I’m most likely the worst person to write about this lol. There is just this urge to write these stuff and I thought only 1-2 people would read this. Anyway, it doesn’t mean that you should not have ambitions. It doesn’t mean that you should not have objects in your life. But at the same time it could mean that way also. It really depends on your life. There is no one truth or one path that works well for everyone.
Most of the people who are reading this are in quarantine so it is best to analyze yourself while in quarantine. The words are going to fail now. There’s not enough words to describe certain things, emotions, feelings and so on. So words will start to fail and get in the way also as we go on in future articles.
These are my experiences and concepts that resonate with me. If they don’t resonate with you then throw them away.
Part 1 is the path of materialism and part 2 is present moment. This is part 3.
Why So Serious
To the mind, everything is important. Everything matters absolutely. “You must pass this test absolutely or else you will not get a good grade”, “you must get this promotion”, “you must make a lot of money”, “you must win this competition” and so on. While all of these things do matter, in the grand scheme of things, they do not matter absolutely.
All of these matters but they are so fleeting. The high or emotional satisfaction disappears rather quickly. This is the world of objects. Every object that you add to yourself cannot complete you nor provide you with everlasting happiness. Think of the times that you won or received some money and now it is gone. Think of the times that you got a good grade, and now that is over and you are still trying to accomplish a lot of stuff. Still trying to complete yourself or complete the story of you.
There are a lot of people where everything upsets them. It is because everything to them matters absolutely. This must be done. This has to happen. I’ll be happy when this gets done. I’ll be happy when I get good grades. I’ll be happy when I get the body that I want. I’ll be happy when I get the lover I want, the car I want and house and so on. I need good grades. I need to get 10 hours of sleep. I need to study 10 hours without any interruption. I need proper nutrition. If I don’t get this then I will hate myself and my life.
A good example are people who are addicted to video games as well. If you bother them and they lose, they completely lose it. This matters to me. This guy defeated me because you bothered me, now he thinks I’m a loser or that I am bad at this game. But I’m really good. You messed up my image. I hate you.
Everything in this world is temporary. All the objects that you are going to acquire are temporary. You will eventually lose them all. They are all very fleeting. Yes, it is important to have a high paying job, get a car, get a girl, get a house and so on. But at the same time, they are not absolutely vital to have.
Acceptance Of What It Is
Acceptance of the present moment frees you of the changing world of objects. As you pay more attention to the present moment, you will realize that you are abundant, happy and have everything that you need. There is satisfaction and gratefulness in the present moment as well.
The world of objects becomes a game instead of a life and death situation where you must get an object absolutely to complete yourself or fulfill some sort of illusion in the mind. A desperate will to make it, get the promotion, get the money and so on. “I must get this object and if I don’t I’ll be sad and depressed.”
You are clinging to other people’s perception and their words to validate that you made it. “If I become rich, everyone will think I am something or somebody. If I become like Michael Jordan, all the people I know will give me validation and think I am cool.” You are waiting for an insane world full of conflict to tell you that you are good now, and waiting for them to tell you that you are complete. It is so insane if you think about it. You have always been good.
However, if you accepted what it is, surrendered to the present moment, you go beyond hierarchy. You go beyond objects and superiority. The world of objects becomes a game rather than a deadly or serious situation. Hating the world of objects would put you back into the hierarchy and superiority. Instead, you understand it. It has its uses, ups and downs but ultimately, you understand that it is not as important as you make it out to be.
Your Circumstance Is Not Your Life
The circumstances that you find yourself is not your life. You may lack a lover, a house, a car, and so on, and you may say “f*ck my life”, it sucks. This is just your situation. This is not your life, life is the present moment. Your circumstances are fleeting also. If you live in the USA, even if you lose all of these stuff, some guy in a third world country will still trade places with you. So if you look at the present moment, you are is still good. You are looking at your life the wrong way because you are comparing it to some imaginary future scenario that you think will make you happy.
This is hard to explain lol. I will come back to this.
The Ego’s Need For Problems, Conflict And Enemies
There is this feeling of incompleteness, inferiority and the need for validation. When you get the validation, your ego gets inflated. So the inferiority and feeling of incompleteness disappears. However, it only disappears temporarily. It comes back again, and again and again which is why people need validation or ways to inflate their egos all the time. It is practically saying inflate me tomorrow or I will make you feel miserable.
Your inferiority and incompleteness comes from the world of superiority and hierarchy. If you are not getting praises or if you are not better than people then you are below them. The ego gets its sense of self by comparing your self image to others. The ego always compares the objects that you have, the abilities that you have, and even morality that you have against other people. There is a viable need for conflict and to have enemies. The more enemies you have, the more your ego gets inflated. It gets inflated when other people gives your self-image some validation. This validation maybe negative or positive. It can also inflate itself if it feels superior to other people.
You may think that this problem only exists with instagrammers or influencers but in reality, this exists in everyone. There is a need to inflate your ego or else you will feel bad and insecure. To take away the bad feelings, you try to find ways to inflate your ego. There is a need to be in conflict with others. There is a need to have enemies in your life. If you have enemies, you can feel morally superior as well. These people are bad while you are good morally.
You may think that having all the money in the world will make you feel complete and happy but it won’t. You may think that having money will protect you but it won’t. A lot of rich people are snobby and very egotistical. The easiest way for them to inflate their ego is to make other people feel bad. They may look at Ed Sheeran and say something like, “that guy can sing, but he is like a dog, just here to entertain us. Come on doggy, woof woof for us.” You may think I am exaggerating but they are really snobby like that. It is not just rich people, some people who got a little bit of money start to act like this also.
It is just this human behavior where there is a need to feel superior to others. Everyone has it. So rich people are as miserable as you.
Suffering
The ego will take you and drag you to different types of conflict. The ego will create so much suffering for you. The weirdest part is that the people who have practically no more ego and very peaceful are the ones who have suffered a lot. So while the ego will take you all the way to hell, there is hope because it oftentimes self destructs itself once enough suffering has been reached.