Have you ever noticed when you take a walk in the mountains and you peer down at a waterfall, where is the water rushing? It’s ultimately taking a journey to the sea. And I think as human beings, we’re similar.
All of us will take a journey to the sea, to infinity, eventually. But if we don’t view life as a journey, we’re just a part of the raging water.
I was reading the other day that if I imagine myself in that raging stream, and I stylize myself as a stick, and I’m raging along with all the other sticks, and at some point I pivot my stick, and I thrust it down into the bottom of the stream.
And once it’s pinned, it begins to slowly but surely collect sand. And over time, my stick is created an island. And I think it’s very similar to being a human being, isn’t it?
If I put my stick down into the bottom of my own consciousness, and subconsciousness, for that matter, if I really make an effort to discover who I am, what my mission is, I will build an island, an island of consciousness, and other people then
perhaps will alight on my island, and I can benefit many, many people. So, why is it necessary that we view life as a journey? Why? Well, I think the very first one must be that we’re all a part of time.
And all of us come from families, and we had parents and grandparents and great-grandparents that were flowing through time, and I myself am a part of time at 69 or almost 70 years old.
And I will in the distant future, God willing, transit, and I will be then a part of this phenomenon of time.
And of course, that makes me recognize that change is, of course, inevitable, and it helps me become a better person, a better man, because, you know, there is some meaning in movement, isn’t there? We learned so much.
I just recently finished a class at Donghai University, and the people were just lovely, just truly lovely, and I learned so much from them.
And I think in a very egocentric way, a teacher gains far more from his students than he could ever give the students, really truly.
And in all of this, when you think to yourself that we’re a part of time, we were talking in one class about suffering and how suffering makes me grow.
And it’s so true, if I’d view suffering as continuous, of course, it would eventually drive me mad. But for most of us, suffering is not like that. It comes in spurts of intensity.
And we suffer greatly. And if we don’t break and collapse and sell out, and descend into drugs and alcohol, bad relationships, whatever, and most of us don’t, we push on and we eventually gain some sense of freedom over time.
And there is a thought that wisdom itself comes from distance. So as long as you can stay on the path, as long as you can stay on the path towards the end, you will gain some insight, right?
Because, of course, what’s the old adage? Failure is not an option. But of course, some people give up.
They just do. But don’t be one of those people, because you most assuredly will suffer if you give up. Remember what was left after Pandora released everything into the world?
There always was hope. And I think that’s the major point, isn’t it? Keep hope.
No matter how down you get, or how much of a situation, a loss, if you will, has occurred, push on. Just absolutely push on.
Because, you know, if you think to yourself that it ultimately doesn’t matter to the world what happens to me, really, the world won’t care. The world’s going to go on, whether I’m here or not.
But it does matter to my contribution to the greater good, so to speak, right? And I think if my journey is a journey that people can emulate over time or respect, then they’ve gained something. So I’ve done my job.
Because, you know, ultimately, I can’t change anyone at all. I can only truly change myself. But I can be, of course, a model to others, right?
So I always think to myself, if you go way back to your beginning consciousness when you were four or five years old and you come back to the person that you are today, it’s strange in a way because you are not the same person that you were at four
or five years old. You’re totally different, of course. You had an education along the way. You’ve had some romance perhaps along the way.
You’ve had some money along the way. And here you are today as a mature human being.
And this is where it becomes fascinating to me, because as many people age, somehow, in their journey, the journey’s not over, but they’ve somehow surrendered, and they are bitter about life, for the lost opportunities, the things they could have
done, should have done, but didn’t do. And it’s as if people don’t realize that way of thinking is 100% pointless, because you can’t go back and change the past. You just can’t. So what’s the purpose of suffering over it?
It can’t be altered anyway. All of us, for sure, would not repeat the sins of the past. If at all possible, we wouldn’t harm and hurt people.
We wouldn’t lose or make money, etc., etc. But I think this is the reality of every person’s life. Now all of us, I think, to grow, will be the suffering like I alluded to earlier.
How else am I going to really come to understand the kind of inner bravery that I possess as a human being? And I think this is a very important part of me. I must find out my emotional level of tolerance.
What I like, what I dislike, what I’m good at, right? Malcolm Gladwell tells us that by spending 10,000 hours, we can become an expert at whatever we really want to become. I think it’s an interesting idea in a sense.
The point is stay with the journey, and ultimately, you will be more than fine.
And you know what they say, you know what they say, critical thinking is necessary, especially when I’m going to go on my great journey, and critical thinking is great, truly great. You take care. Bye-bye.