The Art of Living/ My Philosophical Approach

Life is simple. The only complexity in our world is the mind of those living in it. In my two decades I have come across people who worry about all the wrong things: death, money, illnesses, insanity, and the list goes on. They worry so much about what had happened or what could happen that the daily life is being wasted with boredom and emptiness. Strange as it is, I met people who dread the fact that some are happy even though they’ve been through some terribly painful challenges. As I study the theories of some of our great philosophers, I have come to the realization that the world is in reality backward and puzzling. If one does not thoroughly opt for the subject that fuels his senses the most and master it to perfection, he may as well get a rocking chair in a deserted forest and ponder on all the things that could go wrong. Our intelligence goes as far as questioning with a stubborn insistence, our very own existence; a subject I wish we all would agree to rest because it will always be an infinite regress. I think our focus should be shifted from “what am I?” to “why do I act a certain way?” though we all can say the first question sometimes leads to the second, I personally think there is a world of difference between these two. What Am I? To answer that particular question I would have to dissect under a scrutiny microscopical observation every detail about every single part of my body. Then reunite the greatest physicians to explain the parts that they understand as far their understanding goes. And then reunite the greatest psychologists to explain my behavior and patterns as far as their knowledge can comprehend. Moreover, reunite the best of the greatest philosophers to attempt an explanation about the very marvelous existence of my own being in a world, which we’re told was once empty and shapeless, as far s they can mentally reach. As disconcerting as it it to admit, we will all be left with a last question which none else can dare to imagine the perfect answer to. “Time wasting time ‘till out of time.” This is my way of saying we are born, we grow and then choose a path and then die leaving behind some mysterious theories to trigger some new mentality that ended up affecting thousand of future generations. Not to say, however, that these great thinkers have wasted time, not to even mean that while I spend most of my days thinking about the answers to my own question, I too am wasting time. Not at all, because the very essence of being born is to explore life, but at the extent where we draw the line by what we consider to be insane. But would we ever know the real line? Well then, let’s proceed to life carefully. How do we know the definition of careful since what we consider careful may differ from one person to the next? What I take as careful may be strictly reckless for my neighbor. How do we draw this line? Hence the whole point is to draw your personal boundaries as so insanity does not confuse your reason. All this summarizes my life in the past few years. I have been asking myself the wrong question. Why did the past happen the way it did? Did I do something wrong, did I draw these malefic situations, how did I grow from strength to suicidal? And it goes on, and on, and on. I have discovered as a mere human being I am drawn to questions. My curiosity would not allow me to move on until I find the answers I have been looking for. In the end of the day life sets us all into two categories “you’re either in or out”. This is a version of Blaise Pascal argument about the existence of God; he said “you either believe it or you don’t”. As simple as that. Whether God exist or not, whether he’s good or bad, whether we’re leaving in a dream or reality or even our thinking proves our existence. The overall is that you either believe it or you don’t. When I take that theory and apply it to life by saying “you’re either in or out” choosing to be out is not part of the options. This is born vs. unborn, thus all of us breathing should have no choice in the matter but to thrive and waltz through life. Anybody can live through anything if the mind is strong enough to deal with it. We are so afraid of the truth that we rather spend our time living in denial. We use precious present time to worry about the bitter long gone past. Spending years living in denial, one can get used to the empty feeling and sometimes even consciously slowly want to slip back to that fantasy. Every minute spent pondering on that shadow that follows us around is a minute wasted living the authentic life. Every time you slip back to that dreamy painful world is a lack of focus on the things that can be achieved in the present moment. To think that our lifespan is up to 90 years and how time swiftly fades in a blink of an eye should electrify our beings into a major epiphany to the kind of living our desire selects. Well, maybe we are all dreaming, dreaming so much that when we wake up we have just enough time to plan our funeral. How many have lost their life carrying a burden that they could have pushed aside by a simple “so what” attitude? This is not per say carelessness or even blindness toward what’s right or wrong but rather a-moving-along character that frees you from all those cynical questions that empoison the mind. Like those great thinkers who never really come up with a definite answer about God’s existence, we all have our limits as to what we can understand. It is not easy to live with that kind of thought because we are stubborn creature. Every day we face a new challenge, everyday a new question arises and then we go right back to asking “why?” well life is not an answer to a particular question. It is rather the journey that leads toward that question. We all have our little insanity side whether bury inside of us or obvious to the world. The question is not so much why do we have it but rather what do we do with it. We don’t know or may never know the answer to all of our questions. I don’t know and may never know the answer to my quest but all I’m interested in is the inspiration and experiences that my thinking is discovering throughout this journey. Maybe there is no definite answer to none of my questions but I will remember when my shadow surrounded my day I took solace in classical music and writing. I will remember that in quest for reasons I become an expert of my subject. Then I realize music has astounding effect on my soul, writing alleviates my pain and am no longer a naïve running blindly toward a snare. Well, there you have it; the reason why the first thing happened is suddenly not that important. The triggering cause becomes simply some “stuff” that I once came across. Suddenly the mind is growing in the right direction and the true intelligence is expanding for a greater good. I Exist, I live, I breathe, I learn, thrive and put my failure to rest. This is ma raison d’être. What is yours?