After an entire lifetime of conditioning to excel, consume and compete, to be the best and show it by having the most and best stuff, how does one go about getting to the core of who we are and why we’re here? Is there a reckoning at some point in life where we realize that we lost the meaning or missed the point of living?
Do those of us who communicate with modern technology, such as these blogs, owe it to those who may be reading, to think out loud and attempt to solve the oldest riddle on earth – why do we exist?
My best clue has been a passage from the great Yogi and Sage Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi “Man’s real nature is happiness” but this seems a little too simplistic and causes concern in that being happy all the time might be impossible, or indicate complacency and a laziness in not attempting to answer the other questions such as “what should we be doing with our life to give it meaning?”. Add in a cliche or two like; “no pain no gain”, or; “there’s no easy way out” and we’re reminded that it’s overcoming adversity that builds character, also that the sweet taste of success can only come from something that is not too easy to achieve. This would lead a person to believe that we should set our goals higher, live better and strive for some material gratification.
Probably in the answers to all these deep questions there’s a happy medium, like in most things but a couple of things about life seem fairly certain; you only get one that matters now, and from a historical point of view, it’s about equal in length of time to the blink of an eye. This begs the question is it important to leave an imprint or better to have lived well and left nothing? Or as the young ego-driven fool would say “live hard, die fast and leave a nice corpse”.
So many questions, added to which could be; is it a waste of valuable time to be asking questions to which the answers are entirely theoretical? or a waste of time pondering the theories behind the answers? now those are good questions.
So let’s assume that it’s fair and fine to want material things, gratification, acknowledgement and happiness (in reasonable doses). Assume that we’re on the right trail, so to speak, in terms of fulfilling our highest and best use of a lifetime on earth. Now let’s say that we’ve been handed a relatively good set of circumstances, good health, kind support from a solid family and the incredible good fortune to have lived during an era, and in regions, where there’s been no conflict, famine or pestilence. Does this raise the bar for what a person should aim to achieve, in return for such good fortune? or is it just plain good luck and that person should just enjoy the ride?
How about borrow a scripture from the Bible? Be not wise in thine own eyes. In all ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. That works for me…
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