Get Rid of the Baggage

GAINING PERSPECTIVE
AS WE AGE, WE GENERALLY FIND OURSELVES GETTING CLEARER; about who we are and what's important to us. We feel ourselves getting more focused. It dawns on us that we no longer have forever, and that we'd better get on with whatever it is we're here to do. The discovery that we are, after all, mortal; at least in this body; brings an urgency, a clarity to our lives. We find ourselves less tolerant with the changes around us, as familiarity is a comfort and these familiar objects are at the same time holding us back in venturing forth and discovering the true nature of ourselves.

Over time, we find that we have surrounded ourselves with a lot of baggage, a lot of frills, so to speak, in both people and material terms, either because we feel we need them or because it is the thing to do. Our early years are mostly spent in doing our jobs and completing our duties and responsibilities, and in the process like a log floating on a river, we pick up the flotsam, are pushed by other objects in the water and we realise that it is easier to submit than to resist. And the flotsam becomes stuck and an integral part of our lives, so much so, that we find we are unable to think of our lives without it. We carry this extra weight with us instead of rubbing it off.

Thinking back to childhood, we find that given a few toys or a pencil and a book to sketch, we could amuse ourselves for hours, it is when we grew up and started moving in social circles that a certain type of car, a certain size of home in a certain area, a certain set of people and certain club memberships, certain clothes/jewellery gave the entry and acceptance and a band of friends which gave the stamp of appreciation and achievement to our lives, and they become the enveloping persona around us wherein the we, the person is seldom seen and got lost. We even condition ourselves to think that this is what we enjoy. We pour ourselves into the mould the world has prepared for us, quite unthinkingly. Take even one of these away and we feel our life will never be the same again. It is only when we consciously discard ourselves of these appendages and external stimuli that we realise that we are basically that same little child happy to be home with a couple of things, that we actually do not need any of the other "support" systems that we have built around ourselves. It is quite an eye opener when we sit down and think, what we really need to be happy - very precious little. Yet, we carry this unwanted baggage, engaging in various intrigues - however involuntarily, because we have stopped thinking of the bigger picture and have started thinking of every small incident as life-changing, when it has no effect at all in reality.

We forget that we came into this world alone and we will leave alone, we are but a speck in the entire cosmos and very little of what we do actually affects anybody including us. Everyone lives their preordained destiny and what we think we are achieving and doing by accumulating friends, names, titles, positions is the flotsam around the log, mostly unnecessary and slowing us down.

The whole idea of doing away with everything that is unessential in our lives, that gets in the way of our true purpose, is scary and daunting. This list of the unnecessary comprises of both material thins, people and mental attitudes. Not an easy job, but brings a supreme sense of satisfaction if completed or even embarked upon. Too often we are running around looking for the 'answer,' for what we think or believe we need for our happiness, when we've never clearly defined the question, we've never gotten in touch with our true longing. It usually takes many years of living in order to come to real clarity. Through a long and often difficult process of trial and error, of pain and un-ease, of shattered illusions and broken dreams, we gradually get clearer about what matters to us. We begin to discover what our mission, our purpose is. We find out how we want to be.

It's an extraordinarily liberating feeling when it starts to come, this sense of purpose. We know it's real, too, when we no longer have to talk about it, when we no longer think about it so much. Instead, we feel it as something solid within us, solid and yet dynamic, alive. This is the true nature of passion, of joy. True liberation.