How To Cope With A Brutal World – Why You Should Read This Book?

 

“What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction.

The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer (My Buddy Schop)

 

The societal rat race is the single biggest cause of anxiety and sadness in our lives. Societal training, right from your childhood, gives you tremendous ambition but no reliable way to fulfill that ambition. It gives you tremendous desire but no way to truly satiate that desire. It gives you tremendous thirst, but it gives you barely any water to fulfill that thirst.

 

And for the rare few that do actually happen to achieve it, ask them if they are genuinely happy or at peace in the long term?

 

The one who loses is also unhappy and the one who wins is also “unhappy.”

 

Cicero, who was a statesman from ancient Rome had these interesting words to say about happiness.

 

“No one in existence is not miserable, no one is truly happy. those who dare call man “happy” or “blessed” are naïve.”

 

About kings, he said – The king faces constant threats of war, devastation of his territories, massacres of his people, assassination threats.

Even when the king is not at war, he becomes his own source of anxiety because he is constantly thinking about who is scheming against him, creating alliances to increase his power, increasing taxes to increase his wealth and constantly distracted by greed, which allows him no peace for himself.

 

About the poor he wrote. “The poor on the other hand are vulnerable to every possible trauma and tragedy. They have to endure poverty, hunger, disrespect, aggressions, taxes, military disasters—basically, every conceivable misery.”

 

 

I think it is safe to say:

No one’s life is perpetually peaceful.

No one’s life is free of pain.

 

On top of that, much of what you are taught about it is PLAIN wrong and this sets people out on the wrong path from the very beginning.

 

After all, if your teacher teaches the foundational math in a wrong way, how can you understand algebra, geometry and trigonometry correctly later on?

 

In fact, I am convinced the biggest danger to society is not some weapon. It is actually an influential teacher/guide/authority figure with an extremely huge audience, who is actually a fool and doesn’t even know it!

 

He or she can lead people down a wrong path that they can’t recover from for years, and sometimes a lifetime.

 

Unfortunately, I believe this world has countless such so called teachers and authority figures and I have personally been misled by many such figures. You will be introduced to some of them later on in this book 😉

 

Unlearning their nonsense was the point of the first book I wrote -Unlearn: A Practical Guide to Business & Life

 

This book though is the next rung of the ladder and talks about how I learned to cope with this brutal world, and how you can do the same, and most importantly from MULTIPLE ANGLES.

 

Because life is not one dimensional, life is multidimensional.  

 

 You can’t just choose to breathe and think it is enough to survive life. You need to eat, drink and get appropriate shelter and heat and so on. Because, if you mess up even in one area, you are dead!

 

Similarly, just being great at your job is not enough if you are terrible at managing money, health, have no spiritual grounding or are way too naive. Sooner or later, an extreme imbalance in any area will come back to bite you.

 

 That’s the objective of the book, to help you with multidimensional UNDERSTANDING of how things work that I believe is absolutely crucial to survive this brutal world. 

 

 

Why Even Geniuses Should Be Reading This Book

 

There is an anecdote involving Isaac Newton and his dogs. Its authenticity isn’t verified but it makes a point nonetheless.

 

So, the story goes like this – Newton had two dogs. One was a big dog and the other was a smaller dog.

 

But the dogs always kept creating issues because they wanted to go outside and play and so Newton had to get up and let them out when they wanted to go out, or let them in when they wanted to come in.

 

So, he thought of a solution and called the carpenter. He told the Carpenter – “I want you to make TWO holes in the door. Make a smaller one for the smaller dog and make a larger one for the larger dog.”

 

The Carpenter thought for a moment and then responded by saying – “But won’t the smaller dog also be able to go through the larger hole?!!”

 

At that time Newton realized his error and was surprised that even a scientist like him couldn’t think of a simple solution.

 

SO why should even the super smart should be reading this book?

 

Because sometimes, you may know the secrets of the universe, but you may lack the common sense to be able to survive in the world.

 

 

A Disclaimer: First Things First

 

The brutal truth is that you need at least some luck and hope that luck stays with you throughout your life.

 

The “positive thinkers” will say luck doesn’t matter. But it’s because they are either deluded or in denial.

 

You don’t choose what family you are born in, which era you are born in, which macroeconomic environment you grow up in, your mental aptitude, your special talents, which random situations that come to you that alter the trajectory of your life, etc.

 

So, I can’t help you with the luck you encounter in life. But I can say this, the more “right information” you consume, the more you will be in a position to take sensible decisions, which improve the chances of you getting luckier. If nothing else, they definitely help you avoid bad luck to a certain degree.

 

BUT, a huge problem is that your thought process is ALSO a part of your luck.  It is literally impossible to change your mindset if you just can’t see that your mindset is the problem!

 

I know people who are almost senior citizens but still lack basic common sense.

 

I know people who have had to literally bury their own children, and still haven’t learnt a thing about changing their ways.

