I’ve began this new weekly publication – The Almanack of Good Life – to share all that I’m studying and reflecting upon about dwelling a superb life. It’s a brand new try, however I hope to take this far. On this age of fixed info overload, I’ve discovered immense worth in taking time to pause and mirror upon significant insights about life. This text is my means of sharing that journey with you.
Every week, I’ll curate a number of thought-provoking concepts, inspiring quotes, and sensible knowledge I’ve encountered in my readings and private reflections. My aim is to create an area for us to discover collectively what it means to dwell with function, kindness, and fulfilment. I stay up for your form help.
Rediscovering Hope within the Face of Loss
There’s a story, not usually instructed, in Mahabharata the place the eldest of the Pandavas, Yudhishthira, comes upon a lake and finds that his brothers lay useless on its banks.
Earlier than starting the search into his brothers’ homicide, the prince in exile finds himself burning with thirst and reaches into the lake to drink, not understanding that it was consuming from the lake that introduced his brothers’ finish.
At that second a celestial seems, a Yaksha, no god or angel however as a substitute a presence of energy presiding over the lake. The Yaksha warns Yudhisthira to not drink lest he suffers the destiny of his brothers.
He has another: Yudhisthira can as a substitute reply Yaksha’s questions. There are mentioned to be eighteen questions that Yaksha requested Yudhisthira, however right here is the one which issues what I’m writing immediately.
Yaksha asks, “What’s the biggest surprise?”
To this, Yudhisthira replies, “Every day loss of life strikes, and we dwell as if we had been immortal. That is the best surprise.”
I remembered the above anecdote whereas studying this lovely poem credited to the American writer Henry Van Dyke, titled “Gone From My Sight.”
The poem talks about loss of life in a singular means, through the use of the picture of a ship crusing away –
I’m standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my facet,
spreads her white sails to the transferring breeze and begins
for the blue ocean. She is an object of magnificence and energy.
I stand and watch her till, at size, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud simply the place the ocean and sky come to mingle with one another.Then, somebody at my facet says, “There, she is gone.”
Gone the place?
Gone from my sight. That’s all. She is simply as massive in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my facet.
And, she is simply as in a position to bear her load of dwelling freight to her destined port.Her diminished measurement is in me — not in her.
And, simply in the mean time when somebody says, “There, she is gone,”
there are different eyes watching her coming, and different voices
able to take up the glad shout, “Right here she comes!”And that’s dying…
Such a comforting means to consider loss of life, isn’t it?
As a substitute of picturing loss of life as an ending, the poem asks us to see it as a form of journey. The individual we’ve misplaced will not be gone endlessly; they’ve simply sailed to a spot we can not see but.
I first took place this poem sitting subsequent to my dying father in 2019, and it helped whereas I used to be grieving for him. It jogged my memory that though we can not see or contact the individual we’ve misplaced anymore, they’re nonetheless on the market someplace. Their journey is constant, simply another way.
The poem additionally gives a fantastic perspective that there could be extra to loss of life than what we are able to see from our restricted viewpoint. From our perspective on the shore, we see the ship getting smaller and disappearing. But when we had been on the ship, we’d see one thing completely totally different, like new horizons opening up in entrance of us.
For folks left behind, those standing on the shore, watching the ship sail away, with the disappointment of claiming, “She is gone!” it gives hope, suggesting that at some point, we are going to all make that very same journey, and possibly we shall be reunited with these we’ve misplaced.
This poem is a type of texts that has caused a paradigm shift in how I see loss of life and dying – no longer as one thing scary or closing however as a pure a part of an even bigger journey.
After all, it doesn’t take away the disappointment of shedding somebody, however gives a comfort which may make that loss somewhat simpler to bear.
And, possibly, it’s asking us to profit from our time “on shore” earlier than we set sail ourselves.
The subsequent time you’re on the ocean, and also you see a ship crusing away, possibly you’ll consider this poem. And possibly, simply possibly, it can make it easier to see life and loss of life in a brand new gentle.
By the best way, one of the vital lovely youngsters’s books I’ve examine loss of life is Cry, Coronary heart, However By no means Break. Get a duplicate, after which learn it to your baby. It’s uplifting.
What I’m Studying
Parenting Recommendation from Warren & Charlie
As mother and father, we frequently ask, then ask once more, and ask once more our youngsters to do one thing we need they do. And if we’re fortunate, our youngsters cooperate after the fourth or fifth request or after a loud however in any other case innocent scolding. We complain that our youngsters by no means take heed to us, and ask different mother and father how they get their youngsters to behave, eat wholesome meals, and fall asleep on time. If that’s not all, we seek the advice of the Web and a number of other books on mentioning well-cultured and disciplined youngsters. Then, at the same time as we apply all these strategies, our youngsters simply don’t hear.
