Various muses, thoughts, and writings by Sastraswara.

On Not Knowing One's Path in Life

Like a child playing on the beach 
in front of the grand ocean 
struck by its vastness: 
so many are the sands of possibilities.

A friend told me that she felt losing her purpose in life. She is, despite her decent job and the luxury she can afford because of it, quite unhappy about her life. It is for me crucial that she mentioned the word “purpose.” It signifies a deep existential problem. She felt unconnected to her current job, lost interest in her significant other, and no matter how much leisure she would pursue, she was never satisfied. This hole in her heart creates a mud that drowns her, and she feels like a dead body that functions simply out of reflex. She felt numb to her life.

She said to me that she does not know what would be her path. I told her that I also do not know what is mine. At first, she thought that I am making a joke. After I repeated what I said with the same conviction, she trusted me. Then, she continued, should we live like this, without a purpose and a sense of direction? Not to give her a misleading answer, I paused a moment before saying: yes and no. What follows was an extension of my discussion with her.

The Will to Meaning

Given that my dear friend mentioned that her life seems to bear no meaning, my thought arrives on the logotherapy of Viktor Frankl. I have neither formal training in psychology nor psychiatry, and therefore, my understanding is of that of a layperson. However, after reading his well-known work, A Man's Search for Meaning (Frankl, 2004), I find it describing my friend's trouble well. Moreover, I see similarities with the teaching I find in the Javanese philosophy and Buddhism, two ethical sources with which I am relatively familiar. Therefore, for the sake of my dear friend, I try to explain these concepts in logotherapy, which I consider giving us a good start in our discussion. The second part of the mentioned book explains all of the essential concepts, from which I take the following explanations.

In Frankl's logotherapy, a man's will for meaning is the primary motivational force in life. He contrasted this motivational force with those of the will for power¹ or the will for pleasure². When this will to meaning is frustrated, this is an “existential frustration,” which logotherapy views as the source of not only man's discontent but also the pathology of their psyche.

As far as I understand it, this meaning Frankl talked about is not the meaning of life with a capital “M,” which I think falls into the realm of philosophy or religion. He spoke rather about the meaning of life with a small “m”: the meaning of life which one finds at the moment of one's life, right here, right now, connected with the reality of that person's life.

According to logotherapy, one will find meaning in three different ways: (1) by creating or doing meaningful work; (2) by experiencing something or meeting someone; and (3) by the attitude one takes toward unavoidable suffering. Frankl himself, as far as I know from his autobiography, found his meaning of life in the deep of the concentration camp. After losing all of his family, including his beloved wife, and suffer unbearable pain both physically and psychologically, he found his meaning of life, which becomes his internal source to survive the horror of the concentration camp. As a scientist, he decided to observe life inside the concentration camp, and this hope to finally writing it down and publishing it in the future keeps him alive.

Frankl's life, as an example, might seem grandeur. However, the first two ways of finding meaning might be a simple thing. The Japanese word ikigai describes the pleasures and meanings of life: consisting of the word “iki” (to live) and “gai” (reason). Ken Mogi (2017) explained that this word does not always signify something big. It can be as simple as, for example, to wake up in the morning to see a precious grandchild. In my opinion, “the reason to wake up in the morning” resonates well with the spirit of our age, because I have the impression that most of the people experience life's fatigue that makes them feel hard to “wake up in the morning.” For some people, probably they don't have any reason at all. Does it make sense to wake up in the morning, repeating all of these routines, getting shouted at, and punched down in the hardness of day to day life?

That one sees no reason (and therefore, no meaning) in one's daily suffering is the sign of the existential frustration about which Frankl was talking. One heals this frustration by finding the meaning of one's life: the meaning of one's existence at that current moment, at that current place, with whatever situation that one currently faces. The question we can ask ourselves is then, “With all the resources available to me, in the place I currently am, and all the circumstances I am currently facing, what is it that I may do, to fulfill an existential meaning, which can only be fulfilled by me alone?”

The Path

In the novel Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (2014), the main character finds her ikigai in cooking. After the death of her grandmother, Mikage has no family left. Feeling alone and depressed, she was surprised by a rather strange offer by one acquaintance of her late grandmother: to move in with him and his mother as a flatmate. Yūichi and Eriko Tanabe are no ordinary family. Despite looked like a beautiful mother, Eriko was, in fact, a man. She managed a transgender bar at night and turned out to be a sagacious person. Yūichi is a carefree student who often amuses Mikage in various ways. Mikage developed her purpose to be a cook, during her memorable stay on the sofa bed of the family. She comes into the realization that the place wherein she feels comfortable the most is, after all, the kitchen.

