Generally, we are aware of some of our blessings, while unaware of most of the blessings. Different organs of our body work in perfect coordination to make us work in this world. We generally close our eyes to this blessing and take our body for granted till the time we develop some disease and feel the pain. Pain reminds us of the "silent blessing". Similarly, everybody has enough air to breathe. Generally, we remain unaware of this blessing until the air gets polluted and we find it difficult to breathe, or we go to some high altitude and air pressure is reduced making it difficult for us to breathe. All of us have enough water to drink and we take water for granted. Though, off-late water has started coming in bottles and we have slowly become slightly more aware of the blessing in our life. We are generally unaware of the blessings of good relationships: a friend with whom we can share whatever comes to our mind, family members are not sitting in judgment to evaluate any and everything and we may feel free to be ourselves before them. However, we generally close our eyes to these "silent blessings"
Other than these "silent blessings", we have many things in our life which we enjoy. We enjoy the pleasure of tasty food, comfortable homes, pleasant vacations, nice books, social media, YouTube videos, powerful positions, and so many other things. Some of these "comforts and pleasures" we have while many of these things we do not have. We keep enjoying whatever "comforts and pleasures" we have and set goals to get the "comforts and pleasures" that we do not have. However, the "comforts and pleasures" have little "active life". We actively enjoy them for a short period of time and then they enter into the domain of "passive comforts".
It is quite interesting to examine how we set our goals. I feel that it is a sum total of two factors. First, the "comfort and pleasure" we expect from the goal, and second the compromise we will have to make with the "comforts and pleasures" we have. For example, when students set civil services as a target, they know that they will have to compromise with the comforts of their homes and study for more hours which means compromising on the fun with friends and free time, there would be uncertainty and they would always be compared with the friends who will get the jobs just after completing their graduation. They calculate the joy of "comforts and pleasures" associated with civil services. If they find the "comforts and pleasures" associated with civil services to be more than the compromise on "comforts and pleasures" they have, they are able to sustain their decisions.
However, once the students clear the civil services examination, or for that matter achieve any goal, they encounter reality. Two significant events take place at this point in time. Firstly, the reality is quite different from what they expected. It is for the simple reason that when we listen to the stories of different careers from successful people, we get to listen only to a very limited perspective. We get to know the high and low points. While most of the time is spent on routine or ordinary. That gets missed in conversations, Further, everybody has a different perspective and that is why what is enjoyable to one person may be quite painful for the other. Further, there is also a loss of information in the communication. The speaker says one thing in a particular background and sometimes the listener misses the background and the entire communication gets distorted.
Even if the communication was perfect and the student got what he expected for civil services, it did not last long. It is the very nature of the "comforts and pleasures" that as we get used to them, they slowly move into the domain of ""passive comforts". We slowly start losing awareness of the "comforts and pleasures" associated with these things. Thus, the "comforts and pleasures", we are aware of, again reduce below the "threshold of joy" and we again start feeling uncomfortable till we set another goal for "comforts and pleasures". That is how we start our journey to the next target of promotions, postings, and power. This is a typical lifestyle of almost all the "comforts and pleasures".
This seems quite obvious. However, still, the entire world is running after the "comforts and pleasures". It is probably because of our ignorance of the wide possibilities. We are aware of a very minimal portion of our existence. We really do not know what is happening inside us and outside. The cosmos is full of miracles that we are not aware of. In fact, our body too is a storehouse of trillions of cells and biome and if we examine our body from the perspective of a bacteria or virus, it would be the same as the cosmos is for us. The more we are getting to know about the quantum world, the more we are astonished and puzzled. We still are unable to know the fundamental particles of the universe. Why do the fundamental forces of nature such as gravity and electromagnetic forces behave so differently?
It's hard to know and examine the reality. That is why we adopt a simple path. We set our goals in terms of what we know. We set our goals in terms of money, power, relationships, and positions. Since all these goals have very little "active life", soon we get used to them and they enter the domain of "passive comforts". "Passive comforts" do not provide us active joy, but any threat to them feels very painful to us. The more we keep accumulating the "passive comforts" in our lives, the more difficult it becomes to enter into the world of the "unknown". "Passive comforts" have huge maintenance costs. Slowly, we spend the majority of our time just to maintain the "passive comforts". We behave just like a security guard protecting the treasure of such "passive comforts" having no joy in the job. Since a majority of our lives are lost in this task, we end up living a very unfulfilled life.
On the other hand, the realized souls understand this problem early in their lives. They do not see their life goals in terms of "comforts and pleasures", knowing their short "active life". Rather they start exploring the truth. The reality of this world and us. In a way, they invest their time and energy in the process, rather than focussing on the outcomes. They know that all the outcomes have a very short "active life". For example, Oppenheimer worked on making the atomic bomb. If his motivation to make the atomic bomb was set around the achievement of making the bomb, it would have a very short active life and it would soon enter into "passive comfort" of boasting to be an inventor of the atomic bomb. Maybe social appreciation would bring him some moments of joy in his life and that's it. If he sets his goal around the victory of America, that would also be momentary, and soon those moments will also go down memory lane sooner or later. However, if he sets his goal around the "process" of making an atomic bomb, he is not dependent upon the future for his satisfaction. The satisfaction is right there in the process. It is available at each moment of making the atomic bomb.
Intelligence says that we need not defer the joy. It is right there in the process. We need not defer the fun of studying and exploring new concepts for getting success in the examination. We need not defer the fun of parenting to get them settled. We can establish a friendship with the kids to explore a whole new world. Nobody is going to be settled in this temporary world. The idea of stability brings the biggest misery in our lives. We need not defer the fun of doing the job and learning something or the other each day to some future promotion or position. Intelligence demands that we learn to live in the present moment. Goals for future "comforts and pleasures", with a short "active life" and huge cost of maintenance of the "passive comforts", lack intelligence and the sooner we get out of such illusion, the better it is. After all, it is only living in the present moment that may make our lives fulfilling.
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