I have often asked myself, and
others too have often asked me, what is the purpose of our infinitesimally
short life here in this world? To enjoy ourselves? Think this answer of ours
again?
A very close late friend of mine
whom we knew from our college days who later became a Professor of Psychiatry
at the University Hospital, University of Malaya. He once told me 99.999 % of
the things we buy and collect in the house we actually don’t even need, or we
use them only once or twice, after which we hang them all up over the house to
collect dust for us to clean, wipe, wash and to maintain continuously in this
ritual manner.
He told me this became an obsession
with many of his patients, suffering from obsessive compulsive disorders,
trapped mentally for life. They imprisoned themselves physically and mentally
gathering and collecting all these unnecessary possessions. When I heard him
explain this to me many years ago, I could not agree better. He was a highly
qualified senior consultant psychiatrist and was a Consultant in Psychiatry to
WHO after he left the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Malaya. He could
not be wrong.
I saw this through my own life
experience when I was a bachelor starting to work for the first time.
At that time, I could only rent a
room in a bungalow in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. Later I left to rent a whole
house in a less affluent housing estate elsewhere which was cheaper. I stayed
in both places alone for myself. When I rented a house, I started to buy
all kinds of truly unnecessary things other than just a simple bed, perhaps a
table, a chair, or a table fan. I hardly needed any maintenance for these
basic items to live.
All I needed was just a bathroom to
bathe including a toilet which is very essential together with a towel, soap,
toothbrush and toothpaste and a bundle of clothes to wear where I can hand wash
in the bathroom itself inside a simple pail with some soap powder. That was
actually all I needed to live with food and water of course as the most
essential.
But I went further than these. I
started to buy all kinds of non-essential items such as furniture, cupboards,
books, paintings, curtains, radios, microscopes, binoculars and telescopes to
‘decorate’ the house unnecessary. But I did not have one visitor coming to
‘admire’ all those things I bought and must maintain.
So I spent a lot of time my time
after work to mop the house, wipe and clean all those stuff I gathered until I
was so exhausted that did not even have the time to read all those books I
bought, or use the binoculars and telescope to look at all those stars
twinkling in the night sky to enjoy the wonders of creation out there beyond
this troubled world of ours. Then when I need to shift house again, and I have
done this 3 times till I bought my present house, I have to look for boxes and
crates to collect and pack up all those unnecessary loads of burdens to move to
another house to unpack, clean and hang them up all over again. I did
these alone till exhaustion.
I then began to realize what I was
actually doing was all unnecessary, gathering and carrying really needless
burdens in life that does not support a single heartbeat or a single breath in
my life.
In the last house I rented, I
looked at the open marsh land in front of my house when I returned from work in
the evenings. There I saw and heard birds making a chorus of noises for half an
hour when they too returned home to settle down among the tall grasses before
it became dark. I saw them flying in and out from the tall grasses to
catch the last insects in the air for their evening meal before settling down
again for the night, and all was quiet again after that. I thought to myself
how foolish I was not able to settle down quietly for the night like those
birds did. I have to sweep, wash, wipe the house, wash my clothes, prepare
dinner, wash up everything again even after my official work at the office. Why
can’t I be like those birds, I asked myself.
Those birds need not have to
maintain all those “properties” like I gathered in the house after I came home
from work.
When the birds in the air settled
down, all was very quiet again. An hour or later I went behind my house where
it was darker to look at the myriads of stars twinkling up there and began
wondering if there are worlds out there among the stars so unlike our troubled
world here where life is so much, much more blissful, easier without
unnecessarily carrying burdens to drag along?
I have always wondered this since I
was a child. I used to bathe in a well beneath an open sky when I went to stay
with one of my school classmates whose parents reared cows in a village in my
home town, Batu Pahat, south of Malaysia. As I bathed in the early morning 5 am
skies beside the water well, I saw the stars twinkling above among the river of
lights of the Milky Way. That triggered my interest in astronomy, wondering
about the presence of life out there.
I then entered the universities
after school, doing all sorts of scientific and medical courses. My job after
graduation often required me to be part of a health and medical team to go to
the rural areas to conduct research on health problems in the villagers among
other areas of medical research I needed to conduct in the city.
When I need to go to the rural
areas, I have to leave everything behind in my house in Kuala Lumpur where I
was staying and working. I only carried a bag of clothing with a bathing
towel, toothbrush and toothpaste and a few books to stay in a hotel for 2 – 3
weeks.
Then, I suddenly found myself
completely free from all those burdens of keeping my house clean and tidying
them up to ‘maintain’ all those unnecessary ‘properties” inside. With just a
bag and some clothing inside, I need not have to sweat to burden myself with
necessary cleaning, sweeping, wiping, dusting and arranging things as I would
do in the house in the city. I suddenly felt free as a flying bird coming in to
rest for the night like those birds I saw among grasses and trees. It was a
blessed lesson in disguise.
