During the last century, a wise man wrote a collection of well-meaning advice to guide us on to leading a meaningful life. This has been published under the heading ‘Desiderata’ and publicized over the last fifty years or so. The reader is probably familiar with it as it shows up in quite a few bookshops. As one would quickly notice, the items mentioned in that presentation reflect a bunch of carefully chosen suggestions that can help one meet life with some maturity. By clicking the link below, the reader can enjoy going through Desiderata. One of the reassuring items there says, “Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.”http://allpoetry.com/poem/8574007-Desiderata_-_Words_for_Life-by-Max_Ehrmann
Some jovial person who chanced to read ‘Desiderata’ came up with a hilarious parody of it. He called it ‘Deteriorata’. It does make us laugh but, strangely enough, some items there too seem to hit the nail on the head with regard to leading a good life. Ironically, the punch line of Deteriorata clicks with what J. Krishnamurti says in the small booklet entitled ‘Conversations’. It is “Give up.”!
You can enjoy Deteriorata by visiting the link http://www.cs.umd.edu/~dabe/txt/deteriorata
While Desiderata makes us look carefully into some essential items for good living, Deteriorata moves us towards a laid-back attitude imbued with nonchalance. Perhaps, applying ourselves to the two together we may head straight to Liberation! In any case, someone who has gone through a NDE would surely appreciate both of those presentations, maybe with an additional clap for the Deteriorata!
As we all know, two of the major messages from NDE are: Unqualified compassion towards all and a laid-back attitude towards life. Whatever helps us imbibe the spirit behind those messages can take us to higher levels of living. In that respect, reflection on the two presentations mentioned above would play a role. When we apply ourselves to leading a well-ordered and useful life, circumstances gear around to help us move in that direction. It is up to us to appreciate and cooperate with them.
It is sad to see the large number of self-annihilation cases, where one ends one's life forcefully, in almost all countries of the world. If this unfortunate state of affairs is to change, we must direct our attention to the young people and expose them to deeper issues in life instead of letting the conventional neurosis of the society capture them. Schools must make provisions for this instead of dumping a lot of unnecessary knowledge on the children. We should ask “Is it the education for the child or is it the child for the education?”
Related matters are covered in the book “In Quest of the Deeper Self” details of which are given in the website: http://spirituality.yolasite.com