We have travelled a both deliberate but also extremely undeliberate journey. The second we were conceived, we have already started a narrative where every moment, every mundane one even, is getting to where we are now and where we will be in future. With this in mind, NOT looking back into one’s childhood to as far back in the memory as possible, is foolish. Even with the difficulties. It’s like a Pokémon game, where you start in your bedroom, and you make the first step in the whole game. Was it up, down, left, right? Some of the more seasoned veterans would start by changing the “text speed” to “fast” before making any step! Anyway, this dive into the first steps we have taken in our lives, the first 100,000 steps, the first billion steps, will allow us to understand the conscious and subconscious shaping of the five w’s that are drilled into us in Western early education. Of course, with diligence to ensure we don’t spiral our minds into oblivion given the complexity and intentionality required in this process.
Seeing society as it is now, and reading the early parts of Ikigai, I understand the comparison better: a more natural way of living vs. the capitalistic rat race we live in with “no limitations” pushing us into this mindset of created unbound success, which is actually just deeper complex and subconscious bound misery.
Understand what the deepest point of survival is: think of it from an absolutely primal age. Primally, the only reason to survive is from a biological point. All threats were real threats.
But other than such threats you were constantly relaxed, enjoying life. Indeed, back then life was really about the survival of the fittest. Yet even to this day,
It still is the survival of the fittest. Everything about ourselves are moulded by the story tellers who have lived to tell the tale. We still live by the survival of
The fittest metric, although more complex. These days we lack the abundance of a real threat yet we have billions of tiny threats which have been “matrixed” to perceive far more seriously than it should: hence one part of the complexity. Look further from the outside than so up in front of your nose. Align the dots together. How old do you have to be to care about what true survival means again? We link survival instincts and absolution to frivolous things: tech, status, money, feeling good, whatever it may be. It’s a disservice to the lineage of mankind and a disservice to the balance of nature, how egocentric humans have become. Escape the matrix by first being aware of it through your conscious sufferings and then applying simplification. The people you spend time with, you barely even know yourself: stop trying to know everyone. Pick a few, trust your gut, if it blows up on your face, reset. Restart. Love all, trust few. Ikigai brings up a tribe concept, where a strong community looks after one another genuinely. Living in Sydney, I can say the broad community, definitely no tribe. Yet we are who we surround ourselves with. That is a choice. Cherish and appreciate. Contribute to it, live up to a sense of duty.
The more you know the less you know, right? So a big question that comes to mind is: at what point do you stop? At some point you realise trying to figure out the world is a futile effort and quite self destructive. Be simpler. I’m concerned that the more things become convenient, automated, the more humans begin to innovate and evolve/devolve. The rate of change is so fast I’m concerned human limitations will come first before any breakthroughs in truly improved ways of living.
So again, I revisit the question: what is the ultimate goal of life? Inner peace. My other question I think about is, how do we achieve this optimally through training the new generation, the children? Martial arts is an excellent answer I have lived and can think of. Nothing too extreme that it breaks you. Anything too deep too fast can break you. Be mindful of the signs where things are becoming too much. Although a few times in your life, these “crisis” moments will define you for your life. A great reset! Early age stress inducing environments, within hormesis, is excellent ways of exposure to kids to learn how to cope with stress. Not just the stress of the mind but a more organic and primal way of handling and living stres: exercise! As an adult, this exposure and experiences as a kid will have planted a seed which will grow into a skill set and a code of living. Man, true creation is so difficult.
Even bigger existential questions that come to my mind, through comparing humans to animals is: human kind really just want to repopulate and create their own “modern” versions of tribes. This is difficult to identify and value as I believe the world is out of balance. The balance to smoothly ensure the survival of the fittest has been warped with time and space changing too rapidly for the average delicate human being.
How do we reset our children when they’re too stagnant? How do we reset adults who are so comfortable or too scared to change? We must be realistic and logical but also reinforce it with love. Everyone in this planet responds to love and care, it’s inherently innate. We need to love people beyond their fears. For children, we need to remind them they don’t know everythjng. But that’s ok, we need to love them and show them in a way they can understand, that that’s ok. This is the same with adults, we are all just bigger children. We become seemingly more different as adults from one another, but that’s all an illusion. Inner peace, the ultimate goal, comes from acceptance for what is, what has and what will be.
As I write this on the plane, I look back at Sydney. I have done everything I can, at 101% capacity (within what I know). I can write with fulfilment and no room for regret. What a powerful feeling. But how dangerous!
P.s. a fun exercise can be to look at company slogans and to see why they came to that phrase or word. To try and live and understand the essence of the company!
P.s: devils advocate; if we must live true to the moment, how do we know everything we are doing in that moment in absolution, is aligning to our ultimate purpose/destiny? Hence the need for resets, introspection, patience, trust (although sounds paradoxical)
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