The kitchen in my dreams. How many would they be? In my imagination and reality. During travels, while I am alone, in the middle of many people, together with someone. Everywhere where my life takes place. And I am sure: there will be many of them (Yoshimoto, 2014, p. 68).³

The unexpected death of her grandmother, the meeting with the unusual Tanabe, her feat of cooking for the family, as well as her chosen path of doing a vocational study in the field: although this path of existential meaning made sense for us - the reader - it does not necessarily so for Mikage herself. If I imagine myself in Mikage's life, things seem to happen rather unexpectedly, with one event leads somehow to the other. My choice was made in moment to moment, limited only by the circumstances which arise at that particular point in life. The path was not visible, although, by some strange coincidence, we took our step down its direction. Life made sense when it is viewed from a bird's view, or in retrospects. However, this requires one has either an omniscient ability or to arrive at the end of life, and looking back to finally grasp the ultimate meaning of our life⁴. Instead of this ultimate meaning, we can look for a smaller moment-to-moment-meaning to our life.

Mikage tried to make sense out of her life. One of the themes that, to me, so apparent was her struggle to find the meaning of her loneliness.

Why human is left with so little choices? Even when one is enslaved to labor like a cattle, one still cook one's meal, eats, sleeps. The person that one loves would pass away. One after another. And even so, one must continue to live. (Yoshimoto, 2014, p. 129)

To continue to live in the face of meaninglessness of life: this is what Mikage faced. To her suffering, I can relate, for this is true for anyone in one point or another in life. To Mikage, it is through living with the Tanabe and doing her work as a novice cook that she began to be able to make sense out of her life. The gesture of Mikage, feeding the person she loves, transmits a warm feeling: that a path has been chosen and being stepped upon. It is because we keep losing the people we love the most that we should cherish them while we can. It can be as simple as bringing a katsudon to a hungry person who occupies our hearts.

A path is a curious symbol, for it signifies a journey. An interesting discussion about a path or about a journey took place only when such a path is already taken, or when such a journey has been walked. Why do I think that it is so? Because from a path, a journey: we took benefit from the experiences it gives us. Our contemporary life made it possible to travel somewhere else without leaving the comfort of our room. Virtual experiences invade our living room, giving the impression that it is not necessary anymore that one leaves one's home for a trip to a distant land. We can then tell our neighbors about what we know about it. However, this is - we shall remind ourselves - only a virtual experience. A plastic flower, no matter how beautiful it is, is not an adequate substitute for the real ones. The real flowers wither quickly, but its beauty, smell, and touch stay with us eternally in our memory. The path is to be walked; the journey is to be taken. Only then we can have an interesting discussion with our neighbors. Is it not that from such discussion, we are not only looking for information and facts, but also all of those subjective experiences and wisdom that come from undertaking the journey?

The search for one's path is then not a passive one. One has to make the first step out of one's home. If there are a thousand souls in this world, there will be a thousand paths. To reach it, to know that it is mine and not someone else's, we have to walk on it. The web of a thousand paths would lead to one single path: a path that is our own.

Sasmita

Coincidence is what we call an unforeseen event that takes place. Very often, it defies our common understanding of phenomena, simply because its probability of taking place is minimal. However, life is full of such events. If one expects that a life's path is straight and easy to find, one's experience in the day to day life soon proves that it is not the case. The path is complicated, and one step leads to the other sometimes in a nonlinear fashion. There are coincidences, unexpected meetings, unforeseeable fortunes, and misfortunes. However, all of these are necessary. These are the landscapes and sceneries which we encounter by walking such a path. Our moment to moment decisions is the step that we take: a conscious effort. Are there then a guide for us in this vast web of possibilities? So complicated that we feel lost from time to time?

In the performance of Gamelan music, the musician should be able to hear the sasmita (English: sign). What piece is going to be performed? Listen to the opening, which is given by the Bonang instrument. Whether we are changing the tempo of the piece or going to a different level of rhythmic density? Listen to Kendhang. Are we moving to a particular section of the music? Listen to the Rebab, the Gender, and the Bonang. There are signs for everything, and the able musician act according to the signs. To be ready for the sign, to perform what is required given the sign, to realize the music in every musical situation possible: in my opinion, these are true both in the performance of Karawitan and also in life.

