“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
— Socrates
Much of life is a complex puzzle of cause and effect, influence and desire, all wrapped up as a massive entanglement within the monkey minds which are our brains.
For a variety of reasons, many of which are from outdated evolutionary instincts, we spend the vast majority of our time being led by the monkey mind to whatever it feels compelled towards. Want to feel as though others look up to us? Yes, please. Position ourselves so we become the envy of the people closest to us? Sure, that wouldn’t be terrible, would it?
Delusion ends and life begins at each moment where we can detach from our monkey minds—where there is no more comparison, no fear of loss, no need to maintain an appearance. This is the life of a gambler, of one who risks the loss of everything they once so desperately pursued, only to return to the place where everything can be seen for what it is.
Life is not in our past, in everything we have accomplished and experienced, and everything we’re proud of. Neither is it ahead in the future, in the plans and adventures we imagine, and perhaps the most deceiving of all, the happiness we believe we will experience when we reach that distant point. Life is today, life is here and life is now. Will today be the day we live, the one we can truly call life?