The price to pay
When life is good and easy you do not think much about effort, hard times, challenges, etc. But today the amount of people who experience a good and easy life is decreasing more and more. The majority of people experience quite the opposite. In our times the natural-positive aspects of life are vanishing while artificial values like money, efficiency, status, property, etc. are in the focus, – the ideals to follow and with them artificial side effects come along.
When you compare a natural life from former times, in parts still existing with the life of today, valid for most of us, then you might question the sense of it all, the price we are paying – for what in the end?
But it is not only this, – in fact we are paying today for everything as there is nothing left which is for free. Even for your death you have to pay a high price – to get a place on the cemetery. Meanwhile there are a lot of people in Europe and elsewhere who cannot pay this.
It is quite useful to become aware that you pay for everything a high price, – for the good things in life as well as for the bad things. Nothing is for free and it is always you who has to pay. In fact life is very precious.
Imagine you are grown up, you have finished your exams and you are ready to get a job. Now think how much time, effort, pain, doubts, trouble, etc. it took you, your parents, family, teachers, etc. to get you to this point. So much effort to get you grown up, educated, self-responsible, etc.
And what are you doing now with your life? Just live it as it comes? Marry, have children, work until you are very old, some years in pension and then die?
And what is when you decide yourself for some “fun”, for tasty but bad artificial food, for cigarettes, alcoholics, drugs, bad behavior, etc.? The price you pay is your health, trouble with society, with your family, friends, partner. You pay with diseases, with suffering, pains.
And when you live a healthy life, when you show good behavior, when you follow higher ideals, – then you pay too but it is a price which is worth it. Here you gain something positive instead of paying for debts.
And when you think about the time you have until you leave this world, – how do you want to use it? What do you want to accomplish? Have you set any aims? Or is equal, unimportant for you?
Now imagine that you are completely aware about how precious your life is, how precious this incarnation is, how precious all the chances are which this incarnation offers to you.
Imagine that you see these open doors, the chances to grow as a human and in a spiritual way, the chance to make very important experiences. And you start to put your energy into these aims, you take your chances, gratefully and you are happy with the sacrifices you make to reach your aims as it is all a great gift for you.
And then, looking back on this fulfilled life, you are really grateful, happy, satisfied for all that you have accomplished and you know that all pains, all efforts and sacrifices were absolutely worth making these great experiences in your life. You know that you have done the right things. You have paid a high price but you gained much more in return. A good deal!
Think about this. Think about what you are doing every day in your life. Question the value of all the things you are doing. Are you wasting your life with unimportant things or do you use your precious time to get the most of your life? And when you think about your spiritual development – is it really impossible to spend each day half an hour at least for spiritual practice, for progress?
In fact most people do “something” in their precious life time, something more or less unconscious but they do not really use life to make the experiences they long for and not for growing.
When I was a young boy, I had the idea that life is so short and so full of needs, wishes, desires, things to experience, that it would be quite hard to ignore all these things and to focus on what is really important. For me was and still is my spiritual development most important and I was always willing to sacrifice everything to make as most progress as possible. I have paid more than a lot for my progress but what I have received so far is more than worth it.
I had this vision that life is somehow like a very big shopping mall. You enter and then you are already overwhelmed with thousands of nice things which are calling for you “Try me! Buy me! Play with me!” so that you can get easily lost, totally forgetting about the sense why you have originally came for. And if you have not the power to ignore all these things, running at high speed through the shopping mall to get what you really wanted, then you are indeed entrapped and your life is passing by and one day you reach the end of the shopping mall and then you remember “Oh, I forget, I wanted to grow, to develop myself in a spiritual way!” and then it is too late. Then you die and you awake in the higher realms meeting your spiritual guide “Hey, can imagine, I forgot about the sense why I have incarnated?!” “Oh, yes, you did it again! You do it every time you incarnate! When will you awake and follow your higher sense of life?” “Next time?!”
In conclusion – be completely aware which price you pay for what and if this is a good deal. Each incarnation is endlessly precious, a chance to progress, to win liberty, wisdom, understanding, true love and so many wonderful things.
When you waste your life then you will be sad about it afterwards. Maybe you will be angry about yourself and all the chances you have missed. So it is better to ask for inspiration, for guidance and enough power to make it, to make progress, good and useful experiences, to balance your karma account and so much more.
It is so painful to see people wasting their lives with unimportant things and stupid, bad behavior. In fact bad behavior is a luxury which no one should ever pay as the price is much too high.