[email protected]

20 Nov Life isn’t all about seeking pleasure and evading pain

Posted at 11:50h in Books, Leadership Development, New Release, Personal Development by
0 Likes

Contrary to what many experts suggest, life is not all about seeking PLEASURE and evading PAIN.

Not at all!

The ego is temporal. It unturns all stones to secure survival by all means.

On the contrary, the eternal soul seeks fulfillment based on a grand purpose BIGGER than the individual and their ego…

Unfortunately, very few:

  • Cultures and subcultures,
  • Organizations, and
  • Families intentionally and proactively prime their members and train them to follow their hearts.

 

This is especially hard these days.

In this social media universe, the purpose of the soul or what matters the most beyond time and space (in eternity) has got nominal attention.

I’m sure. Only a few people are interested in this kind of topic I’m sharing here. Many who see this post on social media may not even check it out. Even if they do, very few read up to this point. Unfortunate…

In the TikTok generation, what is popular and sensational ONLY wins the hearts of many in this generation.

I’m not saying social media isn’t important, and avoid it. No! But, we should be very careful and strategic in how we use it.

Let me ask you:

  • How are you managing your time and energy on a daily basis?
  • Do you strategize, prioritize, plan, and protect your priorities from unproductive but sensational materials?
  • Do you carve some time on a regular basis to attain the needs of your soul?
  • Do you control yourself and use social media productively?

 

By the way, I’m not ignoring the fact that we’re in deep trouble that threatens our very existence NOW- Nuclear war!

But, if we somehow survive and don’t annihilate ourselves soon as a result of nuclear war, we will for sure reverse our evolution (mental and spiritual) and decline spirally if we continue like this.  If we stop evolving spiritually…

We’ve never been so close to sabotaging our evolution. We’re a click of a BUTTON away to destroy ourselves once and for all.


Nuclear annihilation is real and terrifying. I understand that individuals like you and I may not do anything meaningful to avert this danger in the short term.


For that matter, even powerful individual countries cannot prevent this risk alone.


It should have been the UN but it is at its lowest point unable to stop nuclear-armed nations from aggravating the situation or at least influencing them to lower the temperature.


Going forward, the UN may succeed in averting disaster. But my hope is that a few influential nations or regional organizations may come together soon and create synergy to mitigate the risk of self-annihilation…


Of course, each one of us can contribute our fair share positively and proactively to prevent this from happening again in the future by elevating the collective consciousness of humanity.


Here are a couple of things we can do and NOW. Let’s:
  1. Create PEACE in our minds,
  2. Play CONSTRUCTIVE roles to bring and sustain peace where we live and work,
  3. Influence our leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to prevent conflicts that lead to self-destruction.


That being said, we’re also facing another subtle existential threat we shouldn’t ignore just because we’re on the verge of self-destruction.


We need to reverse this scary trend of sensationalism to grow holistically and experience a quantum leap in our evolution, and in turn civilization.



We are at a crossroads. We need to devise personal and collective measures to tame the ego and its desire to stay temporal, competitive, sensational, and even worst toxic.

Anyways, where we are as a race is the result of so many complex factors. One such factor is our inability to fast-track our spiritual evolution. Our relatively faster evolution in mind led us to technological advancement, which is a good thing.

But our spiritual evolution is too slow. That is why we are on the verge of self-destruction. Unfortunate!

We shouldn’t be ruled by ego and let it be in the driver’s seat dictating our PROGRESS, FUTURE, and FATE.

The ego, bound in space-time, knows that it is running out of time. As a result, it only strives to enjoy momentary satisfaction at the expense of holistic growth that empowers us to experience a quantum leap in our evolution and civilization…

At this point, you may be asking, what can I do? Here are a few questions you should answer:

  • Do you study, read, and reflect on a consistent basis?
  • How are you contributing toward mitigating conflicts, and bringing peace wherever you live and work?
  • What roles are you playing in the advancement of our mental and spiritual evolution of humanity?

While we’re in this mood, let me share with you the following excerpt where I talked about attaining the needs of our soul:

“…The thinking that man is solely motivated by seeking pleasure and avoiding pain is superficial. It doesn’t apply to all. But, there is some truth in it.

Who doesn’t want to have pleasure? Who enjoys pain?

No one!

But, a person isn’t just a body that seeks pleasure and avoids pain by all means.

Humanity also has other needs at mental and spiritual levels. And many may forego the pleasure and endure pain to fulfill these needs.

One of the all-time great stories of survival is Viktor Frankl’s. He had survived the Nazi concentration camp and lived to tell his story.

Frankl endured unimaginable pains. Regardless, he asserted, “Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.”

The intrinsic quest of man is finding the reason for his existence.

This is especially true if someone seeks to become the best version of themselves. Thus, any attempt to attain greatness should be based on one’s unique purpose.

It should not just be to seek comfort or avoid distress.

Here are the four grand truths concerning purpose that justify why we should seek purpose-oriented greatness:
1. Everything in this finely-tuned universe has a unique purpose
2. When a thing fails to serve its purpose, it loses its significance
3. When a thing gets misaligned from its purpose, it performs poorly
4. True greatness comes from discovering and pursuing one’s unique purpose…” Taken from The Highest Level of Greatness p. 64 https://www.successpws.com/the-highest-level-of-greatness