Charge. Let’s do it. It’s going to be a wonderful day. Now when I say this, what am I saying? I’m saying that I have faith in myself today.
I am going to generate a great day. And God bless you. Because many days for sure are not great. Leo Tolstoy, in the middle of his life, came to a time of great crisis. He was going to kill himself of all things.
But in the end, he realized that there is a purpose to life. So he says, we ask ourselves this question, what is the purpose of life? It appears to be meaningless. The first answer, of course, is that we adopt some form of nonsensical religion. We don’t question.
We just adopt that this is the solution. There we are. I’m going to be fine because of this religious theory, whatever it is. Christian, Muslim, Taoist, etcetera. Secondly, I say there’s no purpose to life, but I’m just gonna have a good time.
I drink a lot. I take a lot of drugs, if you will, relationships, try to make as much money as possible, etcetera. The third way, what is the purpose to life? No purpose to life? I might as well just kill myself.
Just kill myself. Be over with it right now. The 4th way, of course, is that I don’t kill myself because I’m a coward. I’m just living a life of fear and I’m going to continue life along in this fearful state until the very end. And then the 5th way which is Tolstoy’s prescription, faith.
And in this case he means, of course, faith in God as he sees God. I would like to extend that to faith in yourself. Who’s the first person I must have faith in? Well, obviously the answer is me. I must have faith in me.
But, Jay, that’s hard to do. It really is because I am just a frail human being born in a certain part of the world, etcetera. So what do I do? Well, I think the very first thing a person has to do is you realize that you have consciousness. And in that consciousness, now let’s be fair.
There is a distinction here between thoughtful people and people that don’t ask these kinds of questions, for sure. But let’s assume that you’re thoughtful. Let’s assume. You realize that you’re conscious and you’re afraid. You’re 18 years old or 20 years old and you have existential angst.
Why am I here? There is no purpose to life. Tolstoy’s conundrum. Right? But then you realize that there is a purpose to life because I’m here.
There’s no one like me. Now I gotta get to work and you begin to build you. You realize that you’re an imperfect being, so of course you need an education. You need a psychological education, you need a pedagogical education, you gotta go to university or something like this, some training, and you need a philosophical education. You have to ask the questions about life and love.
Why am I here? What’s the purpose of life? What happens when I die? And then upon thinking of those things, then you get down to it. Right?
You plan the adventure, and you realize now that it’s such an enormous world. You don’t have to be a citizen long term of the United States, or of Canada, or of Taiwan, or anywhere. You’re free for the most part. Yes. This is fair to say that not everyone is free, and yes, there are bad circumstances, etcetera etcetera.
Sure. But 10% of the population is foolish. 5% is brilliant. And that leaves you and me, 85%. And most of us, wherever we exist on this earth, have the opportunity to achieve success as we define it.
And if you just read the history of people, you will realize this is profoundly true. I was reading the other day that Pushkin, he was the first Russian in the early part of 19th century who actually wrote in Russian before everyone wrote in French. So he was apparently very, very radical for his time and that’s why he’s so revered. But his great grandfather was actually a black slave who had been given to the czar of Russia as a gift. And the Tsar realized that this man was very very clever, and eventually he freed him and united him, and this man went on to marry well, etcetera etcetera.
So, gosh, if this can happen to Pushkin’s grandfather, it could happen to anyone. Because life can change in an inkling. So as long as we live, I think it’s very important to realize that circumstances can change. Life is not hopeless at all. Too many stories I feel from too many people for me to believe it is hopeless.
There is a purpose to life, but I must find this purpose. And I personally like the faith based side because that makes me realize there’s something bigger than me. Whatever that is. Whatever that is. Now, we’ve talked about this at length about the new atheists and there’s nothing after death and etcetera etcetera.
That really doesn’t matter in that sense because for sure all you have to do is take a walk in a forest and see a fallen tree, and what’s sprouting out of the tree? New life. New wonderful life. The difficulty, I think, that exists in the modern era is that we do live under capitalism. And in capitalism produces extreme wealth and or extreme poverty at times.
And so we do have to play the capitalistic game, whatever that means. Now if I’m going to be free, don’t be a wage slave. A career is a must. Why? Because a career in theory should give you training such that you can ultimately work for yourself in some capacity.
Now, you could work for a very large company and still be working for yourself. You’re still independent. Here’s the acid test as they say. If you lost everything tomorrow, if all your money was stripped away, your social position was gone, etcetera, etcetera, and you’re thrown figuratively naked into the street, can you start again? And the answer has to be yes.
Now throughout history, there are many examples of no. People have killed themselves or descended into drugs or alcohol or just given up basically. But that’s not you, is it? For sure not. For sure not.
Because you know you’ve got something to accomplish in this life, whatever it is. And maybe you’re 18 years old and you don’t know what it is. You gotta document your notebook. Of course, write in your notebook. Find out what your thoughts are all about, who’s my teacher, myself, etcetera etcetera.
Get down to it. Stop being lazy. I mean, that was the biggest curse, I think, in my life is I was a victim for a period of time. Poor me. Born in a small town.
Poor me, etcetera etcetera. And you find this is just nonsense. The world in a curious way wants you to fail because it seems that the world is filled with failures. But not me. Right?
Not me. Not you. We’re going to accomplish something in this thing called life, and it’s going to be fun. Leave you with the thought. I was reading about the granddaughter of Tolstoy, and her life had been filled with chaos to a certain extent.
But at the end of her life, she wrote, you know, I’m a little bit embarrassed. My life has been extraordinarily interesting. I’ve loved well. I’ve ate well. I’ve lived a good existence.
And I thought, bless you, that can be all of us. And you’d know what they say. You’d know what they say. Who must I have faith in first? The answer is me because critical thinking is necessary and of course, critical thinking is truly great. It’s great. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.