0 Self-Made

_19.7.2021_ After more than two thousand years of Buddha's warning, humans are still the same in term of their suffering. People do not learn anything from history. Most people today are much more affluence and prosperous compared to kings in the past. People have access to everything, communication, travelling, foods, and all kinds of pleasures that are possible. And yet people still suffer and unhappy. They do not get better at it. Only suffer differently. Poor people suffer, rich people also suffer, single people suffer, married people also suffer, all suffer from their own desires for more or for something different. Human suffering is self-made. They can escape from suffering, they just don't. Potential is the ability that stay inactive. It's the possibility and capacity. I can read a book per day or even more but I just don't do that. I can do exercise for 8 hours a day, I just don't do it. I can work harder, more focus, more this and more that, I just don't do them. I can have six packs belly, strong limbs, sharp mind, and all I can imagine. I don't meet my potential. I believe that I am what I make myself to be. Now I'm studying Mandarin, I can listen to mandarin audio for 24 hours a day even when I am sleeping if I want to. It will make me master this language faster. I just don't do that. I don't even study one hour every day. That is not the only thing I do. I'm busy doing something else, always something else. It's maybe I have too many wants and agenda. The result is that I get nothing and do nothing significant. It's difficult to be happy because there is no limit for human's desire. People always want what they do not have. It doesn't matter how much wealth they have possessed, it's not enough. Enough is always here and now. If you thing you need more, it will be forever. People think that to feel enough with little is a laziness. It's probably true for some. The reality is that those who have little are often those who work the hardest, worker class. 955 in Western countries, 996 in China. 996 means working from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week. And that is still not enough because they are competing to have more status, stuffs, and wealth. Because it's a competition people will try their best to win. Playing stupid game, winning stupid prize. I think I join the competition as well. When I know that someone get 400 million per month just by being a content creator, I think I can do it too. I also want that sum of income. When I was a student in University, I thought that five millions per month is more than enough for me to live happy life. It was ten years ago, now I see this very differently. I think I should earn at least twenty millions per month to have decent life. When I lived in Jakarta with seven to eight millions salary, I could only meet my basic daily need and live very simply. To work and get that sum, I need to find a good school because I am a teacher. Most people get four to five millions. This is how the competition trap all people from all level. They have their own competition. Those who get 100x more do not work 100x harder. For example a world famous football player earns 1000x more than a local football player. He work at most two or three times harder and get a thousand times reward. It seems not fair but it is the rule of the game, the winner wins all, the loser gets almost nothing. The world famous writer earn 1000x more than local writer. The key is that you must be number one to win all the prizes. This applies to everything. The most expensive car that cost 1000x more than normal car is not even 5x better in quality, not 5x faster as well. The key is to be the best, to be number one. Never compete in the low level because the outcome is very little and the competition is very high. Most people are afraid to meet their true self, their potential. David Goggin said that when you think you have reach your limit, it's just 40% of your real capability. It means that most people do not work hard enough to see their true capacity. People are lazy and fear to the real monster awaken from within themselves. They will transform into their best version that they do not recognize. They are afraid of unknown and terrified of being one. Butterfly and caterpillar are the same individual in different form or stage. Human also can turn into such different individual only after he gives up his old self. It's the journey from zero to hero, or even from zero to one. David Goggin is one example of this. I read his book and watched his videos. I realize that everyone can do the same. I can do the same. He was fat, lazy and broke before he turned himself into fit and successful. It's the journey through hell. One must be willing to suffer to be able to do anything necessary to the top, to be number one, the winner. It's the competition against oneself not others. It's one player game. When one doesn't recognize his own enemy, he has lost the game in the start. The game is to get better every single day and keep going until one turns himself into a master. Most players will give up after several game-overs. As Winston Churchill said, "If you are going through the hell, keep going".