Twenty six today! Nothing feels linear! Everything is layered! Day by day I feel that I'm becoming more of a stoic or a pacifist in a way, and so far I am liking it!
Anyways where was I, the self proclaimed character arc!
Center of Gravity
The only thing that ties me to this world right now are the people I’m attached to. I’d lose all meaning in my life if you removed them.
Now this originated from a thought experiment: What if I were the last person on Earth? What would I be living for?
Apparently, meeting, knowing, and understanding other human beings as deeply as possible is a goal for some reason, maybe find meaning for myself while I know them. What drives them? what gives their life meaning? Their core beliefs? I now understand humans! Peak തൊഴിലില്ലായ്മ!
So ചായ? maybe?
The privilege of waking up everyday and being granted peace is real! How do I minimize worries, how can I make the lives of a few a bit more peaceful, reduce a bit of weight off their shoulders, something that I tend to think of.
But then another question haunts me, why do some people never get that peace? Why does the world allow that imbalance to exist? Maybe you can't fix the world, you can only fix yourself. A hard truth, but a liberating one.
Anchoring
These thoughts are still forming, and unrefined, and I do not have an answer for a lot of questions:
People chase things, money, peace, love, purpose. Chasing gives life a shape. It's always been the chase that created meaning.
Beneath it all, life boils down to one goal: survival.
But survival takes two forms:
- Survive by lifting others. Make your life better while making theirs easier.
- Survive by dominating. Destruction, greed, war a darker, zero-sum path.
A dichotomy and a spectrum and moreover, this isn't just individual survival it could be survival of a clan, a group whatever! Behavior at an individual level is entirely different when in groups and within amalgamation of groups! Now the question, what is right? What is wrong? What is good? What is bad?
Is destruction for the sake of protection justifiable? Is war for the sake of survival justifiable? Is greed for the sake of wealth justifiable? Is selfishness for the sake of survival justifiable? Is cruelty for the sake of survival justifiable?
Zooming out, everything in life is just energy redistribution and it will happen whether or not you survive
Wealth is Just an abstraction of energy. Money, time, effort, power traded in different forms.
Acceptance
Everyone needs a philosophy. Something to hold onto when nothing else makes sense. For a long time, I rejected religion and belief systems. But this year, I came back curious, softer.
Religious texts, I now realize, aren’t just dogma. They’re repositories of human wisdom. Stories coded with meaning. I’ve found something beautiful in Advaita Vedanta: the idea that everything and everyone is one. Tat Tvam Asi you are that. You are the universe itself. You are the God you seek out!
And then I saw the same in Abrahamic Religions, Imago Dei we are made in the image of God. Which boils down to this: treat others as you would treat yourself.
I mean if you think about it, we're all just different permutations of the same elemental particles!
Maybe this sounds utopian. But imagine the world if everyone paused just once to consider, how will the other person feel? A world where people stop being greedy, although greed is a natural human survival trait, but the what ifs!
I am not not a fan of any organized religion! But I've come to understand that both science and religion are ways to humanity tried to explain the very nature of reality!
For me, every entity that has an essence of life is some manifestation of whatever the universe, god or myself or even you are!
And the world will live as one!
John Lennon you ducking legend!
Amendments
A bunch of small changes to a few notes to myself from last year on https://www.kiranjohns.com/posts/personal/quarter-life-crisis#few-words-to-the-future-or-past
Be unapologetically selfish but ethically. Meet your needs as long as you're not hurting anyone else.
Mighty is the hand that knows when to pick up a sword or a pen. Choose the pen. It can solve more than you think. Use the sword only when you must, only to defend.
Maybe too much Vinland Saga influence, but I just want to be a kinder person moving forward! The calm in the chaos, someone who can be a source of comfort and solace to others. Someone who is at peace with the world, life, fear, failure and death.
Anyways, onto twenty six, with a quest of being a kind human being and a better version of myself!
Reach out for anything!
~Fin