Awakening to the Wonder of Existence

It has been a reasonably productive week for me. I still have a lot of unfinished tasks, but Saturday is my day to focus on writing. I chose Coffee Bean at Nu Empire today for my blogging session. Saturdays are not the best days to go to malls, as the weekend crowd can be quite overwhelming at times. People work all week in stressful jobs they hate, and on weekends, they have a chance to dress sloppily in their shorts and flip-flops and just relax with a late breakfast and coffee without having to bother about time. 

I woke up early today at 5am because I had some errands to run. I've been trying to go to bed earlier, at the latest by 10pm, but I have not succeeded so far. This remains a very elusive goal of mine. But I will continue trying. I guess the key is to let go of all mental pursuits as night progresses. I consider myself lucky that sleep comes easily to me because I'm usually quite exhausted already when I do succumb to it.

Every day when I wake up, I consider that a blessing. It's another to be filled with productive work and the pursuit of understanding. And when I go to bed tonight, I will be grateful that sleep comes easily and inevitably. I will be filled with gratitude: I've experienced a little bit more, having lived another day, and hopefully I've maintained my trajectory of growth.

I've never lived solely to seek extreme thrills nor material wealth. But I respect and understand people who would want to make those their foremost pursuits. To each his own. We are all genetically different and are cast into the world with unique strengths and weaknesses. We use our strengths to work on our weaknesses. And we all play with the hand we're dealt. 

 I've always been driven by a desire to understand life and nature. Most people do, to a certain extent. Some find answers in the religion that they are born into or chanced upon later in life. When some answers for some reason appeal to their intuition, they feel a kind of religious ecstasy. For some, that one moment of insight is sufficiently transformative that their entire lives are henceforth lived with greater purpose and clarity. 

For others, that is just the beginning. Their dalliance with religion sometimes leaves them unconvinced.  So they shun all naive spiritual pursuits as mere superstition. The religious ones would see these people as 'not getting it'. If only they had the humility to open their hearts to the divine, their lives would be totally transformed. I get why they are saying that.

Are religious people 'happier' than atheists? Certainly not. Nor are atheists more intelligent than the 'superstitious' believers. Both have demons of their own to fight. Both sides suffer from the smugness of certainty. We are all humans grappling with the mystery of existence. Some prefer to use the term 'universe' rather than God(s). That impulse to know, understand, connect and experience the world we find ourselves in is the beginning of science and spirituality. 

To me, the quest is the same, whatever you choose to call it. And each waking moment of ours has to be spent in its pursuit. I find religion to be a useful record of humanity's quest towards this end. They have captured their insights in rituals and scriptures. No single religion has a monopoly on wisdom; they all have to be studied as attempts towards truth. 

Science treads carefully towards the same end. The scientific community, being made up of humans are also susceptible to dogmas and false beliefs, not unlike its religious counterpart. But at least, scepticism is baked into the scientific method. A good scientific theory declares its axiomatic beliefs from the outset, and if they are ever found to be false, new ones are speedily proposed. Through mathematics and science, we are constantly reexamining and pushing the limits of human understanding. 

Both science and religion are my hobbies. My pursuit of both has been lifelong. With them, my days are constantly filled with insight, wonder and excitement. Whether through scripture or equation, ritual or experiment, the quest is the same: to live awake to the wonder of existence, and to let each day be a step toward understanding.