Anyone else feel like this?
At other times, yes, I've felt like this. The mind-numbing, go no-where, routine-boredom, routine-boredom, routine-boredom..... And everyone around me in the same boat, even though they might be pretending (deluding themselves) otherwise. And I have squandered so much time and energy living it, despising it, entrapped in it, sucked dry by it.
But right now, no. I feel differently now.
I realized (far too late) that the problem I had was not the routine, but my perspective. I needed to enlarge my perspective. I needed help to do that. But that kind of help is hard to find, and I didn't find it. I got a lot of advice. Most of it was bad.
During those years of grueling routine, I
could have studied, contemplated, meditated, realized "nothingness" (in the Zen sense) or "fullness of
being" (in the Christian sense), but instead I just felt bored, mechanical and underemployed. Now, I have regrets about my squandered time.
My parents died a few years back, and I think about them. I have had some insights (or fantasies -- depending how one sees it) about their after-death journeys. Based on these images and dreams, it seems that "death/after-life" may not be the la-la land that people make it out to be. It can certainly be colorful; it has its joys and immense reliefs, for sure, but it also seems to have its tough moments. I think the "life review" is real, and it occurs at an appropriate 'time' (not necessarily immediately on death). From what I have "seen," it is
not easy.
It seems to me that the hardest part of the life review is knowing one can
do nothing once one has "seen" one's idiotic life objectively. I have a sense that once dead, there is no hope. One can do a life review, recognize, understand and regret everything one did
with one's life, and
to others (out of ignorance and self-centeredness - no matter how well intentioned), but
nothing can be done about it. One is stuck with one's past thoughts, one's past actions and one's entire past, with no hope and no chance of changing it. It is a hellish situation, even for one that has gone to "heaven." Like the film Nosso Lar illustrates, it involves crawling through the mud.
But when one is
alive......one can recognize, understand, regret
and re-orient. That opportunity to "re-orient" is the hope of us all. It is an option offered only when one is alive. Only while living do we have the opportunity to contemplate Divine Mind, seek to grasp what is true and discard what is false, discriminate between what is real and what is fantasy, and partake in the often subtle or miniscule miracles that rain upon us while we are alive. Despite appearances to the contrary, Love permeates the earth; we live and move and have our being in it. But it must be seen.
In my situation, I just had to get my focus off my stupid little life (which took me many years) and begin to become interested in three questions: "who am I," "what
is life," and "what is 'God'." My routine did not change. But I did (at least a little).
Of course, this is just speculation based on images and ideas. It seems I ain't never was nothin' and I really don't know a damn thing. And the more I learn, the more those statements pertain.
Advice often sucks. However, I'll join the club. Memorizing and mentally reciting Paul's letter on love is a worthy task. Especially when it is recited slowly, contemplating the meaning of each phrase, and considering oneself in relation to the words. Kind of like a daily life-review. There is something very special about that letter.