The Nature of Existence

If I were to tell you that all roads you take lead to an end, and at the end of this road is a deep abyss. Once you reach there, there is no turning back and you have to take a plunge. If I were to tell you that… you will tell me I just want to be right here and now… don’t want to drown in that abyss. That is how most of us live, by fooling ourselves that there is no abyss. Now for some of us this road is full of happiness and pleasures, while for others it is pain and suffering. But the end is the same for all of us.

This road, is the road of life and the abyss is death. We try to find meaning in life’s existence, but what if there was no meaning? What if the death is not the end, but a beginning of another road to another end. It is like one of those dreams, where you wake up inside a dream, and you think you have gotten up even though you are still dreaming. If we think about it we will find there is no meaning in life nor in death. People commit suicide because they want to end their miserable existence, but what if they knew there is no end even in death?

Almost every day, I ask myself what is the meaning of my existence. Till now I have no answers that make sense. Some people believe death is the end, if that is so why not live in love and peace and enjoy the journey. The very people who believe that are miserable and make others miserable. Others tell me there is life after death, and this is an unending journey. That is like a dream within a dream where you never wake up, that is even more scary to me. Still others believe in immortality, I don’t understand this one. Do I want to live for ever, even if in an ethereal body, that is a scary thought! Still others tell me about the great ocean of the cosmos where you will be assimilated, reminds me of the Borg in Star Trek where everyone gets assimilated into the supreme. You without your identity, part of the whole?! Not too happening. There are other theories that talk about Saints/Gods that control everything and tell me I am puppet. I don’t have control on my life. I sure don’t like that. And there are many many more…

All of the above are meaningless and scary (at least to me), and because there are so many versions of the truth, I believe none of this is true at all. All this is bull shit that is limited by our imagination, when we try to describe the unlimited with our limited mind. My answer is, live in the present, be good, and don’t worry about life after death. You will know once you are on the other side (if there is one)!

Enlightenment

What is it? So many books written, so many people talk about it, so many seers experienced it. It is a halo around your head? Is it magical powers granted to you by supernatural? What is it? I think it is for each one to experience, it is not a concept or a thing to be remembered. In essence it is freedom, freedom from what? Freedom from the senses, sense objects and the bondage of life. We have learnt a lot about freedom, about freedom of choice, but we rarely have choice in certain important matters in life. We don’t have choice over death, choice over the economy, the weather etc etc. While we can influence certain matters, not everyone can influence everything. We are bound because we are unaware of it and in this binding we talk about freedom. Being aware is the first step and being free is the next step. Most of us have experienced some form of freedom in our life, think when we were kids or young young adults in love and world was our oyster. As one master said enlightenment is a process of going from being a somebody to a nobody to an everybody.