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| ~ ∞ ~ The Game of Survival – The Essence of Life ~ ∞ ~ |
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The purpose of the following two chapters is to give some perspective on why it is difficult to achieve a lifestyle that reflects higher values, morals, ideals, and principles in today’s world; why it is challenging to strive towards higher evolution, towards inner transformation, by which inner peace, happiness, contentment and fulfillment is attained and maintained. As we continue to take a deeper look at ourselves as humans, we cannot help but see one particular issue. This issue is fundamentally keyed to the human condition that we explored in previous chapters; it is threefold in its nature and it can be broken down into following parts: 1.) Competition, 2.) Scarcity mentality, 3.) Survival mode. Each of these parts has an effect on the other parts, which means that each of these parts affects the whole. In other words, each part cannot be separated from the other parts, for they work in unison, you see? Let us explore this further.
Upon deeper examination, it becomes not only clear but self-evident that we as human beings are a competitive species living in a competitive society – almost every aspect of our lives is a competition. This sense of competition seems to be embedded in our mindset – we are relentlessly running around, rushing from one thing to another, always wanting more and more, in hopes of winning some sort of prize. People tend to value goals over process, which makes them restless and uneasy when not occupied. Why is this? Well, the reason for this can be found in our upbringing; you see, this sense of competition is drilled into our youth at a very early age. It is unfortunate that so many people are treating life as a competition – or do you beg to differ?
Granted, there are some benefits that can be gained from this, if done correctly – through a sensible combination of play, creative activity, cooperation, and fun. However, the manner in which the competition is conducted in all levels of society is the complete reversal of the aforementioned. As such, this sense of competition is playing havoc with our social and moral values, which results in that we tend to be selfish, jealous, envious, and even aggressive towards other people. There are exceptions, of course; however, this seems to be a growing trend, especially among people in Western countries. As such, people are driven by hedonistic desires to satisfy their wants and needs – ready to fight it, possibly even at the expense of their own lives.
And with this, we arrive at another aspect of the same issue, namely “scarcity mentality.” This aspect is equally important as the other, for they are closely related, you see? A scarcity mentality includes seeing things from a perspective of lack; the mindset of lack in turn forces one to see things in a more competitive way. To give an example: most people seem to live in a scarcity mentality where they see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there; and if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everyone else. People with this mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit – even with those who help them. These kinds of people also have a very difficult time being genuinely happy for the success of others. The irony here is that we live with a mentality of scarcity on a prosperous Earth that’s teeming with abundant life, but for some reason we are geared towards the destruction of life – rather than nurturing and preserving the Gift of Life itself.
There is yet another closely related aspect of this issue that we should take a look at, namely “survival mode.” When one looks around in the world today, sooner or later you just see it with your own eyes – most people live in the “survival mode,” which prevents them from tapping into their brilliance and inner genius. They get by in life, but they are not really living – they are just existing. They put in their time, punch the time clock and live for the weekends – they never really have any major goals or major drive in life. There are exceptions, of course; however, this seems to be the case more often than not. You see, if the basic needs are not met, people are not motivated by the higher needs either. One of the biggest reasons for this is the system we have in place – it promotes inequality, ruthless competition and social injustice among many other things.
In turn, the modern human life has become a world-wide competition – the name of the game is survival. In this game, there is one rule over others: we must pay to live, to exist – therefore we must do anything and everything to acquire money to pay living. It is essential, for you see, money gives us access to the ability to feed our families, send our children to school, and to maintain our health. We work and stress about our ability to obtain money because our access to the goods and services we need ultimately relies on obtaining money. In this game, the individual humans are caught up in a never-ending race to acquire more of everything; another side of the coin is that nations are in endless arms race to acquire more and more powerful weapons. Our whole lives seem to revolve around money and acquiring more stuff – to the point where we obsess about money even beyond fulfilling our core needs. People tend to value money over time, until time is almost up. Always rushing from one thing to another with the mantra: “time is money,” and yet constantly searching for more time, complaining about working too hard.
Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived. ~ Dalai Lama.
It is no accident that there is a word ‘be’ in “human being.” You see, the noun ‘be’ describes the state of having existence in the present moment, which goes on to say that being human is our foremost nature – after that comes everything else – including doing. Ironically, society expects us to be busy – always running around and doing things; there are even commercial slogans, like “Just Do It!” to promote this lifestyle. The more we observe people around us, the more we can see how humans have evolved to become empty shells, ego-driven human doings – instead of human beings. Taking the previous into consideration, it is always good to consider why we are doing all the things we are doing. The honest truth is that by spending more time on ‘being’ than doing, we are able to become more happy and fulfilled – simply by being connected to ourselves more deeply and more often – see?
A closer observation reveals the harsh truth about this game – a game of survival that we are all taking part in; no matter how one looks at it, the game itself seems to be rigged – privileged, rich & powerful have always a head start. These kinds of people can afford education, housing, transportation and financial resources beyond ordinary reach; they also have a well established social network of people who are already deeply engaged in the game, e.g., in business, banking, law, politics etc. In these circles, there are people who want to hold onto their power and status with all means necessary. This powerful elite – if you will, controls the system; which in turn controls the people – see? This invisible power structure, in turn, governs and shapes our culture – which is a collection of unvoiced agreements of how to be and act as a part of society. In this way, people are participating in keeping the system alive – quite a dichotomy, don’t you think?
Even though we have everything we need to make life good for all of us, for some reason – we are unwilling to do so. It is more than disconcerting to realize that somehow we have built ourselves a collective slave-system; self-imposed system where we are slaves to what we slave for – it doesn’t have to be so, but unfortunately, it is. This is completely backwards in so many ways – or do you beg to differ? Unfortunately, most people don’t seem to notice it at all – it seems that the “average Jane & Joe” are too busy to notice what is happening around them, or even care for that matter. The blindest of us would like to deny it altogether, and some would like to argue that its nature is so subtle that it doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s due to the fact that in our Western culture we always want to sugarcoat everything, so we say that we are “earning a living.” In so doing, we are fooling ourselves to believe that we are somewhat free in a society that is based on modernized form of slavery.
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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~
Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony
~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~
Get the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within – Discover the Keys to Happiness, Inner Peace & Harmony
[ Click » here « to read the next part: The Game of Survival 2/2 – The Essence of Life: Part III ]
Extra Material: Video: Society, A Perpetual Cycle [Alan Watts]. Video description: "Alan Watts talks about how our society conditions children to live with a constant frustration and worry about the future, and never learn how to live in the present."
