The Indirect Path to Fitting In

By John Smith

When a person feels that they aren't socially accepted, this is a form of suffering. There is a way to end the suffering, but it is indirect. Changing the focus of our attention from our own condition to the needs of others will necessarily lead us along a path toward integration because our priorities will change. We can't help others without engaging with them, and if we're committed to providing this help then we'll make personal changes to facilitate this social engagement. We'll do things for the people we love that we wouldn't do for ourselves, and therefore the solution is to love more. We'll find our efforts to help others hampered if we aren't socially integrated, and so we'll make changes and compromises that would otherwise conflict with our internal logic. In the process, we'll find that we can make many changes toward social norms that don't actually conflict with our core values or necessitate that we cast off our true feelings of identity. If we know we have more to contribute, and yet we remain on the social periphery and therefore impede our own contribution, then we're like a candle placed under a basket which provides light to no one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Smith
• Release date: Mar 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224149490

John Smith

John was born in Norwich, Norfolk from a merchant family. He made his first dives among the wrecks on the east coast of the North Sea. For few years he worked on British oil rigs and then moved to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt where he worked as an underwater guide. After he moved to Thailand and then to the Philippines. He now lives in Florida where he is a diver and writes novels. His articles on diving and marine biology have been published in many magazines

Book preview