A Better Place

Most people don't choose the place they live in but accept the place they find themselves in as the best of all possible worlds.  So they indulge themselves while on vacation -- as the place they would choose to be -- and not where they spend most of their life.  It just never occurs to them that they could.  Only a rare few find themselves where they really want to be -- as though such a thing were possible.

Yet that choice, has the greatest effect on all their other decisions and choices in life.  Many are simply not in the best environment for themselves.  It may be too hot, or too cold, too far from the ocean or mountains for them to feel at home -- in their best environment.  They may be remote and isolated -- and mystified why they feel that way.

And beyond that, is what they make of that environment -- to make it better, optimal as far as possible for themselves -- before eventually realizing they must move on to even better.  The quest always involves a journey.  It is never about just staying in one place all one's life -- thinking one day life will be different.  That is the reality of poverty -- that things never change from day to day, and year to year.  There are no passages in time and rites.  Everything stays the same.  There is no hope for different -- and better.

That may be the differentiating mark of those who stagnate, and those who grow -- not just by one parameter, but every facet of their lives so as to be immeasurable and unrecognizable from where they began.  Then change is very significant and meaningful -- and not just small modifications that don't amount to anything.  Real change changes everything -- and not just one thing.

So, many are unprepared for real change -- as much as they talk and hope about it -- but having no understanding of what it really is.  Real change even takes on a life of its own -- and for that reason, is eschewed by those who want to control it -- or feel they must be in control.  Instead, they will seek to suppress it.  And so the power of good things, is never allowed to happen -- to blossom in its own good time.  There is a season for everything -- but not before its time.

Lots of people want to be told what the truth is -- but very few are willing to find that out for themselves, and that is the real power and joy of it, and its value.  It is the finding out that separates the truth seekers from those who only pretend to know -- because somebody else told them so but they will never know how to find out the truth of any matter for themselves.  And that's what matters -- and not the countless many who say, "Tell us what is the truth, and we will repeat it -- as though we understand and thought of it ourselves."  "Tell us what is correct, and we will follow and chant it," and think themselves enlightened and wise beyond all the others.

They think they know all the answers -- but have not even begun to ask the right questions.  So how could they know anything worthwhile?  Because to ask the right (meaningful) question, is the beginning of understanding -- that no amount of simply knowing all the right answers can ever hope to achieve.  To such people, it doesn't matter what the question is -- they know their answer, regardless.

By asking the right questions, it is possible to discover the answer to any question, but if one only learns the right answers, they may never realize they know nothing worth knowing.