of city hall!
Suffering is. That is not escapable. Suffering from wanting, and moreso from clinging, however, is escapable.
Having is not the problem. Wanting is natural. The key is to not mire yourself in that want, and not attach yourself to that which you have.
Enjoy it while you have it, want it only so much as is beneficial. Don’t let your desire turn from a longing for a happiness into a fear of not having *that* happiness. Love everything, including your own self. Have as much patience with yourself as you try to practice having with others; you are just as human.
Oliver – surely living in a way you find morally defensible bests living up to other peoples’ ideas of material acceptability. Or does it? Failure is subjective, but only up to a certain point.
Jeff – I’m not in New York right now, but surely the line between need and want is not clear, but shifts. Things are not one or the other. That’s part of the problem.
@Oliver -if you want nothing then there is no desire to have relations deem your life a success or not :}
Still I think that there is a certain satisfaction in a tuna sandwich that doesn’t decrease when you get it -it might be a fleeting pleasure in the grand scheem of things, but its worth it! Happyness is the fleeting taste of a tuna sandwich.
or icecream…
or cherries….
or a tuna sandwich followed by cherry icecream
Touch screens rule. The fingerprints are messy little analog tracks of your favorite repetitive motions ! Collect them for a while before you wipe them away. See where you’ve been? Pretty . You left tracks !
When I go through periods of contentment without desire, people invariably think I’m depressed…
I think there are things worth desiring, as long as those things are bound to some sort of greater passion (to create, to collect, fireworks, etc.). There’s a sense in which “not wanting” really is a life-denying philosophy, but I don’t think that’s always the case either.
Cats can put their front legs around your neck while you hold them, and rest their head on your neck. It’s close. They have no idea what they’re doing, of course.
@william -I can relate to that, most people would seem to think that a endless desire for consumption is the hallmark of a healthy mind.
I also agree that some thing are worth desiring, but I would hardly claim collecting is a good reason to do so. Collecting, after all, is owning for its own reason. One might not like the product, but purchase it anyway for the sake of collecting. This is the very essence of consumerism.
The phrase false dichotomy came to mind on first reading. But perhaps straw man would be more appropriate. I know the author is aware of the hedonic treadmill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill). Buying stuff, like eating stuff, or smoking stuff, learning stuff, etc. is at least sometimes an attempt to feel whole. Empty self indulgence. I know I do that on a small scale (and as an aside, I think perhaps it what you do with stuff, rather than the stuff that is worthwhile).
In order to be satisfied, the author suggests “you have to learn to want nothing”. I think that end result is being confused with the path. In reverse, if you are satisfied, you want nothing. It is a heck of a lot more meaningful to be okay with yourself and not trying to use stuff as an emotional salve, than to go chasing around comfortable pauperism. If you’re fat, you eat less and exercise, you don’t get liposuction.
Being satisfied is finding something good in life and it leads to wanting less or nothing. So there’s a step missing in “but isn’t wanting nothing giving up on life”. Mind you, being satisfied means that a lot of stuff doesn’t get done (stuff is just an abstract term here if you didn’t figure it out).
The ending is just silly in my opinion, but if you ask me to seriously think about it (which you didn’t)…Girl is actually doing the right thing, she’s identified that she is missing something (comfort, companionship, lack of anxiety, whatever) and has declared that need.
The next step would be to take action. If Cat’s response is what he normally gives, he’s toxic and she might want to start taking some new actions instead of using intellectual pontification as an intellectual salve. And that is the pot calling the kettle black.
One other thing. Even if Girl hasn’t uncovered the underlying reason she wants a hug, an equally annoying, but more helpful comment by Cat would have been a series of Whys.
Why? It is trying when little kids say it and every once and a while it’s because the adult being asked doesn’t want to look into a void they are carefully ignoring.
I dont know what muji is referring to and i only went back one strip to figure it out, but it is sounds like a transliteration of the nepalese word for “pubic hair” which is used as we use “asshole”. It sounds more like mujhi or muzhi. Just what came to mind. I also want a tuna sandwich.
get over your desire to get an iphone and get a G1 or openmoko. At least then you will be supporting linux, the operating system developed by neckbeards and cats all over the world.
Such is humanity. A mess of ideas and fading concepts to form some sort of blob of reality in which we create some form of _satisfaction_ from something or nothing at all. That’s not materialism, it’s everything. Everything is made to satisfy, even if that something changes the meaning of the word.
It’s incredibly easy to change the way you think. If one tries hard enough. But one needs a reason.
Wait, but isn’t the elbow just the second joint along your arm? Cat’s totally have that! The problem lies in their shoulder joints having a limited range of rotation.