However, amidst all this, there’s one thing we frequently fail to see with our youngsters. Even when they aren’t listening to us, they’re busy observing us.
I’ve usually seen this with my youngsters. They’d usually not take heed to what I’ve to inform them. However they’d all the time be observing my actions. And that retains me on my toes, just because my youngsters are ‘watching’ me.
I discovered this thought reiterated on this great e book I’m studying for the third time – Peter Bevelin’s All I Need to Know is The place I’m Going to Die So I’ll By no means Go There. Right here is an excerpt from that e book the place Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, in dialog with a seeker of knowledge, share with him one of the best methodology of coaching youngsters…
For those who haven’t picked up this e book, I recommend you do. It’s the most effective investments in looking for knowledge you’d ever make.
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Possessing Vs Pursuing
I imagine our lives are usually not outlined by what we possess, however by what we pursue. Historical past has ample proof that it isn’t what folks (like Alexander and Hitler) have tried to own, however what folks (like Einstein and Gandhi) pursued that introduced that means to their lives and to these round them.
“I take pleasure in life,” Seneca mentioned, “as a result of I’m prepared to depart it.”
In his e book On the Shortness of Life, he wrote –
So far as I’m involved, I do know that I’ve misplaced not wealth however distractions. The physique’s wants are few: it desires to be free from chilly, to banish starvation and thirst with nourishment; if we lengthy for something extra we’re exerting ourselves to serve our vices, not our wants.
Think about if we are able to unburden ourselves of 90% of our worldly items, it shouldn’t be tough to depart the remaining 10% behind. No?
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What I’m Pondering
True wealth will not be about cash. It’s in regards to the richness of our experiences, the depth of {our relationships}, and the peace we discover inside ourselves.
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We regularly chase happiness, however what if it isn’t one thing to be caught? What whether it is already inside us, ready to be uncovered by dwelling authentically and embracing each pleasure and sorrow?
***
Time appears to hurry up as we age. However what if we might sluggish it down by being absolutely current in every second? There could be an entire lifetime in a single day if we study to really dwell it.
E-book Suggestion
The primary e book I ever learn cowl to cowl, again someday in 2001, was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s a easy story on the floor, however is filled with insights about life, function, and private progress.
The e book follows a younger shepherd named Santiago who goals of discovering treasure in Egypt. His journey takes him throughout deserts and continents, however what he finds alongside the best way is way extra beneficial than any bodily treasure.
What makes this e book particular is the way it weaves life classes into an enticing story. It’s not preachy or difficult, however looks like you’re discovering these truths alongside Santiago.
It talks about following your goals, listening to your coronary heart, and recognizing the omens life sends your means.
One of many huge concepts within the e book is what Coelho calls your “Private Legend,” which is like your life’s function. The e book means that the universe conspires that can assist you obtain this future in case you are courageous sufficient to pursue it. This concept that we’re not alone in our struggles, that the world desires us to succeed, is such a comforting thought!
One other factor I really like about this e book is the way it encourages us to be current and admire the journey. Santiago learns that the treasure he seeks will not be all the time what he thinks it’s, and that typically the true riches are within the experiences we’ve and the folks we meet alongside the best way.
What’s nice about The Alchemist is which you could learn this e book at totally different levels of your life and get one thing new out of it every time. It’s the form of e book that grows with you. I picked it up once more not too long ago after Bogumil Baranowski talked about it in my podcast with him.
If in case you have not learn it but, and even you probably have and it has been some time, give The Alchemist a attempt. It’d simply change the best way you have a look at your individual life’s journey.
Quotes I’m Reflecting On
Allow us to put together our minds as if we’d come to the very finish of life. Allow us to postpone nothing. Allow us to stability life’s books every day … The one who places the ending touches on their life every day is rarely in need of time.
– Seneca
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The query will not be ‘are you able to motive?’ or ‘are you able to speak?’ however ‘are you able to undergo?’
– Jeremy Bentham
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Be so simple as you could be; you’ll be astonished to see how uncomplicated and blissful your life can change into.
– Paramahansa Yogananda
That’s all from me for immediately.
Let me know your ideas on this concern of The Almanack of Good Life publication, and methods I can enhance it. Additionally, you probably have concepts or assets you suppose I can share in future letters, please e-mail them to me at vishal[at]safalniveshak[dot]com.
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Thanks in your time and a focus.
~ Vishal
