Life is always fluid. There is no end to what awaits us at the next moment. In life each goes his own way doing their own things with little or no regard to the other even where one lives in a relationship.
Part of the problem is that one tries to be in control and feels that things ought to revolve around the self and when this no longer happens one fails to either see the logic of being or appreciate aspect of the starting short sentence of this blog.
This being so: No wonder that we struggle. Always struggle to bring an authentic way of being in the form of a compass which guides us. The religious have their set norm: Such an upbringing ensures that there is a focus… a clear one on the horizon which way to be. The problem with this is that each and every one within any given unit have to have ascribe to a way of being. Where there is no consensus; problem emerges. And one often wonders why this may be so.
The nature of material life is that it has its own pulling power which forces us onto adopting norms which are ensnared with desires whether these may be plain aesthetic, physical, social, mental or emotional.
The strange thing is that the doer feels that one knows as this is a clear way forward. The pursuit of hedonistic happiness is the be and all of everything. One is so sure of this that one life becomes the measure of such a process. And so we may engage in all forms of living; just to seek a little or some happiness. In that pursuit to be sure we may fail to acknowledge and or appreciate what lies beyond such a veil- style of living. In this process; we may likely ignore to see the what is. And so contented with our new style… we became simply pleasure seekers.
Desires and pleasures go a hand in hand. To some extent even the witnessing that others adopt such a standard becomes the norm or a way to be. One may not be able to do anything, Just observe and see how things unfold. One sees that doers are those who take on a platform of engagement in the mode of reactionaries who just do things at a level where more pleasures are sought. Our comrades often would even remark… Is this not what life is all about?
They might say that even the foundation of a family life is based on desires between two people in the first place and that in itself yield to a cycle of maintaining desires without which family life, groups, nationhood and world may become defunct. Our friends may indeed be correct in their initial observations as it is indeed desires that is the norm for aspects of material society.
However, the observation fails to appreciate that there is another realm which calls into question just to simply make mundane desires as a way to be! And that is to seek out and or search for a way to be not governed by instinctive desires but verily check out if there is anything more to life than a mere plain desires way of living.
To be sure such a query will question our friend’s way of being. It would also question the ides that all life is just about seeking happiness and avoidance of pain and suffering. Humans have developed sophisticated means of creating pleasures in the forms of games/sports/cinema. On another level they have also created music and the arts and theatres and or other forms that are attractively to the mind. However, in many ways they all contribute to that form of happiness.
The question always remain is there a different realm or must one always engage in a certain way of being that is to keep grobbling about as if this the only way? Proponents are quick to justify that theirs is the best way to be because to a large extent they conform to the wider or perhaps a norm in that there is justification for a particular way of being. So we deride what others do or may not do putting our way of being or dare I say our new found way on a pedestal while relegating others.
As I continue delving in this blog; it is emerging that there may perhaps not be a particular way of being in life in the world but what remains is simply a question of how we see things in life. Or there may not be a certain way to be but perhaps it is about a question of seeing where our own preferred allegiance may be and by so doing we take sides and or life process becomes a question of Either/Or!
On another view it is not even a question of Either/Or but simply to be there and or perhaps taking note of and of stock of the life process. For a renunciate the ways of the world, the norm of a life may not be seen in the same vein as one who is starting on the road to appreciate life may come the reply.
Appreciation may well involve exploring the multi forms of models of happiness and aspects of desires which unfold perhaps from senses which are in its prime whilst the renunciate may only see beyond and above the mundane and yet it is precisely through the mundane that one may come across ways which questions everything. But then we are told that a fool learn from the his own mistakes whilst the wise learn from the mistakes of others!
When all is said and done the clarity or lacks of it becomes one’s vision to be based on a choice whether one seeks to adopt a more mundane or purely materialistic form which subjugate us into living a la reactionaries. Or perhaps choosing another way that of being in the mode of proactive where things are questioned at all times so that there is not an acquiescence to any form of passive residual form of living where one enters a non- natural mode or let us say a passive way of being in spite of comprehending that any blind hedonism needs be put to the test. To some this may not be done as there is already an adoption of a certain way to be as already hinted and which is what we are discussing herewith. But then who am I as a writer to stress on the importance of being proactive: Perhaps all living is to be reactive to some thing or event as it unfolds or life as it appears. The question remains though: Does one has to be in a mode of being which to be sure merely seek those pleasures at the expense at torturing one’s bodily self? Or should the wise be more alert
And so: What does it mean to be aware? Who knows? I like to leave this to the reader to make his own conclusions and decide what or how to be?