The Essence of Life

Death is an affirmation of life that we all have to accept. Without any doubt or questioning on our part, we have to face the reality of our death, which may happen this very moment or in many years to come. So instead of procrastinating to this acceptance for later on, why not surrender to death this moment while alive? To answer this question, we need to understand what ‘being alive’ really means. What is life and what sustains it, would be the appropriate questions to define the epistemic comprehension of ‘being alive.’ I would place the answer to this form of questioning, the direction of this dialectic, as the simple propagation of thought. Because the continuity of our thinking, right from the age when we started thinking (which surprisingly, the vast majority of us would never remember) till this very moment is the basis of our unflinching belief and our knowledge of our ‘being alive’ and ‘feeling of life.’ Something deep within and unknown to our defining capability, some sort of energy or power is felt, that brings forth this belief and gives us this knowledge.

Maybe, according to my primitive approach to this line of questioning, the first cause we had for thinking was hunger. Why was hunger so necessary, and so important in being the origin of thought? Because hunger was our first reaction, the body’s reaction, towards sustenance; and so we cried and displayed thereby our first emotion. The body instinctively knew that without food it would perish. Which means death, and the ending of the feeling of ‘being alive.’ From there, the satisfaction of being fed coupled with the warmth of the feeding breast gave the first feeling of pleasure, and thereby the thoughts of attachment and happiness. Slowly the defining capacity of the mind models and labels our world with all its people, things and situations. The years roll on with all this labeling of the information gathered, the memories stored and habits cultivated, and these take its toll on the intelligence aspect of the mind. To make it falsely believe in its dependence on people, things and situations, or rather the world that we live in and equate it with the belief and feeling of ‘being alive.’ That deeper something within us is wholly forgotten, only to be replaced by a system of thoughts and concepts, like religion, tradition, customs and superstition. Such a fragile system is it, that even the smallest misgivings and trials of error can bring down its stability drastically. Alternating with these are moments of euphoria from desires and sensory pursuits, which confound the ignorance of truth and conceal it well.

I have a dog that is taken care off, given food and groomed well, and given regular sessions of affection. The dog will not leave my company in search of freedom, nor attack me because it has found security and a feeling of safety, which is the same as ‘being alive’ for it. The same dog if harmed or provoked to a great extent might bite me, yet it will stay because of its attunement to a sense of security and safety, which in its ignorance it is afraid it will never get elsewhere. Observe our usual living situations in any society, and the same behavior described above is clearly seen. Maybe we feed instead of being fed, and still the it is the feeling of responsibility or an attachment built on habit that replaces that original feeling of hunger and sustenance of one’s own life. We lead lives no more different than that of the dogs, and yet we are somehow different. I am aware of this difference, while a dog is not, and so I write. Show me one dog that has said otherwise.

In such a case what is stopping me from exposing this ignorance and living a life of freedom? If we attempt an explanation by bringing in the concept of love as the cohesive force behind relationships and attachments, then it is a very vain attempt. For love is not affection or attachment, but the very same as the feeling of ‘being alive’ and it is all-inclusive, with absolutely no conditions applied. So long as we do not mistake love for the desire for company and companionship that all started with the pleasure arising from the warmth of the feeding breast pushed into our mouth to satisfy our hunger, and the reason for our first thought. The moment of consciousness of this ignorance, we become conscious of the something within, the something that makes us believe we are alive, that which tries to sustain this belief through our bodily reactions, like hunger.

This is what leads us to the knowledge of reality, knowledge of our built up system of thought and thereby the modeled world, with its people, things and situations, all the passions, irritations and intuitions. By ‘being alive’ and accepting death, we bring about an end to this ignorance and all associated agitations of the mind, the very cessation of thought itself. In speaking thus, we comprehend the utter insignificance of attachments and relations, of our trying to force and condition other individuals and the foolish attempts to change our world while still blanketed in ignorance, finally forsaking our freedom and thereby curtailing others’.

Having come to this conclusion, which is only possible by utilizing the intelligence aspect of the mind and not by leading a thought-propagated, habitually and conditionally ignorant life, similar to that of my dog’s, we realize the essence and meaning of life itself. Absolute freedom, pure existence and evolution of consciousness are definitive concepts that an intelligent entity can ascribe to the essence of life. But when truer realization occurs, in that minutest instant, we become aware of that something deep within, something pure and powerful, beyond words and definitions. Something that nullifies all our fears and ends all conflict, the very source of infinite peace and timeless wisdom. That something is the essence, that which invokes within us the feeling of ‘being alive.’