I don't need to elabrate on what that is...well,ok, not seeing anything pure, laughing at love, honor, character, beauty. Feeling that life is devoid of goodness and purity, and therefore it is best to laugh at it, and at those wanting nobility.
Personally, my life has been a slow change-- or should I say, a return to a place where I felt I was really-- really-- me; and there was no judgement of "me" as it was-- natural, loving, sensitive and emotional. Are we all not that? men, women, soldiers and teachers? Life can throw you so many curves; and you have know how to catch them, or simply evade them, and then continue being open, strong, friendly, giving, and creative for your inner soul's sake, and even your sanity, since there's no sanity in cynicsism. First a cynic, then a (insert any evil condition here). I feel that I have compromised sometimes due to pressure-- but we are humans, and adaptability is what keeps us safe, and perhaps by little compromises we can hold on even stronger to our true integrity, till it's safe to go back to who we really are as conditions around us change. Perhaps this is too vague for you to understand, but it's better than a full biography, and being this general gives me a full view of myself, to later think in details about it, and examine the situation much more close. When the conditions are proper for openess, sincerity, confessions, sharing, expression, forgiveness, generosity, fearlessness, and true love, we find ourselves expressing those naturally, but if the conditions are of judgements, competition, prejudice, separation, alienation, explotation, suspicion, war and hate----then we close up, and participate on all of that, and we become something else for a while, for the sake of protecting oursleves, and to 'belong' to something even if that something is stealing even who we are. We are social creatures, and belonging is part of what we consider useful for survival, both of our sanity and the body. We have this ingrained in our very genes-- to survive we have to do what we have to do, and who hasn't compromised at some point? I think both the total cynic and the total resistor heads for disater eventually, so if we are careful we will judge where our sanity is at most danger and choose the path of less harm and less disaster. I hope you catch my drift, but if I need to elaborate more, don't hesitate to ask. Your HIP brother Hari.
No, because if I go into a situation with a semi-closed heart I am not going to have a completley open experience. That doesn't mean I go into things blind, just open. imo you can exercise common sense without being cynical
I think I have a healthy balance of the two. I'm open, yet I'm also not naive in thinking that everything is always a bed of roses. I wouldn't want to be completely uncynical, as I believe it could be to my disadvantage, make me much more vulnerable, so to protect/prepare myself for the worst, I almost always have a little doubt in me, call it pessimistic if you will. Many times, more often than that, it's undetectable by others, more of something I keep to myself, yet it's still there.
That's the spirit! I think of myself as realist more than cynical... I just lowball my expectations to minimize disappointments.... in the immortal words of Linnell and Flansburgh: "If it wasn't for disappointments I wouldn't have any appointments"
