There are about 10 billion people on the earth this very instant. Each of them is going through thier own experience of life, learning lessons which are unique or as old as civilisation itself - and on every topic. Because that’s why computers don’t even stand the chance of becoming as intelligent as us in the near future - because they don’t have the amount of oppurtunity and time to invest in a learning experience called life. I mean if we took two people - probably highly qualified programmers - and asked them to become parents of a computer and teach it like they were teaching a child - then they would probably spend days, weeks, months, years teaching that computer what they knew about life - from identifying alphabets, to language skills, to social ettitquete.. untill the computer could really “think” for itself. That’s probably why our computers are dumb instead of being artificially intelligent - we humans are bad parents for computers.
Joke aside, each generation of human goes through a massive learning experience even after he/she finishes childhood and teen years. All the way to the last day on this planet. Again, as I have mentioned, one would think at the rate we’re going through generations we would have solved every problem on the planet? But because of conflicting opinion on what is the right way to do anything, everyone is left to thier own judgement - which is good. Free thinking and free will is what makes us human. However even if you look at the evolution within the lifecycle of a person - it’s sometimes scary how little that person improves or changes.
People are usually limited to thier insecurities, fears or plain laziness. What is fascinating is the cycle they go through when they learn something new based on an experience - they return to baseline regardless of how powerful that experience and the lesson learnt is.
Suppose, a man has a near death accident - at first he begins to live with the knowledge that death can come any minute. And he lives life to the fullest - for about six months. And then he begins to return to his usual lifestyle. The same can be applied to a man who wins a lottery - at first he is overjoyed that he is rich and old problems dissolve in the face of his newfound financial liberation - only for a few months. Then he grows conditioned to having a million (or what’s left of it by then) dollars in his bank account and either the old problems come back or there are new ones to solve and he’s back at square one.
What’s worse is the sort of situation that inspired the chinese proverb “man is the only animal that trips over the same stone twice”. This can be seen clearly in people who relapse after a lot of effort to overcome but get back into over-eating, drinking, doing drugs, smoking, being lazy and unproductive, being bankrupt, being abusive in a relationshp….
Why? Don’t we know better? Of course we do. The person who’se lost all that flab after starving himself / herself knows better than to go cram face with pizza - but he does it anyways. Because the memory of the pain of being overweight has faded away… and the temptation to eat and return to baseline is overpowering.
Just as buddha gave the world a shock with such an obvious but simple truth like “life is hard”, I believe there is another truth: “people forget”
Wise men of yore knew this. This is why people who came up with religious practice decided on the behalf of ordinary people that it was best for them to follow a regimen of daily prayer, weekly visits to a place of worship or monthly poojas or even yearly fasts… Turning it into tradition would ensure that people would keep themselves healthy (physically and spiritually). This way people were reminded of God, of thier nobler selves instead of descending into chaos.
It’s interesting to note that literacy used to only be in the hands of the wise and/or learned, in the olden times. Even if it was oral vedas passed on from brahmana to brahmana, they were the only class that could of recording, accumulating and revising the lessons learnt by the wise and passing it on. It was thier purpose and the only use for the literacy they knew.
Today literacy is in everyone’s hands. Yet wisdom is scarce. Everyone follows what a majority of society dictates is normal for that period and culture. Some of it does come from origins of guidelines set by wiser people on what is the better way to live. Yet those are quickly being discarded in todays age for whatever is more convenient and enjoyable.
Just as wisdom of the old is available because wise men sat down and wrote it, or recited it to pass it on - wisdom you earn must be also accumulated. Else you could end up learning the same lessons over and over again and wasting a lot of time and effort. Life is like that - it will fail it’s students and make them study the same grade / class over and over again till they get it right. Which is why I think everyone should maintain a blor or wiki or diary… even if it is private. Whether it be digital (in this age of infinite storage, why not?) or hard copy - it should be done.
Even if one is not good at turning life’s lessons into words as easily, the least one can do is document what is happening in one’s life. Journals are great ways to show perspective in hindsight. Even if “Hindsight is always 20-20″.
But please - write it down. If not anything else, but to show to people now and in the future, that you lived and learnt.
