The Essence of Life

Humans tell each other stories and the more emotional a story is the better. We experience the world and want to share and tell others what, when, where, how, and with whom we felt one thing or another. Most human interaction essentially comes down to what we constantly sense within and around us.

On top of that, in most cases the actual quality of these experiences—what particular sensation or emotion one had in which specific situation—is not important. For the most part important is just having experiences, in whatever quality. After an experience has passed we like to remember it. No matter if joyful or painful, we crave to remember those past sensations and re-experience them through our memories.

When it comes to the pure experience of existence we’re all equal. We all feel pleasure and we all feel pain. We all see, hear, smell, taste, and feel the world. No matter our status, our conditions, our beliefs, our material wealth. We all experience life. The only differences between people are born of ideologies that stipulate that some (sensory) experiences are more desirable than others. These ideologies foster the development of likings, cravings, and addictions around which business, politics, and organized religion emerge, which are designed to exploit those very attachments they nurture.

It does not matter where you are in the social hierarchy. Whether you’re rich or poor, if you resist the present experience of life and instead try to fix it, you’re missing the point.

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
—Leto, Children of Dune

The truth of this realization lies at the core of our path to liberation. And it might save you from madness, just like me, when you’re contemplating for too long about meaning.

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