These signs are so subtle that a lay listener would not be able to recognize it. It requires practice so that one is not only able to listen to one's instrument, but also at the same time able to listen to the other instruments, and the sign they might give us. To do this, we need to be mindful and concentrated: two things which are - to my opinion - challenging to be achieved in our distracting modern life.

However, the signs are everywhere, and to a certain degree, we obey the sign regardless of us being conscious about it. Are we not waking up in the morning and feeling sleepy at night? Aren't we live according to a cycle that is in tune with the nature surrounding us? What is it that the universe is trying to teach us through its changing cycle of day and night? Through the changing of seasons through its warmth and cold days? Our watch is so precise nowadays that we forget how to tell the time of the day by observing the position of the sun.

Is it the start of a new day? Look for that silver thread on the horizon in the edge of the darkness which the night has left. That silver thread is a small ray of hope that a new day will come, and the darkest of the night has come to an end. Is it the middle of the day? Look at the length and the shape of the shadows of things, whether the sun is on top of our head, whether its ray is the warmest, given that the sun shines upon us at all? Also, the dusk with its beautiful pink-colored sky? Which slowly turns into dark violet before the night closes its dark curtain upon us once again? Are we observing all of these signs the universe has been giving us since the beginning of time?

Look at the nighttime sky and observe the moon! See how it changes its shape from time to time, teaching our ancestors from thousands of thousand years ago the wisdom that we take for granted these days and ages. The position of the stars, the shape of the moon: are they not the signs which have been used by the great unnamed navigators who explored our earth in the time long forgotten?

It is said in one verse of the Quran that “there truly are signs in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, for those with understanding.” (Quran 3: 190, trans. Haleem, Oxford University Press) The sign is clear for those with understanding: those well-trained musicians in the art of Karawitan. Are we then well-trained enough to be able to read the sign? Our daily life is like a forest with millions of trees of information and events. A layperson would lose in such a forest, but not a ranger with proper training.
One of the ways to practice is then to practice our mindfulness, to sharpen our perceptive ability. Not only to be mindful of our inner self but also to our surroundings: people and environments. What kind of signs which all of these elements of life are trying to give us?

Look not only outside but also inside, for there is a universe inside each of us. We shall practice our lost ability to listen to our own hearts. The sound of our heart is so subtle and tend to be inaudible if we dwell too much on the loud and busy daily life. Seek the silence of the forest, the emptiness of the last third of the night. Look into the mirror, into our own honest eyes: what is it that it tries to tell us? Not in a hurried tempo of our mechanical civilization, but the joy of the slowness of nature. Nature is neither too soon nor too late. Everything in nature happens at the right time. The path is to be walked from where we find ourselves and requires not that we travel to a faraway land. If the path does taking us away, then trust it fully where it brings us. Life changes from moment to moment, and everything is transitory. Every answer is relative until we arrive at the end of the journey.

The late good emperor said, “No man will hinder thee from living according to the reason of thy own nature: nothing will happen to thee contrary to the reason of the universal nature.” (Antoninus, trans. 1889, Book VI: 58) Let us then seek the true nature of our own and that of the universe we live in.

The Hero's Trial

What is it then “our nature”? Perhaps it is best to ask ourselves in that matter.

To those hands that we have, we might ask:

O dearest pair of hands, 
what kind of labor can I undertake 
by borrowing your strength? 
What kind of service can I offer 
to the goodness of humanity 
with the precision movement of your fingers?

To those feet that we have, we might ask:

O dearest pair of feet, 
what kind of road can I walk on 
by borrowing your tenacities? 
What kind of endeavor can I step into 
so that I may walk the path of the virtuous 
with the wise balance of your steps?

There is a reason why we are born the way we are, and this reason is for us to interpret. Life presents challenges as if it is a game with increasing difficulties. One is continually being tested upon, and it is easy to feel lost.

If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by thyself, do not think that it is impossible for man: but if anything is possible for man and conformable to his nature, think that this can be attained by thyself too. (Antoninus, trans. 1889, Book VI: 19)

We are not alone in this kind of a journey, and we are not the first to take such a road. Has not our ancestors taken such a journey far earlier than us? Look at our legends and myths, to our proverbs and sayings: what is it that the spirit of old ages is trying to tell us?

Our myths try to teach us something. Campbell (2018) takes one of the functions of a myth as to carry the individual psychologically through stages of life from birth to death (p. 9). Relating this to the man's will to meaning discussed before, it is this assistance during these different stages of life that would help us to navigate through the complexity of life. A map helps us to reach our destination, but we still have to navigate through the landscapes. However, we are not alone and should not be alone. If there is something to be grateful for that we live in this era, is that this knowledge is accessible to us in a finger click. They are there, waiting to be found, like an old friend we have not been in contact for some time. Go and contact them, and tell them our concern, and they shall comfort us with their stories.

