“Was driving on the jobsite today and had to stop to take this picture on the path. Thinking of you, Emily, Jackson and all the people that we love. We never know what the trail brings us – but we have love and each other in our lives and we should enjoy the journey.”
This tremendous thought reminds us of what Emily has taught us:
“You realize that all along there was something tremendous within you, and you did not know it.”
The purpose of life is to be happy. The principal means of finding joy and happiness must be to ask the question: Who Am I?
As all of us desire to be happy always, without suffering, as in the case of everyone there is a deep love for ones self, and it must be that happiness alone is the cause for love, in order to gain that happiness which is one’s true nature then one can easily reason that one should know one’s self. One should seek to understand who one is in deep sleep and realize that many are God by night (in deep sleep) and the devil by day as one pursues worldly things and pleasures. Realizing that death is inevitable for a person who is caught up in worldly pleasures and attitudes, he or she should resolve to spend at least part of his day to devote himself to finding a solution to this most basic of existential dilemmas.
Who Am I?
If you do not pursue this practice of understanding “Who Am I?” and continue blindly living in the external world – you most certainly run the risk of asking yourself this dangerous question instead: Is it not better that I die right now than have a long life lived improperly, since, even if I remain here for a long time, the same pain of death awaits me?
The practice of meditation and forbearance in life will allow you to find true joy. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.
If humans are blissful by their own nature, why would anyone destroy their own life? Why would anyone be depressed? Nature does not destroy itself normally. It grows until it wears out. Only humans tend to shorten life on purpose. Almost all early collapses of life are entirely man made. Every day, the media reports of people taking every possible extreme step of attempts at trying to kill themselves early. Just walk into any public place and the range of physical and mental suffering you witness is almost all man made.
One could argue that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with destroying one’s physical form if it is not done in hate, anger or fear. Preparedness of the mind is the main issue. The important consideration here is not whether the body lives or dies, but whether the mind can remain at peace and harmony within itself. Destroying your body in any way from the various abuses available to you in the external and mental world should not be condemned per se: it is the state of mind which determines the rightness or wrongness of the situation. In this light, I have rarely seen a correct state of mind or rightness in the various obvious forms of suffering which are clearly brought about by oneself, including those situations that the one that suffers attempts to blame their situation on others and asks for any number of band aids to allow them to continue to suffer because of the underlying hate, anger or fear that has possessed their physical mind.
By committing any act that either slowly or quickly destroys you also destroys the possibility you have, in this life, of realizing the potential for transformation that you have within you. You must not succumb to an intense attacks of discouragement which, is really a weakness, a form of laziness. By saying to yourself, ‘What is the point of caring about myself?’ you deprive yourself of the inner transformation that is possible. To overcome an obstacle is to transform it into progress. People who have overcome a major trial in their lives often draw from it a teaching and powerful inspiration for themselves and others around them.
In conclusion:
For one who is seeing this life as a steppingstone for a larger possibility, there is no failure.
Every idea, thought, emotion or value that you have is picked up from somewhere and it rules you from within. This idea of success is not even your idea. It is somebody else’s idea of what success is. Your religion, your society and your culture have trained you to believe that this is it. Don’t become a slave to somebody’s idea; that is the first and foremost success. Success and failure are not in the volumes of money flowing into your life. Success and failure are not dependent upon the recognition that you find in the world. You are successful with life if you know how to walk with joy even through hell and to inquire within and no place else – Who Am I?
Sherman Dahl The Emily Dahl Foundation September 25 ,2021
