The Vanity of Earthly Life

Most people waste their lives.  They seek things they don't need, and squander their time.  The main thing in life is to be happy and useful.  You don't need extra wealth or lovers, because anything more than the bare minimum is excess.  You need food, shelter, clothing, the bare essentials, etc.. and that's it.  More money won't make you more happy.  Money can't buy happiness.

In love, you should try many women until you find the right one to settle down with.  Most people will not marry their childhood sweetheart and have one lover per life.  Most people are not that smart.  Dating has a purpose, to try people out for marriage.  It is not just to acquire lovers or to have lots of sex acts.  You can masturbate, or you can go to a massage therapist or stripper if you need a sex act so badly.

The most important thing to work on is zen.  If you meditate constantly, the moment of realization will come, and you will attain insight into the meaning of life.  Once you are enlightened, you are almost always happy, and this higher level of consciousness stays with you at all times.  You remain awake. 

Americans are ten times richer than any other nation of people, yet, they are not ten times better off.  We have a higher standard of living here, we make more money, spend more money, and live in safe neighborhoods.  But we work more hours, have to pay for school and medicine, live paycheck to paycheck, and eat lower quality food.  Food in Europe and Israel is much higher quality.

So most people are obsessed with lust, money, power, fame, and popularity, when they should be working on humility, gratitude, contentment, productivity, finding a passion, getting good at something, forming real connections with a handful of people, etc..  Their desires lead them astray in ultimately unfulfilling pursuits.

If you are over 30 and have a handful of friends, you are lucky.  I am over 40 now and I have more than 5 friends.  So I am lucky.  Accumulate people not possessions.  Relationships are worth more.  Material goods have no value, and money only has symbolic value not intrinsic value.

It seems that the human race is not improving, it is degenerating.  Life is easier because of technology like the internet, but it is not improving.  We are more isolated, less connected, have less talent of our own, less skill, and rely on machines to do everything for us.  So technology ruins everything.  It is good to not be an optimist nor a pessimist but a realist, and see the good and bad in any situation.  Life is not improving, it is just getting easier.  Learning how to do things for yourself is a blessing in disguise.  You learn by doing.

So the vanity of earthly life is that we waste so much time doing things that won't get us any real happiness.  We work at least 8 hours per day, we pursue sex, we use social media, we're on our computers and smartphones too much, we can't do anything ourselves because machines do it for us, etc...  The past 150 years in Europe and the USA, ever since the Industrial Revolution, has been a mistake.  It is better to be a humble man on a farm working from sun up to sun down and playing guitar by the moonlight than a guy who works in an office 12 hours per day so he can afford a place of his own to eat and sleep in.  We are overworked and underpaid.  Most men will have a 40 year career, and ultimately, what will they leave to posterity?  Everything that is born dies.  Only a human being can live such an extraordinary life that he is remembered by people far and wide after his body is gone.  Don't squander your life.  Work on health and spirituality, and between those two things, take 20 years to master a skill and leave a body of work behind.

I know in my life I mastered music and martial arts, and this makes me happy.  I am a master, and before I picked up a guitar or started shootfighting lessons, I attained zen, and this is ultimately what saved me.  So I am an enlightened musician and an enlightened budo master.  I am a meritorious man and I will be known as a legend when I move on.  I have done enough, and money is not the important part.  Satisfaction is.