Coarse and Fine
To examine this concept, consider the following aspects:
Not Trying
Not Thinking
Not Caring
Being Self-Centered Rather Than Dispersed
Hot Suffering Greed
Not Suffering One of the Forms of Juvenile Delinquency
What exists outside is a mirror of what is inside, and what is inside is a reflection of the mind.
I. Not Trying
A persona may say, "I will try," but is their commitment based on real experience?
Will they try short-term or long-term?
Will they try now or tomorrow?
Or will they try... when it's convenient?
Procrastination is coarseness. Before saying, "I'll try," one must consider:
Is my trying sufficient?
Am I trying the right way?
Trying the same old habitual way—that way that has led to failure in the past—leads nowhere. Only super efforts, sustained over time and directed toward a clear goal, will create meaningful change. When you say, "I'll try," you are expressing an intention—but do you truly mean what you say?
To promise what you cannot do is coarseness.
To recognize your limitations and ask for help is fineness.
To be fine, you must say: "Please help me, for my trying is not enough." Coarseness is evading things, in giving evasive answers, in existing as a generalism rather than an exactitude of intention. Familiarity breeds complacency—taking things for granted introduces a burden of emotion that eventually becomes too heavy to handle.
II. Not Thinking
Thinking must be examined through three key areas:
Judgment
Measurement
Values
Judgment—divide your life into two clear areas:
Will Have - things you accept, embrace and wish to be part of.
Won't have - things you reject, refuse or decline to engage with.
Once you decide what belongs in each category, judgment becomes unnecessary.
If something is in your Will Have area, dwell in it—there is no need to judge it.
If something is in your Won't Have area, walk away—there is no need to judge it.
Judgment is coarseness. People judge because they are weak, lack confidence, or suffer from inferiority complexes.
Fineness is in:
Refusing to engage with what is outside of your chosen areas.
Dealing only with what aligns with your true values.
Hypocrisy is in saving nice things you do not mean. Extend courtesy where it is due, but do not engage where you have already decided not to invest.
Live by this principle: Act in one world (the outer), live in another (your ture, inner self).
Measurement—Don't measure where you want to go. Measure where you have been. Let the spur of yesterday be the accomplishment of tomorrow. Do not allow tomorrow's burden to become today's excuse for failure.
Values—Values should be like quinine, an alkaloid—meaning, they should have the power to warm up and activate the nervous system.
Ask yourself:
Do my values warm or chill others?
Do my values warm or chill the goals I am striving for?
If your values are self-centered, you will become delusional. If your values do not bring warmth, you will become cold. If enough people think coldly of you, they will annihilate you. (Consider this in relation to why teams win or lose in competitive sports—momentum and values determine everything.) If you fall in your values, others will dare to suppress you.
III. Not Caring
Consider the following questions:
Does the world owe you a living?
Is it possible for you to have a true care?
Does the world owe you a living? Not until you earned it. Is it possible for you to truly care? Ask yourself:
Do I seek only what I can get out of something?
Or, do I consider what is possible within it?
If the current possibility is too small, increase it. Load the situation until the possibility expands. Make the circumstances greater than they appear.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Snap decisions limit possibility. Deal with things based on their true purpose—not how they serve you, but on what they are meant to be.
If people grow cold toward you, it is likely because they have invested energy in you with no return. "If you choose to be a vampire, ensure you are not the food." Ensure the majority of your being exists in your own time, your own space, your own direction.
The Nature of Care
Consider children:
If they do not earn something, they do not value it.
If they are given too much, it only feeds their weaknesses.
Ask yourself:
What if I were the last person on Earth?
Would my values still make sense?
Are my values reasonable, or are they shaped by external illusions?
If you were told that Jesus was coming to your home tomorrow, what would be your first though? Would it be about yourself?
The Subtle Tyranny of Conditioning
Consider how fear and expectation are used to control:
Santa Claus is used as a threat—a child is told they must behave or be denied.
Teasing creates emotional tension—loading the system with stress.
Tears represent cosmic action—they occur when deep forces below the emotion fail to manifest clearly.
Laughter engages the lower centers—a release of tension in the body.
Lessons from Ruth: The Power of Saying No
If you mean NO, say NO.
Say it with the correct force—not out of emotion, but out of certainty.
Always say what you mean, and mean what you say.
The Other Three Areas:
Being self-centered, rather than dispersed.
Hot suffering greed.
Not suffering one of the forms of juvenile delinquency
These you should now work out for yourself. Refine yourself. Move from coarseness to fineness. Examine your will, your thinking, and your care.
The answers are within you—if you dare to look.