Why is the meaning of life lies in acquiring wisdom

Reason - it is your own space.

Alan Lightman, physicist and writer

You go to school, study diligently, to go to university, learn to get a higher education and a diploma, proud of a few more years. But if you become wiser from this?

You get a job, to achieve initial success, you bear a certain responsibility, you begin earn a little more satisfied with the company better, responsibility increases, wage increases, you allow yourself to rent an apartment is better, and more - Paid secure parking, dry cleaning, so as not to bother with washing on their own, and when life is getting better eventually, you start for the big money to buy organic products and juices in the tiny packages. But does all this make you just a little happier?

You day after day, doing a whole bunch of things: to buy products, read books, strizhotes, eat, take out the trash, buy things, brush your teeth, go to toilet, sneezing, shave, get drunk, add salt to food, are involved with someone having sex, charging laptop, jog, put the dishes in the dishwasher car, walking the dog, buy furniture, zadorgivaete curtains, fastened his shirt, wash your hands, dismantle food packages, crank Service, corrects hairstyle, go for lunch, behave decently, watch movies, drink apple juice and I have one ending roll of paper towels on other.

But by repeating these steps on a daily basis, and then year after year, do you get better?

Now it is a question of personal growth. Our society is arranged so that much attention to it does not give. Religion is much more cares about the salvation of the human soul, and the culture only briefly think about the internal state of a person. Improving the individual is perceived as something optional, optional and not mandatory. How rewarding hobby as extracurricular reading, like the cherry on top of the cake, which goes to only your favorites. And very much in vain.

We are constantly told that the human mind - insanely complicated thing on which all our lives depend directly. So why work on it still is not a priority?

Yes, it is quite difficult: personal growth needs to be well thought-out development strategy is no less than any business in the start-up stage. A clear business plan, concept, calculations... It's the same with self-improvement. Our efforts in work on a often haphazard and largely depend on the current frame of mind. Sometimes we are able to move mountains, and sometimes can not even get out of bed on an alarm clock.

If you want to get better, it is first necessary to define the purpose, to understand how to achieve it, to think about all the obstacles to be faced on the way and to develop a strategy that will help them with dignity overcome.

purpose

Wisdom. But more on that later.

How do we achieve it?

Realize the truth. Truth - is a combination of all that we know and do not know. To gain access to the wisdom, need to gain an understanding of all aspects of reality (known and unknown to us). No need to know more than what you already know, you just need to understand what you know and do not know. The truth is always somewhere nearby, you need to start to think a little bit to find it.

But there is one problem.

What else is the problem?

Fog.

To understand what a fog, you need to accept the fact that we are not here:

And here it is:

And the situation is not so:

And here is this:

We find it difficult to accept this situation. But it is - a launching pad for growth. People declaring themselves "reasonable", we put the foot, calm down and stop coming back to this issue. At the same time, consciousness can be represented as a ladder:

Ant reasonable bacteria, chicken wiser ant, the monkey chicken wiser and wiser man monkey. But if there is someone who would be a reasonable man?

• Definitely, someone (or something) is. Just take it to quietly move on.
• But we can not understand that someone (or something) better than ape the human world.

There is no reason to believe that the ladder of consciousness does not extend up to infinity. Unknown red something is just a few steps higher than the man, and takes our minds just as we perceive consciousness monkey.

For a green creature that is on the ladder even higher unknown something red will seem a little smarter than the chicken, and the person - no sensible ant. We can not imagine what it's like mind beings who are on the ladder of consciousness above us, but the realization that these steps exist at all, as well as an attempt to look at ourselves not as the final stage of evolution and there is something for which we began with all this deal.

Those creatures that are on the ladder of consciousness below us - that's what we're all grown up, then, that leaves our DNA back. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution, designed to survive in this cruel world. Primitive human qualities (fear, pettiness, jealousy, Greed, lust for instant profit) - just past the remains of the animal, which still live in our minds and give rise in the mind a whole zoo of primitive emotions and motivations:

However, six million years of evolution have not passed in vain for humanity: our minds fast heartbeat passed a great way of opening us to the incredible opportunities that are not available over any other kind on Earth. We made a huge step up the ladder of consciousness. And then there was a new element of reason in our mind, which we call the Supreme Being:

This Supreme Being thinks big and very rational. But in our minds it is settled relatively recently, while the primitive animal instincts are there since very ancient times. Therefore, the coexistence of all this zoo and the Supreme Being seems strange:

But it is seemingly impossible coexistence and makes us human.

