It [the world; Life] is not here to make you happy. It is here to make you conscious.
Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle explained in the below linked video how many of us assume that Life's job is to make us happy and when we are not happy it is because Life is witholding from us what it should be giving us. We look about us at the faces on social media or those we see passing us by on the street and think..."They look happy! What and why did life give them whatever it has given them, that it hasn't given me?"
I caught myself doing that the other day. I have not been getting out much or doing what would be deemed by the social media pages as 'exciting or adventerous, what everyone should be doing if they are happy and living a full life'. No, my world these days entails a morning practice, followed by some soulful listening, this blog, some menial chores (done half assed) , in between the hours spent trying to finish a book my mind tells me I have no business writing but that I feel so compelled to finish, a few moments outside, maybe a walk in the woods, time with grandkids, the odd meal out, a yoga class three times a week, a few hours in the evening spent in front of the TV and ending with reading a few pages before crashing for the night. That's my life. I am very comfortable in this routine. I kind of like it even but....
As I was driving by a bunch of tourists the other day, watching couples walking hand and hand down the street, laughing and talking as they explored this city, possibly for the first time, I felt this great sense of FOMO. It was like , "Oh man! They are "out" doing something in this life. They are being fulfilled by excitement and adventure. Life has given them what it hasn't given me."
And when I am speaking to "successful" people...those who have their education all wrapped up in latin bows, or have earned a certain degree of wealth( or are at the point they are not worried about money), or those who have published with acclaim...or those who have had their health conditions diagnosed early on, validated, and who have recieved the right treatment so they are not consumed with this health seeking shame, nor are they terrified about not being believed when they have to 'present' with a health issue, (I still dream about my struggle at night,,,it is a bit of a nightmare...it reminds me of how big of a samskara it is in me.)I feel this sense of FOMO again. Like " Why have I not been given those opportunities? Why did life take so much from me?"
The FOMO doesn't last long because I know as Tolle says, "It [the world; life] is not here to make you happy. It is here to make you conscious."I am blessed more than the others because Life is making me conscious, more and more so each and everyday, with every old challenge and every new one. I am exactly where I am meant to be, doing what I am meant to do! I am waking up. Everything I do, albeit not all that exciting and adventerous, is a part of that waking up. How can life be any better than that?
This "me" I refer to when I say, "Why did Life withhold that from 'me'?", I know, more and more, is just a mental construct. It is not who I am. Life did nothing to this "I am". The 'me' attempts to make the impersonal nature of Life 'personal'; the "I am" accepts, embraces, and honors Life as it is, realizing 'personal' is just a term I sometimes get caught up in.
So, it surprises me when I have these momentary glitches of falling into FOMO. I guess, I should be impressed with how quickly I come out of it now though. I come back to the truth quite quickly: Life is indeed making me more conscious.
All is well.
Eckhart Tolle ( June 25, 2024) Eckhart Tolle on teh True Purpose of Life: Beyond the Pursuit of Happiness.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBNt2nFzwFo
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