{"id":8063,"date":"2010-11-29T16:26:03","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T08:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=8063"},"modified":"2010-11-29T17:45:10","modified_gmt":"2010-11-29T09:45:10","slug":"realistic-instead-of-blindly-optimistic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/11\/realistic-instead-of-blindly-optimistic\/","title":{"rendered":"Realistic Instead of Blindly Optimistic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

True Happiness arises
\nonly with Right Effort
\nbased on realistic optimism.<\/p>\n

– Stonepeace<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A hungry father decided to abandon his children to starvation.
\nBefore he left, he tied a bag of sand on a high beam,
\ntelling them that it contains food that should not be touched till he returns.<\/p>\n

For five days, the children were comforted that though hungry, there was food.
\nOn the sixth day, they were so hungry that they opened the bag.
\nRealising there was only sand inside, they died of hopelessness instantly.<\/p>\n

Their optimism had kept them alive earlier.
\nThe loss of hope gave them no more sustenance to stay alive.
\nWas their optimism their worthy food then?<\/p>\n

Somewhat… but their optimism was blind.
\nIt would had been wiser to be realistic, to be non-complacent,
\nto quickly check the food and source for real food!<\/p>\n

Some related verses from Shantideva’s ‘A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life’ in the chapter on Diligence: <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, one who has patience should cultivate zeal [energy; enthusiasm],
\nbecause Awakening is established with zeal,
\nand there is no merit without zeal,
\njust as there is no movement without wind.<\/p>\n

What is zeal?
\nIt is enthusiasm for virtue [and truth].
\nWhat is said to be its antithesis?
\nIt is spiritual sloth, clinging to the reprehensible, apathy, and self-contempt.<\/p>\n

Spiritual sloth arises from indolence,
\nindulging in pleasures, sleep,
\nand craving for lounging around
\ndue to one’s apathy toward the miseries of the cycle of existence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

True Happiness arises only with Right Effort based on realistic optimism. – Stonepeace A hungry father decided to abandon his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[415],"class_list":["post-8063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mix","tag-diligence","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}