As humans evolved, the Supreme Being beginning to awaken. It looked around and found himself in a strange and unfamiliar jungle, inhabited by some primitive creatures who do not understand what kind of fruit now lives with them in the neighborhood. Being mission was to add to the clarity of the mind, but with melteshaschim around the zoo to make it was not so easy. Evolution went on to make the Supreme Being more and more intelligent to the point until it is realized insanely shocking thing:

WE ALL DIE

It was the first time that someone on Earth has become reasonable enough to accept this reality. She brought all of the animals in our head in absolute fury (they were not ready for such a sensational statement), turning everything over the years, established ideas about the world in chaos:

It is understandable - the animals simply were afraid of something new and unknown. They besilis in our brain, and captured our minds, clouding and blurring thoughts, ideas and ideology. The more animals rampaged, the quieter became the voice of reason, that is the Supreme Being. The collective strength of animals - this is what we call the "fog". Sometimes it is so thick that we can not see what is happening under our noses:

Now let us remember of our goal - the knowledge of the truth. The Supreme Being is almost always sees the truth, but when our mind around the dense fog thickens, we lose touch with him and his ideas. We simply forget about the truth of the fact that the fog envelops us too tightly. The worst thing in the fog that, being in it, we do not notice it. Fog makes us stupid and foolish. The first step on the way to the truth is to realize that the fog exists at all.

Our goal - wisdom. To comprehend it, you want to learn as much as possible the truth and constantly aware of the fog, which is a major obstacle.

Now let's talk about how to get through the treacherous fog and get closer to the truth.

Step №1. Our life in the mist

The first stage - the lowest. For some of us it is the only default. At this stage, everything is in very thick fog, through which one can not see almost nothing. It was this fog makes us:

• limited;
• short-sighted;
• stupid.

Walk on all these points in order.

1. we are terribly limited in the first stage, because all control animals.

At this stage all our emotions are under the authority of the zoo who lives in his head, which controls us through the thick fog. All these animals make us petty, jealous and envious. It is because of them we secretly rejoice failures of others. It is because of them we feel cowardly, selfish, narcissistic and sometimes even violent. It is because of them we hate those people who have something different from us. All these emotions are reduced to two basic instincts of animals that help them survive: self-preservation and reproduction.

2. In the first stage we are terribly short-sighted and short-sighted, because the fog obscures us all and lets look at the situation as a whole.

Fog explains the illogical and short-sighted behavior.

Do you have grandparents, but as long as they are alive, you are not especially interested in their lives, visiting them only from time to time especially big occasion. You do not specify them any questions, do not call, rarely communicate. And when they die, the only thing you want - is to turn back the clock to get the opportunity to know them better and give them a little more attention. Why, one asks, you have not done it before, while they were there?

Do you have a strong and united family, but one day you will start to think that the second half of the relationship is not such wonderful as before and everything that you once bound, in a moment faded and was cumbersome and annoying. And even children who are always something missing. So you wind some very silly affair, alter, thus destroying in a moment that was built over the years.

Such a great variety of situations, they can be listed indefinitely. And there are a huge number of people who have stumbled and made a mistake. All this happened due to the fact that their mind was in such thick fog that the Supreme Being is simply not able to reach it and to protect it from rash actions. The expression "Just like in a fog" arose not from scratch.

3. In the first stage, we are very, very stupid.

One way to find this stupid - admit that we repeat the same mistakes again and again, from time to time, all the time.

Fog builds before us is quite logical chain of actions and makes it clear that if we will make it all, make sure you arrive at the happiness and success. We have repeatedly come to this trick, but happy and did not become. Why do we think that some kind of fog versed in matters of human happiness better than ourselves? Why did we become so gullible when it comes to this feeling?

It is necessary once and for all to remember that in all that relates to happiness, fog - a bad adviser. The only effective way to truly be happy - to constantly fight with the gathering around the shroud. To do this, you need to climb the ladder of consciousness above: the second, third, fourth stage.

