Combining passages

Why, though intellectually we are very sophisticated, yet our daily life is such a grind, without any meaning, except survival. Why has life, everyday existence, become such a torture? Why is everyday considered boring when it is essentially the majority of our lives? [1]

Without enjoyment life can be endured, and it can even be pleasant. But it can be so only precariously, depending on luck and the cooperation of the external environment. To gain personal control over the quality of experience, however, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out. [2]

Currently our social systems use pleasure as the inducement to accept norms. The “good life” promised as a reward for a lifetime of work and adherence to laws is built on the cravings contained in our genetic programs. Practically every desire that has become part of human nature, from sexuality to aggression, from a longing for security to a receptivity to change, has been exploited as a source of social control by politicians, churches, corporations, and advertisers. To lure recruits into the Turkish armed forces, the sultans of the sixteenth century promised conscripts the rewards of women in the conquered territories; nowadays posters promise young men that if they join the army, they will “see the world.” [2]

On the one hand, official institutions like schools, churches, and banks try to turn us into responsible citizens willing to work hard and save. On the other hand, we are constantly cajoled by merchants, manufacturers, and advertisers to spend our earnings on products that will produce the most profits for them. The messages are very different, but their outcome is essentially the same: they make us dependent on a social system that exploits our energies for its own purposes. [2]

Sorrow is the result of a shock, it is the temporary shaking up of a mind that has settled down, that has accepted the routine of life. Something happens — a death, the loss of a job, the questioning of a cherished belief — and the mind is disturbed. But what does a disturbed mind do? It finds a way to be undisturbed again; it takes refuge in another belief, in a more secure job, in a new relationship. Again the wave of life comes along and shatters its safeguards, but the mind soon finds still further defenses; and so it goes on. This is not the way of intelligence, is it? No form of external or inward compulsion will help, will it? All compulsion, however subtle, is the outcome of ignorance; it is born of the desire for reward or the fear of punishment. To understand the whole nature of the trap is to be free of it; no person, no system, no belief can set you free. The truth of this is the only liberating factor — but you have to see it for yourself, and not merely be persuaded. You have to take the voyage on an uncharted sea. [1]

I try to be honest about life and my own motivations. But,

Nobody can be completely honest
You will try and have a great deal of success
Exploring your motivation and your dark unconscious depths
But there will be a certain point at which you will say
“Well I’ve had enough of that,” you know?
And do you see how in a strange way there’s a certain sanity in that? [3]

This is an experiment in combining passages:
[1] The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti
[2] Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
[3] Alan Watts: Complete Honesty