 

Unfortunately, every living being is ultimately a prisoner of their own mind. They can only rarely, if ever, truly break free from the limits their mental aptitude, innate nature and level of self-awareness imposes upon them.

 

If your thought process is too different, this book will be of no help. Maybe in time you will have experiences that will change the way you think and then you may be ready, but it’s also possible that you will never be ready.

 

Unfortunately, this applies to most people.

 

There is a story of a sage who also had supernatural powers to influence the cosmos.

 

The emperor summoned him and pointed to a particular star in the sky.

 

“Can you remove that star?”, asked the emperor.

The sage said “Yes.”

 

“Remove that star then”, said the emperor.

 

The sage said “Okay.” He looked at the star, closed his eyes, concentrated and then finally opened his eyes again.

 

“The star is removed.”

 

“Removed?” asked the emperor. The emperor looked at the sky, but the star was still twinkling brightly.

 

Everyone else in the court also continued to see the star twinkling.

 

“Why are you lying? The star is still there!”

 

The sage responded that he was not lying and he had indeed removed the star.

 

The king got extremely angry. He thought the sage was ridiculing him and the king decided to make an example out of him.

 

In front of the entire court, he had the sage beheaded.

 

Everyone laughed at the lunatic sage whose lunacy/lies had resulted him getting beheaded.

 

A few hundred years went by and an astronomer was looking in the skies through his telescope. Suddenly, in front of his eyes, a star he was looking at vanished

 

Other scientists came in and investigated the whole episode. The were surprised. The star had literally disappeared.

 

It was the same star that the king had ordered the disappearance of and the sage made it happen!

 

But because it was hundreds of light years away, it took hundreds of years for light from the star to vanish!

 

The sage had indeed done what the king asked him to do. But because of their ignorance, the king and the crowd did not realize what had happened and the sage was beheaded.

 

 The sage died because he only had power over the cosmos, not over the foolish majority of humanity, who had him killed.

 

The lesson is 1) Don’t try to waste your time convincing the fools. They don’t have common sense, but they often have enough power to make your life hell.

 

2) Sometimes, the majority is so brainwashed with ignorance that it takes hundreds of years for them to finally “get it.”

 

If you still steadfastly belong to the whole “Hard work conquers all” cult, you might as well stop reading now, because you are not my reader.

 

To be my reader, you have to be TIRED of the nonsense the world feeds you.

 

You have to be in tremendous pain, agony and disillusionment from the societal script handed to you since your childhood, that has clearly not worked as well everyone said it would

 

Only if you are in that tremendous pain and looking for a NEW PATH that rejects useless conventional wisdom fed to you, will this be useful to you.

 

And if you are indeed at that stage, the NEW PATH I suggest in these pages may literally change your life.

 

 

How You Should Be Reading This Book?

 

The book may seem “dense” with one uncommon idea after another, because every single thing I have written is based on what has personally improved my life in multiple areas, even if it goes completely against what the modern world brainwashes you to believe.

 

But if you find this book of value, make sure you reread it 4 to 5 times.

 

The first reading is just to shock you and deprogram you, and maybe make you laugh.

 

The real absorption begins in the second and third reading

 

 

By, the way, NONE of my philosophies are set in stone. They are only good for you as long as they give you a peaceful life, if you see consistent evidence to the contrary, you are absolutely free to reject them and believe something else.

 

Imagine you are in a desert. You may see a lake in the horizon and upon reaching it you may realize it is just a mirage. DO not steadfastly stick to the belief that it is a lake.

 

Recognize it as a mirage and move on, and warn others if you can! Life beliefs are no different! Do not stick to them if they are no longer working for you!

 

Chanakya, the ancient Indian statesman/philosopher said an interesting thing. He said – “Influence the greedy by money, the arrogant by submissiveness, the fool by preaching and the learned by telling him the reality.”  

 

 If you are still choosing to read, it means you are learned or open to the truth, so I am going to tell you the reality, or at least the version of reality that has worked for me.

If I am successful at conveying it, writing this book was worth it.

 

One last thing before we move on

 

Remember, a fire needs a spark, oxygen and fuel to get started.

 

I am going to give you the spark but I can’t give you the oxygen and the fuel to create the fire.

 

You need to bring your own fuel and have enough oxygen around you.

 

In my own life this book would probably not have meant anything to me ten years ago, because I was in a different frame of mind and I hadn’t had yet had the experiences that would shape my thinking the way it is today. I was not ready. I did not have all the conditions to create a fire.

 

The book may not be useful to you at 20 but maybe life changing at 35. Or it may change your life at 20 or maybe at 60 or maybe never at all. The big question is are you READY?

 

 

“Even with a good teacher, the knowledge of the Self cannot be gained unless the heart of the disciple is open and ready for the Truth. Hence both the teacher and taught must be wonderful.” – Katha Upanishad