Let's close our eyes.
There is a very provocative question that I want to start off today's sitting.
Whose life are you living?
If you take this question at face value,
Then the obvious answer is mine.
Mine.
But a question like this is an invitation.
Invitation to explore more than a question to be answered.
Once we have an answer to a question,
There is no question.
And a great question leaves you with no answer.
But grows deep inside.
And then the answer is revealed in a very serendipitous way.
Sometimes weeks,
Months or even years later.
So today's question is one such question.
Whose life are you living?
When I say life,
I mean your actions,
Your thoughts,
Your opinions.
The intention behind the actions.
Decisions.
Indecisions.
Inactions.
Behaviors.
What you eat.
How you dress.
How you look at things and other people.
How you listen.
How you listen with yours,
With ears and how you listen with your whole being.
Where you pay attention to.
How you pay attention to.
How you talk to others.
How you treat others.
Other people,
Things,
Plants,
Animals.
Are all included in how you treat them.
How you show up in your community.
How present are you in your family,
In your relationships,
In your friendships,
In your professional life.
And much,
Much more.
But you get the point of what I mean by life.
The question for you again is,
Whose life are you living?
You.
So we defined the word life.
Now let's move on to.
You.
Whose life are you living?
Your you means whatever I call myself as I.
We must be addressing ourselves thousands of times throughout the day.
I'm hungry.
I'm thirsty.
I'm sitting.
I have my eyes closed.
I have a meeting,
Etc,
Etc.
And this you needs to be present.
What I mean by this is probably one of the deeper explorations that we can at least embark upon here.
In order to say I am living my life.
I need to know what life is,
Or at least what is being meant in this question.
And I need to be present to say that I'm living my life.
But am I present?
Are you present?
While the life is being lived.
Given the breadth and depth of the definition of the word life,
This becomes,
And by this I mean are you present becomes a very potent question.
Being present means not being on autopilot.
Being on autopilot.
This is relying on muscle memory to do things.
Like driving from home to office and not remembering anything from the drive.
Being on autopilot means not being present when we are eating food or drinking coffee.
Or in a meeting.
Multitasking means you're neither here nor there fully.
And that's what we pride ourselves in.
Because somehow we think the action is more important.
Getting somewhere is more important.
But a question like this emphasizes living more than the destination.
The journey more than the destination.
It's like going to a music concert.
The goal is not for the concert to be over.
The goal is to navigate through all the intricacies of the music being played.
To be taken to places and to come back changed and transformed.
And like reading a book,
The goal is not to be done with the book but to become wiser from the book.
To have a conversation with the author.
But when the focus is on being done,
We forget living.
We forget the journey.
And truly,
Are you ever done?
Has there been any time in your life when you had no tasks on your plate?
There's always something to do.
So we've just touched the being present sub-question.
But as you go throughout your day and weeks to follow,
If you are drawn to this question organically,
Accept the invitation.
So whose life are you living?
When you decide something,
Is it your decision?
Or is it someone else's decision that you think is yours?
In order to know this,
We will have to find out why we decided what we decided.
And you cannot do it without not being present.
I'm sorry,
You cannot do it without being present.
Without taking into consideration the rational arguments,
The intuitive feelings,
What is being said,
What is not being said,
What is meant,
What is not being meant,
All those things.
It's like being supremely involved in living your life.
Involved,
Engaged,
Present,
Interested in your own life.
To have a richer experience of life.
To truly say,
I am living my life.
Then every facet of our life becomes worth living.
Excitement,
Celebration,
Sadness,
Disappointment,
Achievement,
Loss,
Things working out,
Things not working out.
There is so many more ways of slicing this cake of this question.
This is just one such attempt.
Let this question grow in your heart.
Whose life are you living?
Thank you.
