There Are Two Modes of Being

There are two modes of being

Theodoris Tsiamitas

There are two modes of being:

a) Being conscious by choice, by carefully monitoring your thoughts, feelings, words, and behavior, both individually and in response to the others', and by critically evaluating all of that in a systematic manner, to make sure that you know to the best of your ability what the heck is going on with the person that you're 100% responsible for in this world - yourself. Then, and only then you can hope for playing the game of life decently because adopting this kind of responsibility reveals to you a meaning to which you are blind before. And life is nothing but suffering when there is no apparent meaning to justify the tragedies that always come along the way.

b) Then, there's the "normal" mode of being, where you mainly let yourself run on auto-pilot for the most part and wait to see what happens. It's like watching movies. Have you ever watched a movie just to watch a movie, to kill the time, as they hideously say? Is that experience equivalent to watching a movie that you're really into watching because of its content? Of course not. Well, it's a great analogy for living life at the back seat and let everything happen to you or be on the driver's seat and have a say. In this "normal" mode, you're absolutely clueless of what you really need, want, or say. You simply act impulsively, like another of the animals that lack consciousness, because you don't even spend the time and put the effort to utilize it and investigate the fundamental question of why the hell you need, want or say whatever you do. In this mode, everything seems random and arbitrary. And so you end up being like a human parody. You become a confused and upset caricature of a human being who only physically resembles it. And that's no fun. Not in the long run. Because instead of resisting the universal entropy you fuel it even further by contributing with your own energy which manifests itself through your impulsively destructive behavior. That's a contribution to chaos.

So pick up your poison carefully, because there's no easy choice here, but rather one that provides you with meaning as an antidote to suffering that enhances your unimaginable capacity to endure under tremendous difficulties and another that leaves you defenseless to all sorts of catastrophes that are sure to come in your life, sooner or later.