In every myth, every great literature and works of art, we recognize ourselves in the position of the heroes. Their trials are our trials; their wounds are our wounds. It is easy to sympathize with them, for we are living exactly the symbols which they represent. We have to be able to read these symbols.
In the story of Dewaruci⁵, the warrior Bima lost his sense of purpose after realizing that his journey was for nothing. He embarked on a long and dangerous journey out of the belief that there is magical water that purifies oneself, bestowing ultimate knowledge. This type of elixir would help him when the great war of the Bharata⁶ comes, he thought. However, after all of those deadly fights against severe storms, giants, and mighty dragon? He only found himself floating on the vast sea, wounded, tired, while the magical water was still nowhere to be found.

Are not we all Bima at one point in life? To feel lost and floating on a vast ocean. What we would like to attain in life is still nowhere to be found. What we have instead are battle scars, unhealed wounds, and disappointment after disappointment. It is, however, precisely in this lowest point, after surviving the “trial of the hero” - as Joseph Campbell would call it - that the god Dewaruci would reveal himself. What is it, however, the price at the end of such a journey when we finally reached it?

There was no magical water, but something better came: the all-knowing teacher. The god Dewaruci revealed himself as a miniature deity. He invited Bima, the warrior, to enter his ear. The warrior, who has a big body, laughed and told the tiny god that this is impossible, given the significant difference in their size. However, the invitation of the god turned into a challenge. “Can you then, leap into this ear, despite the impossibility of its appearance? Would you even dare to do it?”

A pride warrior as himself, Bima leaped into the ear of the god Dewaruci. What did he found inside the ear? To his astonishment: a universe! It is a universe that is so big that even the great warrior Bima felt small and meaningless. In the middle of this feeling, Bima submits his defeat to Dewaruci with the whole of his heart. Dewaruci then rewarded Bima with something better than an ultimate elixir, or even a destructive weapon: he obtained the knowledge on the nature of life. It is with this wisdom that the hero survived the danger that life bestows upon him, and made him able to regain his motivation to fulfill his duty. In Campbell's terminology, this is the apotheosis: the realization of the hero on his or her full scope of self (Campbell, 2018, p. 118).

Is it then ended in a “live happily ever after”? The real power of such a myth is that the hero does not stop there. The knowledge is obtained, but is it then over? The hero then must return to normal life (Campbell, 2018, p.113). Bima's reality, his “normal life,” is as a son from the family of Pandawa of the warrior caste, who had to endure the tension of a throne dispute, whose fate is to go into the great war of the Bharata, to rule a kingdom, and watches over its people. No matter how big the feat of attaining the true wisdom from Dewaruci, it renders to nothing shall it is not useful in his day to day reality.
Nowadays, we know so much information than our predecessor but are unable to obtain any wisdom out of it. We move so fast from one point to the other, but never really arrive at our destination. Such a paradoxical life we have! A peaceful heart is the one without contradiction. No wonder we find it hard to be in harmony with ourselves. Should we keep fighting our way brutally, while dragging our dying body through the battlefield without a hope of winning it?

Sumarah

A fellow musician once asked me, what would be the best way to translate the Javanese word Sumarah. The occasion was during a performance of a Gamelan piece, which has that word in the title. In the concert program we had, it was written that Sumarah “[is] in the musical context […] somewhat translated as: 'We have given our best, but it does not lie in our hands, how [the music] will turn out.'“⁷

My personal preference for the translation of that word is “submission,” although it is a special kind of submissiveness. The explanation of my friend in our concert program describes this well. One does those things which are within one's power, to the best of one's ability, and to accept what the universe would bring to oneself. What will come is beyond one's control, is beyond one's ability to predict. The act is done. In such a situation, a person submits to the will of the universe, knowing fully that the universe - or any higher existence in one's belief - is at work. In the case of our music performance, it might be an excellent performance, or it might be a bad one. Even after well-prepared rehearsals, there are always things that are beyond prediction.

Practicing sumarah means to practice submission to this higher existence. In Buddhism, one often tries to be mindful of their karma⁸ and all the consequences it may bring. I am unfortunately but a lay follower of the teaching and not a monk. However, we will use this only as a useful model in our discussion to analyze the problem. For if life is viewed like this, life's complexity seems to be reduced: that one's karma defines the result one might receive. To be able to reach that consciousness, so we say to ourselves that “I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or evil, to that will I fall heir […].” So it is according to Upajjhatthana Sutta (trans. Thanissaro).

