BALANCE

It seems, rather unexpectedly, but not totally incomprehensible a circumstance, that the book (the one mentioned in the earlier post where ‘404’ was derived), have ended with an abrupt full stop, rudely (or perhaps there was truly no other way to end it), and there is nothing we can really do about the universal pattern of loss.

Loss and Gain; they form / complete the loop of the one universal rule – Change. When we seek to gain something, we stand to lose something, to replace that which comes in to take its newfound place in our lives.

We lose our childhood innocence to grasp the concept of reality, which mentally equips us for the challenges of the harsh society.

We lose our time and energy, possibly or almost always, our health as well, to earn the income, which feeds us.

We lose our fanciful, unbridled lifestyle for the predictable comforts and homely warmth derived from the establishment of a family nucleus.

All these are part of the exchange process. Nothing comes without a price; nothing at all. (Not that we should so ignorantly hope for that something). The question should therefore be, “What do I desire next? And what will I give to have that?” (Here, multi-taskers and multi-talents should note that we really have only 24 hours a day so do not think of overloading yourself. There really is a point where you cannot handle so many things. Trust me, I have encountered first hand, many a times).

THE GRATIFICATION PACKAGE

The following paragraphs should have been obvious to most people, most except me. I think I have failed to realise in the past, but thankfully have finally realised why the hell I find no gratification in anything I do, and every single achievement just serving the purpose of further widening the gaping spiritual gap of my soul.

As a friend of mine once said, “If you want to improve your pull-ups, don’t keep doing squats!”

Consciously or not, that was exactly what I have been doing; when I seek spiritual gratification, I bury myself in business. When I seek emotional gratification, I ten-fold my physical indulgences. When I want material gratification, I walk aimlessly in town but do not make a single purchase to quench the superficial desires (I probably end up buying a book instead).

Horrible, devastating mismatch…

‘I’ VERSUS ‘We’

I have come to the realisation, when I placed myself before the mirror of absolute honesty, that I have NO sympathy for the weak.

I shall not judge the great men (I used to think they were all nothing more than great liars with a slick tongue making empty promises and, well people forget the promises these great men make after they become great because people are forgetful by nature).

Anyways, this revelation, this truth about my ugly (well that should be the term of normality for people with ‘no heart’) soul, was uncovered today, when I was listening to a friend complain about some low wage, and a family to feed and all that really normal lamenting. Well, I should be able to comprehend complains of low wages, since I personally believe mine is no better off.

I thought I would think like that:

- Yes, we all have low wages. It’s a national problem of imbalance between income and purchasing power.

- We all deserve higher wages, and it is vital for all of us to earn at least 5k a month to simply survive.

BUT, I was truly thinking:

- What??? I have never heard of your pay scale!!! You mean it is THAT low???

- But come to think of it, you don’t deserve anything more. I probably wouldn’t even employ you.

- How will you EVER survive???

I have always tried to tag my personal cause to a greater one, trying to embrace the conventional teachings of goodness. I stupidly run my dealings trying to benefit everybody; trying to give customers more value for money, trying to give subordinates more welfare (mostly more than they deserve), trying not to mind taking personal credit (even though I truly deserve it).

Of course, in the end, it doesn’t work. It never will. Humans are ungrateful (and forgetful, as mentioned earlier), by nature. This ‘nature’ however, is directed only at the reception of good things (hatred always stays longer). Nobody will remember you and any single / multiple good deed/s you have lavishly spent on them, and it cannot be helped. IT CANNOT BE HELPED!!!

If one still thinks, in the face of such treatment, that it is worth the pain, go forth and be the great man. The world of sympathetic greatness and big hearts holds no place for me. I am but human, and if all that goes forth cannot produce results to change anything at all, I will not bother myself.

Henceforth, I discard the great word ‘WE’. I think I can sufficiently be contented with ‘I’.

THE ROTTEN BASKET

The world is rotten. It will always be, because that which we long for is always not there. That’s also precisely why we long for it. We constantly live in and out of the self-created ironies of our conscious and sub-conscious minds. We always contradict ourselves. That’s the way it is, so accept it or go jump off the Westin (If you can afford to pay to get in to the elevator first, and remember to wear covered shoes, slippers are not allowed).

In this rotten world, there are a couple of things we cannot change – The Rules:

1) What can be taken has already been taken.

Yes, every piece of land, property, idea, paper, trinket, gadget, every damn thing has been taken, somebody owns it. There is no such thing as - No Man’s Item, and even if there is, it not belongs to the “loss and found” department, which belongs to the government.

2) Everybody eventually, most innately, care only for themselves.

Whatever you have, whatever you want, no one gives a shit. No one will, just like we do not give a shit when a stranger comes up to you and claims to have just undergone a harrowing divorce (of course, unless his / her wife / husband is a hottie you would like to shag).

Therefore, to even get into their heads, you’ve got to talk to them, about them, for the benefit of them.

3) Face Value actually sells, and sells very well (since the majority buys it).

Thanks to industrialisation, globalisation, commercialisation, liberalisation, and many other ‘lisations’, we now have a breed of unprecedented-ly shallow population. This population, being to busy, with the too many things they are tasked with (by their bosses, spouses, parents, kids, friends, subscribed companies, the government, the government, the government…), no longer have time nor energy to look beneath the surface.

This actually makes selling anything a lot simpler. Physical appeal is about all they need.

4) There is really no right or wrong.

Morals, culture, religion, right, wrong, wrong, right…

Ever asked yourself where the hell these things came from. Now be enlightened – They came from – The Ancient Wisdom.

We are aware, or would like to believe that we are aware, that the ancients, those who discovered the art of astrology, numerology, mystic readings, religion and kung-fu, are wiser than us.

We are also aware, but perhaps have forgotten in our unjustified awe, that these ancient people also thought; dragons, minotaurs (makes me wonder if they actually tried cross breeding with cows) and orcs existed. They also believed that the moon was a goddess, the sun was a god, and that earth was flat.

Well if the theory of Ancient Wisdom actually stood to be true, we should be very sad indeed, because it means we, after so many years of evolution, now have even less wisdom than a Neanderthal!

WHAT NEXT

Since there is really no point trying to change the world (If we aren’t that great anyways), and the world is also rotten beyond redemption, and that mankind will one day drive its own extinction, and that everyone out there have chosen to base their thoughts on Neanderthal philosophy…

We can try to do the following:

- Take whatever you want, from no matter who. There’s no need to be sorry.

- Don’t bother making too much justification; you’re not selling the damn thing to yourself.

- Make sure you take care of your own interest, no one else will.

- Remove any obstacle in your way. You can’t progress otherwise, and will always be wrong until you have destroyed them.

- Enjoy yourself, in every way possible. If something makes you miserable, stop doing it.

- Make sure you trade in what you do not want, for what you want. Don’t worry, there are always the weaklings who would scramble to swallow the shit you have passed out. Its part of the human ladder of progression. (of course, it truly means that we are also eating shit, except that we, at whichever current stage we are in, actually enjoy the taste of it).