In my last article I introduced the notion of following the road less travelled. I discussed the importance of our emotions and how they can lead us to the deeper truth of why we feel the way we feel. We can use our emotions to discover whether we are living in alignment with the true reason we have been put on the planet which brings us to the another important principle of following the road less travelled.
This principle is the that of meaning. What do I mean by this? If we look at people around us we find that the vast majority are living lives of default. These lives of default are programmed from an early age through the education system whose purpose to fill children’s brains with facts and information instead of true wisdom and understanding of themselves and the world they live in.
Our modern education system was created in the industrial age after World War 2 with the sole intention of creating mindless drones who would work in the factories which manufacture the goods which the general public is brainwashed into believing that they need. This is the reason why our education system does not teach us to think independently, critically and to question our current reality.
It is also why our education system does not teach us to question our existence. What do I mean by this? What I mean is to try discover the real reason we have been put on the planet in the first place. Why would we be taught this if we are being taught to be mindless drones who follow the status quo and just follow society’s norms?
We are all taught to follow the same path which is to finish high school, get a post-secondary school education, in university or college, get a stable job, find a suitable partner to get married to, buy a house, have children, go on vacation once a year, eventually retire and repeat the entire cycle with our children. Now, I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with following this path. What I am saying is that this path is not for everyone yet it is what we are all sold and convinced to do from a very young age.
The problem is that we are all unique and have our own personal skills, talents and gifts which should be discovered and cultivated. Once we can do this then we can use these to find a deeper meaning and a greater mission for our lives. The majority of world’s population do not live lives of deeper meaning with a greater mission which is what I mean by following the road less travelled.
It is only by living lies of deeper meaning and cultivating a greater mission for our lives that we can find true fulfilment which is a higher state than happiness. Happiness usually refers to a static state in a moment in time whereas fulfillment is a dynamic state which transcends time.
It is by living lives of fulfillment that we follow the road less travelled because the majority of people are living lives of quiet desperation programmed by the education system, parents and peers and society in general as I have already mentioned. In order to follow the road less travelled we need to try to discover what our real reason for being here is by setting the intention to do so. Therefore, the uncovering of the deeper meaning of our lives can only precede our intention to know this more profoundly than anything else we do or can know.
Next week I will dive deeper into the power of intention to help us follow the road less travelled.
Nauman Naeem MD