Unimproving Part 2: The Antidote - Roundtable

In ‘Unimproving Part 2: The Antidote’ we emphasize that trying to improve self is a grievous mistake, but improving knowledge, skills and aptitudes is an excellent path to happiness – when done for the intrinsic enjoyment of the activity and when driven by curiosity.  Seven practical antidotes for self-improvement are then offered. In the Roundtable there were numerous topics raised: the distinction between character and personality; the value of the examined life; the episodic nature of self-concern and self-worry; the experience that it’s almost as if the brain is working against self-compassion and relaxing; the value of nurturing equanimity; distinguishing awareness from the contents of awareness and identifying more with the former; the ego or self as having survival value in evolution; the necessity of practice and the natural letting go more of self-concern as we age; focusing on what I did wrong rather than what’s wrong with me; and how ‘self-ishness’ gets in the way of our nature which is to just relax into being.