Do you wanna know what the secret of life is? Do you… really? Because it’s really not a secret at all, but a truth that people try to avoid. It’s not some profound piece of knowledge, or some difficult to understand zen parable that can be interpreted many different ways.
It’s a cold, hard and logical reality that can have you running in fear, or it can set you on a path to a life greater than you’ve ever imagined.
The secret truth is simply this – you are alone.
Even in a room full of people, a stadium full of thousands or a country full to the brim with other human beings, your consciousness only has itself to be with.
Sure we can interact with others, and communicate with them in a way that makes us feel heard, or seen, but in the end, you’ll never experience someone else’s consciousness at the level that you experience your own.
You are an island of consciousness in the midst of billions of other islands – a single speck in a vast immeasurable Human Archipelago.
Which means that you really ought to get to know who you really are, and figure out what makes you happy. Because the whole purpose of life is that you get to experience it – life. You are here, now, with opportunities and overwhelm, possibilities and problems.
The more it takes to make you happy, the more time you’ll spend trying to make yourself happy, and the greater probability that you’ll be less than happy when things don’t line up just the right way.
Here’s one of the real secrets of life – the person who is happy with the least is the person who is happy the most.
And this applies to everything. The parent who is happy within themselves can allow their child to be truly themselves, because the parent needs nothing from the child. The person who has found balance within themselves is able to hold space for their partner to be authentically whoever they are, because they need nothing from the relationship.
Understand this clearly, the difference between want and need in a relationship is the difference between a paradise and a prison.
The human who has found a balanced peace within themselves is the person who is least affected by the chaos and calamity that makes up a lot of our experience in this universe.
So if you truly want to be happy, you’re gonna have to spend a lot of time within yourself. So many of us live this life never getting beyond the very basic existence of feelings, where we never question who we are, and we run around at the mercy of circumstances and chaos.
Living in a world of sensation and reaction, they seek endlessly for anything to escape the fear that they feel when they realize that they are alone.
And that they cannot live with themselves.
Then there are those who realize the truth of the archipelago, and do the work. They spend their time focused inwards, learning, understanding, healing and balancing. To the outside world they seem different, and yet in their inner world they are weaving a landscape of wisdom, kindness and strength.
When you fully accept that your consciousness is the only one you’ll ever experience, you’ll start doing the work so that your experience of consciousness is something better than it has ever been.
To paraphrase Eminem: you get one shot, and one opportunity.
Because in the end, no one else can do the work for you. Yes there are those of us out here who are guides and helpers, who can show you a path and help you see the way forwards, but you are the only one who can walk it, the only one who can deal with your own burdens. The longer you put off doing the work, the more of your life that you are wasting at the mercy of everything else.
Because once you get deep with your own soul, your whole experience of the universe will change.
Once you’re good with you, the rest of the world has less control over you. Once you’ve made peace with who you really are, then the more you are able to spread peace in the world.
The less you need in any experience, the more you are able to accept every experience for what it truly is.
This life is yours, and yours alone.
May you find peace and joy, wisdom, love and light.
Always.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings