As we grow up from being children to adults, we develop in our heads a map of how things are. Through experience and observation this map keeps getting amended and refined. This is a map of spiritual, physical, psychological and emotional dimensions. It is a map of our reality or reality as we see it.
There comes a time when for many of us this map becomes carved in stone. In other words while life goes on, the journey towards truth comes to a halt. For most others, there comes a time when the distance covered in this journey decreases by the day.
How fast you travel and how focused you remain depends on whether you lose direction or how many distractions you allow on the way. The chances of losing direction are good if the map you follow is flawed.
If this was a race, people who lose direction are a little less handicapped then people who have a good map but allow themselves to be distracted along the way. The fable of the tortoise and the hare comes to mind although the tortoise never lost his way.
Each one of us should examine:
The quality of our maps.
Whether we are living life only ( passing time) or are embarked on a journey.
How distracted we allow ourselves to become.
The quality of our maps is determined by the clarity we are able to achieve about things.
Clarity is achieved only through getting out of our comfort zones. Undergoing rigor and hardship are not to be avoided but embraced because this is part of the process of the discipline of achieving clarity.
The best way to lose clarity is to serve the ego. Every year of serving the ego will muddy the waters, clog up the drains, block the filters more and more until a time is reached when all light is blocked out and our condition becomes one of an addict who cannot be cured.
When I talk about clarity, I am talking about
Clarity of Purpose
Clarity of Thought
Clarity of Vision
Clarity of Purpose « Clarity of Thought « Clarity of Vision.« Actions
^^^ vvv
Clarity of thought
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Clarity of Vision
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Actions
Does Clarity of purpose precede clarity of thought ? not necessarily because purpose and thought by themselves are inanimate. It is only through acts that purpose and vision are refined and clarified.
Khusro
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3 comments:
Sometimes people may have very clear maps, and may follow those maps very well, but, in the process, may lose out on experiencing life through spontaneity. For some, it is the distractions in life that allow them to live, and the maps that keep life mechanical.
Maps are dynamic and learn ( get updated)from experience gained through action.
It is where maps are not dynamic that we should be concerned. You are right about maps becoming mechanical and unchanging. Thanks for pointing it out.
Editor
i like the image you've chosen of a map. i think companies and organizations have done a great job of plotting out those maps for their employees; that's how most working men and women get so enthralled with the (rat)race of the corporate world. if only we could draw the maps of our lives just as well.
everyday, i find more reasons to love fiction and stories. some think they are a means of escape, but i think they're just a better tool to develop empathy, and to analyze the flaws in characters that one cannot see in themselves. Read and Reflect. Applies even more to the Quran.
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