Question: What is the spiritual work on oneself for an ordinary person?

Answer: A person in whom the question of the meaning of life awakens begins to connect himself with those who want to expand the scope of their knowledge to find out “What am I for? Why me? What is the purpose of existence?”

All these questions push him to expand his feelings: “What kind of world am I in? Is there anything above it? What controls it? Where is the mechanism that sets it in motion? What is the cause and effect of all this? The goal?” When we ask these questions and can’t find the answer, we start looking.

I remember when this question first arose in me, I was only five to six years old, and I felt old, internally dissatisfied, detached from everyone. All the children were running around in the yard doing something, and I was thinking: “Why all this?” And I don’t really want to live, there’s no point.

Of course, life talks to you, you are a little interested in sports (tennis, cycling, running), interested in girls a little, hormonal development is still taking place. But somewhere deep down, this question still sits and does not let you go. You behave as if mechanically and realize the meaninglessness of this.

You go to the symphony, to exhibitions, to museums. You try to somehow cling to this world, to know it, to taste what people consider high, special. But why? You look at a painting and think: “Someone took a couple of months to paint it, painted it beautifully, and then what? What’s the point?” There’s no point.

I remember a teacher at school saying, “The meaning of life is to eat delicious food, relax, go to the cinema, read an interesting book,” and so on. It turned out, as the sages say, “you live involuntarily,” get a little pleasure, relax, and forget about a higher meaning; otherwise, all of life will seem like hell.

And what if you can’t calm down? There are already millions of such people nowadays! These questions oblige a person to begin to expand the field of his feelings.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Eternal and Perfect” 12/1/11

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