Step №2. Dispel the fog to see the context

The main essence of the second stage - the context of software, which would help us more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with the full version of the truth. To do this, you need to disperse the fog to such an extent as to admit in your consciousness the Supreme Being, and allow yourself to see things that are happening around them. Fight the fog can be a variety of ways. We list the most effective ones:

• knowledge of the world through education, travel and gain experience. Because of this your prospects will expand understanding of many things will be more clear and precise;
• active reflection. To better understand yourself, you can keep a diary or consult with a psychologist;
• meditation, exercise, yoga etc. All these things help to relax, calm down and streamline the flow of thoughts, that is, allow the fog to dissipate and settle.

The easiest and most effective way of combating the fog is as follows: you just need to remain aware of its existence. Knowing that the fog is real and can also take many forms, you become more conscious than in the first stage. You get an improved version of himself. You will never be able to move to the second stage, if you do not acknowledge the existence of the first. Here are a few good examples for a better understanding:

The bad news is that to remain in the second stage for a long time quite difficult. Good - that although you can not completely get rid of the fog, you already know a few ways that allow it to dissipate when you consciously focus on it. This is quite a natural process: as they grow older and develop more and more time you will spend in the second stage, rather than the first.

Step №3. Shocking reality

In the third stage all starts to seem even more surprising and incomprehensible. In the second stage, we are confident that we are here:

It's great, but such a picture - complete delusion and a sham. It seems that we live in a perfect world, where a completely cloudless sky grows green grass and fluttering multicolored butterflies (which are more like a raven). In fact, the brutal reality is this:

Although, to be precise, even as follows:

But, to be more precise, the situation looks like this:

And to be very, very honest, something like this:

Yet sometimes you tend to think you are - this is something important and meaningful:

But you - just a gathering of a large number of atoms:

In order to understand and come to terms with what is shown in the last few pictures, you need to make great efforts. Our brains can not cope with it for a long time. Require the person a full understanding of the immensity of the universe, infinity, space, eternity or the size of atoms - it's like to make a dog walk on its hind legs only.

Yes, we are able to focus and understand it all and feel, but only for a very short period of time. Sometimes when we look at the starry sky, watch popular-science film, Talk to the right person, or think about what is death, we briefly reopened the truth - we experience moments of insight, the so-called wow moments.

Catch a real wow moment is very difficult, and to keep him - even more difficult.

At such moments, our brains for a split second overpowers himself and gives us the other facets of reality, the very truth that we so want to comprehend. When there is a wow moment, everything becomes very clear in our minds are of a second does not eclipse fog, animals behave quieter water below the grass, and the Supreme Being feels just fine. Wow moments - your pass to the third stage.

In the first stage we are rude to the cashier who told us something bad. In the second stage being rude we did not care because we begin to think about the context. We do not know what's going on in the life of the cashier, and why he was so angry, do not know how was his day, do not know anything about his life.

In the third stage, we see ourselves as an accumulation of millions of atoms, which, for some strange laws connected in time and space, and then met with the cashier. The only emotion that we are able to experience him in a moment - is boundless love.

Wow moments occur so rarely that we remember them for a long time. They are very short-lived, but even when we get back to the second stage, a long time remember the feeling experienced by. That is why the third step is so important.

Before we move on to the fourth step, we repeat what we have learned in the first three.

• First stage - full fog and the triumph of the animals, a lot of mistakes and a little truth.
• The second stage - the fog dissipates, the Supreme Being takes more effort, we are beginning to perceive many things differently because of the context.
• third stage - clarity and closeness to the truth, but for a very short period of time.

What then takes place in the fourth stage, if in the third, we would seem to understand, for what do we live? Here's what: there stalking us great and unknown something.

Step №4. Something great and unknown

Until now, we only did what they were discussing the fog and animal behavior to understand how to get closer to the truth. We realized that we need to understand as clearly as possible, that we all know the truth:

In the fourth step, we have to understand what the general scale of the truth:

The truth is that many people terribly difficult to understand the size of the universe and recognize that this is a huge cloud of purple in the image exists at all, and is not a complete fallacy.

