On Not Being a Fossil

The widely understood and accepted mode of ‘creating’ something new is to begin from what you Have (from the past), take some Actions (in the present) in order to ‘Create’ something or Become someone (in the future).

This apparently is the logical way of being i.e. living a life that moves forward from the past towards the future. But is it a really satisfying and fulfilling way of being and more important, is this the only way to be?

What if we were meant to live the present moments from a Future already Created? Sounds crazy, right? Believe me, it is not. It sounds absurd because it is totally counter-intuitive. But this way of being is really worth experimenting, I wish to add.

Living a Life from the Future is the essence of the technology that is being ‘shared’ by Landmark Worldwide (formerly known as Landmark Education). I have deliberately used the word ‘shared’ as the word teaching does not somehow seem to be appropriate.

I am sure we have all had glimpses of the future based living, on a few occasions in life at least, if not more. When I now look back at my own experiences, I realize that the days and weeks when I was living from the future were really exciting and amazing. I was just not aware that I was living my present moments from a future already created. I therefore did not have an access to this technology and was unable to replicate it in my everyday existence. (My experiences appear a little further down.)
 
What I have discovered over the past about 15 months of being associated with Landmark Worldwide is that Living from the Future is the rational and logical way of being. I will even go to the extent of saying that this is THE way of being for the ones desirous of living moment to moment in every moment.

I am also of the firm belief that this was the original way of being for us human beings but seem to have lost in the process of evolution.


This is what a past based life looks like:




We take something from the past that determines our actions in the present moments in order to create something new.

For example, we make career plans, and then go about working towards these goals with the expectations that we will be happy and fulfilled when we achieve these.

Stop and consider for a moment that what we are right now or what we have created in the present moments are the goals we set out to achieve in some past moment. If ‘Becoming’ something was also meant to bring joy, happiness and fulfillment in life than the question that we need to ask ourselves individually is, ‘Am I really happy and fulfilled in the present moment?’ Only then can we know whether this model of existence year after year is really worth it.

This was also my way of being. Yes, I was at peace but there was something missing which I was not even aware of till the moment that I embraced the new way of being.

In the way of being as suggested by Landmark, we start by creating a new possibility. This can happen only when we become present to the inauthentic ways of being in the present moments and the impact that they have on life. 

Quoting from Landmark: "The new possibilities of being then call us powerfully into being and new openings for action call us powerfully into action. The experience of being alive transforms."

This is what a future based living a life of possibility looks like:


It is the Possibility that determines the actions that are being taken in the present moments in order to create the results that we are aiming to create.

Once the results are achieved, this cycle of creation is then Complete and another cycle of Being-Doing-Having can now be set in motion. The cycle of creation as we know it is reversed, so to say.

The Beginning:


The first input in this mode of being is ‘Inventing the Possibility’.

A possibility by the way is something that has never ever existed before. It does not have any past.

This way of being is not possible to achieve until and unless we are Complete in our present moments. This happens when everything in the Past is existing in the Past only and not having any kind of impact whatsoever in the future. (Reminds me that in the world of Crimson Circle, Tobias shared that “The future is the past healed”.)
 
The new possibilities can be created only in a space of ‘Nothing’ for only in that space there will be no impact of the past in our future creation.

In ancient Indian texts, I believe that this has been referred to as “Shunya se Sarjan”. Roughly translated, this means “Creating from Nothing”.

In this BE-DO-HAVE model, every moment is complete. This is it. It’s perfect.

Life The Way It Is and the Way It Can Be:


What is happening is that we generally live life with a feeling of being incomplete in a world that is becoming fiercely and increasingly competitive.

For example, if I plan on buying a car then I generally look around to see what my friends and neighbours own. Then I shop around for the latest models and then select the one that is better than what others have. Then once I have it, I go around 'showing it off' to everyone that matters in my life and feel fulfilled and complete in the moment. 

This feeling generally speaking, does not last very long. If I can be authentic, the joy generally goes out the window the moment someone overtakes in a car that is bigger and faster.

On the other hand, if the same car is purchased from a feeling of completion because I choose so, then it can be a very rewarding and completely fulfilling experience. This becomes possible only when the car was initially purchased from a feeling of satisfaction with life the way it is and the way it is not. 

When we really look at it, we are always comparing ourselves, if not with others, than with our past. That is what was embedded in me too. I believed that life was about making the future better and better. It's only now that I realize that living like this, how could the present moments ever be fulfilling and satisfying? Sure was a crazy way of being.   

