Mature Strategies

Pragmatism?

From https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/Meditations2/Section0040.html

[O]ur sense of self is an activity, a strategy for avoiding suffering, for maximizing happiness. We latch onto certain things and say, “This is me. This is what I have to watch out for. As long as I watch out for this, maximizing the happiness and wellbeing of this thing, that’ll provide the happiness I want.” This way of thinking is an activity, a strategy. It works to some extent, but then there are areas where it breaks down because the things we latch onto are all impermanent. No matter how much time we try to dress them up, fix them up, keep them going, they ultimately break down. Form, feeling, perception, thought constructs, even sensory consciousness: They all break down. But we’re strongly addicted to this approach, to hanging onto them as ends in themselves. … Ultimately, though, self as a strategy can only go so far. This is where the not-self strategy comes in. Look at the various things you hold onto, this activity of creating a “me,” or a “mine”: Exactly what are you creating it out of? Look at the raw materials and you’ll see that they can’t possibly be you. They can’t possibly provide true happiness in the ultimate sense because they’re so unstable and inconstant. They’re all stressful because they’re all fabricated. They’re made, they’re intentional. And intentions are inconstant. When the cause is inconstant, how can the result be constant? This analysis, though, goes against the grain. … You let go of the grosser forms of happiness, the grosser strategies for happiness, and get used to more and more refined ones. And they finally take you to the point where there’s no course left but to let go of strategies. All strategies. It’s like painting yourself into a corner. The only way to get out of the corner is not to be anywhere.