Why thoughtful reflection is a good thing!

We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I stumbled upon this quote by Seneca this morning while I quietly sipped my tea. Since the past few days, I have been asking questions like "Why do people find it hard to reflect? Do they even realize the implications of any actions they take or is it just mere thoughtless and mundane living for them? Am I wired different or does everyone think like me? Or do I think a lot anyway?" 

I do not have the any definitive answers to my questions but I have seen a couple of people who come close to answering them with the way they choose to lead their lives. People who are really unperturbed by what is happening around them. They just do not care about what this world thinks of them or what status they hold in this society or even things like how successful they ought to be vis. a vis. where they stand today. And then there are people who give, whose causes become more than their self interests and go beyond their needs. In my experience such people are very few and the reason behind it is because they reflect upon life everyday. They have values that are stronger than their words and the temptations of this world, they have the courage which douses the mockery this world might make of them for who they are; until the world accepts them and they have a conscience that is so clear that things like fear, embarrassment or uncertainty cannot make them fear it rather it gives them the confidence that they can handle it!

Because we have a brain, and because we are more developed, I strongly believe that it is necessary to have philosophical and spiritual influences in our lives. After all we cannot deny that we are social animals and that it is but natural that we work in collaboration with others than as mere individuals. I am not talking about collaboration that is destructive, where too many minds spoil the soup and where everyone believes that their idea is the best. I am talking about constructive collaboration, where the best ideas are implemented, in order to further the growth of the humanity as a whole. But then that requires thinking beyond oneself and thinking for a bigger purpose. Which calls for the spiritual way of thinking than the mere survival and existence some people do. I am not saying you become poor and that striving hard for success is bad! To the contrary, that same wealth and success should in a way benefit and enable others around us to to do better. 

Because we have our thinking faculties, we can reflect and we must reflect and think where have we made mistakes and where could we improvise? Could we trip switch our brains in such a manner that next time we are about to do something delinquent, we stop? Can we develop that will power? Can we drop that bad habit? Why not? Reflection if ignored, leads one to live with one's fallacies and not that you will regretfully die someday because of it; but why waste that chance to become better when you can do it one day at a time than happily live with those bad habits?

It is this thoughtful reflection that can make change seem easy and adapting to situations natural. It can bring out the best that can come out of you as a person, as a human and as a contributor to this world, it doesn't matter if its not on a huge scale! It's not a communist idea but it is a more progressive and humane way to evolve. Just like someone as thoughtful as Abraham Lincoln passed the 13th amendment being a white or just someone as thoughtful like Nelson Mandela fought for his freedom or Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for the freedom of his people, or just like Gandhi did for our freedom, so can we. Maybe the sacrifices required of us stop us, but we still can do it on a small scale. What stops us from doing that for our immediate family/community or neighborhood? Its not about guts, its not even about those small sacrifices, it is just about that reflective thinking and taking decisive steps and realizing that you are not a nobody but someone who is capable of having an impact.

We haven't become the Homo Sapiens we label ourselves to be, because we still battle with emotions that are pertinent in our lesser developed primates. So to speak, we can reduce these feelings, but not many of us would do ourselves that great favor. I have met many people in my life and I have seen the inner conflict they go through, to look like they belong to some place else but yet not truly feeling it. The only way they can prove it in their minds is to show that they are different. And in the process they look so hilariously fake! To forget what their roots are and to act like all that past they had just got wiped off is quite ironically hilarious for me to see. Its the same with those who become rich from being poor, a star, successful or whatever makes them feel the sense of achievement, superiority or authority.  It is not their success that makes them who they are but rather their ego which balloons up to a big extent. "I am someone" rather than the "Wow! I got here and I am so so grateful for that." 

Of course there is nothing wrong with such empty living! But living with a conscience and self reflection brings out that character, which is so positive and life changing that one ought to try it. It is not for thrills that Tesla was a reflective man, nor was it for pure recognition that Mother Teresa decided to feed the poor and homeless in an underdeveloped country like India. It comes from a strong character, from a point where you have grown beyond your needs and your self that you see value in doing things for the pure joy of doing them. For what you believe in and not for what others might think of it. For the pure joy of achieving excellence and not for the money. That is what any genius is, whether it is scientific, literary or spiritual etc. 

These people do not ask themselves whether they are richer, have better luxury or are important. To them things like have they lived their purpose, now that they have lived it what next? and how can they make it better is what matters the most and keeps them ticking. Competition seems unnecessary to them and failure seems temporary and so does success and fame.  It is such people who remain grounded. Who do not get carried away either by their failures or success. They make money and fame in the process of doing what they do best, not because those are their end goals. It is a very purposeful living and a higher level of living than what most people around might think of living. 

And we all can say come on! They are gifted, they are talented or they have the time. Answer is a plain simple NO! They are determined and they do it regardless of what their circumstances are today is or what they will be like tomorrow. And we all can do it to some extent. We all can reflect upon ourselves and get closer to our purpose in life. We all can have a meaningful life, provided we first realize the importance of such a living. There is always a time and place for things to happen, some of us realize this early and yet some of us realize it quite later. And believe me some of us will never even get there. But to try is something that we do not have to pay for. If someone like Socrates can marry Xanthippe and live with her saying "one must test one's philosophies on the most spirited animal around", I think ours is a better off condition than his :) 

Let us try and make an effort not to be mean but be meaningful in what we do! And I would like you to watch to this video that I stumbled upon today, hilarious but a very meaningful way to show people what thoughtful reflection can really do!