This is the most significant difference in the two ways of being. A Having-Doing-Becoming past to future based model  tends to have a feeling of incompletion and un-fulfillment attached to it. The future based mode of Being-Doing-Having creates Completion in every sense of the world in every moment. If that is what we choose.


Of course, this is only possible when we are in the space of Nothingness. When there is a realization and complete understanding that Life is Empty and Meaningless.

In other words Being Nothing is Just Being. 
Being Alive to the potentials/possibilities of the future!

Old Experiences:


While studying in Regional Engineering College, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir during the period 1978-1983, I never missed out on an opportunity of being with nature. Long treks in the nearby mountains was my way of being especially whenever there was a long weekend. 

After graduating, I started working near Delhi and this is what I missed the most. Life became very dull and monotonous for me. And then I saw an opportunity when I could go for a 10 days long trek. I declared that I would do just that, paid the charges to the agency that was organizing it and applied for a leave of absence at my place of work.

In those moments, I also realized that I was not physically as fit as the long trek would require. Working out till that moment was not something that I looked forward to and something that I was not doing on a regular basis. The same activity transformed the moment I declared my future.

The next couple of months were a dream. The routine monotonous  job suddenly became interesting, I started working out regularly and life was worth living once again. And then the big day arrived. For the next ten days, life was glorious and the way it should be.

As I neared the end of the trek I realized that I would have to go back to the life in the city. The immediate future suddenly did not look so inviting.  I made a promise to myself that I will be back the next year and the year after that.

I now realize that I had the sense of being alive for just about those days every year when I was living the life of possibility of walking around in the mountains. I just did not know it. 
Something similar happened around the time I got married. The other periods were when we were waiting for the birth of our two daughters.

What Has Shifted Now:


After being with the education of Landmark, one of the possibilities that I have created within a much larger context is the possibility of being a benchmark of fitness and health somewhere down the line. I am actually aiming for a wonderfully fit body even at the age of 100 years.

As I have already shared, working out is, rather was not something that I could keep doing day after day, week after week, month after month. There also was the fact that I have largely been a thinker and a seeker especially over the last 25 years or so. You could also call me as being a couch potato.

I have now created a structure of exercising/working out. My past way of being, of taking it easy does interfere every other day. But instead of having a breakdown and giving it up completely, I regenerate my possibility every morning. I am also present to the feeling of incompletion that would invariably be there if I do not do what I want to do.

To get to this point, I also had to invent the possibility of Being a Man of Action vs Being someone who was Actively Inactive.
 
So every morning, I reconnect to my possibilities of being (Action, Health and Fitness) which then inspire me to do my workout. So far, I have not had any breakdowns.

Creating breakthroughs every day is also exhilarating stuff. By definition, breakthroughs are Non-Linear Unpredictable Results i.e. something that did not exist before.

What I see for myself in the near future is that I would get addicted to being this way. I would not need to take unreasonable actions standing in my commitment, my possibility. Workout would happen by default. I already see this possibility getting created in my life.

In this moment Life is a series of games being played every day. This Existence Board in my workspace vividly proclaims this and is a constant reminder. 

 

Life indeed is a Game. Even the most mundane tasks, something that I had difficulties dealing with, are getting completed when I invent the new possibilities of being.

Footnote:


I have shared in my earlier posts that my journey over the last two and a half decades of my 54 years of existence has been a largely spiritual one. By that I do not mean ‘spiritual’ as the term would mean to many. But more like getting the answers to the questions that have been with me ever since I was a teenager: “Who am I?”, “Why am I here on Earth?”, “Why and how do we humans create the problems that seem to plague us every step of the way?” etc.
 
I have also shared in some earlier post that I had got most of my answers about 5-6 years ago and had then lived them out ever since. I have experienced my body healing itself on its own and that most of my physical problems are being taken care of/disappearing. The only problem that I had in life was while dealing with the mundane. I like most other seekers that I have discussed this with, was not comfortable being in the Material world. Come to think of it, what had turned me away from the Materialistic way of being was the realization about 25 years ago that material possessions were not bringing the joy and fulfillment that my soul was desperately seeking.
 
Having lived the spiritual life – as I understood it to be – I was at peace. When I stepped into the world of Landmark in December 2012, I now admit that I was not complete. There was something missing.
 
But thanks to this learning process of the past 15 months or so, there is this feeling of being complete and fulfilled. Every moment.
 
If I have to put a label on my way of being right now, I can safely say that I am spiritually-materialistic. I am enjoying the spiritual way of being for the peace and contentment that is there. I am also enjoying the material comforts and achievements that I am now creating.
 
Life is now a series of games. I sure am looking forward to the next phase of being Alive. Not dead.
 
And so it is. 
 
April 08, 2014

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