SUCCESS EXPRESSED FROM A PERSPECTIVE.

To acquire an understanding of a thing, the context of its existence is inevitable.

The said thing is the content, the platform of it existence constitute the context.
Nothing exists in isolation in this sense.

When we take human being for example, his environment is the context. By
environment, I mean the physical world, accessible to him. Among the complexities
in human life is that prominent in his environment are other human beings like him
and this, he is aware of. So, we may not be wrong to say that a person is his
environment.

The life of a human being is only manifest via the physical world. The situation is
the same with the entity we call life. Life whatever it is, is manifest only via the
material things known to us. Yes, a human being is not a product of his
environment, but in our quest to understand human life, we can’t but to view it viz-
a-viz his environment.

Broadly speaking, the life of a human being is a combination of his conscious and
unconscious activities. The unconscious activities far outweigh the conscious ones.
The said unconscious activities sometimes give rise to our conscious activities and
handle their completion. Take hunger for example, the feeling which comes to our
level of consciousness as hunger is preceded by the activities of the brain below our
consciousness. And when we eat, once the food has been swallowed, the rest
activities of digestion are handled below our consciousness. However, a person is
held responsible for his conscious acts.

The conscious life of a human being is private and public as well. This fact can be
expressed from two perspectives. Viz:

• The outward acts of a person which he does privately are his private life while
the ones he does before at least another person constitute his public life.

• The entire thought processes of a person constitute his private life while the
resultant desires which he manifests outside whether in private or public are
his public life.

Going by the latter explanation above, the public life of a person is determined by
his private life. A person based on his thought first desire, and then he goes to act
in order to fulfill the desire. This is the life of a human being, it is a cycle, the cycle
of desire and satisfaction. At each time a cycle is completed in a person’s life, he
learns. Whatever is learnt is the basis of a subsequent desire and so it continues.
Get it right, it was mentioned earlier that our desires are the result of our thought
process, when we are thinking; we are simply working on what we know, that is,
what we have learnt.
Please be attentive, if the life of a person starts with desire which when fulfilled, he
learnt and the learning is a basis for desire, what was the original learning, based
on which the initial desire emanated?

Actually, we enter into this world not knowing anything and our life is governed by
instincts, the unlearnt pattern of behavior but the said instincts were soon replaced
by learning. The imbedded learning , which is the original learning with which a
person commences his desire is ashahawa[pleasure].

The process of our life at the early childhood was a very simple one. We entered
into the world with a comfort state which we were not aware of until it was altered
by the external environment which was strange, and then we desire and struggle
to regain it. This simple scenario was the first cycle of desire and satisfaction in our
life. The learning which took place here was association of love to the said initial
state and the things by which it was regained and hatred to the things which first
altered the state. Our life, as complex as it is at adulthood still follows the same
process. This means, in the journey of life, the product is knowledge.

Therefore, the most precious thing one can ever boast of in this life is nothing but
knowledge. The acquired ability to correctly analyses the past, handle the present
and of course prepare for the future. A person interacts with his environment
according to his knowledge and accordingly experiences tranquility.

We human beings grew up to realize that we are not just living but struggling to live
a happy life. Though this struggle has been right from our childhood, we were not
conscious of this until we became adults. It is in pursuant of the said happiness that
we engage in our endless activities of life and in the process, we are learning. And
as mentioned earlier, by learning , we mean the association of value to things.
When this association is done correctly, knowledge as defined above is acquired.
However, due to some factors , we do sometimes associate wrongly at various level
s of our endeavor in life. This we are enabled not just to realize but empowered to
correct.

Among the wrong association we have done in life is associating happiness

exclusively to material acquisition, to fame, to power, regardless of the means of
acquisition. In this regard, there are people we come to believe have achieved
happiness in life. We admire them and looked forward to being like them. To us,
they are fulfilled in their life. We called them the successful ones. There are from
among us who eventually joined the rank of the said successful. “Oh they are lucky,
they have finally succeeded; will we ever be like them?” So we lament we the
unfortunate ones who are yet and may not taste the said fulfilled life. This
constitute actual source of worry and anxiety to some.

