Compulsive Striving

Previous essays: “Striving Is a False Concept: To Strive Is to Err, to Exert Is to Fall Short,” “Spiritual Practice Is a False Concept,” and “The Exam-Taker’s Malaise”

I. Striving is itself a malaise; striving means tension and misdirected effort.

The basic reasoning behind the axiom of innate wholeness: everyone’s intrinsic nature is already doing its utmost. Applying brute force after that only means exhausting oneself and going wrong.

“Why Striving Is to Err and Exertion Is to Fall Short, Viewed Through Connection”: in education, career, social life, body, and mind, any exertion or striving signals a mistaken, unnatural state. The relationships that require effort to sustain are precisely the toxic ones.

Wealth lies in methods and calculations, not in bodily toil; profit lies in circumstances, not in laborious tilling. (*Discourses on Salt and Iron*, Western Han dynasty)

Meaningful action and metacognition do not require “striving.” Intrinsic nature and libido will act of their own accord. Leave things to intrinsic nature and libido; leave them to fate.

Say goodbye to “Compulsive Striving.” Make resting, refraining from exertion, and “striving” to heal compulsive striving the only thing to “strive” for—and come to understand all the more how difficult rest is.

Once you have rested well and your mental energy has recovered, the cycle of natural unfolding–problem–answer takes place; abundant mental energy can give rise to all things. Follow the Dao. “Abundant Mental Energy Is the Buddha; Rest Is the True Scripture”

II. Striving means tension: it is both a result of anxiety and a defense mechanism

Result

It is somatized behavior driven by anxiety, as well as reaction formation.

“The Real Enemy: Chronic Tension and Mental Fog,” the malaise of internal depletion under capitalism: intense competition in the wider environment leaves no room for being ordinary or muddling through, instead forcing people into tension and denying them relaxation and rest.

Defense:

People struggle to cope with toxic shame, a harsh superego, existential nothingness, freedom and responsibility, and the gaze of the Other. They perform striving and lash themselves, draining their mental energy to hasten a collapse, so as to avoid facing life and escape freedom.

Previous essay: “The Internal Contradictions of Libido”

III. Striving is a way to fail, to evade success, to evade getting better

People—their libido and intrinsic nature—know how to get better, but are unwilling to do so. They remain stuck in their complexes, in familiar pain. Karmic obstructions.

Striving is a way to evade relaxation, to evade the reality of the present.

Because success and getting better make life, relationships, and the present more real, bringing one face to face with reality, freedom, responsibility—with Cthulhu. Like a dog pretending its leash has not come loose, or a bird unwilling to leave its cage. Reality is good, but it is always close to pain. The self fears pain.

Success and improvement would make the ego and its world disappear, die, and the ego reacts intensely to “negation”; the ego fears negation. A case often discussed in psychoanalysis is that people evade success to remain loyal to their families of origin.

The reality is that no one loves or sees you, and you do not “need to depend on” others either: the present is complete. You love yourself and see yourself. Only such a person will be seen and loved. Conditional goodness and love versus unconditional goodness and love: two psychological paths and two philosophical paths.

Striving is a way to evade being yourself and loving yourself, to evade living in the present.

Previous essay: “The Degree to Which You Live in the Present Is Life’s Core Measure”

IV. Society’s compulsive striving

Children from the lowest social strata in rural areas learn learned helplessness, work on assembly lines, and grow numb through repetition. If they lie flat, they are denounced as useless; all along the way, they are criticized for not striving hard enough. This is systemic exploitation and psychological manipulation by society. They have already exhausted themselves.

Proletarians have a deeper philosophical understanding of inability, powerlessness, and going with the flow, and are also more tranquil and more rooted in living in the present. The petty and very small bourgeoisie, especially exam-takers, are different: they spend their entire lives trapped in compulsive striving and alienation.