Chapter 9. Everything is and isn’t equally valuable

Mr. Clear
2 min readApr 8, 2022

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Our consciousness feels like life is about what happens to us. That life is about having experiences that we want to have. That life is about getting what we want. That life is about achieving our dreams, our purpose, our meaning. That life is about being ultimately happy and satisfied.

And so, it may seem sad and bleak at first, that we‘re going to suffer no matter what. That we’re going to suffer whether we get what we want or not. That we’re going to suffer more the more we try not to.

But our awareness sees that there’s actually freedom in this realization.

If we’re going to suffer whether we get what we want or not, then it doesn’t matter whether we get what we want.

If we’re going to feel dissatisfied no matter what, then there’s nothing we have to be, nothing we have to do, nothing we have to get.

One outcome isn’t better than any other. One emotion isn’t better than any other. One experience isn’t better than any other.

Everything is equally valuable. Every outcome. Every emotion. Every experience.

Our failures are just as valuable as our successes.

Our worst, saddest, angriest experiences are just as valuable as our best and happiest.

Freedom isn’t the ability to be, do, or get whatever we want, it’s the moments in which we recognize that everything is equally valuable, regardless of what we become, do, or get.

Freedom is the understanding that each moment of our lives is valuable in itself, regardless of what it contains.

To be human is to feel like life is about getting what we want. And so, to suffer. Specifically for our consciousness to suffer.

But it’s also for our awareness to see that since we’re going to suffer no matter what, everything is equally valuable. Every single moment. No matter what it contains.

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