Life is all about
synergy
and synthesis
In the recent
past I read two very interesting and thought provoking write ups from two great
writers /critics of modern times.
Naturally both
articles [links given at the end are interesting] at least triggered a thought
process to explore the meaning or meaninglessness of life and many things.
When too may thoughts and ideas; too
vast records of past experiences are around, it is a matter of ‘embarras de choix’.
Then, the most preferable perspective may be to go in for synergy and synthesis because
life’s multiple dimensions, dynamics are interlinked.
These two articles
landed me in giving a long reply as follows:-
There may be
some redundancies, rather reiterations to emphasis, because every moment of
life is repeated, not necessary in a similar way, much less the same fashion.
Let me start
with my favorite quotes which sets the tone and premise to proceed on the
pilgrimage of perceptive perspectives.
“In the end
nothing less than the whole of everything can be the truth of anything at all”-
William James
“We live in a
changing universe, and few things are changing faster than our conception of
it”-Timothy Ferris
"Existence
consists in the interplay of a plurality of elements whose true nature is
indescribable and whose source is unknown. Combinations of these elements
instantaneously flash into existence and instantaneously disappear, to be
succeeded by new combinations of elements appearing in a strict
causality." - Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre
As D.J.Mercier,
the Archbishop of Malines has said even “Sound Philosophy sets out from analysis and
terminates in synthesis”.
This applies more to philosophy of life.
First we all must at
least accept one thing that LIFE is live and therefore constantly evolving and
has to be experienced on the move.
It is neither a pass it on baton nor it has ‘pause button’.
Life is jigsaw puzzle
with multiple pieces at our disposal but which are constantly moving with which
we presume that we are supposed to figure out an unmapped atlas.
Therefore, obviously the task becomes too daunting.
So, we resort to
conceptualize an atlas in a broad canvass and try to draw our own maps each
according to one’s perspective, mostly determined by contexts, conveniences and concomitant relevance based on confirmation
biases and belief systems.
Therefore, life has no panacea and as whole eludes
any specific over simplistic prescriptions of ideology or ism purely
because nothing is static about life.
To put it differently
life is a constant churning process.
Wherein, we neither
decide the cauldron or the ingredients; nor are we even sure of the size or
material with which the kirn–staff or churning stick is made of.
However, human life (
unlike other species whose reference manual of how to live is supposedly is
possible only through inherited instincts and genetic memory) has an additional
advantage of recorded retrievable knowledge bank of multiple experiences of
life lived through different periods of
time in the past.
It is precisely for these reasons that we cannot deny or
defy the importance of any incident, issue, information, idea, instant,
individual, interlinked innumerable aspects of life’s journey as a whole.
The use of conscious
awareness and reason enables and enhances the evaluation of multitude of
options, rather than binding one with blinkers to view only at certain things
from specific perspectives.
Every life primarily wants to survive and live physically
and then explore multitude of options to live a life through and beyond the physical
realms.
This process tries, toys with and uses various concepts,
philosophical approaches and scientific knowledge and technological tools etc.
So, if we try to
oversimplify life into any category or classification; through any ideological
or identity based ghettoes ; attempting to suggest any homogenized
prescriptions, then, in all these cases our understanding of splendor of
life’s harmony and the harmony of living will both get distorted.
Meaning of Life is the result of churning of the outer world by the inner self or the way inner
self relates with the outer world in all its multiple manifestations.
So, ‘meaning of life’ is neither predefined and nor, fortunately,
patented and therefore cannot be prescribed as ‘such and such’ with a definite
label.
It is so because life itself has too many facets and dimensions and
perceived and lived differently by different species at different times and at
various places.
Meaning of life cannot be defined away
or described away by any conceptual definition or description however lofty and
logical, and irrespective whichever source it emanates from.
Everything is part of life and not apart
from life and therefore cannot be kept apart for a future date or an assumed
future condition or fit into any particular concept.
Life mostly is lived and perceived in
the Time and Space conundrum but happens beyond these two.
That's why sometimes
things happen in a jiffy when the human mind is not even given options of
dealing with it in Time and Space, physical lives just end.
Therefore, in
our attempt to understand and sometimes to exercise some control over life, we
make many choices and decisions at every moment and they are ensued by concomitant
actions and reactions based on them which we think are the best ways to
deal with life.
The beauty of life consists in the
unknowns and the unending searches and researches –the unending process of
evolutionary trends in everything.
Growing up and growing out of certain
things are natural process of evolutionary metamorphosis both biologically and
psychologically.
Life is
functionally a dynamic energy; visually a multi faceted splendor; in reality a
marvelous mystery which unfolds itself through each and every one of us at
every moment and so on. Therefore life cannot be either generalized in any
manner or simplified into any predefined categories.
Life continues
to evolve in its dynamic energy every moment and constantly throws up
challenges in varying degrees and intensities, in different dimensions and at
unexpected intervals.
In ThinkEdu16
conference in concluding session Sri Sri Ravishankar answered spontaneously
very well to Vice Chancellor of a university in very simple terms how to avoid
irrational depressions due to high expectations and corresponding
disappointment.
He used just
three very effective words. “He said you definitely need 'Passion' to
perform effectively but 'Dispassion' to carry on with
shortcomings and failures. He said when you succeed in Passion you
enjoy, when you have this 'Dispassion' then you do not 'hate yourself' between
these two if you have 'Compassion' then you do not hate or blame others. So,
he said you need Passion, Dispassion and Compassion -all the three.”
There are lot of links and sub-links given below which will
lead you through an unending journey of, hopefully, interesting reading.
The concepts of
MORALITY itself may be mostly contextual http://www.scribd.com/doc/101199648/Morality-is-Just-Contextual
The two articles that triggered the above write up are
Published on March 22nd
Published on March 20th