"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving."
- Albert Einstein
We are born. We study, find a job, get married, have children, grow old. And die. In between, we chase money, fame, physical intimacy, knowledge and indirectly, happiness. But is that all there is to living, or life? Ultimately, the answer has to be individual. You have to ask yourself...
“An unexamined life is not worth living”, said Socrates the Wise One. Socrates lived in an era when people had the time to 'stand and stare'. Today, let alone examine our lives and what we are living for, we don't even have time to examine the import of his statement. There was another Wise One, this time a Chinese sage, Taoist, who implored God: "Let me not be reborn in interesting times."
Unfortunately, we are living in very interesting times. Life is a soap opera today and we are all glued to it. Wars, bombings, riots, assassinations, yo-yo stock markets, seesaw politics, vulgar scandals, list is unending. As if real life is not enough, reel life offers still more engrossing entertainment. We cannot peel our eyes and conscious off the scenery to see where we are going, what we are doing, what are we on earth for…?!?
Entertainment is but only one item on the menu offered today. 'Consume' is the banging jingle. Buy. Acquire. Make money to buy and acquire. Make time to make money. The lure is gratification of needs. And needs can be created and added on by slick ads. The bait is a whiff of future happiness, after you acquire the latest product, but the hidden aim is to keep you unhappy, in want, else why would you keep on buying and consuming. So you work your ass off. Acquire some goodies, fail to acquire many others. You remain unhappy, forever fatigued, but busy; in no condition to ask the existential questions. In any case, popular wisdom dissuades you from philosophizing, tells you to be practical that is, engage yourself ever harder in solving your endless material problems. Indeed, a case of an entire culture conspires against man, more insidiously and resolutely than it ever has been in human history.
Quite threatening and disappointing is the scenario, isn’t it? Relax. We are not here to get distressed but de-stressed! We are trying to find a (re)solution to an eternal question – What next? Well, we will take a holistic approach to unwind the complicated things by unlearning some of the basics that we’ve got wrong. The simplest and best way to start this expedition is by changing our R-O-U-T-I-N-E. The key to balancing the material and the spiritual life lies in living them in cycle. When you lead your daily life consciously, the two become one. Until this delicate equilibrium is won you can enjoy the see-saw ride of ups and downs.
To take a baby step towards our new horizon, we are simply going to have only two types of days – Working and Non-working. No third type of day would be allowed or even considered. Maintaining the ratio of W/N to 80:20 is your individual responsibility though! What we have here is a guideline to S-P-E-N-D both type of days in a holistic manner as far as possible and try to make best of them so that you can present yourself so helpful and functional that society offers you everything, before being asked of…! Now this is not a wishful thinking but a very strategic, systematic, structured and organized effort that you should have been taught long ago. Never mind. No time is wrong to start a right thing. Just read it, understand it if you would prefer and start observing with a doubtless and faithful mind right away. Unfortunately this doesn’t come with a money-back guarantee but I can assure you a wonderful life-changing experience for sure. Go ahead and experiment with life…!
Stay tuned and keep practicing...!
Don't forget to watch The Green Beautiful here
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