Right Aspiration

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The second step of the Noble Eightfold Path to Enlightenment is Right Aspiration.  What is “aspiration”?  It is a hope or ambition of achieving something.  What is our hope for ourselves and others?  What is it that we hope to achieve for ourselves and others?  Are we doing the things we do for the right reasons?  What motivates us to do what we do?  What are the reasons we do what we do?  Are we striving to put kindness, compassion, and peace into the world or are we mean-spirited?  Is our goal to be a stumbling block to others or a helpful guide?  Are we pure of heart and full of love or are we resentful of others and envious of their successes?  I recently saw a meme that went “I am not in competition with anyone.  I want us all to make it”.  Competition and wanting to be number one might be great in sports but I am not sure it is great way to relate to other human beings.  My aspiration for myself is to be happy and content with as little stress and suffering as possible.  My hope is that everyone else has this same experience.  My desire is to help others experience this as much as possible and to hopefully never do anything that prevents it.  I guess at the end of the day my aspiration is to always have Right Aspiration.