The Meaning Of Life Is Written Calmly And Patiently

The meaning of life doesn’t always appear when we’re in love or through a passion… which just as it arrives, sometimes goes away. It is through a calm heart and a tranquil interior that we can much better appreciate the treasures that surround us, as well as the dormant forces that we all have and yet cannot develop or even appreciate.

Something that many philosophers comment, and also some psychologists specializing mainly in speech therapy, is that it is very difficult to find our personal purposes in the midst of the culture that surrounds us. We receive so many stimuli from so many sources at the same time that it is very difficult to filter all this intoxication to hear our own voice, the noise of our authentic being.

Adam Steltzner, the NASA scientist who designed Curiosity and who successfully landed this mobile vehicle on the ground of Mars, said that at no time during his childhood and youth did he think he would dedicate his life to such a project. In fact, his desire was to be a rock singer. He had his own band, played shows and wasn’t even interested in going to college like the rest of his classmates.

In one night, everything changed. He was coming home after a rehearsal, walking alone in the street and the sky couldn’t be clearer. Silence and calm. It was then that he looked up and was mesmerized to see the stars; in particular, the constellation of Orion. He stayed there for over half an hour, fascinated. There he was, someone used to sound and music and excitement, suddenly finding the meaning of life in the midst of silence.

A few months later he enrolled at the university to be a physicist. Your personal adventure was just beginning…

Seeing, thinking and speaking calmly: Nietzsche’s theory for finding the meaning of life

Sometimes we have the distinct sensation of being like a leaf carried along the course of a river. We barely have time to enjoy our surroundings. We cannot allow the breeze of the wind to lift us a few seconds to get a better perspective of what surrounds us, excites us or frightens us. Even the irrelevant.

Our culture, our education and even society itself encourage those who imprison us, our own habits. Some of us even become addicted to immediate rewards, fleeting pleasures… We want everything and at the same time feel empty, we want to be unique and special, but at the same time we crave the traits or belongings we see in others.

It is difficult to achieve the meaning of life in the midst of this unreflective and, at the same time, unsatisfactory dynamic. So, as a curiosity, we must remember what Friedrich Nietzsche told us about this problem: to find the purpose of our existence, we must be able to see, think and speak calmly. These are the three principles that the philosopher defined as what raises aristocratic culture.

Aristocratic culture or the need to educate through calm and patience

In “Twilight of the Idols”, Nietzsche explained that every educator should have an objective in his work: to establish the bases of the so-called aristocratic culture. Now, far from relating this ideal or purpose to the higher classes, what the famous German philosopher sought was to train all new generations in a more refined and demanding way of thinking. Make each person transform their life into an authentic work of art.

He recommended that educators focus their work on three very specific axes:

• Learning to see what surrounds us slowly, without anticipating. At least, don’t do that before looking.
• Learn to speak and write in the same way. If we get the eye used to learning to look calmly, our hand and our communication must also proceed in the same way, calmly and meaningfully.
• The third pillar of education would be to prevent people from reacting on mere instinct. For that, we must be able to think with balance and, above all, with judgment.

Thus, all those who integrate these capacities into their being, who can see, look and speak calmly and patiently, will sooner or later find the meaning of life, the one that most defines them, the one that best fits their identity.

The meaning of life, a quest that doesn’t need to wear out the soles of our shoes

To find the meaning of life, you don’t have to travel to Tibet. No need to travel around the world with a backpack on your back and hitchhiking. We’re going to gain experiences, there’s no doubt about it, but most likely we won’t find the answers we’re looking for. As Hakuin, a 12th-century Japanese poet said, when a person does not know where the truth is, he makes the mistake of seeking it as far as possible. In reality, the secret of all your doubts lies within you.

Therefore, we don’t need to wear the soles of our shoes to have a sense of life of our own. It’s just a matter of creating a mental space to encourage reflection. How to get this? The following keys can help us.

• Slow down.
• Make a list of what’s a priority in your life and what’s not, what makes you feel good, and what makes you calm. Sanitize the most important spaces in your life.
• Spend more time with yourself, find spaces throughout the day where you can be calm and silent.
• Recover your ability to be surprised. Be that person who can afford to look at the stars at night, appreciate the unusual nuances in the middle of cities, the hidden magic in our everyday life.
• Be aware of those things that give you joy, that make you feel good and inspire curiosity, because that’s where you hide what gives you meaning, what defines you…

To conclude, it is noteworthy that our life purposes change frequently at various times throughout our existence. It is something normal and even desirable, because it responds to our own movement, to that human growth in which, as we seek and discover things, we nurture new aspirations, new goals.

After all, life is movement, and if we know how to listen to our inner self with the calm it deserves, we will always find the answers we need.