How to Live Life in its Totality?

Written by Naren on November 18, 2008

You have probably seen a dim electric bulb not shedding enough light around it. There are two reasons for this, one may be the bulb is old and needs to be changed, or second the bulb is not receiving enough electricity or voltage. Once the bulb receives the required voltage then it glows at its brightest. Don’t our lives also resemble the light bulb? Do we really make use of all our inner energy, so that our life shines in its full glory? But it is such a pity that most of us never utilize the maximum potential within us, and reap life’s joy to the utmost degree. Existence has bestowed us with endless opportunities to be blissful, yet, we suffer miserably in lives. Why?

Why cannot we live our lives in totality?
What is it that makes us swing in a pendulum of duality, and hinders us from achieving what we intend to seek in life?
Why do we live most of our lives in a state of confusion, contemplating on absolutely stupid desires?
Why cannot we live our lives as a whole?

These questions have tortured me for a long time, and finally I seem to have realized some important reasons behind it. Through this post I will try to answer many of the above questions and leave you with some suggestions on how to enjoy your life as a whole.

Here is a list of the reasons:

1. Not having a solid goal

Most people suffer in life by not knowing which direction to go. It is a puzzle that takes effort, struggle, and experience to solve. When I first came to the United States, I clearly knew what I wanted to study. I had a passion for movies, so I wanted to gain knowledge in that field. While in college, I encountered many other students whose major was undecided. Coming from a different perspective and a different part of the world I was totally surprised when I learned of my friends’ difficulty to choose a specific path for their future.

So the key thing to be understood is that we are troubled because first of all we don’t have any goals, and even if we have one, it is not a solid or a fully developed one. Or, we have too many aspirations. It is said that if you run after too many cats you will catch none. You have to be committed to one thing at a time; or else you will accomplish nothing. And, to be successful in any area of life including business, school, and politics or even in the world of spirituality, one needs to have a solid goal. A person who has no specific goal or ambition will never reach to his/her destination just like a letter without an address. Hence, you need to know where you are going; otherwise you will be running around the circle, making a loop, and will never reach to the center. Ultimately, this mindless running is going to wear you out and you will be crushed under the wheels of frustrations and despair.

So, how can you live your life in its totality when you don’t even know what you really want in life?

2. Half-hearted Efforts

If we never do things in whole, how can we expect to enjoy life in its totality? This is the biggest reason that leads humans into the dark corridors of frustrations and misery. Since childhood, we have developed a habit of employing fragmentary or partial efforts that lead us to nowhere. Instead of producing results our incomplete, half-hearted efforts drive us to failure. We create so many divisions in our mind that it has become impossible to focus on one area. Our mind keeps on drifting to a thousand thoughts even when we are engaged in an activity that we are passionate about. Let’s leave work alone as nobody really enjoys working, but even in sex our mind is occupied with worries and a hundred other different thoughts. We start something today, and then leave it half-way through; and we start another thing the next day. We never intend to finish off something that we have started. Why -- because we are afraid of commitment. People are afraid of falling in love as well. One the one hand, they love, on the other hand they are afraid to commit. How can you love someone when you are so scared? Such is the situation…

Hence, an incomplete effort is what I deem as one main reason why we cannot enjoy life totally.

3. Fear

Fear is the biggest impediment in our lives, and poses obstruction to any path we opt to take. It hinders our growth on all levels, personal, emotional, and spiritual. Fear does not actually have its own entity; it is simply a hoax created by our mind. Mind will do anything to keep us under its control. This is a game played by our ego upon us.

Throughout our lives, we live in fear -- fear of losing a job, house, power, fame, prestige, wealth, and fear of failures, death etc. We are always afraid to initiate something new. There always exists a fear of the unknown. We are afraid of life, death, love, society, everything that is perceivable. Unless and until we understand fear, we will always live in a panic stricken and dubious state.

4. Not Being in the Present

This is also one big reason why we are so confused in life. Either we are being haunted by our past or drawn by beautiful dreams of the future. So we never actually live in the present. How can we live our life totally, when we are completely absent? A child looks at his uncle, and wants to become like him; an old man wants his youth back again; nobody is in the present. This is giving rise to all the miseries, conflicts, and confusions in life.