The question is this, these people we looked unto – the’ successful ones’, what have
they which we do not have? Obviously they are more comfortable than we are and
are given more’ respect’ and ‘audience’ when they talk in the society whereas we
are not. If success is the realization of the goal for which a thing is meant for, they
are indeed successful but on the condition that we are actually created to amass
wealth as much as possible thereby commanding ‘respect’ in the society; they are
indeed successful if they are living a happy life by virtue of their acquisition of
wealth and being respected.

Here I define happiness as the tranquility of heart. That is, the state of heart being
at rest, devoid of worry over the past and anxiety over the future. It is an
undeniable fact that as human being, we have material body which has to be
attended to materially and in this regard wealth is inevitable. As creatures with
values, we are created to respect and be respected. So, it is normal for us to strive
to earn the means of attending to our material needs. There is nothing wrong with
one wanting to be respected just like he/she respects others. But there is everything
wrong with taking acquiring wealth as much as possible to be respected by others
the essence of existence. This is indeed a wrong association [learning].

It is an illusion of the highest order. I REQUEST TO

BE CHALLENGED BY THE SAID SUCCESSFULONES
THAT THEY ARE DEVOID OF WORRY AND
ANXIETY; THAT THEIR HEART IS AT REST
EXCLUSSIVELY BY VIRTUE OF THEIR ACQUISITION.
The truth is that some of them are so entangled
with worry and fear that they could not even
appreciate their material comfort. THERE IS
MORE TO LIFE.
It must be mentioned that what we are witnessing today where by some few have
and are amassing wealth while depriving others of their basic needs in life is not the
natural arrangement.
The present trend of affair in which the
generality of people are enslaved materially and thought
wise is a crime. It is a crime which must be arrested. A
task to be accomplished by the truthful ones who realize
the need to return the stolen right of human being to him.

There is indeed a purpose to life. There is a purpose for

our existence which when realize yield enduring
happiness and is experienced as tranquility at heart. Here
lies success.
We have a creator, who created us not out of our right the best among His
creatures; who has nothing to gain from our failure and nothing to loose from our
success; that is not in anyway in need of us yet has made our guidance his priority
and put the universe at our instance. The creator has put in place a principle
governing the universe human beings inclusive. What is required of us is to uncover
this reality and live accordingly. Only then we can be in harmony with ourselves and
the world. By this process the heart is built-the essence of life.

Success as a feeling of achievement is in our private life not public. Yes, it can be,
and is manifest in our public life but we, human beings can and do pretend in our
expression of lives. So, what we put up in the public is in most cases, not the reality.
A person who is frustrated in his private life can put up something else in the public.
Though, there a few that confess their failure of private life notwithstanding what is
apparent.

Among the fundamental realities of life are:

• The satisfaction from material acquisition is true but ephemeral.

• The satisfaction from fame is true but ephemeral.

• The satisfaction from power is true but ephemeral.

The quest of the heart is enduring and it needs enduring satisfaction and this is
achieved via a righteous living. The quest of the heart is enduring so that a person
in his righteous life can ever remain active and progressive in continuous
uncovering the realities of life. This is life, but unfortunately, a path traveled by very
few.

The greatest obstacle to the aforementioned life is the inordinate desires in us, the
stumbling block to the truth, and of course the optical delusion of our
consciousness. Freeing ourselves from the prison of desire is a prerequisite to the
world of reality. The beauty of life is that every human being [sane adult] has equal
chance in this struggle of life. It is an act based on choice for it is not imposed. Any
one who has taken this bold step and is steadfast on it is definitely moving towards
the world of tranquility at heart. This decisive step must be fortified by embarking
on outright denial of authority to the system which emanate from human unguided
desires as the authority is for the creator alone. This is a path of choice amidst
numerous choices before us . Whoever takes to this path has nothing to fear for this
is the truth of life and above all the merciful creator takes charge of his affairs.

Indeed, the righteous ones are the successful.

THE CHOICE REALLY IS OURS.

THINK ABOUT IT.
ZUBAIRUS.