Building a framework for living # 5: Working with the fundamental unit that makes a life
When we go for our walks in the woods and look around, the tell tale signs of impermanence are everywhere. The ground is littered with fallen trees big and small. Next to them are also young saplings hoping to survive their first yew years and reach for the piece of sky opened up by the fallen trees.
Walking through the woods we have seen this cycle of birth and death so often that it does not elicit any thoughts or the awareness of impermanence. Almost always, obvious signs of impermanence fail to make its mark on our consciousness.
In the beginning of our own lives, the biological imperative to procreate and propagate our genes to another generation fills up the entirety of our efforts and vision. Although with the emergence of society, the ways in which the biological directive is implemented have changed, propagating our genes still remains the prime directive, until…
…until we get older and are past the point of needing to meet our biological obligations. The years of retirement, the years of being empty nesters, are the years when what we are doing is not of much relevance to evolution.
With advances in hygiene and medicine, we now live way beyond what procreation would have required. Together with that, we also are fortunate (or unfortunate) to be gifted with consciousness and are aware that there is a future.
It is in that future, resides our end.
When the vehicle that we are, starts to shift into lower gear, the thoughts of our own mortality and impermanence start to loom larger and larger.
For some, once the awareness of mortality decides to become a permanent tenant in the consciousness, we are prompted for a change. From that point onwards, to have an equanimous life, while living with the awareness of mortality, we need a framework for living that can resolve the inherent tension between living and dying.
While confronting mortality we need a framework for living so that when nearing the end of our life, we can say that our life was well lived. It is required so that if the end comes to us unexpectedly, we would be ready to depart in peace.
Having found or created a framework for living, how would we know if it was the correct one for us, and in the end, following it worked? If it is only towards the end of our life we get to evaluate that our chosen framework for living led to a life well lived, and if it turns out to be not so, would it not be too late?
Taken at the very end, a single test to measure the years of living and then finding that it did not quite work as we expected would be such a waste of time and effort.
Would it not be advisable to test the framework of living we have along the way before we are asked to walk on the coals?
Is such an assessment possible? Perhaps, there is a way.
Come to think of it, the basic unit of life is a day. A day adds to a week, a week to month, a month to a year, and before we know it, we have our life laid out in front of us.
If life is made up of days, and if days themselves are well lived, the entirety of life would also be well lived. The assertion may sound like bordering on trivial but is important to recognize and hold on to.
Instead of assessing if the framework of living we chose is likely to result in a life well lived, we could assess if following its guidance made our days well lived. For the latter, we get lots more opportunities, and if something is not working, we have an opportunity to either fine tune or try another framework for living.
The bottom line is, if we take care of individual days, in the end, they will take care of life.
And so, to figure out the framework for living that will make us say that our life was well lived, a good assessment for the viability of the framework would be to assess if it makes us feel if our days are well lived.
Today when we took another walk in the woods I wondered if trees are aware of the cycle of birth and death and also think about the meaning and purpose of their existence. Or perhaps, all wisdom that is needed to have a life well lived is second nature to them. It is only us who have to figure it out.
Ciao.
Summary
- While confronted with mortality, we need a framework for living so that when nearing the end of our life, we can say that our life was well lived.
- To be able to do that, we need a framework for living to guide us.
- Having decided on a framework for living, we need to ensure it would bring the desired goal. To do that, we need to give it a test drive before we reach the end.
- A good way to test drive our framework of living to see if following it makes our day well lived.
- If we take care of individual days, in the end, they will take care of life.
Related:
Building a framework for living #1: Becoming aware of mortality
Building a framework for living #2: The basic premise for its need
Building a framework for living #3: Follow the advice from stoics
Building a framework for living #4: The basic principles
