The second place is a painful illness that I experience as a series of awakenings I call “life”. I will continue to awaken until I accept, understand, treat, and then overcome my condition, at which point my awakenings will stop.
I experience the second place as a permanent, but fluctuating state of desire. I constantly act to satisfy my desires, yet despite my efforts, they remain and even intensify. The second place is an unending cycle of desire and impotent action.
As long as I pursue the relief of my second place desires, my awakenings will persist. Rather than circular solutions which only perpetuate my desire, the descentist treatment focuses on ending my desire altogether, the culmination of which is a return to the first place.
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Next: My story