No, a plant does not ‘want’ sunlight. Plants grow towards sunlight because a chemical called atropine that stimulates growth in plants is rendered ineffective when exposed to sunlight, so the side that is not exposed to sunlight will grow more, facilitating curvature towards the source of the light. But neat-o try!
This made me rather sad, on the other hand, I love my shiny new iPod touch. Consumption fills the emptiness within my heart, which on reflection; makes me sadder. So I buy more products and consumer electronics: a vicious cycle on which Apple grows fat.
Performance with or without beer (with or without whiskey) transcends wanting, and channels sublimated desire. Though this varies by degrees. But scratching together something in order to take part can cause distraction bordering on shock: thereby submerging presence (though through madness such processes can become performance (though you run the risk of not producing). Also with performance the act of having becomes elusive and performance is itself maladaptive. The cake is there its just moving around so fast you can only mourn its loss.
And as The Doors film suggests: the audience just wants something sacred.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:07 am
Yeah well, once you managed to convince yourself that you “want nothing” you would also need to convince a lot of your relations about the same thing, otherwise they will inevitably coin your lifestyle as “failure”, more or less openly. Ahhh, want versus need *hmmm*… The best approach is still to make shitloads of money. That way, you can very well afford to want nothing and it won’t hurt as much as if you cannot afford anything anyway.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:20 am
Buddhism summarized. Well, just in a very negative way.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:35 am
Wanting is a spiritual instinct. Does a plant “want” sunlight? Our spirit wants to connect with the source of spirituality. Material things are like a grow-lite to a plant, feels good for a minute but doesn’t really satisfy.
So to rectify our relationship with material things we can cultivate detachment. I mean, we are IN the world right now, so let’s take advantage of that, but don’t let it overwhelm us. That’s detachment. You’re here, but don’t let it get you down.
You’re in NYC, right? Google the New York City Baha’i Center. Someone there will be able to talk about it better than I can in a comment box.
Be Happy!
“A true seeker …must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth. ”
- from the writings of the Baha’i Faith
http://www.amazon.com/Kitab-i-Iqan-Book-Certitude-Baha-llah/dp/1931847088
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:48 am
A hug is not a “thing” but an act. To want no thing does not mean that we do not want to act. Life is actions. Possessions are already dead.
Cat is just perverse.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:33 am
[...] Cat and Girl: All or Nothing. [...]
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:34 am
[...] Cat and Girl: All or Nothing. [...]
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:20 am
Why is a touch screen such an important feature these days?
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 am
want does not matter. Need might.
Have a nice eternity.
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
Touch screens create fingerprints! Everytime you touch the touch screen, you need to wipe off fingerprints! Touch screens create counterproductivity!! And should all be burnt in a big pile in front of city hall!
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Wonderful comic. So clever.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
the world needs more buddhist comics
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Very common. I had this same problem.
Suffering is. That is not escapable. Suffering from wanting, and moreso from clinging, however, is escapable.
Having is not the problem. Wanting is natural. The key is to not mire yourself in that want, and not attach yourself to that which you have.
Enjoy it while you have it, want it only so much as is beneficial. Don’t let your desire turn from a longing for a happiness into a fear of not having *that* happiness. Love everything, including your own self. Have as much patience with yourself as you try to practice having with others; you are just as human.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Whatever. I still want an ice cream cone.
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Silly Girl, you can’t get hugs at Muji.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:33 am
Oliver – surely living in a way you find morally defensible bests living up to other peoples’ ideas of material acceptability. Or does it? Failure is subjective, but only up to a certain point.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:38 am
Jeff – I’m not in New York right now, but surely the line between need and want is not clear, but shifts. Things are not one or the other. That’s part of the problem.
January 23rd, 2009 at 4:24 am
@Oliver -if you want nothing then there is no desire to have relations deem your life a success or not :}
Still I think that there is a certain satisfaction in a tuna sandwich that doesn’t decrease when you get it -it might be a fleeting pleasure in the grand scheem of things, but its worth it! Happyness is the fleeting taste of a tuna sandwich.
or icecream…
or cherries….
or a tuna sandwich followed by cherry icecream
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:32 am
How can a cat hug? They don’t have elbows.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Touch screens rule. The fingerprints are messy little analog tracks of your favorite repetitive motions ! Collect them for a while before you wipe them away. See where you’ve been? Pretty . You left tracks !
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Maybe it’s possible to work out which things are actually worth desiring, and stop kicking yourself for desiring them.
Also: Why doesn’t the Buddha hoover under the sofa?
Because he doesn’t have any attachments.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:24 pm
“Cat is just perverse”
And that is why we LOVE Cat.
January 24th, 2009 at 4:17 am
Are there things worth desiring?
