Yes, a completely different and refreshing take on what drives us, binds us and at the end of all blinds us to believe what we normally do and how these beliefs help and destroy us even as we strive to shape our lives in a quest to stay alive forever (read immortality) and end up doing more often then not what we are not designed to (read wasted lives!)
Just look around you- among your friends, colleagues, family members, just across to any random stranger- what seems striking is more then ever in the history of humankind, people in general are living and going about their lives as if they are going to live forever! and when the die (which they technically require to-until you have cyborgs roaming around that is!) it is often the case of misplaced priorities, lost opportunities and a lifetimes’s realization coming in just around the final turn- that what a waste it has been! Well, don’t panic and don’t jump to conclusions as yet, I am not suggesting anyway that all of us are wasted and wasting away- but this is an important anchor point of thought that one must be aware of to be absolutely sure that this is not how you want the last 10 minutes of your existence to be! So what is that we need to do about it and is there anything that we can really do about it!
People go around their lives impacting every other person that they engage with- these engagements and interactions are either sustained (in case of families and friends who cannot escape you) or are those fleeting flashes of encounters which either make to break things for the interacting individuals and at times build psyche that subsequently goes on to impact and alter subsequent engagements and interactions- long term and short term both! The challenge here is to ensure that quality of these engagements and interactions is really high and something that creates a new or a refreshing way of dealing and engaging. Think about this for a few minutes before you race ahead- How wonderful it would be if you are able to spread warmth every day and radiance like the warm winter sun and just brush that off to others around you to encourage them to the same- well sounds poetic and utopian- well it is indeed and this is also one of the reasons why our lives don’t end up being water color portraits is the contexts around us and how we decide to manage and navigate around them. While doing so however what happens is that we tend to become mediocre and start believing more about the context around us rather then reposing that faith into ourselves to prevail and overcome the contextual settings around us!
The net result of having more faith and belief in our contextual settings (read society and everything that is external to you) is that you end up using valuable time pursuing aspects and things that in the end will really not matter and no one will even remember of them having occurred in the next 100 years once the plug is pulled off your physical existence! Somewhere going about this- one experiences flashes of realization like- “This must be stopped”, “This is not what I want to do”, “What am I doing with my life”, but unless there is a sincere and focused effort to take a pause, reflect and seek what really life means for you and how you propose to ensure your idea on one aspect that you have experience can be altered in a way that you remain long after your physical experience is ceased- is the essence of the never ending quest for immortality!
As long as people continue to do things to manage and alter their immediate contextual environments with a myopic vision, they will eventually land up in the dreaded space of realizing towards the end- What a waste it has been!
A possible approach is to lead a mindful way of life- being mindful is all about being aware of what is going on in the moment and within the context of the time in the moment! It has to do a lot with dealing with everything and everyone around you within a set context of time without switching ahead into the future or slipping back into the past and trying to develop weighted perceptions based on the events already occurred or anticipating they may develop. Well this seems all easier said then done- but then nothing worthwhile in our lives has ever come easily – even to evolve to the biochemical machine that we are today- nature has taken millions of years!
There is a reason why we do not see more examples from our times- which we can confidently say will continue to impact and alter the way societies will function three hundreds years from now! Go back to history and stick around the 16th, 17th and earlier part of the 18th century- many of the things that were created, invented then have been the foundation which has enabled us live the lives that we live today- that is the point here! A closer look into the minds and lives of the people who made these things possible has a common thread (no matter which field they belonged to and what contribution they did) of being able to offer something that will stand the test of time and is built on simplicity and effectiveness and with an utilitarian value that reaches out to all sections of the society! This way and this approach is the essence of realizing immortality in a real sense. Immortality through ideas and solutions that go on to serve human kind for centuries after you physically cease to exist!
Pick up that coffee cup and spend some time today and give it a thought- “What is that you are doing with your life and what is that you want to be remembered for ever after – once you are physically taken away by time!
Do keep writing in with your suggestions/requests on what other topics/articles that you would like to share your time on. For coaching, talks, seminars and training programs offered by me towards empowerment and for customized solutions reach me at parimal.aluri@simplifylives.com.
An Aura of Fleeting Thoughts 