The (other) way of living...

At any given moment in any person’s existence if you ask them about their vague idea behind life and living, chances are that 99.9% people are going to express their concept of a good life to be inclined towards happiness, fulfillment, peace and all other types of good things that human beings are aware of. That’s the only life we have been taught to live or dream for, which we call, a good life.

So there’s good and bad, happy and sad and various other categorizations in order to comprehend reality and calculate well-being. And my big idea is that this categorization has led humanity to live just one kind of life; there are other possibilities of existence that are being over looked. You don’t have to be happy or be working towards happiness all the time, or even some of the times. It is not necessary. You can call your sad life a good life; you can live in the streets and not build yourself a house or have a family and call it a good life. The idea that a comfortable life is a good life is what I’m asking you all to reconsider and I am not the only one, David Zindell did it first. Please read the extract from his book given below and decide for yourself.

"Reality [...] at every level from photons to philosophical fancies to the consciousness of living organisms was fluid [...]. To break apart and confine this reality into separate categories created by the mind was foolish and futile, much like trying to capture a ray of light inside a dark wooden box. This urge to categorize was the true fall of man [...] the infinite became finite, good opposed evil, thoughts hardened into beliefs, one's joys and discoveries became dreadful certainties, man became alienated from what he perceived as other ways and other things, and, ultimately, divided against himself, body and soul. [...] Always seeking meaning, always making their lives safe and comfortable, human beings do not truly live." — David Zindell (The Broken God)