To do the best in every situation seems like the most trivial thing to do. We find every good advice would tell us the same. However, being mindful of our actions with the contemplation of karmic relationships, to my experience and opinion, brings a different view to our action. A karmic relationship is a complex relationship, and its causalities do not show itself directly to oneself. Contemplating too much on it may drive one to the madness according to Acintita Sutta (trans. Thanissaro). However, we may start with those elements in the model which are easier to grasp and closer to our daily life. Good action leads to good consequences (Kukkuravatika Sutta, trans. Thanissaro), and there are consequences that are realized in either at the current moment or later in this⁹ life (Nibbedhika Sutta, trans. Thanissaro).

The Kukkuravatika Sutta explains that there exists karma with a mixed intention, which results in mixed consequences: both the good and the bad. Taking our story of concert preparation - to my understanding - by the law of karmic causalities, a good concert preparation results in a good performance. However, this is not the only causality which is taken into account. The bad words we used during a frustrating moment in the preparation might hurt a colleague, and in return, affect the colleague's performance. We probably were too much focused on the performance, and neglected our other responsibility so that it came hunting us in the crucial moment of performance. Alternatively, even more unrelated: in the past, we did something bad, and that “bad thing” came back in the form of a very critical and unsupportive audience, who kept making noises during the performance, disturbing our performance. The consequences of our karma are beyond our control. Only the action is within our control, and we can only submit ourselves to the results; to accept it as it is.

One might then find this idea similar to those which the Stoics taught us. That there are things which are within our power, and there are things which are not (Epictetus, trans. 1890, Enchiridion, Ch. 1). To those things which are within our power, let us do our best to ensure that we used all of our ability. To those things which are not within our power? Let us return them to the universe in gratefulness and thankfulness. As Epictetus said it:

We must make the best use that we can of the things which are in our power, and use the rest according to their nature. What is their nature then? As God may please (Epictetus, trans. 1890, Discourses, Book 1).

As God (or the universe) may please: this is the way of sumarah. It is not to give up living, but rather, acceptance of living after one's struggle. An undisturbed sleep at night is obtained only after the day is filled with meaningful labor. I believe we all have experienced such sleep on one occasion or more.

The Step

If we do not know the path, which is our life's path, then everything is in the right place. Because this realization is the first sign that the path has shown itself before us. There exist a modern-day slogan which sounds wise, but to me personally might present a misunderstanding. We hear nowadays words such as “you only live once” or “seize the day”.¹⁰

Even more: the call to find one's passion, or to find oneself. These are, of course, contain truths in itself, and they echo exactly the eternal wisdom which comes without regard to cultural or regional differences. However, this unleashes an even more restless generation, who thinks that the “real life” is “out there.” It is a call for consumerism. It makes it easy to continually lose the sense of limit, and to always fighting against something for the sake of “against something.” This kind of restlessness is, to me, contrary to the path of life we are seeking. What we want is a meaningful life.

Our discussion starts with the realization that we are unable to determine our life's path. In my opinion, this is beyond our control. I am at the moment as clueless as you are. The question, as followed by this writing, is a hard one. It is not only a matter of choosing one's vocation, or whether one follows “one's passion” or not. It is about our relationship with our existence, both with ourselves and with the universe. Such a question requires a lifetime to answer.
Where does the path start? It is here, right here and right now. We do not have to look outside or far away. The path shows itself when we have a clear mind and heart. Like a pond which shows the bottom clearly when the surface is calm, and so also our ability to see the path is at its best when we regain our inner composure.

Look clearly at our surroundings! What is it that the universe is trying to teach us, by making us meet those people we meet in our life? Why them and not the other? What virtue can I learn from them, what vice can I recognize from them? What is it that the universe is trying to teach us by making such events in our life took place? What kind of person have we have become by deriving interpretation of all of those events in our life? Moreover, the vocation we practice, the work that we have done, what are the meanings of all of them? Are they meaningless like how we condemn them to be or is it merely part of a hero's trial that we have yet to understand?

