Why don’t I do the things that I know are good for me?

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Please Note: This is Part 1 of a 2-part post

Why don’t I eat a balanced diet when I know it is good for me?

Why don’t I eat organic food when I know it is good for me?

Why don’t I learn to enjoy my own company when I know that it is good for me instead of constantly seeking the company of other people or things?

Why don’t I exercise daily when I know that it is good for me?

Why don’t I do work that truly inspires me when I know that it is good for me?

Why don’t I spend time in meditation daily when I know that it is good for me?

Do you sometimes find yourself asking these rather inconvenient and disturbing questions?  If so, what is your response?

Let me take a guess.  I suspect it would be one or more of the following:

·       You mentally grimace and then return to what you’d been doing or find something else that might absorb you more fully so your mind doesn’t stray to these kinds of troublesome thoughts

·       You chastise yourself for not doing what you ‘should’ do and continue on as usual

·       You think of reasons why you’re not doing them, for example:

You don’t have enough time.

You don’t know how.

You don’t think you’ll succeed.

It’s too hard.

You’re not entirely convinced that they’re good for you anyway.

You don’t think it’s that urgent, perhaps when you’re older or retired or when the kids have grown up or…

    

·       You reason with your mind that these propositions are not necessarily true, for example:

Aunt Milly never ate organic food and she lived till 99.

Grandad never exercised and he seemed fit.

I can’t afford to do the work I really like because there’s no money (or not enough money for the lifestyle I want) in it

Well, I’ve tried meditation before and I just couldn’t do it.  Besides, it’s not for everyone.

What’s wrong with seeking company? 

     Well, with respect to the last 2 dot points, if the reasoning satisfies you or if you believe there is    nothing you can do about it, then perhaps reading on might be a waste of time.

If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Right?

But, if you’re willing to explore the question a little further (and this will mean suspending your current ways of thinking and beliefs), then let’s keep going.

Urgency

If you knew that your house was about to be hit by a tidal wave and that the water it brought inland would leave your house flooded for days, what would you do?

You’d vacate in a hurry, wouldn’t you?  And you’d try to salvage whatever you could in the little time that you had.  And if there wasn’t any time or if you didn’t believe that there was, you’d leave empty handed, wouldn’t you?

That kind of behavior reflects your sense of urgency.  You know there’s little or no time.  You’ve got to act fast.  Super fast.

Urgency is one thing that we lack or fail to have an appreciation for when it comes to choosing to do the things that we know are good for us.

Why?

Why don’t we have a sense of urgency when it comes to these choices?

Here are the reasons in dot point which I shall elaborate on individually later:

·       Intangibility

·       Ignorance

·       Delusion

For now, I’d like to take a brief but necessary detour.

Vedanta

In the ancient Indian spiritual tradition, there is well developed system of inquiry into the discovery of Self-Knowledge which can also be understood as Liberation (freedom from suffering in all its forms).  It is known as Vedanta. 

Some of its more notable students are Ramakrishna, Aurobindo, Anandamayi Ma, Nityananda, and Neem Karoli Baba, several of whom brought their wisdom and presence to the west.  Deepak Chopra is also a student of Vedanta.

One of the teachings (and subject of inquiry) in Vedanta is that limited action towards a limited goal can only provide limited benefits. 

As an example, completing a course of study is a limited goal.  The actions that are taken toward such a goal can only be limited i.e. certain amounts of study within certain amounts of time will help us achieve such a goal. 

The benefits that we gain are correspondingly limited – we have a limited amount of new information which we are able to use in a limited number of ways and which may benefit a limited number of people.

Now, Vedanta contrasts this and almost every kind of goal we have in life (examples of which are mentioned in the list of questions that I posed right at the start of this post) with the goal of self-knowledge which is a limitless goal.

Why is this a limitless goal? 

Because the self is limitless and knowledge about the self is limitless.  Additionally, the benefits of such a limitless goal are also limitless.  

(Think about the implications of this in relation to your desire for freedom, peace, joy, creativity...)

The question that I did not ask right at the start and which is probably the most important of all is:

Why don’t I give my time and energy to the discovery of myself, to Self knowledge, when I know that it is good for me?

Put another way,

Why don’t I give my time and energy to dispelling my ignorance of my Self, my true nature, which will effectively eliminate all my suffering when I know that it is good for me?

The reasons are, as I stated above, to do with:

·       Intangibility

·       Ignorance

·       Delusion

Now let me explain each one.

INTANGIBILITY

Knowledge about myself, my true nature, is intangible.  It cannot be measured or evaluated by our systems of measurement.  And unlike some other forms of ‘knowledge’, it does not seem to have a monetary or practical value and thus no tangible reward. 

In the world that we live in where money is necessary for our survival, self-knowledge does not have currency.  It is an indulgence that few can afford.

IGNORANCE

We do not really understand what self-knowledge is and that is understandable.  How could we when we don’t have it! 

Neither do we understand the nature and extent of our Ignorance.

Now this is important because it is this Ignorance that gives rise to our suffering in all its forms – from the irritation of an insect bite to the existential loneliness or hopelessness into whose pits we may fall from time to time.

Self-knowledge is the only antidote to our Ignorance.

DELUSION

We live with the delusion that

·       This physical/material world is the only ‘real’ world and the only one that ‘really’ matters

·       We do not need Self-knowledge

·       Our suffering is the result of not having enough or the right kinds of limited goals (please refer above to what is meant by limited goals and examples of them)

·       Security and pleasures (‘aartha’ and ‘kama’ respectively in Vedanta) are the most important and meaningful goals in our lives

·       Is fed by one form of limited goal or another or treated/relieved by one kind of prescription or another whether psychological, intellectual, medical or physical

·       Self-knowledge (whatever that is) is hard to pursue and can never reward us with the kinds of security and pleasures that we seek.  On the contrary it will deny us these very things, leaving us with a sense of nihilism

·       We have time to pursue Self-knowledge…when we have accomplished all the other limited goals in life

Part 2 will follow in due course.  Watch this space J