Enthusiastic effort 2

All human activity is not effort, and all effort is not enthusiastic. So there is room for improvement.
The key to this improvement is mind. Mind is intention, means and also result.
Often we describe the goals as non mind, like making money, supporting a family with a home, food and everything else and having a family.
But this is really mind. The evaluation of these factors are mind, often strengthened by instinct.
Even negative incentives as punishment and social degradation are mind.
Mind can support these ideas or negate them totally or in different combinations. Sometimes money is preferred instead of family, sometimes family harmony is preferred to money.
In many social situations we have obvious material goals like a certain house, a car, a family, a job. But if we have the mind perspective nothing of these external factors are important.
It is convenient to have some material facilities, but the essential factor is the processes in mind, and they can reach heaven - literally - without having any obvious, material effects.
The results can be transferred and communicated, if there is a willingness to listen.

We can do anything 2

Existentially we are responsible for our own actions. It is a nuisance. It would feel better if we could blame God or someone else. But we can not.
The world we live in is complex. What is good and what is bad? Maybe it is impossible to see the difference?
No, the difference is in our intention. If we will others good, it is good. If we will others bad, it is bad. If we consider the idea of good for me, bad for you, it is bad. But it is good to calculate good for you and me.
What are the prospects, can humanity as a totality grow up from a childish, irresponsible level, to a grown up responsible state? The prospects are good.

Past and present 2

Intention is the most important factor deciding the future. Intention is obvious in doing material things like building a house. If we build a house, we have a house.
But intention is more than that. Intention decides if the life in the house will be nice or bad.
Intention is something we all have. It is something happening in our mind. Sometimes we do not know why. We just have a strong will to do this or that.
So intention is often bad. If we have been treated badly, we feel it to be quite normal to react negatively. We want revenge.
However, we get what we want. If we want revenge, we will get revenge - on our self.
If we want a nice future we need good intentions, always and towards all.
Is this a natural, spontaneous life? No not for all.
But we can learn. The intention producing mechanism in mind can be developed into having nothing but positive intentions.
There are so many things in this world we as specific individuals have no access to, but we always have access to the intention producing mechanism in our mind.

Cognition

We try to understand the external reality. It is called cognition. If we make a correct observation it is called valid cognition.
We organize our knowledge in mind under concepts. It is a natural filing system.
These basic functions can give diverse result. The result we prefer is decided by our attitude and intention.
So truth is not a simple thing. There are many truths as there are many ways to see the world. Many attitudes can be supported by valid cognition.
If we feel for war, that can be supported by valid cognition.
If we feel for peace, that can be supported by valid cognition.
The decisive factor is in our intention. If we want to see other persons and reality as nice, it can be supported by valid cognition.
Reality allows for a wide choice of attitudes. So we have to make up our mind ourselves. What is best, really?