The conformity we call life, the false security that conformity seems to bring is a poor second to a life where truths are revealed almost daily and the happiness and simplicity of life through its lack of possessions seems to amplify the the thought process struggling to find answers as to what our place on Earth means.
The assumption that life is a composite of belongs and a healthy bank balance falls far short of the wonders of philosophical prudence where wealth is thought to hold you back from the self realisation needed to find inner peace. The continuous testing of a proposition by rationalisation, taking it apart and holding it to the light, asking questions and throwing out old prejudice, examining the thousands of hours of debate and reasoned proposition by dedicated minds, is such a far cry from the hip hopping mind of a person living in suburbia.
Of course for the suburban mind the acquisition of the house and the car is the price we pay for the drudgery of work and as for most, the repetitive nature of a life governed by trying to find resolution to other people's needs, the employer, ones children and friends hardly leaves space or time to consider oneself. Even if we have the time we continually evaluate ourselves against those in the community we know and respect we never wipe the slate clean and actually place ourselves inside the unique universe which is the inner human sanctum of the human being, their collective mind and their aspirations when rid of the immediate self gratifying urges which we run to, each day and call normality.
The price we pay is never self evident since for most of us have never known much else than the daily round of what ever community you were raised in thought normal. There are a few who submerge themselves in religion to the point that their everyday thoughts are turned to a god or the conjecture that scripture lays out as a way to live our lives but like the god of consumerism it's a direction which is expound by a force outside ourselves, not a 'rational' we ourselves discover and test.
The satisfaction of a rich man to find satisfaction in purchasing what ever our immediate attention aspires is a satisfying one no doubt but for the vast bulk of us living in suburbia the only glimmer of that life comes from the television and we are amazed to find how unhappy even the richest can be if their emotional and philosophical needs are met only in the purchase.
The internal conflict comes in being faced with having to downsize ones life, scaling back ones consumerist tendencies in an effort to make ones life simple, more observable.
How do we evaluate this self evaluation when compared to the attention seeking evaluation of living in suburbia.
Perhaps the effort to move out from the comfort zone and live in an relatively alien environment, in close proximity to others who share your need of discovery is the answer since the extent to which you have dislocated from the old suburban existence becomes a measure by which you can measure the sacrifice you make for a chance to discover nirvana
No comments:
Post a Comment