We humans have a uniqueness. We are the only – known – creature of this world, which is aware of its “fate”. For a very special reason, the moment we understand what life is, at the same time, we realize that this life also has an end. And at that exact moment, the moment we realize that this life has an “indefinite” end date, life acquires great value for us.
Beyond any questions that have been created for us, from the moment of this realization, two concerns begin to concern us:
The first concerns how to preserve the gift of life in order to enjoy it as much as possible.
The second concerns how to live this life, for as long as we live it.
Let’s start to “unblock” the second concern, because it will probably help us to find an answer to the first as well.
As for how it is worth living this life, we must first agree that it is not possible to have an absolute prescription.
As many people cross the surface of this planet, there are as many recipes. And this is because, for each person, in addition to the relativity of the way he perceives the phenomena happening around him, there is also the completely personal factor of evaluation. The personal principles/values/criteria that he has documented – consciously or unconsciously – along the way.
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Diogenes, for example, decided to spend his life in the …sun, Alcibiades in the hunt for …adrenaline and the saturation of his estrogen, Socrates in the self-sacrificing search for truth, Alexander in reaching the edge of …of the world. And don’t think that I am referring to the well-known philosophers Diogenes and Socrates, to the general of Athens Alcibiades or to the king of Macedonia Alexander… I am referring to random names and random choices of purpose of life…
Thousands of people have given content to their own lives and to the lives of those around them. Some simple and some more complex. For this content, they remained in the memory of the population of the entire planet, a continent, a nation, a state, a city, a village, a neighborhood or some friends and acquaintances after their “departure”.
We remember them because we got something good from them. Because life wrote them, because they did something beautiful, something powerful or simply harmonious after they managed to coordinate many other people around them in the direction of their choice.
They weren’t people different from us, they just followed the path of their hearts. These people did not curb the creative greatness of the feeling towards the World that embraces us in its embrace. They wanted the best, shared their dream and claimed it together with everyone – everyone.
We do not know exactly what “Truth” these people possessed. However, what their fellow travelers remember, and it was passed on to us over time, is that they “surrendered fully” and for that reason, they took the place they deserved in the historical memory of humanity.
They took their place as individuals, as groups, but also as a historical moment in the course of the one who marches through time with his eyes raised to the sky. Human’s.
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Perhaps the time has come to answer our “first concern”, how to preserve the gift of life in order to enjoy it as much as possible.
I will propose to escape from the Newtonian definition of time based on causality.
Our time expands and contracts depending on what we live. Nothing is faster than time but also nothing is slower than it. Time expands in the face of horror, while it contracts in the face of
Man, every man, every day, unconsciously or consciously, experiences the time of ignorance where everything is future, the time of knowledge where everything is past and the time of fullness where everything is present. Man experiences eternity!
The problem of the lack of awareness of eternity that we experience, hence our anxiety, is located in the concept of the present. The question is, what quality is the present that we are experiencing and on what values has it been built.
Does it contain will (freedom)? Does it contain awareness (balance)? Does it contain sensitivity (respect)?
Is it a micro-image, a product of a microscope with which we – as observers – anxiously try to reveal the Truth about the forest? Certainly, if we use a microscope, observing the detail, we can discover the harmony of Creation. However, not everyone can overcome and coordinate with the whole from the part. This requires time of apprenticeship and experience and we are the hurried, everyday people next door, lost in the matrix of the 21st century. And our question is agonizing. ” What are we doing;”
We are fortunate to belong to a people with a tradition of searching. Our ancestors documented Philosophy. The Philosophy of our tribal community was not – and is not – a process of theoretical approach to the World, but a way of life. Philosophy is a Method.
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The philosophical method documented by our ancestors is simple and is summed up by the Delphic commandment “Know him” and the advice of Apollonius of Rhodes: “Time is the father of Truth”.
So let’s start with ourselves and its relationship with the WORLD.
Let us leave ourselves free to express our will for our participation in this world.
Let’s not rush. Time is a vehicle, not a problem.
Let us measure our strengths and support our decisions with sources of high spiritual values. Only then will they have value.
Let’s make sure that we share our dream with fellow human beings who have the purity of spirit and the strength to help us but also to warn us about wrong choices. No one has completed the “course” alone until today.
Another serious question concerns “…understanding”. In essence, the question expresses the anxiety of every researcher: “where will I find the key to open the doors I will encounter?”
To this seemingly difficult question, the answer is easier: “in our hearts lies the key.”
If our personal dream does not fill our heart, it is the wrong path and it will get us nowhere. No matter how hard we try, no matter how much our “friends” support us…
As you can see, the snuff box is about the lack of quality…a dream after all. Unless you have a different opinion…