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Living Life To The Fullest…

RD1

Writer
SPNer
Sep 25, 2016
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153
My manager at work sent us an email, and it struck me for some reason and got me thinking. In the email she included saying that she was going to go skydiving, and she encouraged us to ‘live life to the fullest,’ and just do whatever it is that we enjoy and want to do – whether it is skydiving, reading, or whatever. I certainly admire this sentiment. Life is short, and we waste too much time on things that do not really matter, or that we do not really enjoy.

However, as much as I agree with the sentiment of ‘live life to the fullest,” and enjoy your life, I also feel that in some ways, this is contradictory to Sikhi. As a Sikh, I feel we are not really encouraged to enjoy life, per se. Instead, we have obligations. Obligations to better our community, obligations to stand up against injustice, obligations to better the lives of others, to remember and meditate on God, and to not really put ourselves first. It is hard to simply enjoy life when you can clearly see how miserable the state of the world is, how much Sikhi is needed today, and knowing that as a Sikh you aren’t supposed to just ignore the chaos and destruction that is happening. Then again, its not like I am doing much to better the world anyway…

Perhaps I just do not know how to live life to the fullest. Perhaps I just contemplate things too much rather than actively doing things – whether its improving the world or enjoying myself. Perhaps I do not know how to find balance. Or perhaps I am really not interpreting Sikhi correctly.

Anyone else ever feel like this? Any thoughts?
 
Oct 15, 2017
4
1
33
My manager at work sent us an email, and it struck me for some reason and got me thinking. In the email she included saying that she was going to go skydiving, and she encouraged us to ‘live life to the fullest,’ and just do whatever it is that we enjoy and want to do – whether it is skydiving, reading, or whatever. I certainly admire this sentiment. Life is short, and we waste too much time on things that do not really matter, or that we do not really enjoy.

However, as much as I agree with the sentiment of ‘live life to the fullest,” and enjoy your life, I also feel that in some ways, this is contradictory to Sikhi. As a Sikh, I feel we are not really encouraged to enjoy life, per se. Instead, we have obligations. Obligations to better our community, obligations to stand up against injustice, obligations to better the lives of others, to remember and meditate on God, and to not really put ourselves first. It is hard to simply enjoy life when you can clearly see how miserable the state of the world is, how much Sikhi is needed today, and knowing that as a Sikh you aren’t supposed to just ignore the chaos and destruction that is happening. Then again, its not like I am doing much to better the world anyway…

Perhaps I just do not know how to live life to the fullest. Perhaps I just contemplate things too much rather than actively doing things – whether its improving the world or enjoying myself. Perhaps I do not know how to find balance. Or perhaps I am really not interpreting Sikhi correctly.

Anyone else ever feel like this? Any thoughts?
Your thoughts are valid and understandable. I agree with you, as a Sikh, we have obligations to fulfill.
 

Sikhilove

Writer
SPNer
May 11, 2016
608
166
My manager at work sent us an email, and it struck me for some reason and got me thinking. In the email she included saying that she was going to go skydiving, and she encouraged us to ‘live life to the fullest,’ and just do whatever it is that we enjoy and want to do – whether it is skydiving, reading, or whatever. I certainly admire this sentiment. Life is short, and we waste too much time on things that do not really matter, or that we do not really enjoy.

However, as much as I agree with the sentiment of ‘live life to the fullest,” and enjoy your life, I also feel that in some ways, this is contradictory to Sikhi. As a Sikh, I feel we are not really encouraged to enjoy life, per se. Instead, we have obligations. Obligations to better our community, obligations to stand up against injustice, obligations to better the lives of others, to remember and meditate on God, and to not really put ourselves first. It is hard to simply enjoy life when you can clearly see how miserable the state of the world is, how much Sikhi is needed today, and knowing that as a Sikh you aren’t supposed to just ignore the chaos and destruction that is happening. Then again, its not like I am doing much to better the world anyway…

Perhaps I just do not know how to live life to the fullest. Perhaps I just contemplate things too much rather than actively doing things – whether its improving the world or enjoying myself. Perhaps I do not know how to find balance. Or perhaps I am really not interpreting Sikhi correctly.

Anyone else ever feel like this? Any thoughts?

I've struggled with this before.

The Gurus were in Chardi Kala, They Did enjoy life. They married, they enjoyed time with family, with friends. Whilst serving the Truth.

First they lived it themselves in joy and peace and taught it to others.

Contrary to what u think, the entire gurbani is teaching is to be Happy. To live and enjoy this precious jewel of a life as a good soul and teaching others to be good souls also. We live in Kalyug, it is negative, the age of hell on earth. People live in hellish mindsets. They see others unhappy, stressed out, they slander others n if someones happy they go so far as to get up and take what someone else has(happened to me recently).

