Meaning: Following THAT Star. The alternative is Meaningless
This is my quest: to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far.
Humans are strange animals: they need meaning to make their lives to feel more than just existing. They need purpose to give a backbone, to give direction, to transform a life of prose to poetry.
But life is, in itself, empty and meaningless… so how do you find the meaning, how do you find the purpose?
One of my ex-students got offended when I suggested that she does her homework instead of having excuses. She left and she stopped visiting my site… I felt the ‘F… you’ from her… When I asked yesterday if she was angry, she said… “No, I just need to grow thicker skin…” Her health number is 7%.
One of my students took two years to finally get a job, because in her last job she felt judged… for being different. She is Chinese in a predominantly White country. Once I adjusted her diet… she is flying. She went from 10% to 50% in her health number.
A German who escaped just before all the Jews were hoarded into concentration camps in Germany, came to the United States.
His name was Robert Hartman.
His experience with evil uniquely qualified him to set out to deal with the age long question: what is evil, what is good?
He took on himself to define good… the strait and narrow. Many philosophers failed in that: after all the strait and narrow is delineated by the land that encloses it, not by itself…
But he succeeded.
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Life is like being in a train: you can look out on the left side, the right side, the back, the front… but it won’t change that you are on a train that will arrive to its destination, no matter where you look.
Most of us live this way most of the time.
We do our jobs, we do our relationships, we do our projects, we do our lives this way.
Fulfilling? No. Enjoyable? It depends…
Ultimately we are plagued by a nagging sense that we are out of control, that no matter what we do won’t change anything. Some of us feel doomed. Some of
Some ten years ago I learned a valuable way of looking at making life meaningful, or living a meaningful life. The teacher suggested that we pick a horizon, a direction, and then look what’s blocking the way of getting there.
Since then I saw that even seeing the horizon is blocked… Blocked by seven boulders, lined up one behind the other, blocking your view, blocking your movement.
So, in my coaching practice, when I ask people to set a direction, and they can’t see any, I am inclined to suggest that they choose the direction: living a meaningful live, or a fulfilled life… without specifying what it is.
As you may know, I am doing my second round of the 67 steps. In step 13 Tai says something like this: if you are not happy, don’t throw everything away. It is possible that the unhappiness is due to a mismatch of your current lifestyle with your social needs…
Huh?
So I went back in my memory to different stages of my business, or the different businesses I had. And lo and behold, I found something totally freaky: I was happiest when I had at least one person cooperating with me in my business. Even if the cooperation was minor, and we didn’t interact much. Just knowing
What is everyday arrogance? It is simple, and so everywhere, all the time, that it is invisible.
You see something. You hear something. And you know what it means.
That meaning that you know, and you know that you know it is everyday arrogance.
The fact that you know what is your job, how people are, what was the question, where you need to look, what is missing: without looking, is everyday arrogance. Already knowing…
A German who escaped just before all the Jews were hoarded into concentration camps in Germany, came to the United States.
Life is like being in a train: you can look out on the left side, the right side, the back, the front… but it won’t change that you are on a train that will arrive to its destination, no matter where you look.
Some ten years ago I learned a valuable way of looking at making life meaningful, or living a meaningful life. The teacher suggested that we pick a horizon, a direction, and then look what’s blocking the way of getting there.
As you may know, I am doing my second round of the 67 steps. In step 13 Tai says something like this: if you are not happy, don’t throw everything away. It is possible that the unhappiness is due to a mismatch of your current lifestyle with your social needs…
Everyday arrogance.
The 67 steps spiral… second take… I am at step two… and can see the territory I have covered.
If you go about it the same way you have always gone, you’ll get the same results: not much.
The mind was born when language was born. New… compared to the body and its intelligence.