I suddenly found myself completely
free from these burdens. All I needed was just to wash the clothes I was
wearing each day. I washed them in the hotel bathroom, hung them in the room or
bathroom somewhere, bathed and went down to a small restaurant or a shop to
have my dinner. Sometimes if there is a laundry in town, I just send my clothes
there.
That was all I needed. Suddenly I
was freed from unnecessary burdens. After bathing and dinner, I just lie down
to read a book I brought along, something that I had no chance to do when I was
in the city. It was such a simple, simple burdenless change in my life. That
life experience instantly made me recall what my close friend, a Professor and
Senior Consultant Psychiatrist told me that 99.999 % of all things we possess
and keep, we do not need or use. He told me they give us both physical
and mental stress clustering our lives with them. How true, how very true
as I recalled what he told me from my own experience working outside my house in
the villages.
I have often heard and read of very
rich personalities owning 20 cars with 10 or more houses. I have wondered how
they are going to drive 20 cars and live in ten houses at the same time when
most of us find it hard to maintain even a single car or stay even a single
house without help of a maid or someone else, a spouse or children living
together.
Of course, you may argue if they
are so rich, they would be able to employ servants and others to maintain all
their properties. But in order to employ servants and workers they too need to
stress themselves looking for money by working even harder elsewhere. We cannot
get something out of nothing unless they are ultra rich. Perhaps then they need
not work at all. They may have inherited them from their parents I suppose.
Money could not fall from the empty air above for sure! We need to toil for it.
Even then, the ultra-rich still
have their worries about how to earn all that money and worry how to maintain
20 cars, 10 houses, estates, land and properties everywhere at the same time
until their hearts stop for the last time.
Nothing except air and water is
free for us in this world. When we breathe our last, only do we ask ourselves
what use is of all those wealth we kept and carried along, all those heavy burdens
in life when at maximum we have only 100 years to remain in this world before
taking our last breath.
Even the oldest man recorded in the
book on Genesis was Methuselah. He lived for 969 years. What did Methuselah
gain today for such longevity? Absolutely nothing. According to
current records, the oldest person who lived and died was Jeanne Calment in
France. She was born on 21 February 1875 and died on 4 August 1997 and lived up
to the age of 122 years and 164 days. What did she gain in all those years,
more importantly that did she get after she died? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
On Sunday, June 18, 2023, four
billionaires inside the submersible Titan suddenly died within a mini second
when their submersible Titan imploded. The 5th passenger was the
Ocean Gate CEO himself. The billionaires each paid US $ 25,000 just to
see the RSM Titanic that sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912
near Newfoundland, Canada in the North Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage from
Southampton to New York City.
Their lives came to an abrupt stop
and naught within a mini fraction of a second when their 6.7 metres (22 feet)
carbon-fiber and titanium craft, Titan submersible suddenly imploded and sank
to 3,800 metres near where the Titanic rested. They instantly left all their
properties behind.
Did they enjoy life seeing the Titanic? It was the question
we asked in the very beginning the purpose of our infinitesimally short life
here in this world? To enjoy ourselves? Think this answer of ours again? Did the ultra-rich tourists even get see the Titanic? Not at all. Their lives were taken instantly
away attempting to do this unnecessary thing.
All that wealth to see the sunken
Titanic? The wealth spent just to see a sunken ship could have brought so much
comfort to tens of millions of people in poor countries who could not even
afford to have a meal a day.
My answer to all these issues and
problems is just to live as simply as possible without demanding anything else
that does not support life.
Just think about this scenario.
Suppose we have a person who was jailed, say for 60 years confined to a small
cell, and was able to continue to live for another 10 years and more out of
jail.
In jail he had almost nothing. The
only requirements provided for him were air, food, water and prison clothing
that he does not even need to wash himself. Maybe some prison work for him each
morning. The only thing he does not have is freedom to go outside.
How do we explain his survival of 60 long years in prison then? It is
much more likely a person not in jail, living a luxury life outside
acquiring all those rich man diseases and died earlier than those in jail
My psychiatrist friend reminded me that 99.9999 % of all the things we
buy and keep in the house we don't even use at all, maybe just once, twice, or
a few times more before we hang them all up only to collect dust.
Don’t we think we are unnecessarily buying and keeping items to
hang and to store them everywhere in our houses to occupy
spaces, not just occupying space but to collect dust for us to clean, wash and
wipe periodically. Just look around our own house will do, and we have to
admit.
Then after acquiring all these unnecessary burdens to maintain, we become too
exhausted to do anything else, especially as we get older and older with each
passing year. We then start to look for someone or a servant to dust and upkeep
all those so called "properties" of ours. It became a burden to them
also.
We are only burdening ourselves buying them trying to keep them around the
house for dust to collect, till dust do we return ourselves. Who is going to
maintain our own body dust after our death?
As we get older and older, we would not have the time, energy, strength or even
interest anymore to maintain anything at all, especially when crippled with ill
health. Others need to spend their time and energy looking after us instead.
Then we burden them as well.
