13. Are We Okay? Is Our World Okay? A Moment of Reflection
“When determination is coupled with decisiveness, happiness is complete.”
For your own happiness, reprogram your entire life from scratch.
Set aside all your daily, economic, political, and social concerns, and plan everything anew.
Put aside all your essential and urgent needs, and think differently:
In what kind of world are we living?
Abandon this confusion, this loss, and this mental noise, and think objectively:
Why are we searching for things in the wrong places?
Why are we hoping for things at the wrong time?
Why are you so preoccupied with matters you consider to be the ultimate necessity and the highest goal?
And why do you persist on paths that do not lead to the desired outcome?
Is it possible for you to walk against the general current?
Can you swim against the flow of the water?
Can you?
Please, just for a moment, reflect.
Please, just for a moment, pause.
Please, just for a moment, stop this cycle.
Please, even for a brief moment, rethink everything.
Please, even for a second, enjoy thinking about what is truly better for you and for us.
Take note:
Thinking is not the same as reflection or remembering.
Thinking is not the same as dreaming or imagining.
Thinking is not about being mentally preoccupied or distracted.
Thinking is not just about finding the best ways to make profit — even some intelligent animals can do that.
The thinking that is unique to humans is about seeking meaning beyond appearances, and searching for value beyond instinct and utility.
Thinking means finding the “thread’s end,” leaving aside all other distractions, following that thread to its end, then finding the next thread, weaving the threads into a fabric, and from that fabric creating the full garment that covers the entire truth.
So, let’s think rationally:
What kind of life are we seeking?
What kind of civilization do we want?
What kind of future do we hope for?
Do you know that the “Quality of Life Index” in Phoenician Lebanon is comparable to that of Somalia?
Do you know which ten countries have the highest consumption of psychiatric drugs?
Do you know that concepts now being discussed in Lebanon — like “safe drinking water” and “natural healthy food” — belong to a distant past?
Our reality is full of factors that force us to rethink everything, with reason and methodology.
Today, in our world, we rarely use our minds for true thinking!
We might use our minds to find links between complex matters, or to solve repetitive equations in science, or to analyze issues to reach our desires and whims,
but we do not use them for the kind of thinking that transcends the material world, surpasses mere pleasure, and penetrates beyond emotions —
because all these other levels also exist in non-human beings.
The mind is what leads us to the world of meaning.
The mind is what guides us to true happiness.
The mind is what reveals to us the ultimate mercy.
The mind is what leads us to eternal happiness.
I discovered that we always look for a cure for one disease, only to fall into another.
I discovered that we often cover up the faults of bad choices with worse ones.
I discovered that we seek to compensate for a hardship by falling into a greater hardship.
I discovered that our lives often follow the policy of “running forward to escape,” instead of reconsidering everything and thinking correctly and methodically.
When we were children, we said: “All our problems will be solved when we enter school.”
When we entered school, we said: “All our problems will be solved in high school.”
When in high school, we said: “All our problems will be solved when we start working.”
When we began working, we said: “All our problems will be solved when we get married.”
When we got married, we said: “All our problems will be solved when we fully enter society.”
But when we entered through those wide doors, society itself narrowed down on us.
And so on…
We are always seeking solutions by falling into bigger problems!
When we get sick, we look for medicine.
Then, to treat the side effects of the medicine, we look for another medicine.
Do you know that the boxes of medicine stacked next to the elderly are nothing but the accumulation of life’s complications,
and the result of one error piled upon another?
Reconsider everything.
Think again.
I don’t want to impose any opinion or belief on you.
But once you start thinking about these matters freely, and away from mere instincts, you will reach the desired conclusion.
Think again about what truly entertains and brings you joy.
Don’t settle for what you have now — recall every source of joy in your life, especially those that last.
Think about the different types of joy, happiness, satisfaction, comfort, and peace of mind:
learning, sports, friends, literature, poetry…
Think carefully about the pros and cons of each of these joys.
