What Makes Life Worth Living for in This Time of Turmoil?

Image credit: Lobsang Melendez

Life can be so contradictory and filled with paradoxes. I think about the staggering contrast in a world where corruption thrives on virtue while peace is forcefully sought.

What makes this life truly worth living, and why would I want life to continue after I die?

I asked these questions before I recently became a parent, witnessing the miracle of life coming into being. Experiencing the immense effort and heroic spirit involved in bringing a being into this world while supporting my wife through a home birth was a life-changing ceremony in many ways.

Our son’s arrival opened up a previously unimaginable capacity for boundless love. The pure innocence he embodies shook me to my core, especially because throughout my life, I’ve seen many become shadows of themselves, losing the original awe and inspiration of truly being alive. After all, being fully alive brings a much more vivid experience of all the hurts and disappointments that accompany life’s happy moments.

Yet, these glimpses of innocence, often dismissed as naivety by the society I grew up in, remain the most significant beacons of my life’s purpose. For a long time, I felt I couldn’t bring a child into this world, unable to see a place for this wakeful ideal in everyday existence. I had to begin by healing my inner child first, rediscovering the light of openness in a world filled with closedness.

What’s your value system?

An old friend recently wrote to congratulate me on the arrival of my newborn child. At the same time, they asked if the whole world is going to hell, clearly feeling overwhelmed by the recent news reports of mass murder and environmental crises. Maybe you can relate to this conundrum; I know I can. It seems that one lifetime won’t suffice to resolve the problems society faces today.

Unless, of course, at the source of each problem lies the same basic self-deception, mass-manufactured for collective consumption. In fact, rather than stewarding or problem-solving, most governments today see consumption as the main reason humans exist. Countless “useful society members” spend their lives trying to achieve a value system imposed by a greedy corporate agenda, disseminated by mainstream media propaganda.

In this system, people are persuaded that the void in their lives can be satisfied by impermanent trinkets and distractions rather than by tapping into the inner resourcefulness of limitless heart-centered presence. This presence is inherent as a seed of childlike openness within everyone.

And so, the original wakefulness is insidiously coaxed into the plug-and-play maws of the insatiable matrix. It’s not surprising that chaos ensues when collective consciousness desperately grapples with a rancid value system that is void of sustainable nurture.

Image credit: Shamila Chaudhary (Riot police clash with protesters at Trump’s inauguration.

The heart’s destiny

Now, in the presence of this uniquely magnificent being, squeaking and squirming in his peaceful sleep, I’m increasingly in awe of the all-encompassing sense of purpose rekindled in my life. This pure seed of curiosity, immersed in the mysterious womb of creation, is the genesis of evolution. After all, this childlike awe allows for an epiphany of love in the universe’s limitless expressions.

I find nothing more essential than learning to unwaveringly uphold the original flame of existential purpose from which all life emanates. This newborn childlike essence is the greatest teacher, mirroring the same in myself. This inherent openness and reciprocity of love is a beacon for the heart to awaken to and blossom within.

Why doesn’t everyone abide in this fearless and abundantly loving natural state, incomparable with anything else, and why don’t I?

A shift of attitude

The disillusionment often sparks rebellion against the system, a tactic that only keeps humanity chained by the very thing it fights. A famous quote by the father of Transpersonal Psychology, C.G. Jung, describes it as: “What you resist, persists.” While dominated by conditioning, all of one’s actions stem from a disempowered mentality that perpetuates disturbing dynamics.

On the other hand, understanding this hamster wheel mentality allows for resolution. This is not to suggest complacency about the current state of affairs, but rather that action initiated from a place of non-disturbance possesses the bird’s-eye view necessary for resolution.

Let’s consider that at the root of this great evil is basic mistrust in unconditional love—the infallible ground of life itself. If this is valid, could the “irreconcilable” contrast of corruption feeding off virtue be resolved by a shift in attitude?

Image credit: DVIDSHUB

The free choice of freedom

What real option is there to transcend the “irreconcilable” paradox that is life? The conceptual mind isn’t equipped to answer this. Pseudo-logic merely defends against the overwhelmingly scary mystery of the heart, creating walls of conditioning—a jail of humanity within a warped value system. This occurs due to an unsubstantiated fear of Nature’s power, which is inherent within all beings; the power to face the interconnectedness of all life and the innocence that supports the shared heart of which we’re all part.

I’m slowly coming to understand that, just like all deceptions have one source, at the root of it all lies the one basic choice each of us has in any moment: to face oneself. To me, this means real discernment cultivated through patience, generosity, perseverance, and fearless unconditional love.

Indigenous people the world over have long recognized these qualities as essential human traits because they tap the immutable essence transcending the expiration date of a conditioned separate identity.

And THAT is the kind of attitude shift so potent as to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable.

Of course, embodying this is much easier said than done, since it's easy to be happy when everything is hunky dory. It’s when faced with circumstances outside the comfort bubble, such as the inevitable existential thresholds of sickness, old age, loss of dear ones, and death that evolution takes place. The timeless values of living wisdom traditions become truly meaningful when facing inescapable calamities uncompromisingly.

Each moment brings everyone closer to inevitable death. Seeing that life cannot be possessed but can only be shared allows for inconceivable challenges to be overcome. There’s nothing more real than this tender, vulnerable innocence to which even ferocious animals succumb and all power in the universe kneels in service of, consciously or not.

In the service of eternity

It is needless to hide from some experiences of life in the consumption of others if the tender heart openness experiencing them is more nurturing, meaningful, and lasting than all experiences combined. Yet to unravel this openness, all those experiences need to be faced indiscriminately with the same generosity of open-hearted attitude.

A life in support of immaculate love within all beings is a life worth living. When I give my life willingly to this greater purpose, nothing lesser can possess it since that kind of life already encompasses everything. The father of all paradoxes is the immeasurable wisdom of generous presence embracing motherly love for genuine, childlike wonder.

I wish everyone the happiness as timeless as the cycle of life itself - the freedom of love in the eyes of a child, transcending the illusion of time and space.

By acknowledging the collective deception in such a way, awareness intuitively overflows illusory boundaries towards humane values - the foundation of incomparable freedom and happiness.

What this means on a practical level is that by acknowledging the disasters and suffering of the world, I become motivated more than ever to instill my life with essential human values, contributing to a positive model of world peace starting from within.

Where there is no fear, no corruption can enter, and thus the reciprocity of the natural world is honored by actions, words, thoughts, and feelings, in the service of eternal innocence. It's now time to return to my greatest teacher - the universal child awakens.

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