Living a Meaningful Life: Perspectives and Reflections
Life as we know it, is a contents’ concept of time governed by minutes, hours, days, years in the different seasons of life. However, in its metaphysical construct, is made up of time, space and energy. As Harry Mavromichalis said “The essence of life is constant growth. Every day, I remind myself to keep moving, to be open to change, to keep enquiring and try to better myself.” As we navigate through the highways and byways of life one realises the faster life becomes, the busier it gets, the louder it is and becomes harder to comprehend the simplest and most essential aspects of life. Which are love, happiness, fellowship, brotherhood, family, loyalty and mostly importantly peace. All the attributes mentioned, ultimately don’t give you joy without peace. Peace is how we get to live in love, happiness and fellowship.
Often the pleasures and comforts of life from the vantage of the typical new age neo-liberal, is attached to material things, things which supposedly make life worth living. In the pursuit of accumulating these things which we have come to believe are the essence of life, we become detached from our innermost being and thus desensitized to the reality that the most important things in life are in fact not things. In this age, things have become more important than principles, things have mattered more than people.
Where We Miss It?
We take the important things in life and equate them to what we have acquired and accumulated. Titles and material gain have become synonymous to love, happiness and peace. However, if all our material possessions are removed from the equation, what do we have left? The noise that arises from the flight of success in the rush hour of the rat race of life, rushing to become something, to become someone, through the attainment of things and titles, has numbed us from the possibility of being content and peaceful outside of these things. It is the reality of finding peace in nothingness, of finding yourself in the slow lane while life seemingly passes you by every minute, hour, year in and year out. The peace of being at ease even when your peers boast successful careers, living the posh areas of the most luxurious suburbs, married with kids and life seems to be going so well for them while you wake up to your simple 9-5 normality, in your small, minimalist humble life should keep us moving. Its ok to be content with where you are at certain stages of life. The key is not being complacent and accepting a life where you are not fulfilled and find yourself living in the comfort zone.
In principle, the higher you go, the colder it gets and the thinner the air becomes. The metaphorical application of that principle to the rat race of life brings about a profound understanding that likewise, the faster you go on the highway of life, the higher you climb the ladder of success, the colder it gets and the thinner the air becomes. It can become lonely up there if the only thing you took with you is your pride and ego and you left a trail of disappointment, tears and heartache behind you, way down there. As you stand at the peak of that mountain of success you realise that it has become cold and the air is thin, making it difficult to breathe in an atmosphere saturated by competition, entitlement and selfishness.
As one soars the heights of success, one realises that all these things, titles and people that have become part of life up there is futile without peace and purpose. The void caused by the innate human need for real affection, socialisation, brotherhood and loyalty has become a far cry as one gazes at the distance and the bridges burnt and ladders destroyed going up. Slumber flees and peace becomes a figment of one’s imagination amid all the things and titles.
At times the loss of a loved one is tempestuous in one’s life thus finding peace outside of that loved one seems insufferable. Losing your hard-earned wealth, or job can also be the cause for a very foggy idea of peace. In addition, ill health and physical ailment also cause the evasion of the reality of peace. In the event of the demise in the height of your career, the deterioration of health or a relationship, the loss of love, and the doom of death, peace becomes an inconceivable and foreign concept to us and thus it begs the question, how does one find peace amidst the noise in life’s tempests.
Finding Peace
When one comes to the realisation that true peace transcends anything tangible and is not attached to anything conceivable by the human eye, then one is well on his way to finding inner peace. Peace begins where creation begins, in the mind. In the dark alleys of being, at the corner of nowhere within the subconscious, where the natural meets the supernatural, that’s where peace begins. Peace amid the noise is a deeply seated and elevated level of consciousness which supersedes all titles, all wealth, all the knowledge in the world or any form of affection one can be exposed to.
Peace is a state of equilibrium in the mind, that quiet and tranquil haven of the soul which no one can give you or take away from you. A place where infinite wisdom meets with very limited, carnal intelligence; the Eden of the mind. That’s where true peace amidst the noise can be found and only you know how to get there. Religion, science, philosophy, politics have attempted to direct human kind to that quiet place of solitude but have always come short, however if one can pause just for a moment, sit down, close your eyes and look deep within. In that darkness in the corridors of the mind, the universe awaits, you only need to listen to that small still voice and go towards the direction its calling, that’s where the peace amidst the noise can be found.
“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” Romans 14:19
Conclusion
Life is vast and composed of many elements, intricate and mind boggling. A lot is often lost in the pursuit of happiness, purpose and peace that we lose sight of the beginning. We don’t miss Eden because we have big dreams and want to live life to the fullest, we miss it because the journey often becomes the end in and of itself. Having material possessions, achieving our career goals and establishing meaningful relationships is a part of life that makes it worth living. However, its vital not to lose sight of living a purpose driven life. Having all these things in life without purpose and meaning will leave you with a void that leads you to a never-ending quest of accumulating more. To a place where its never enough and you feel less than what you should.
The peaceful calmness amidst the most violent storm outside of yourself can only be achieved by the quality of the time in your life, the space you occupy in that time and the energy you emit regardless the season or circumstance. An elevated state of mind edifies, pacifies and fortifies the soul and this results in a profound state of inner peace. In other words, there you find the Eden of the mind, where God and man meet.
