This is a critical question – What to do in life?

Most people do what everyone else is doing.  For example – study, go to school, college, do a job, start a business, marry, make kids, send them to school, get them married and so on. Society encourages you to make money, become successful and famous, buy property and make life more secure for yourself and your family. That is the general direction of humanity. If you observe all this closely from a very objective standpoint, it all seems mindless and boring. It is sheer stupidity.

You also see some people who live the so called religious life or spiritual life i.e. they do meditation, follow some practices like chanting mantras, go to some religious places or on a pilgrimage, join some satsang and listen to some guru. They may also engage in occasional charity, yoga, participate in workshops and also admonish others who are living the regular life to mend their ways and follow the higher path. At the end of the day, this is equally boring and senseless.

Gurdjieff talks of Type A, Type B and Type C influences. Most people live under Type A and Type B influences. But there is still disillusionment. Nothing seems worth doing. One can do the things as pointed out by society and others and also earn the fruits from them but then what? For someone who thinks too much and sees too far like The Outsider of Colin Wilson, the prospect of living like this for the entire life is meaningless.

Religions have pointed to something higher e.g. Nirvana, Atman, Brahman, merging your consciousness with the higher consciousness, becoming one with the Universe. You are That! Until you experience that, there seems to be no escape from the mundane. But once you see that, once you experience that even for a moment, then life is not the same. Then ‘I’ does not matter, it’s a lie, an illusion, once the ‘Nameless’ is seen.

Having seen that and experienced that, the daily life is even more drudgery – the recurring chores, eating food, washing clothes, going to office, making presentations – a drab and dreary life. One reflects – what can I do to wake up every day and live like God? There is a great sense of urgency. Earlier, one thinks it’s a long life but now one sees how fleeting life is and desires to merge with God consciousness at the soonest. 

Quitting one’s job is not the solution. It will create more stress since you will need to focus on the dull and boring task of making ends meet. So what to do? You cannot go into ecstasies like Ramakrishna all the time and forget about everything.

A sure sign of progress on this path is the voluntary reduction in the intellectual tasks like planning, working out alternatives, etc. You just want to do simple things like organizing the house items, working on some craft ideas, reading a book, not doing anything in general but just breathing and living in the present moment. 

Once you realize that all things are fleeting i.e. they are impermanent, that in fact they don’t exist at all but only appear to be there, then there is no desire to possess them. Even if there is an interest, it wanes soon. This is true of money, property and things.

Once you realize that all time is now, then there is no worry of the past and the future. You look around and see yourself everywhere. The universe breathing in and out. You don’t wish for something to happen or regret for something that happened because those are just your interpretations.

Once you realize that others don’t exist as people but only appear to be so, you develop compassion for them and their silly life. You prefer to stay alone in seclusion. You don’t need anything from them and neither do you have anything to advise them or give them. If something pops in your mind to do, you simply do that. There is no guilt, shame, fear, anger or desire.

To conclude, you live fully by NOT living in the worldly way. Stopping the worldly activities is the only way to live more abundantly. You are relaxed and not stressed about anything. Relaxation is enlightenment as Kenichi san says.

The Buddha talks of extinguishing the flame. It means you are so much one with the existence that the separate entity does not exist. The thoughts cease and that is called the end of the cycle of birth and death.

Do you have any alternative way of living? Do you want to continue living and going through all the sufferings, tensions, troubles and frustrations or having to put up with the world. How should one engage with the people of the world who tell you what to do – to you who sees more than they do?

You need to tell them how short-sighted they are, how foolish, ignorant and deluded they are. They will not like it, they will not relate to you, they will ignore you or even persecute you. But you cannot join them in their tomfoolery and play their games and pretend to like it.

You must live by your truth!