January 24th, 2009 at 5:18 am
When I go through periods of contentment without desire, people invariably think I’m depressed…
I think there are things worth desiring, as long as those things are bound to some sort of greater passion (to create, to collect, fireworks, etc.). There’s a sense in which “not wanting” really is a life-denying philosophy, but I don’t think that’s always the case either.
January 24th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Cats can put their front legs around your neck while you hold them, and rest their head on your neck. It’s close. They have no idea what they’re doing, of course.
January 24th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
That is THE SADDEST THING.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:09 am
@william -I can relate to that, most people would seem to think that a endless desire for consumption is the hallmark of a healthy mind.
I also agree that some thing are worth desiring, but I would hardly claim collecting is a good reason to do so. Collecting, after all, is owning for its own reason. One might not like the product, but purchase it anyway for the sake of collecting. This is the very essence of consumerism.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
The phrase false dichotomy came to mind on first reading. But perhaps straw man would be more appropriate. I know the author is aware of the hedonic treadmill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill). Buying stuff, like eating stuff, or smoking stuff, learning stuff, etc. is at least sometimes an attempt to feel whole. Empty self indulgence. I know I do that on a small scale (and as an aside, I think perhaps it what you do with stuff, rather than the stuff that is worthwhile).
In order to be satisfied, the author suggests “you have to learn to want nothing”. I think that end result is being confused with the path. In reverse, if you are satisfied, you want nothing. It is a heck of a lot more meaningful to be okay with yourself and not trying to use stuff as an emotional salve, than to go chasing around comfortable pauperism. If you’re fat, you eat less and exercise, you don’t get liposuction.
Being satisfied is finding something good in life and it leads to wanting less or nothing. So there’s a step missing in “but isn’t wanting nothing giving up on life”. Mind you, being satisfied means that a lot of stuff doesn’t get done (stuff is just an abstract term here if you didn’t figure it out).
The ending is just silly in my opinion, but if you ask me to seriously think about it (which you didn’t)…Girl is actually doing the right thing, she’s identified that she is missing something (comfort, companionship, lack of anxiety, whatever) and has declared that need.
The next step would be to take action. If Cat’s response is what he normally gives, he’s toxic and she might want to start taking some new actions instead of using intellectual pontification as an intellectual salve. And that is the pot calling the kettle black.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
One other thing. Even if Girl hasn’t uncovered the underlying reason she wants a hug, an equally annoying, but more helpful comment by Cat would have been a series of Whys.
Why? It is trying when little kids say it and every once and a while it’s because the adult being asked doesn’t want to look into a void they are carefully ignoring.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
I dont know what muji is referring to and i only went back one strip to figure it out, but it is sounds like a transliteration of the nepalese word for “pubic hair” which is used as we use “asshole”. It sounds more like mujhi or muzhi. Just what came to mind. I also want a tuna sandwich.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Wow, y’all know we’re talking about cartoons here right.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Brent,
MUJI is the name of a Japanese store that sells lots of different kinds of stuff.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:45 am
@Katie – Just because it’s a cartoon doesn’t mean the message is childish.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:11 pm
i love how the punchline came after a pause (a sigh, i imagine) by both the characters. perfect!
laughed a lot
February 18th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
get over your desire to get an iphone and get a G1 or openmoko. At least then you will be supporting linux, the operating system developed by neckbeards and cats all over the world.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
It’s best to want things you won’t have when you’ve used them, such as beer, fireworks, or friends.
February 21st, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Such is humanity. A mess of ideas and fading concepts to form some sort of blob of reality in which we create some form of _satisfaction_ from something or nothing at all. That’s not materialism, it’s everything. Everything is made to satisfy, even if that something changes the meaning of the word.
It’s incredibly easy to change the way you think. If one tries hard enough. But one needs a reason.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:43 am
Wait, but isn’t the elbow just the second joint along your arm? Cat’s totally have that! The problem lies in their shoulder joints having a limited range of rotation.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
@ Jeff
No, a plant does not ‘want’ sunlight. Plants grow towards sunlight because a chemical called atropine that stimulates growth in plants is rendered ineffective when exposed to sunlight, so the side that is not exposed to sunlight will grow more, facilitating curvature towards the source of the light. But neat-o try!
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:40 am
This made me rather sad, on the other hand, I love my shiny new iPod touch. Consumption fills the emptiness within my heart, which on reflection; makes me sadder. So I buy more products and consumer electronics: a vicious cycle on which Apple grows fat.
November 15th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Performance with or without beer (with or without whiskey) transcends wanting, and channels sublimated desire. Though this varies by degrees. But scratching together something in order to take part can cause distraction bordering on shock: thereby submerging presence (though through madness such processes can become performance (though you run the risk of not producing). Also with performance the act of having becomes elusive and performance is itself maladaptive. The cake is there its just moving around so fast you can only mourn its loss.
And as The Doors film suggests: the audience just wants something sacred.