Telos of life. (meaning)
This is the third article on meaning of life or less commonly called Telos. In the first two articles we explored meaning of life from the Kung Fu panda and story of camels. As introduction to this article, we should think about why a person looks for a meaning of life in the first place. I started searching a meaning of life, because of problems of life. So far it seems life is just trading problems. For an old set of problems, we just trade new set of problems, and we feel happy about our trades. Sometimes we value set of problems over other set of problems. As an example, people generally value an "Engineers" set of problems more than a "Teachers" set of problems. If you are a spiritual person, you might value a "Priest's" set of problems over a "Marine's" set of problems. But when we look at life from a distance, we do understand the life is a tragedy in close up but comedy in long shot.
Who needs Knots.
Generally, everyone. You will need a knot for your tie. And a girl would braid her hair and put a knot. A surgeon would use a handful of them reef knot, Aberdeen knot, or a roaders knot. A sailor on the other hand would know a great deal of knots. If you are a scout, you may have received a badge for knotting. You can list many more, but you get the point. We cannot get away from knots. And more than anyone mathematicians would know about knots. They have their own Knot theory, which represents all the knots we have seen in life and many more types. And applications of knot theory are vast, from fluid dynamics to best way to keep your headphones so they do not get knotted. If you google knot theory, the Wikipedia introductory article would be more than 5000 words! that is how big the knot subject is. But that is not the focus in our article. As you already know it is about application of simple wisdom to our lives.
no Knots.
In knot theory there is something called "No Knot" simply this is a circle. But if you get a lengthy thread and put one part over the other again and again, you could make a something like a knot. Although simply this is not a true knot. So, it is still a "no Knot". If you have been to a magic show you may have seen magician doing tricks with knots. One such appeared to tie a knot around someone's neck and later pulled out as it was a "no Knot". Sometimes we do tricks with our friends using a rubber band and use this principle of "no Knot".
That's a lot to take in about knots and no Knots. But let's move onto life instead.
Knots of life - Problems - mindfulness.
In life we see lot of problems. If we imagine these are like knots, there are many of them every day. We try to solve them day in and day out even in our dreams. However, if you understand knots and no knots, the first thing, we have to figure out solutions is to identify whether there is any knot at all.
How are you going to figure out knots from no knots? The key is the mindfulness. When you start observing your life events, problems and yourself (The observer) you may figure out some of the knots in life are no knots at all. As an example, let's imagine you worry about your future exam. You panic and cannot even concentrate. Then you take a walk. Maybe in a park and after being mindful about your breath, your walk and your environment you have clarity on what to do. When a blank space is created in your mind ideas would come. And you will realize, exam is never the problem, your constant worrying thoughts about it is the problem. Hence, no Knot. This is why it is said that "Biggest mountains are created in the mind"
The horse tied to a plastic chair.
Have you seen the grown horse tied to a plastic chair. It seems amazing the majestic beast who could easily take down a grown human when tied to a plastic chair stays still. Without moving and trying to run away. There is no knot, no problem, yet from the mind's eyes of the horse it is tied to his chair, which is a huge problem for the horse.
One other way to look at these kind of pseudo problems is by imagining life five years after today. Imagine five years before. Surely you may have had lot of problems back then. Now where are they? Can you write down ten of your problems that you had back then? They are gone, even memories of these problems. You may think they are gone because you have solved them. But I would tell otherwise, not all of them were problems. You may have solved a few. But others have disappeared. And I am sure in five years to the future, current problems will disappear, and I would have new set of problems to worry about and solve.
Mindfulness does not let us stay there. It let us observe every problem in our lives and shows the true nature of life. True nature of life is just like Statue of David hidden in a marble. Perfect in every sense and without any problems. Evident by the kids who plays in the ground. The problems are the Knots we have created on our own using a No Knot. Let's observe life more and more to gain enough wisdom so the natural peace is unearthed.
Telos (meaning) of life is to understand the No Knot in your Knot.
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