Existential Questions on a Lazy Saturday Afternoon

It's the Christmas shopping season now and there's a good vibe in the air.  I've always enjoyed this time of the year. It's a good time to relax a little and look back on the year that had passed. It's also a good time to catch up with old friends again.

Recently I've been spending a lot of time in the morning taking long walks in the park. One of the regulars there whom I chat occasionally with asked me (after finding out that I'm still single), if I would be concerned about not having any descendants. I find that question very interesting, because the first thing that popped into my mind was: "why should it be?" 

Don't I want to get married and have children to carry on my family name? That seems to be a very reasonable thing to do as a biological creature with a driving urge to procreate. Our genes, are selfish and want to preserve themselves, at our expense. We die, but our genes continue on. That is the whole game of evolution. 

But I did not choose the genes that I currently carry in my body. Where was I before I was born? If it didn't bother me then, why should it bother me when I'm gone? And who and where is this 'I', before and after I'm gone?

Let's say, there's an immortal soul that lives in heaven after one has done one's time on Earth. Does this soul sit in front of a cosmic TV and watch if his descendants are doing justice to his name? Why do we care about our legacy after death? And what makes us think that our post-death souls would be interested in such things?

Is the soul simply our software code and memory state transferred to run on a different substrate after death? What makes souls think that each and every one of them are unique and worth preserving? What defines your uniqueness? Is it your personality--your likes and dislikes, values and attitude towards life and other people, including your many faults and foibles? Is each one of us a unique node in the universe?

If it is, and the project of this cosmic life is simply self-preservation, is procreation a part of the soul's purpose and project? But what about its spiritual goal to reunite with God? The Multiplicity finally merging back into Unity? What happens to your uniqueness then, when you are finally one with God? Will you still be you with your ego and bad attitude, smirking and basking in the final glory of your success?

Those are all very interesting questions and each one of us, I think, tries our best to grapple with the mystery of our existence. Our instinct prompts us to self-preserve and procreate. But if this is the only purpose of our existence, what is considered a 'successful' existence?  Is a man who fathers many children to carry on his genes, a 'successful' individual? 

Surrounded by all these questions, we try to define a purpose for our existence. Some try to make a mark in the world by accumulating as much wealth as possible and perhaps in the process help as many people as possible too, while others dedicate their lives to piety, to find God. They are all noble goals. No one can fault you, if you choose one or any combination of them. Who has the authority to judge you, when everyone is in the same existential boat?

Go, be the human animal that you are. Be fruitful and multiply! And. be the spiritual being, which you think your true self is, existing even after death. Accumulate as much merits as you can, so that you qualify for whatever rewards that the Supreme Being has in store for you, as He (or perhaps his prophets?) has defined it. 

Do whatever you think is right. I think we'll all be alright. We'll all die for sure. And who knows, maybe we'll get a chance to revisit this subject again and compare notes? I'll live for that!

Pain, Par for the Course

I have some time alone today and I am happy to have an hour or two of quiet reflection. There's only another month left to the year. Even though it is raining everyday, this is the best time of the year for me. And I plan to enjoy every moment of it.

How do I enjoy life? What is enjoyment for me? A day that passes peacefully with nothing extraordinary happening is already a great joy for me. My bar for happiness is set very very low, which is why I'm rarely unhappy.

There were moments in my life over the past decade when I did have to face some difficult times but I took them all in my stride and I was grateful that I learned something valuable from those experiences. To be able to sleep well every night is a great blessing and to wake up every morning alive and kicking is already something worth celebrating. Now you see how low my happiness bar is set.

Can money buy happiness? Yes, but it also buys you an equivalent amount of pain. If you want the kind of happiness that money buys, then be strong and wise enough to tackle the pain that comes with it. When you have the capability to accept pain, pain is just pain. You take it on the chin and it ends there. If pain is suffered consciously, in the very moment itselfr, there's no hidden costs or compounding interest to be paid in the form of chronic mental stress.  

Some people see work as stress and recoil from it. But remember, that's also why you get paid for doing the job. Your job exists because there are problems that need to be solved for the business to function. If you want the happiness that a fat salary buys, be happy too to take the stress that comes along with it. 

With experience and wisdom, you will develop the strength to handle different challenges in an optimal fashion. You'll understand why certain things are painful and then you'll learn how not to take the blows, without injuring yourself.

I've written in another blog article how as long as we are in tune with the carrier wave of life, we will never be carried away by peak ecstatic experiences nor be devastated by any misfortune in life. The oscillations of life should not break the fabric of your existence. You are existence-consciousness-bliss -- that's the triple attribute of your true nature, the ultimate state of perfection, untainted by ego and illusion.

All that wanting, desiring and posturing that you exhibit in your mortal life, one day, you'll see how insignificant and petty they are. But at the moment, they don't appear so to you. Your career and your standing in society seem like non-negotiable pre-conditions for happiness. So embrace them with wisdom and maturity. There will be pain. But it's alright. For pain is par for the course.