Four Harsh Truths of Life R
Four Harsh Truths of Life – To be Accepted Gracefully
We all travel through our own unique paths. No two individuals follow the same route.
Generally, our life follows a smooth path except for some jerks on the way. As we move forward, we keep on adding experiences about life.
Mostly, we tend to stay and work in our own self-made comfort zone. We become too complacent.
Of course, some element of uncertainty will always be there but we keep on proceeding in the same direction. However, for many, among ourselves, life’s journey is not smooth. Life may hit hard us anytime. Despite our best efforts to avoid any pain and suffering in life, we are slapped badly. It may sound depressing but it’s true.
As a result, life then becomes overwhelming and hard to manage…
It’s extremely difficult to explain such a situation in few words. Though we may not experience it in our life, certainly we observe it around us
Our life mostly oscillates between extreme suffering on one end and blissful moments on the other end. Life has never been presented to us in perfect conditions. Everyone has to strive and struggle to achieve what they desire in life.
In modern times, though the competition in almost all the fields has increased and so are the opportunities that are presented to us.
There is no such thing as a “RIGHT” time to do anything. We have to be mindful, fully conscious, and aware of things that are happening around us. From each and every experience, we perceive and draw some “TRUTH” about life.
There is however some commonality between those truths. Some of them are the harsh realities of life. Few of those harsh truths are briefly explained here.
The world is meaningless, devoid of any purpose!
So, we need to create our own meaning of life
The debate whether human existence is meaningless or do we have some meaning or purpose behind our life.
Some philosophers have argued to the extent that the universe is a terrifying place to live.
It’s full of suffering, tragedies, horrific pain, violence, and above all devoid of any meaning.
However, some say the universe is full of joy, happiness, beauty, goodness and has a meaningful purpose behind our existence. However, our life mostly oscillates between these two extremes.
In earlier times, people widely believed that there is some Supreme Being watching us and if we do good deeds we would go to heaven.
So, there was a deep meaning attached to our existence. Such believers trust that for more than 2000 years God gave the meaningful purpose to all of us to undertake life’s journey.
We were also fearful of the Supreme Power guiding humanity. However, people gradually led to believe, due to the rise in science and reason, that there is no proven basis behind the popular ideas like heaven afterlife and that the unknown power that can punish and reward us based on our deeds. That means, there is no bigger purpose behind our existence.
In the 1870s a German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, very famously declared “God is dead“.
As we started losing our faith in God, the well-established divine system got demolished. Life became meaningless.
The sense of meaninglessness or nihilism started surfacing. Nihilism is the view that suggests the denial or lack of belief towards the meaningfulness of life. It means life is without objectives, meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.
However, Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher who is generally considered the father of existentialism argued that we are free agents who have complete control over our choices and actions that we take. Subsequently, many more supported his philosophy of existentialism.
They believed that we all have the potential to live life to the fullest and society cannot restrict an individual’s life or actions. Life may be meaningless but we all can choose our path of life’s journey. We are the architect of our own destiny. We can create our own meaning of life.
Life can slap us badly at any time!
Remember God every morning, never be arrogant, and respect others
We humans are highly vulnerable beings living in uncertain times. Despite our best efforts, life can take unexpected turns.
Examples are everywhere around us.
We can just look around and see how life becomes hostile and ruthless all of a sudden, for which we are unprepared.
Change is the only constant of our life…
No one could have possibly thought before we experienced the Covid-19 pandemic that the world as a whole would be getting transformed on unexpected lines. Humanity has never witnessed such a massive change in the recent past.
Similarly, at the individual level, the change can be of any magnitude, having the potential to transform our lives. So, beware, life can slap us badly any day.
Each one of us must have experienced that if we are humble, God-fearing, and receptive we can overcome any change in life. Rigid behavior and beliefs can easily break any one of us. We must thank God every day, for what He has provided to us for a decent living.
We shouldn’t be arrogant and egotistical. It’s ultimately our behavior towards other fellow beings which really help us during troubled times. People can go to any extent to help us if they feel we were nice to them. People come into our lives with a purpose and many times, meaningful purpose.
We must respect others irrespective of their social and economic status. Also, we must always try to avoid ego coming in between any of our relationships.
We are all destined to die one day but we live as if we are immortal
Remember this and embrace death gracefully
There is a very common statement that we use to make that is, How true it is. Our behavior and actions never exhibit the ultimate fate we have to face.
We live in a materialistic world, where our prime motive is to be successful in life.
Success on the other hand is judged by the wealth and status we acquired in our profession or career.
Our prime motive is not to pursue those things which will give us happiness and contentment. We keep on struggling for material goods and things that are pleasurable for us.
It never struck us during those times that we will, one day, leave all these material goods for others to enjoy. So, why not do those things that will make us happy and satisfied.
We however start seeing the inevitability of death beyond a certain age when our close friends and to know persons start dying. As we participate in more spiritual events and prayers, our mind seems to foresee our own death and the process of dying.
We start thinking deeply and more frequently about the aspect of death. This realization however comes at a far later stage of life. What about remembering death earlier? So that not only we are better prepared for that eventuality but our actions will be more rational. We may not rush madly for things that will ultimately make us more miserable.
We have been designed to suffer
That’s why we can never be perfectly happy
We humans have been evolved to suffer. It’s primarily because of our inherent nature of mind.
Our mind is generally in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction and restlessness.
Our mind acts like a monkey jumping around from one set of thoughts to another with unfinished tasks.
When it’s disturbed, it becomes distressed. As we generally don’t know how to manage our minds and thoughts, suffering starts.
Suffering, in simple words, is an outcome of distressing thoughts and emotions. It’s also an outcome of joy and happiness. There may be many reasons behind suffering such as physical pain, fear, anger, helplessness, guilt, shame, loneliness, sadness, and so on.
When we keep on thinking of distress or negative experience, we aggravate suffering. The traumatic experiences also lead to severe mental suffering. We generally don’t know how to handle negative thoughts…
So suffering becomes inevitable.
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