There is something both frustrating and exhilerating in being human.  To ignore this condition and wish for some other one to prevail is also very human.
The only way that I can see to face the situation is full on.  Toward this end this is a start.  How do you measure the music?

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on�;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son !

~ Rudyard Kipling

"When I was a child I spake as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things" I CORINTHIANS 13:11


 Pada III. Sutra 19

Pratyayasya para chitta jnanam
"By Samyamah on thought comes the knowledge of the highest consciousness"

After perpetual consciousness is established, every thought is purely witnessed. Since this is so, it becomes possible to use the thought process itself as the vehicle of samyamah. When this is done, the ultimate level of consciousness becomes known.(*)
Thought is the result of the energy of life colliding or resonating with previous impressions. This movement is itself nothing other than consciousness vibrating. If the vibration is completely understood, consciousness will be understood. This becomes increasingly true as the thought manifesting from the Ascendant is less and less distorted by previous impressions. These pure thoughts are the rtam thoughts discussed at the end of the first chapter. By Samyamah on such thoughts, one rises quickly to knowledge of Unified Consciousness, for the distance to be traversed is not large. Focussing on pure rtam thought, or rather, resonating with the One while focussing on a pure rtam thought and simultaneously experiencing Ascendant Consciousness takes one without delay to the knowledge of the full range of thought.

(*)--Contained within this ultimate value of consciousness are the individual, localized impulses of consciousness of everyone and everything else.
Therefore, since one knows his or her own Self, one knows the Self of everyone else. This leads to a secondary translation of this sutra: By samyamah on thought comes knowledge of the consciousness of others.

THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI
a new translation and commentary
By -MSI-

Joe, age 46,
In your own words, what does this mean in relationship to being a human?  Unless you think this is a posting competition.  Is this the creep of a sticky ego crying for attention?

Being human is subjective.
To the unenlightened it is ups and downs, happiness and sadness, an ongoing evolution of feelings to find eternal happiness.
To the enlightened it is an evolution into consciousness.
The passages I posted have everything to do with being human.
It's all in your perspective.

You posted a favorite passage from a poet on the subject.
I posted a passage from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
What, is there a problem? I don't see a problem John, do you see a problem?

Joe,
Thank you.
I see no problem with you posting your thoughts.
I do see one with you subverting every post and turning it into a forum for what you believe.  You are selling your point of view as if you were a salesman or looking for some one to follow you.  I know you see this.  Everyone else does.  You are trying to turn this board into your domain.  Is this fair?  I ask you for an answer.  

I disagree.
A topic is posted and I apply my thoughts to the topic.
Simple enough.
My mind is rather one pointed, without much thought and always anchored in the absolute which may be the reason for my bringing everything back to the same.
If you don't want response perhaps you should remove the little reply link in each post and close the forum to like minded individuals and call this a cult forum.

Joey must continue for his own sake.  To quit likely would disrupt his precarious mental stability, and to be aware of this fact would also lead to the same end.  So, since he can neither quit nor recognize his own need for not quitting, he is compelled to project his mentations relentlessly without thought.  An interesting side effect of this obsession is for him to characterize himself to those who question his obsessive behaviour as 'merely enjoying himself' or 'learning' or perhaps even 'following the voice of God'.  The only way out of this for Joey is to stick with it until his antagonists quit, or until he is forcibly removed.

8)

Joe, lets look at this another way. From where I'm standing, you are the 'unenlightened.' For me, life is a series of ups and downs, and there is no desire to transcend this. To glory in the ups, to fight the downs, and then to die (as in 'stop existing') - to me this seems not pointless, but glorious.

[quote]Joe, lets look at this another way. From where I'm standing, you are the 'unenlightened.' For me, life is a series of ups and downs, and there is no desire to transcend this. To glory in the ups, to fight the downs, and then to die (as in 'stop existing') - to me this seems not pointless, but glorious.[/quote]

I've stood in that spot once.