We see the most of the world unhappy, in slavery to others insecurity driven, wrong judgements and slander of us. And automatically think we have to be too. But we are Societies Outcasts. We live in society but in constant Chardi Kala and joy for He is All. We Respect Love and Honour ourselves(as we are Him n He is Us) in our Beautiful Body Temples He's blessed us with and we should be Happy, peaceful and content. Before you can truly love respect and honor others, you must truly first love respect and honor Yourself.

Look at pictures of the Gurus, out of a crowd, they look the most joyful, the happiest, the most peaceful, simple and content.

We humans complicate everything- we kill ourselves with fear, envy, greed for more money, material things. We've even complicated beauty with countless ideals of celebrities thinking we don't already have that beauty, but in simplicity, ease and contentment, contrary to what society has been told to think by the media who seek to brainwash people, we do.

The Gurus Want us to be happy. That's why they left us Gurbani. But we choose to adopt the complicated morbid psychology of society, torturing ourselves with anger, jealousy and attachment and fear, self doubts and insecurities. You showed your insecurities and self doubt in your post, you think you're not worthy of being happy, that you shouldn't be happy. Noone told u this, Gurbani certainly never told u this. Gurbani teaches Anand, Bliss- it's the opposite of what you think you should feel and live your life.

We create our own hell. Beating yourself up is creating hell for yourself, the whole world is sinking in this. It needs more happy souls and needs more positivity to get back to the balance again. So be Happy sister.


Earth is a paradise. Yeh we live amongst demons(bad souls) and also angelic souls(good people who don't slander or hurt others etc). But we've been blessed to learn to detach from sadness and pain, been told not to associate with losers, and been blessed with the knowledge of True Joy while living life in Happiness and Joy.

It's up to us if we take it or not.
 
Last edited:

Original

Writer
SPNer
Jan 9, 2011
1,053
553
66
London UK
I've struggled with this before.

The Gurus were in Chardi Kala, They Did enjoy life. They married, they enjoyed time with family, with friends. Whilst serving the Truth.

First they lived it themselves in joy and peace and taught it to others.

Contrary to what u think, the entire gurbani is teaching is to be Happy. To live and enjoy this precious jewel of a life as a good soul and teaching others to be good souls also. We live in Kalyug, it is negative, the age of hell on earth. People live in hellish mindsets. They see others unhappy, stressed out, they slander others n if someones happy they go so far as to get up and take what someone else has(happened to me recently).

We see the most of the world unhappy, in slavery to others insecurity driven, wrong judgements and slander of us. And automatically think we have to be too. But we are Societies Outcasts. We live in society but in constant Chardi Kala and joy for He is All. We Respect Love and Honour ourselves(as we are Him n He is Us) in our Beautiful Body Temples He's blessed us with and we should be Happy, peaceful and content. Before you can truly love respect and honor others, you must truly first love respect and honor Yourself.

Look at pictures of the Gurus, out of a crowd, they look the most joyful, the happiest, the most peaceful, simple and content.

We humans complicate everything- we kill ourselves with fear, envy, greed for more money, material things. We've even complicated beauty with countless ideals of celebrities thinking we don't already have that beauty, but in simplicity, ease and contentment, contrary to what society has been told to think by the media who seek to brainwash people, we do.

The Gurus Want us to be happy. That's why they left us Gurbani. But we choose to adopt the complicated morbid psychology of society, torturing ourselves with anger, jealousy and attachment and fear, self doubts and insecurities. You showed your insecurities and self doubt in your post, you think you're not worthy of being happy, that you shouldn't be happy. Noone told u this, Gurbani certainly never told u this. Gurbani teaches Anand, Bliss- it's the opposite of what you think you should feel and live your life.

We create our own hell. Beating yourself up is creating hell for yourself, the whole world is sinking in this. It needs more happy souls and needs more positivity to get back to the balance again. So be Happy sister.


Earth is a paradise. Yeh we live amongst demons(bad souls) and also angelic souls(good people who don't slander or hurt others etc). But we've been blessed to learn to detach from sadness and pain, been told not to associate with losers, and been blessed with the knowledge of True Joy while living life in Happiness and Joy.

It's up to us if we take it or not.

Hey Girl....you've cracked it ! one of your best to date - love it !
 

Harry Haller

Panga Master
SPNer
Jan 31, 2011
5,769
8,194
54
My manager at work sent us an email, and it struck me for some reason and got me thinking. In the email she included saying that she was going to go skydiving, and she encouraged us to ‘live life to the fullest,’ and just do whatever it is that we enjoy and want to do – whether it is skydiving, reading, or whatever.

