Eight Year Olds, Dude

I was thinking about the Buddha. Do you know why he's cool, really?

Legend is that Siddhartha Gautama, when born, was prophesized to either become the world's greatest teacher, or the world's wealthiest king. His father heard this prophecy, and decided to keep his son ignorant of disease, aging, death, and all the things which may force him to think deeply into despair, or compassion. He kept him from learning.

Gautama eventually discovered these things through observation, and it was both this realization, and the fact that he'd been typecast already by his father to be a man of riches, the Buddha realized; "fuck it."

He gave up all his possessions, gave up his wife, and gave up his future as a king to learn a deeper meaning to life.

Why did he want to learn it? Why did he acheive it in the end?

Because he realized that energies are shared. Happiness is shared. The Buddha wanted to learn the meaning of life, because he wanted to make others happy.

That's the most important lesson in my life.

No matter how much money you have, or how attractive you are, or how many things you've bought, or how connected you are, you will never find happiness in material comforts. Not real happiness.

Happiness is the shared laugh after a first kiss in the dark, or the energy of a group of people in a room, truly hearing each other. Sadness is beautiful when it's shared; when disgust divulges to melloncollie.

Emotion is shared. Feed on it.