Occasionally I stumble across truths that are so simple yet so raw and powerful they stop me right in my tracks, like running headlong into concrete, dazed and confused, I gather myself back up again only to find I’m not the same, nor the world either.
This happened to me recently when I came across the following; the purpose of life is not to survive it.
Let me state that again.
The purpose of life is not to survive it.
What??!! Is your head hurting yet?!
In some ways, this statement is so obvious. Of course we all know that we and everyone else dies even if we secretly believe we may somehow be exempt or at the very least in control of when and how we do. Death is reserved for those that have failed in some way – the stupid, reckless, lazy, fat, the addicted, the elderly! People who dropped their guard, who let themselves go. Of course there are the outliers, those folks that are tragically unlucky, in the wrong place at the wrong time, victims of crime, reclaimed by angels at young ages a terminal illness, a freak accident.
These examples do little to deter our thinking, instead driving ever further, the dedicated hyper vigilance we must put in to stay a survivor as if we were playing The Hunger Games. All that colossal energy on policing and protecting. All the anxiety and fear about what will happen to us and to our loved ones if we let our guard down.
There is an intriguing Greek concept ‘Eudaimonia’ that invites us to consider an approach to the living of life that places desire, pleasure, virtue and happiness at its core – not as trivial things to do to occupy our time but as the way to perpetually engage with the world, with ourselves and with Other.
A eudaimoniac life is a well-lived one. Living well requires us to plunge into whatever we choose, not because we will win or gain as a result. If there is a reward it is the satisfaction that comes from fully engaging, in having done something to the utmost of our abilities, an experience and a knowing that cannot be undone or taken away by anyone or anything, even or especially on our deathbed.
the eudaimoniac 10 of Pentacles
Of course we can get into a rich but perhaps endless debate about what ‘well’ or ‘well enough’ is meant to mean. We could then try to create a framework, standards to uphold, criteria upon which to measure our performance against.
But how could my life ever be well lived if it meant living someone else’s version of it?
How could I (ad)venture into the extent of my own limits if someone or something else is setting the measure? Measures designed to keep us locked into competitive struggle with each other, fighting over scraps instead of overcoming our own inner obstacles.
the 5 of Swords corresponding to the 1st decan of Aquarius where Pluto is currently residing* until 2030
This may seem abstract but I think it’s very real and very practical and so important to grasp. It may even be critical because one of the tragedies of our times is that whilst we carry on living as if the purpose of life is to survive it, we are wide-open to being manipulated by inner and external forces that prey on the fear and anxiety that generates.
For it is not the fear of dying that is so widespread it is the dreadful anticipation of death as a form of punishment, where what we treasure is stripped away from us like naughty schoolchildren.
The antidote to all of this lies in our willingness and enthusiasm for living life well, our own life, not anyone else’s. In that process and on that journey is revealed, I believe, the truth of who we are, the being that does not require the subjugation or annihilation of other beings in order to breathe easy and live happily. The being who is simply gainfully employed in being itself.
*apart from a brief foray back into the last degrees of Capricorn in late 2024
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