Another friend told me, that he lives by simply piercing through all of the work and problems. He does this in the face of his very busy life. “It is a luxury even to have the time to fret upon this or that,” he said. Knowing him for years and how a serious person that he is, this thing he said is neither a sign of ignorance nor recklessness. Instead, it is a spiritual practice whose name unknown to him: the karma yoga.¹¹ The god Krishna supposedly taught it to the warrior Arjuna of the Pandawa family during the beginning of the great Bharata war.¹²

The teaching can be summarized as: know your duty, do it, and expect nothing but this deed of doing good work. Of course, this does not mean that one should let go of the need to make a living. It is instead a call to transform our daily business into a spiritual practice, which does not separate the spiritual aspect from its materialistic reality. Those long hours at the office is a heroic feat, tending to the kids are holy, and patiently listening to the spouse after such a long day is a sacred duty: what a mythical way to live!

Like Arjuna in the field of Kuru, ready to face the great Bharata war, we shall be patient and do our duty with gratefulness: to learn our nature, to understand the signs of the universe, and to perfect our craft or vocation to the utmost perfection. For to live is a gift, and this gift of life is short. Death is always lurking nearby, nearer than even the most beloved lover.

A human's life 
lasts only a breath long. 
The rain falls from heaven above 
to the great ocean I shall return.

I wish that we find the true path in our life, and to be granted the bravery and patience it requires to endure its trials.

Notes

  1. This he attributes to Adlerian psychology, in which the motivation of a man is to obtain power, such as position, money, etc.

  2. This he attributes to Freudian psychology, in which the motivation of a man is related to man's will to satisfy pleasure, often the very based one, i.e., sex, food, etc.

  3. This is my translation in English since I read Kitchen in German. All subsequent quotes in English are also mine.

  4. Frankl explains a similar idea in his book using a movie as a metaphor. The movie, made out of various scenes and clips, would only make sense to the audience when they view it to the end as a whole. The ultimate meaning of life is possible only when one reaches the end of life, as to how one understands a movie after watching it until the end.

  5. I tell this story here based on my memory, as I remember it from various sources, i.e., Wayang performances, discussion with my father, or books, which I cannot recall and retrieve for they are left in my private library in Bandung, Indonesia. It may contain differences with other sources. This version might be close to the one which is told by the late poet of the Surakarta palace, the late Raden Ngabehi Yasadipura.

  6. Javanese: Bharatayudha. The story is famous under its original title Mahabharata. For an enjoyable read of the Bharatayudha epic in general, in a summarized prose form that contains this episode of meeting Dewaruci, I can recommend the one by Nyoman S. Pendit (2003). Unfortunately, I do not have any specific recommendations for the English and German translations at the moment for two reasons. First, I do not have the opportunity to read any. Second, most translations use the “original” Mahabharata, i.e., the Indian one, and not the “adapted” version, i.e., the Javanese or the Balinese one.

  7. From the concert program ÜberLeben, Gamelan Ensemble Arum Sih und Freunde, Übersee Museum Bremen, May 25th, 2019. The original text is in German, and here I translated it into English.

  8. The word means action, and it includes both physical activities as well as mental or spiritual ones.

  9. Buddhist believe in reincarnation and a life after the current one. Therefore, there are consequences of karma, which is realized in later life and not this one (Nibbedhika Sutta, trans. Thanissaro).

  10. It is a known translation from a part of Horace's Ode carpe diem. The sentence reads: dum loquimur, fugerit invida aetas: carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. It translates into: In the moment of our talking, envious time has ebb'd away. Seize the present; trust tomorrow e'en as little as you may (Horace, trans. 1882, Book 1, Poem 11).

  11. My interpretation of the word: “a path to enlightenment through one's work.” From the word karma, here I interpret as work, and yoga, which can mean meditation, in the sense of “spiritual practice.” The meaning I learned from von Glasenapp (2008).

  12. The story and the exposition of the teaching are beautifully written in the epic poem Bhagavadgita, an episode of the Mahabharata, for example, in one edition from von Glasenapp (2008).

Bibliography

Acintita Sutta: Unconjecturable (AN 4.77) (B. Thanissaro, Trans.). (2013, November 30). Access to Insight. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.077.than.html

Antoninus, M. A. (1889). The Thoughts of The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (G. Long, Trans.). Little, Brown, and Company.

Campbell, J. (2018). Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and personal transformation (D. Kudler, Ed.). Yogi Impressions.

Epictetus. (1890). The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Enchiridion and Fragments (G. Long, Trans.). George Bell and Sons. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0236:text=disc:book=1:chapter=1&highlight=nature

Frankl, V. E. (2004). Man's search for meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust. Rider.

Horace. (1882). The Odes and Camen Saeculare of Horace (J. Conington, Trans.). George Bell and Sons. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0025:book=1:poem=11

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Berlin—Stockholm, 27 July 2019
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