But you know people. They do not like this purple cloud, and never will like. Cloud frightens and upsets people, forcing the recall of how they are insignificant in comparison with the universe. History is full of examples where clouds exist completely denied. This is comparable to the fact that the man who lived all his life near the ocean, suddenly began to be argued that there is no ocean there is no trace.

We're pretty gullible. We believe that to this particular point, we were in something completely wrong, but it is all in the past - the more we will not repeat their mistakes.

We make scientific discoveries. It's like a moment of epiphany, to shake that turns our established notions about the world. For example, this happens when we learned that the earth is round, not flat, that the solar system heliocentrically, not geocentric, when it was discovered species of origin of the theory, and so on.

Suppose that at this point in time we are confident that will not happen anything that could turn the world of science. Even if we accept that in the future we are waiting for a lot more twists and turns, we will in any case remain of the opinion that, that our current picture of the world is more perfect than the one that was in those people who thought that the Earth was flat. It looks something like this:

It is sufficient to recognize and acknowledge the fact that the surrounding reality can be different and do not always correspond to our ideas about it. That is, it may be fundamentally different from that to which we are accustomed.

Once upon a time we were confident that we are the center of the universe. Uncertainty shackled our hands and feet and makes our existence is not very pleasant, and sometimes frightening. Uncertainty also more and was accompanied by constant fear of the future. Now, when there was so many scientific discoveries and breakthroughs, everything got worse.

The fourth stage - something absolutely unreal. It defies the imagination and makes us feel the grains of sand in the sea. It is very difficult to achieve in the spiritual plane. It is a wow moments that do not last for a couple of seconds, but much longer. Constantly testing their level can only thinkers Albert Einstein. Not everyone is given up to this stage, but if we at least acknowledge its existence, it would be a huge step forward for our personal growth.

We will never be able to understand how things work. However, we can just relax, enjoy life and have fun.

Why is wisdom - is the goal

Nothing so well does not dissipate the fog as the last moments of life, when a person is already on his deathbed. It is in such moments people clearly beginning to realize that they should have been done differently: "What a pity that I spend so much time at work and not with the family"; "What a pity that I have so little contact with his beloved wife"; "What a pity that I have so little traveled and learned so little."

The goal of personal growth should be to realize all this is not in the last minute, and in life, while you are still able to change something.

To achieve this, you need to become wiser as soon as possible. Wisdom - one of the most important things for a person to whom a worthwhile endeavor. Wisdom - this is the same obsession, the one an extremely important goal, which is subordinate to all other targets. We were given only one life to live, and the need to try fill it with meaning to the maximum. Only in this way you will be able to do something good not only for himself but also for others. This will be the best result and the result of all lived days. Wisdom gives people an understanding of what it really means to the phrase "a life filled with meaning", and it really helps to make it so.

Of course, experience can contribute to wisdom, but in fact, wisdom is already incorporated in our heads. Wisdom - all those things that are known to our Supreme Being. When our mind is in a fog, we have no access to the thoughts of the Supreme Being, because of this, we sometimes commit rash acts, guided by instinct alone. Fog - it antimudrost.

Grow up and age - this is not the same as growing up. Become adults - it means to become more wise, but it is not always directly related to the numbers in the calendar. There are many people who can be considered a very wise, despite his young age.

For some people, the mist becomes a little less dense as they get older, but for the majority of things are going to exactly the opposite: only the fog thickened around them, making them less conscious and even more confident in their imaginary right. After a certain age the acquisition of wisdom and adulthood lies only in overcoming the fog.

conclusions

The main purpose of our life - wisdom. Wisdom will be dumped on you whenever you are conscious enough to accept the truth about people, their actions, state of affairs in the world and in the universe. But be prepared for the fact that on your way always will be fog, which will be hindered, making you distracted, fearful and too impulsive. In order not to succumb to its harmful effects, simply forget about it and do not try to learn to distinguish truth from falsehood, and truth from falsehood in any situation.

As the acquisition of wisdom, you will definitely want to amount of time spent by you on the first and second stages, certainly increased. Over time, you will increasingly feel the wow moments and more often think about the purple cloud from the fourth stage. If all this really be the case, you can be quiet: you certainly have made great strides in terms of personal growth, and it has affected many aspects of your life.

That's all. Not up to the dying hours to finally sort out, What is the meaning of all life lived.