Hello and welcome to the session,
I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable,
You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
In today's session we're going to be contemplating a quote from the fantasy series The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.
In this series the magical users in order to attain their magic have to go through a set of trials,
Well they go through a set of trials and then they come to certain realizations about themselves and about the world around them and they say the words,
They say the ideal.
This is a statement that embodies a truth that they're now able to live by,
An aspiration,
Something that will guide them,
It's sort of like they've reached a level of attainment.
Each character and each magic system within this book,
Within The Way of Kings has different ideals and they're embodied differently and each one is worth an investigation and a contemplation of its own accord.
But the quote that we're going to be looking at is the first ideal and this ideal is common to all of the magic users in this universe.
It's a simple quote but if we can consider the implications of it and potentially embody it,
It will lead to tremendous levels of happiness and healing and satisfaction with our lives.
So these are the words of the first ideal,
When spoken and embodied begins to unlock the characters powers but might give us something in the real world as well.
Life before death,
Strength before weakness,
Journey before destination.
Life before death,
Strength before weakness,
Journey before destination.
So in the books,
The characters sort of come to the conclusion or they learn the lesson embodied in this quote.
I think there's deep learnings to be had were we to embody the lesson within this ideal,
Within this quote.
But just as an aside note,
In the same way that we could use the litany of fear from June as a motto,
As a mantra,
As a prayer,
We could also use this as a reminder set in response to feelings of dissatisfaction with life,
In response to fear,
In response to an overwhelm of emotionality.
Something arises and you say to yourself,
Life before death,
Strength before weakness,
Journey before destination.
So we could definitely use this ideal in that sense,
But I would like to take this quote and sort of dissect each little section,
Life before death,
Strength before weakness,
Journey before destination.
Journey before destination is an interesting one,
There's this idea that we want to delay our happiness to some external,
Some future,
Some eventually state,
When I achieve this I will feel that.
If I get the car,
If I get the partner,
If I get the job,
If I get the promotion when I'm retired,
If my book sells,
Et cetera,
Et cetera,
This goal-based thing.
But I've really taken to observing my mental state when something positive happens,
When I attain the destination,
So to speak.
And almost instantly,
Almost instantly,
My mind goes,
Cool,
What's next?
I attain this goal I've been striving for,
You know,
A martial arts belt,
A book sells really well,
I make some sort of work success,
Something amazing happens,
And almost instantly my mind is like,
Okay,
What's next?
Almost instantly.
And this feeling is backed up by the findings and the discoveries of ancient meditation masters,
You know,
Life is suffering.
Even if you attain something amazing,
This feeling of dissatisfaction arises,
You could look at it from an evolutionary perspective.
It's not evolutionarily beneficial to be happy with attainment.
Okay,
You've had a successful hunt,
You've found a fruit tree,
Cool,
Eat,
Enjoy,
But soon you're going to need more,
You need to start looking,
Don't be satisfied.
Those that were satisfied stayed still and didn't pass on their genes.
So we're sort of primed to be looking to the next destination,
The next destination,
The next destination.
So this idea of journey before destination suggests that if we can do our best to embrace the journey,
The path,
I've spoken elsewhere of this idea of working at your values and having this mountain in the distance that you're trying to aim towards,
But if the journey towards that mountaintop isn't enjoyable,
What's the chances that you're going to get there?
And even if you do get there,
There's not going to be much joy to be attained when you are there.
The reason I say this is that it would be a better idea to live in the journey.
All life happens now,
Life is the journey.
Life is a sequence of connected nows,
Now connects to now connects to now connects to now.
That's the journey and maybe you attain something,
Maybe you get to that destination that you've been striving towards,
But maybe not.
What if you don't make it,
Have you wasted all of that time?
What if instead you embodied the journey,
Journey before destination?
This isn't to stay,
You don't aim towards something,
You might want to,
But at least make sure that when you're heading in that journey,
In that direction,
You're feeling good about yourself,
You're feeling good about the journey,
You're enjoying it.
Another aspect of this ideal,
Life before death,
Speaks towards a similar process.
It's easy to look towards death,
Towards this inevitability,
This fear of the unknown.
To sort of live a life that's in service to the end of your own life,
You know,
To sort of put ticks on the scoreboard going,
Okay,
Well I did this,
I did that,
I did this,
I did that,
I've lived a good life,
Well have you?
That's the destination,
But really there's no scorecard.
You should live your life,
You should embrace the journey,
You should be here now focused on living,
And focus on the living and the connection with those around you.
The joy is in the moment,
You know,
Your child's smile and hug and connection,
It won't last forever,
Nothing does.
Find that joy,
Find that connection,
Find that life.
Life before death,
Because death will come,
But life is here now.
And strength before weakness,
I feel like this part can be interpreted differently depending on who you are,
But I know for me,
I have a tendency to quit,
To give up on myself,
To feel a bit of pushback and stop trying,
But that feels a little bit silly,
It feels a little bit like I'm giving up preemptively.
I should put my strength before my weaknesses,
Believe in myself,
Take steps to achieve,
To be what I can be in response to the pressures that life puts upon you.
Because like we were talking about before,
The light's never always green,
There are always going to be barriers,
There are always going to be things happening in life that may stop or interrupt or change,
But if you can sit with the inner strength that you have,
That everyone has,
That we all have,
Then you might start attaining.
Now when combined together,
Life before death,
Strength before weakness,
Journey before destination,
We sit with this idea of being present in the moment,
Being present in the power and connection to those around us,
Living our life to the fullest in the here and now.
That's what this ideal speaks to me.
So let's sit in contemplation of this ideal.
Life before death,
Strength before weakness,
Journey before destination.
Life before death,
Strength before weakness,
Journey before destination.
So I'm curious,
What did you make of this ideal?
Life before death,
Strength before weakness,
Journey before destination.
I invite you to please share your responses in the classroom,
And to ask any questions that you might have there.
Remember to start your responses with ideal,
So we all know which question you're referring to.
And while you're there,
I encourage you to check out the responses that other students have given,
As well as the ones that I'll be sharing.
In this way,
We can create a sort of synergy,
In which we're all encouraging,
Connecting,
And growing together.
It's one thing to embrace this life on our own,
But quite another to do it in concert in harmony,
Hand in hand with fellow travellers walking the same path.
I look forward,
I look forward to seeing you there.
This track was taken from the course,
Finding Enlightenment Through Fiction.
It's out now via my profile on Insightama,
And I invite you to check it out.
