Find out who you really are

Nobody wants to change because change is effortful. How do you reach the zenith without attempting to climb the simple steps on the ladder laid before you?

Metamorphosis

Have you endured transformation like that of the caterpillar into a butterfly? An epiphany of sorts, altering your persona in incredible and inexplicable ways that you had never imagined? Or an astounding change you observed in someone else around you, enough to pronounce: ‘Look at him! A while ago, he had given up on life. Wanting to slaughter all existence of himself, end everything that connected him to reality; see him now, what a miraculous makeover!’ How did that transition take place? How does one grow (not merely with age and in size) but in character, ability and performance? At the tender teenage, every cell of your body is transforming at a rapid pace, often beyond your own control. Your appearance, brain cells, self-image, personality and outlook are all in a process of maturity. It’s your time for metamorphosis, of becoming something or someone absolutely unimaginable!

Bodhi tree in the backyard

Everyone goes through life-changing events where the halo crowns you to reform your thoughts and action in inconceivable ways. In Maslow’s hierarchy, accomplishing the goal is actually a much lower step; self-realization or actualization occurs when one gives up the need for achievement itself because nothing is left to achieve when you find a purpose to existence. That is when you are endowed with enlightenment to desire not a better life, but better living. However, there are no guarantees as to when this illumination occurs. There is no exact date or precise moment. There is no Bodhi tree in your backyard where you just go sit and get enlightened as Buddha was. Enlightenment seems like a moment when it happens; however, it is a prolonged process to make it happen. You don’t look slim one fine day, although your friends spot it one day at a party. You’ve taken months of a controlled diet and exercise programme to get into shape. You know what it takes because you gave what it took and achieved what you wanted. That’s enlightenment. It takes time. But it’s worthwhile.

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