Then we start worrying we do not have the money for a servant to help clean and
maintain for us.
Then others need to look for a maid for us. They will need to search high and
low for an employment agency, hire one and pay the employment agency as well.
Then we start to complain we have all these problems and stress in life which
are entirely our own doing.
At old age, even when young, we start to complain we have no time for all that,
or can we earn sufficient money or have sufficient life savings to upkeep or
solve all those really unnecessary problems we acquired earlier in life. Yet
all these problems can instantly be solved only when we are willing to clear
everything we acquired over the years and just throw or give them all away for
the sake of our health and for the sake of our very short life here in this
world.
Did a prisoner who was sentenced to 60 years in jail require all these, so
unlike us. Answer this ourselves.
Just think of this analogy in another way.
You buy a bird from a pet shop and cage it. It will continue to live and sing a
song for you each morning like any other freely flying bird in the open,
so long as you give the caged bird the essential elements it requires for its
existence, namely, air, water and food.
I have already explained my own experience in life renting the entire house
only for myself and wasting a lot of my time and energy buying all kinds of
things to " beautify " it when no one, not even once came to admire
all those ‘fantastic decorations’ I hung up there.
Don’t we think I was extremely foolish spending all my time and effort into
exhaustion acquiring all those when all I needed then and still now are just
food, water to wash, bathe and clean myself, a bathroom, a toilet and just some
corner to sleep, besides electricity for lights, perhaps just a fan and maybe
just this phone to drive home this strong message
When Mother Teresa of Calcutta deservingly won the Nobel Peace Prize, reporters
from around the world asked her what she was going to do with all those
monies she won
She instantly replied with wisdom, probably under the guidance from God this:
"What money? All I need is just a pail to wash my sari"
That beautiful ever-lasting answer re-sounded and echoed with cheers and
admiration around the world till this day
Air, food, water, clothing and somewhere to sleep for the night are actually
all we need to allow our hearts to continue to beat, our lungs to breathe, our
organs to function until the end of our short lives in this world as much as a
prisoner or a caged bird was given. Yet they toil not, nor do they carry
heavy burdens in their entire lives.
“Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
(Mathew 11: 28 -30)
“Look at the birds of the air; they
do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds
them.”
(Mathew 6:26)
A person after acquiring all those
properties damages their health by burdening themselves with mental and
physical stress on how to continue to maintain them at old age and probably
worry what would happen to all their ‘properties’ after death? They all
have to contend with the answer all the things they have acquired earlier
crumbled and returned to dust. They could have lived one 100 years of burden-free
life endowed to us just by simple living, simple lifestyles, and simple eating.
Just to tell you I don’t even eat 3
times a day as others do. I eat only just once, maximum twice a day
lightly, yet I still live without little problems
The only thing I use daily is just water, electricity, a bathroom with an
attached toilet, wash my clothes daily to wear in a washing machine, a
small place corner in the house with a pillow, a sarong as my blanket to
sleep on, and just this phone to type this message, and yet I live very
comfortably without stress, and without all other burdens troubling me.
My mistake I made earlier in life
was buying a lot of unnecessary things to use only a few times, then hanging
them up to gather dust. The more things we buy and keep, the more other
accessories we also need to buy to maintain the first one.
For instance, if we buy just one
car, we also need to buy the car radio, the air conditioner and maintain them.
Then we also need to buy car insurance yearly, to pay road tax, the tyres,
batteries too need to be maintained, and if we have an accident, we need to go
to make a police report, make insurance claims and so on and so on. These
problems do not end.
But if we don’t even have a
car, none of these is necessary. This is just an example. It applies to
everything we buy. They all need ‘additional’ items to function. These
include even cooking pots, plates, spoons, forks, knives, a kitchen,
refrigerator, water supply, etc, etc to support. More and more items we buy and
accumulate, more and more accessories we need to support their functions. It
becomes an obsession just because of one item. If we do not have this single
item, none of those “additional” we need to support the first.
Do we actually need them for our
hearts to continue to beat, and our lungs to breathe? Ask yourself. If we
cannot answer, we are spiritually blind to the very core. There is no point for
anyone going to any church, temple or mosque 100 times a week for this. They
cannot find any answer there. Going there to ritually pray does not solve our
unnecessary greed above food, water and clothes
"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into
the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" for
the root of all evils is our love for money.
(1 Timothy 6 :8)
Please note "love" for money. It did not say we do not require money.
How did all other animals in the
wild live their entire life spans without a single thing we need here? All they
need are air, water, food, a suitable place, including a cave or a hole
somewhere to rest for the night unless they are nocturnal animals. Ask
ourselves.
Jesus didn’t even have a house, a temple or a church or need to work except as
a carpenter when He was young, or a salary to do all His miracle of healing or
did He acquire any property or invest in anything, and yet He lived as the most
adored and glorified man ever recorded in history
How did Jesus manage it? Again, we need to answer this ourselves.
See also our purpose in life here:
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=our+life+span+
Lim jb
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