WEDNESDAY, 12 MAY 2004
How does one know what is still waiting for you in life? Imagine you could know that you are now halfway to a major event in your life, two-thirds on the way to another, four-fifths of the way to something else, and so on. Everything – your whole life, sometimes feels so concentrated in the current moment.
Five years and four months may now be completed of what may eventually turn out to be a seven-year stay for me on this island. In the remaining time here I may just start some business that may eventually provide me with a decent annual income. This is month number 64 for me in Taiwan … of what may eventually be 83 months. I may just meet the love of my life in month number 71, but I don’t know it yet.
What do I know about what will happen when I am 37, and 43, and 67 …
[Fact: I met the woman who turned out to be the love of my life in month number 69.]
MONDAY, 17 MAY 2004
Where does spiritual enlightenment fit in the range of personal development? What is spiritual enlightenment? Is it to disengage from a material existence in sole pursuit of spiritual purity, to “free the spirit” from the “cycle of birth and death”?
An interesting aspect of so-called spiritual enlightenment and detaching yourself from the world is that it is 100% selfish. You go on a mission where the rest of humanity matters even less than before … except of course if it is spiritual enlightenment not through detaching yourself from the world, but by engaging in and with the world. Is this at all a possibility?
What does intellectual enlightenment mean? It means that you free yourself from ignorance, prejudices and beliefs based on fear rather than reason. You also learn to use your mind as a tool to improve your chances of survival; also to facilitate the development of your person, including working out what you want to do with your life that goes beyond mere physical survival. It implies an understanding of yourself and humankind as a species as well as an understanding of your environment –understandings that are likely to be more advanced than views held by a majority of the population.
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