Children are very inquisitive and quite open. However, their openness soon disappears because they are made to feel safe within the four corners of the beliefs held by their society's members. They should not enquire about the meaning of life and death, and should accept whatever their society generally believes. Most children also choose safety and security over enquiry. They find it safer and easier to accept these widely held beliefs and "settle" for a meaning of life that is confined to getting a good job, having kids, buying a home, saving for the future, settling the children and then waiting to die. In the meantime, a few spikes of pleasure, here and there.
What is the alternative way of living? A life full of passion and exploration. Living like a scientist who passionately explores the hidden secrets of life, an engineer who builds with passion as if giving shape to his imagination, a doctor trying to solve the puzzle about the human body every time he treats a patient, and an author weaving his understanding of reality in words that can be easily understood by the people around. How will that be possible, sitting safely within the four corners of beliefs? Living with passion requires one to constantly challenge oneself. We can either aim to "settle" or to live "passionately".
When we choose to "settle", life becomes boring. That's quite natural because we have stopped inquiring. We have stopped exploring. Then we become desperate for pleasure. Like a mad person, we look for that pleasure all around. In a movie, social gatherings, achievement, power, and so on. We get some spike, and then it disappears again. When we have not taken a proper lunch or dinner, we feel like opening the packets of snacks. It gives us a spike of energy and taste. However, it does not keep us satiated for long. We become even more desperate to get the next spike after the first spike fades.
The first step in the journey to come out of the four corners of "a settled life" is to open the windows. We have to first become open to new ideas. When we read about people who discarded the concept of "settlement", we learn many things we did not know hitherto. We feel like meeting people who dared to come out of the four corners of their safe havens. That gives us motivation to step out of our own safe haven. As we step out, we feel unsafe. Initially, our conscious mind is not prepared to handle it, and as we spend more and more time outside that safe haven, we realise something very strange. While inside our home, we feel that sunlight will harm our skin, dust will be dangerous to our health, and we will catch infections when we play in the mud. However, as we step out, we realise that sunlight helps the production of Vitamin D in our body, fresh air increases the levels of oxygen in our body, and playing in the mud boosts our immunity. We discover so many new possibilities we were oblivious to while sitting in our "safe haven".
As we step out of the "safe haven", we feel unsafe, but we soon connect to the larger possibilities. When we fall ill, doctors keep us in the ICU so that they may keep a 24*7 watch on the vitals. However, as we stabilise, we step out of the ICU and get shifted to a room or general ward. We were safer inside the ICU, but we can't stay there for our entire lives. After some time, we are discharged even from the room so that we can live a "normal" life. Then, why do we get confined to the "safe haven"? Living within the "safe havens" is too limited, and the world is full of possibilities. We just need to open the windows and look at people travelling freely outside their safe havens, and we will soon realise that they are the ones who have given direction to humanity. They appear mad to their contemporaries, but they don't give a damn and continue to live with passion, exploring their lives. They do not get bored within the four corners of their "safe havens", and that's why they are not desperate for some "spike of pleasure". Rather, they live in a state of flow and keep exploring passionately. It's painful to see people living within the four corners of their "safe havens" while so many possibilities in this world remain to be explored passionately.
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