

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!
Let me ask you something… If there was no such thing as money, how would you spend the rest of your days? In other words, what mission would you devote your life to? Would you resort to painting, writing, travelling, capturing moments? When most people are asked this question, you start to get a more faithful idea of where their passion lies in their life.
But with that, another realisation follows, namely, that most people are too frightened to pursue it, because as one may naturally presume, carving an impressive career would demand serious sacrifice, commitment, and loneliness. And really, you’re still devoid of guarantees, because you don’t know what the final outcome will be. Most people abandon the dream almost in advance; they have a feeble mindset and a lack of skill that needs honing.
They have a vague interest in pursuing the dream, but they are trapped in comfort and mediocre living. They live through a stable job and mundane relationships. They lack intensity and can’t tolerate pressure. They are apparently ambitious in their reasoning but not in their efforts. They speak of ‘what ifs’ and ponder to themselves how profoundly gratifying it would be to live like you’re playing, to find a calling so amusing and immersive, that it feels more like playing than like working.
If you ask me what my notion of paradise looks like, I would say it is to lead a way of life that doesn’t hinge on preservation without expansion. That is to say, it isn’t a vicious cycle of working to survive and surviving to work. This is not living, this is to go on existing under that wishful notion that one day, you’ll have enough money for retirement, and then finally you’ll be fortunate enough to wallow in youthful pleasures.
Not that I want to break it to you, but by then it will be to no avail, and this will only make itself evident once you get to the finish line, because you’re going to feel cheated. You were waiting for this day your whole life, and then that monumental day arrives, but there’s not much excitement to it. You missed the whole point of the dance! You were meant to sing, play and delight when the music was being played, but instead you were busy struggling for a youthful paradise that can’t be enjoyed when you’re older and sapped of that careless vitality.
I say, you must learn the art of enjoyment while you’re doing something you intensely enjoy. As I see it, there is little time to spend your days here doing things that make you feel miserable, like you’re incessantly fighting to survive. There’s no playful aspect, it is working for the sole purpose of working, rather than working for the purpose of living. You see, living the so-called good life requires a degree of subtlety.
You can’t possibly conceive a harmonious and gratifying life if your paradigm is such that you think it’s necessary to burden yourself with unpleasant tasks to feel like you’ve earned something worthwhile. That’s is nothing more than an egotistical snare that acts as a device to reassure the insecure that they’re worth something more for their hard suffering.
Certainly, suffering is a necessary precursor to growth, but your outlook shouldn’t be one that reasons as such, “This is more difficult because it’s more worthwhile than that, which is less difficult, even though it brings me more present joys.” How do you know it’s more worthwhile? Who told you that difficulty is always synonymous with worthwhileness? Why are you infatuated with the phenomenon of suffering, is there a masochism underlying your inclinations that deceives you into thinking “I am alive, and therefore I must suffer, even if this pleasure doesn’t warrant it.” You can enjoy many things in life without having to suffer for them. Now, that is not to say that there aren’t pleasures worth suffering for – that’s another matter.
But the most beautiful pleasures tend to be profoundly ordinary, common, everyday. We simply grew so accustomed to them that we’re no longer struck by awe or wonderment – that’s our ignorance speaking. As time progresses, so does our forgetfulness make us ignorant to the beauty that encircles us. Then it is no longer gratitude and wonderment that overcomes us, but a certain dullness to our senses. We must always restore our senses to comprehend what lays before our eyes.
I advise you to really become sensitive to the little things. If you’re going to pet your dog, immerse yourself in the act of petting him. If you’re going to make love to your woman, be completey there, as you clasp her waist with both hands and mindlessly indulge her, if you’re going to work, learn to move with the motions of execution like a surfer riding a wave – use the wind to enable effortlessness, engage boldly, fluidly, no hesitation, no forethought.
This too is the way of Samurai and Zen, where one develops not only a sensitivity to the present moment, but a presence of mind that is both absent and immersive, clear and swift. The what ifs must be extinguished once and for all, for if you desire true mastery, you must be fully committed.
Titans who climb the mountain tops didn’t ‘kind of’ want it and struck good fortune. No. They lost their mind, quite literally, over the idea of conquering a peak, and then, in a swift convergence between opportunity and chance, the thunder struck the titan, and there was conquest.

“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.”
When one talks of Mastery, one is inclined to associate it, quite reasonably, to some kind of self-improvement. It has been said that the greatest face of self-mastery is command over your emotions, and on the other hand, the prowess over an express craft. However, it is pivotal to acknowledge the vehicle that drives us to this understanding; knowledge. Of oneself, of one’s abilities, of one’s limitations. It is rather a cliche when people say knowledge is power, but it is precisely the truth; it excavates your most vigorous aptitudes and sophisticates the world as it appears before your eyes. It unravels the truth and creates order from chaos – the chaos of a lack of knowledge or understanding. The chaos which muddles the truth and perplexes your reasoning. The chaos which keeps you anxious of things which, if sufficiently understood, would save you the convulsions of unease and fear. The true power of knowledge, though, doesn’t lie in its acquisition, but in its application. That’s where it truly matures and comes to fruition, that’s when it starts to take the form of mastery, competence.
Many a time, we prevent this fortune by our petty little egos. You can’t stand the fact you’re ignorant about many things, and there’s a great deal of learning and experience to be taken before you’re perfectly ripe. Though this is an especially good thing, many of us think otherwise – we think it’s daunting to have such a lingering road ahead, and that failure to confront it means a worse suffering. Before sabotaging yourself for not knowing enough, you should have affinity with yourself, so that you’re not driven by intense self-criticism and hate – it will make you resentful towards yourself and others, awakening the ogres of envy, jealousy, rage. Many of us, it seems, are not fit to live in another’s world, and conceive the disparity in outlooks and one’s sense of being. In other words, we are not capable of momentarily shutting out our ego and understand what lies at the core of another’s interpretation, without being too impetuous in condemning them and finding some flaw in their view. Sensitivity in this respect is necessary.
Everyone has opinions, but they represent an inferior form of knowledge, as it doesn’t require responsibility or comprehension. All it requires is for one to be plain. It doesn’t, for instance, require one to seek truth and bear the willingness to accept it, regardless of what the truth may be, regardless of prejudice. To contrast this subservient mode of being, empathy establishes a togetherness that is vital, symbolic of a higher mode of being, transcending ego, demanding a purpose that is superior to self-understanding. Such a mode demands sensitivity and good perception, for without them, there is no rapport, no harmony, no insight.
When one learns to be empathetic in this way, you enter the other person’s spirit, you engulf yourself in their emotions, you conceive the feeling without becoming prey. To remain in a position of assistance, you must not feel their feelings so deeply that you lose yourself in the process, you must retain a sense of composure to preserve and nourish stability. The insight into another’s world, that’s consequential – it furnishes you with the knowledge you need to orient yourself aptly to allay their weaknesses.
As that saying goes “When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword. Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.” Similarly, then, do not make the mistake of speaking a different language to someone who is better off being understood in his own. Empathy, then, is the art of speaking another’s language without bullying them into speaking yours. Above all, this puts you in a position to puzzle out the finer subtleties of character, parse out their intent, determine their value, and so forth. This is a form of mastery of its own, and demands greater sensitivity than merely holding an opinion and foisting it in the hands of another. Knowledge, though a crucial vehicle that compels success, takes the shapes of its handler, and moves at speeds determined by the intelligence of its driver.
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