What can be done? How to live life totally?

There are no hidden secrets. All you need to do is be a little conscious and courageous. Once you make an inquiry to yourself about your inability to live life in whole, it will be the beginning of your quest. This self-realization will eventually lead you to your ultimate goal.

However, I would still propose for you the following list besides being aware and courageous:

1. Utilize Your Energy

Yes, we have been blessed with a plethora of energy. So why not utilize the infinite source of energy that we posses within us and work towards our goal. It would be stupid to squander our vital energies on unnecessary things. Do not just scratch the surface, if you have started something, intend to complete it. Dig a little deeper, put some more effort, more passion, and more devotion. You could be standing an inches away from your goal, so don’t give up.

2. Stop Making Excuses

It is about time that you stop grumbling, criticizing, and complaining unnecessarily. Don’t make any excuses to cover up your inability. If you are passionate about something, go for it. Jump on it, don’t think too much. If you start thinking, then you will start creating excuses. Usually in Eastern societies, people make excuses by saying that the day is not auspicious, the horoscope is not right, the chakras are misaligned, the bad karma or misdeeds from past lives are causing all the mischief, fate and so on… These are all the signs of incompetent and lazy people. If you keep on debating like that you are bound to live your life in divisions, half and half. Don’t just grudge, accept what you have, and utilize it for better purposes.

3. Give Your Whole

Are you ready to give up all you have so that you can live your life in bliss? They say that meditation is when you are no longer. In meditation, your old self dies, and you will be resurrected as a new person. But again, are you willing to sacrifice yourself for this? It is up to you to decide. You cannot achieve anything in its whole, unless and until you are ready to stake all you have. I am not suggesting that you should go out and spend all your money and become an ascetic. I am simply hinting that whenever you do certain things, give it all you can. Because when your whole body, mind and soul are involved then your inner being will also be attuned with it, and then all you will experience a different kind of feeling, as if the whole existence is cooperating with you to make your life better. If you keep on creating division within yourself then it will give rise to many conflicts, then you will waste all your precious energies fighting those conflicts.

So be committed and make the jump. Do not make a half jump, if you have gathered enough courage to jump into something, then it should be a full jump.

With a half-hearted effort, confusion is bound to be created, and thus all our inner energy will be split into several directions. One should aim to direct all the energy into one dimension at a time. If you are reading a book, read a book, don’t let your mind wander around on other thoughts. If you are driving, focus on driving.

Conclusion

I hope the above points will be helpful to you in some way. Like I mentioned, to live life in its totality is our intrinsic right, but it is because of our own unawareness we have been living a very neurotic, half and half, and conflicting life. We have kept ourselves hanging on the edge and kept swinging like a pendulum, landing neither on this side or that. We don’t know what we are doing or where we are going. We are simply lost in a maze of desires and false grandeurs that we have dreamed of in life.

Even in love, we have created division. Today you love your beloved and are willing to sacrifice everything for him/her, the next day you wish he/she was dead. Your one half loves and the other half hates. Such a pitiful condition we live in…

The only remedy is to come to the realization that what we have been doing so far is not propelling the ship of our life ahead; we are just stuck in the middle of this “bhavasagar” or ocean of life. Our so called half and half mentality is causing more distractions and obstruction than we want.

When a shoe starts hurting your feet, we know that the best solution is get rid of the shoe or find a shoe that fits; similarly we should come to a deep understanding that it’s better to discard our old ideas, habits and beliefs, that have been hurting us more than helping. For this, an immense courage is needed. One more thing to meditate upon is that whenever we put our whole effort and our inner being into whatsoever we do, we will be helped by the existence in every possible way. If you understand this key then you will find the ultimate joy everywhere as your life will start blossoming in its totality and not in fragments.

Found this article interesting and useful? Spiritual Pub offers rich, intelligent, and conscious content on various aspects of life including spirituality, meditation, and consciousness on a weekly basis. Feel free to Subscribe via RSS

Also, if you would like to leave a comment, please contact us. We will be happy to publish the best comments that are relevant to the subject matter.