Man wanted to live. So he was born. Living was not a challenge for man. Because man is born to live. But man ‘wants to live’ that has become a challenge that has bred complexities. Man wants to live is a longing. Man wants to live in his longing. His death becomes part of his longing. And his longing lends him into a new cradle. He is born again and again because neither longing ends nor life ends. Because longing is life.
Life is a longing unfulfilled. You are born again and again to fulfil your unfulfilled longing. Man’s greed, rage, ambition, desire breed more longings to ensure continuity of births.
In fact, the greater the chances to be reborn greater the longings you are seeking, greater the longings faster the chances to incarnate. When you are born, you are born to fulfil unfulfilled longing. In addition, you are goaded to fulfil the expectations of society. So you gather a lifetime of longings every birth that are carried forward to bring forward new life.
It is in fact living in a distracted state. Longings are dreaming. Man has a chance to live life. Man has to essentially live life. But the man keeps on dreaming to bury unfulfilled longings into the dark corners of the mind. Old longings haunt him, new ones lend dreaming. State of dreaming is the state of ignoring life, postponement of a lifetime.
If a man lives life wakefully that would end his longings, just by being wakeful or in the state of wakefulness. But man lives in mind. Mind wants to live. Mind lives in longings because it is the absence of the being. And wakefulness is the beginning of life. So he is living in a state of constant preparations.
Instead of living life, man is engaged in making preparations for living. Plans, ideas, future and desires for a future life become the bane of his life. How constant preparations for a life that is not lived today are going to help him live tomorrow that is in fact today. The arrangements and preparations that you are in today will be the past tomorrow. You long for something in the now-ness. Because you need to prepare for tomorrow you don’t want to live in what you have in hand today. You are preparing for a tomorrow that will become past tomorrow. So you are running to ensure that tomorrow will be yours. So you wish to be born into where you are not. Preparations are made today in the now-ness for a tomorrow that is not there. Surely it shall ensure that you will never be able to meet tomorrow. Life is not making preparation for life. Life is not the philosophy to live. Life is like singing a song. Life is drowning in the deep sea, like laughing and crying in love, like dancing in the being. Life readies its preparations. You don’t have to make preparations to live. You don’t have to search for new means of preparations to live. You have made this your pastime. You are searching for means to live. Means are already there in your hands. Stop searching.
Man has invented the economy. It is a great invention. It brings things of the world together to one place. Using the money you could accumulate things from the world. The economy is an understanding of the system of using money. Money has lent wheels to man’s longings. Man is longing for money because money could bring his desires fulfilled instantly. There’s nothing wrong with fulfilling desires. But, then man is after money. He makes his life into a constant struggle for money.
Money runs deep in society. Society is bred on the clutches of money. In India, economics is called arthavyavastha which is a beautiful name. Man is seeking the meaning of vyavastha that is what the literal expression of ‘arthavyavastha’ means. Arthvayavastha means economy. Seeking the ‘artha’ (money) of ‘vayaya’(cost, value, price) of aastha (system or a belief). So ‘arthavyavastha’ means a system of keeping cost, value and price of money. Man is constantly making ‘vyavastha’ (arrangements) for the future. Man is trying to store money for a future that in fact is his present.
When a child is born he grows. Money is gushing in the veins of society. It makes him greedy. Greed is a competition for making preparations for future life.Man has been constantly fighting. Religions, countries, nationalities, ethnicities have constantly been fighting. Why? What is the issue? We are fighting wars after wars. Power wants to fight the non-power because it is power. Therefore it is power. To be powerful because it is the power that wants to make others powerless to prove power. To wrest power politics is needed. Politics comes from those dark corners where you buried your longings.
Money is also a fight. Monied wants to dominate the unmonied. Money is a power for the powerful to fight for power and to remain in power. Organised religion is also like money. Ones who don’t practise religion create wars. Nationalities are constant preparations of wars because they have to dominate to keep up their power alive.
Alexander died in preparations of war. Life is not to live in the constant preparation of life. Life is just to live here and now without any preparation. All preparations have already been showered here. Nothing more is needed. Don’t make your mind a war-mongering agent preparing for war. Let the war be anything. These are beautiful names of wars—countries, nationalities, ethnicities, religions, money, wealth, poverty, humanity, and God.
God has already made preparations for you. You don’t have to make any preparation here on earth. This earth doesn’t belong to you. Preparations will end your life. To live you have to be the life. Become the life that you are. Life is in the living. Be the life. Don’t think and while away your life in preparation for life. Preparations are negating your life. One who is running after money is good but don’t earn money at the cost of your life.
Don’t end up in preparations of life when you die. Don’t make preparations goal of your life. Preparations are good. Do prepare, plan and arrange life only for a few things so you can realise them easily. Buddha would tell his disciples to be prepared only for the next two steps. Don’t make plans for years and decades. Be in this moment here and now. This moment is the goal of life and no preparations are needed.
The author is a spiritual teacher and he can be contacted at arunavalokitta@gmail.com