I believe life is lived in stages, when you are young, as you are, you should be living like this, doing whatever you wish to do, whether it is skydiving, reading, or whatever, you have the youth, the health, the lack of world weariness, the innocence, and the desire to live, love and learn, so get it out of your system now and learn, soak up all the feelings and the emotions, it will serve you well,

I certainly admire this sentiment. Life is short, and we waste too much time on things that do not really matter, or that we do not really enjoy.

true, but at some point, you will find yourself 'funned out', and you will realise that a life of fun is actually quite shallow and empty, take all the fun away, what do you have, nothing. I think one should reach this point at about 45.

However, as much as I agree with the sentiment of ‘live life to the fullest,” and enjoy your life, I also feel that in some ways, this is contradictory to Sikhi.

How can anything be contradictory to Sikhi when there is no absolute description of what Sikhi actually is, my father is 70, I asked him yesterday whether he had ever met a real Sikh, someone who could answer questions and who lived life and walked the walk, his reply was no. In my view it is a misconception that Sikhs should not be happy, or live life to the fullest, I also find it hilarious that those that shun worldly pleasures and preach to the rest of us, see Anand as the ultimate bliss that must be had and experienced, up there with {censored}ing on crack.

Instead, we have obligations. Obligations to better our community

Hmmmm but better it from what? outdated modes of practice? misogyny? racism? pride? envy? well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but our community operates as it does for a reason, and that reason is the men with the white beards, very powerful people, but until the men with the white beards want to change, there is no point, so that obligation is moot.

obligations to stand up against injustice,

how about just not having injustice in the first place, again, your standing up against the men with the white beards again, so this injustice suits someones agenda, the men with the white beards do not like young women questioning their agenda, you might get a glimpse of the naked emperor, which would be bad.

obligations to better the lives of others,

why? to take away the very wisdom they need to survive? to do things for them so they cannot learn and do it themselves? for every do gooder out there doing good, there is one of these 'others' that will never have a golden moment of knowing they bailed themselves out themselves, of building on that moment, and finding the strength within to keep going, keep building, how arrogant is it to assume that we, who know nothing ourselves, no more about another persons needs or pains, and also the affect of taking that away, and the very subject of bettering is subjective in the extreme, what is bettering?

to remember and meditate on God

this is an obligation? do you think he needs to me remembered and meditated on? will get upset if we don't, do we get big laddoos if we do?

and to not really put ourselves first

au contraire, always put yourself first, everyone else is. And if anyone else tells you different, ask yourself why are they telling you? Because people tell you things to make themselves look pure...

. It is hard to simply enjoy life when you can clearly see how miserable the state of the world is

don't look! In years gone by, before TV and facebook, and the internet, your view of the world was what you could see, if you saw happiness, you joined in, if you saw misery, well you did what you could to help, but now we have 24 hour streaming misery, we can search for misery on the internet, we can send each other misery clips and all sit down and talk about god and misery, more bullshit, we each have our own responsibility to make our life what we want to make, I have a simple mantra, there for the grace of god go I, if i can help, and its local, sure I will help, if its 5 thousand miles away, I don't give a {censored}. why should I, I cannot do anything, maybe some enjoy the guilt, maybe some enjoy sharing the misery, no idea, but I don't, if I cannot do anything about it and its not on my doorstep, then {censored} it.

Sikhi is needed today

possibly, but which strain? the current one don't look great, can we look at our own homeland and say Sikhi is working there? The drug addicts may argue with you, so maybe before we look at foisting our great learning on the world, we might try and get it right at home first?

and knowing that as a Sikh you aren’t supposed to just ignore the chaos and destruction that is happening.

and who is creating this chaos and destruction, well, mankind, so in order to deal with it, you have to change mankind, rather than deal with the consequences, mankind can take some time to change, its the 21st century and it is only now equality for women is gaining momentum,

Perhaps I just do not know how to live life to the fullest. Perhaps I just contemplate things too much rather than actively doing things – whether its improving the world or enjoying myself. Perhaps I do not know how to find balance. Or perhaps I am really not interpreting Sikhi correctly.

Anyone else ever feel like this? Any thoughts?

In my view you are here to learn, not to correct mistakes made by mankind, you are here to learn and the only way you can learn is by living, so live, and live hard, and fast, get married, have kids, travel, buy a sports car, do all the things you want to do, and then, at some point, you will want something different, and you will be covered with the scars of your life, both good and bad, and at that point, once you have established a family, and family security, then these questions can be dealt with, you will have the time, the security, and the life experience to understand them a great deal more than today, today is for living, for that feeling in your stomach, for new discoveries.

Good luck
 

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