Learning to Live - (Live consciously and Die consciously)

(Being a supply chain professional (Purchasing Management) and an MBA with Marketing (Marketing management) I am fortunate to have adequate awareness of industry best practices in both selling and buying fields, the key elements of the game from both sides. Alhamdulillah, this introduction is only to emphasize the point I am trying to convey through this post.)    

You go shopping for TV/Washing machine/electronics/Car: you want to know or interested to know, the specification like, Make (Brand), Model, life expectancy, maintenance schedule, Mileage, resale value etc..  
Reason: you want to get the best value for money, and you want the best thing available, durable and fine.

You go shopping for University /Course for you and for your children: which is the good university, fame, results etc.. Which course: MBBS, BDS, BE, MBA, CA, etc..

Reason: You want to learn it to the perfection / First class / you want to get the JOB in best companies or secure a best business, best employability, the best economical security. And in few very special cases, Intellectual incentives.

Likewise you search for house and spouse, various parameters here, you learn them, and you evaluate them with very diligent efforts, and take a decision.

Fair, you do in depth research for everything.

But what about you, have you ponder about your specification, your make, your model, your reliability, your maintenance, your operating,   in my view the first thing a conscious mind/person should do is understand himself consciously, Our time on earth is limited and we have no way of knowing when it will end, Fundamental questions like below should be clarified first than you go on doing what you feel like doing, I call it Learning to Live

Each Qustion here is a field of study, "No" we do not have to learn it all but surely a short insight will assist.

1. Who I am, from where I came? to where I am going? Why am I here? What I here for? What is the nature of reality? What is the purpose of life? What is the significance of life?& what is the value of life? What is best living?
2. What is my life span, what are my life stages, their requirement and how best I can handle them? What is important during my life span?
3.  What does make me 'me'?  Science calls it the search for consciousness. I call it the search for "me".
4.  How We Spend Our Time
5.  Find out your basic desires than (Argument from desire)
6. Why we do things we do (Human Emotions of Pain and Pleasure)
7. Know Aging & its effects (Aging, irreversible biological changes that occur in all living things with the passage of time, eventually resulting in death), do you know that  The average person show the first signs of aging soon after reaching full maturity around the age of 21 or 22. In other words, just as we reach our peak, many of us begin our decline. Further do you know the decadal breakdown of the likely aging process?
8. Why am I doing what I am doing?
9. What is my responsibility, who assigned?
10. Get an idea of Random Events and Human Reality
11. Why is the anticipation usually better than the event?
12.  How do most of us spend our life?
13.  Know The True Purpose of Relationships
14. Why do we need to work to survive, What are the most basic materialistic needs to survive
15. What are the habits for an average human being?
16. Activities of daily living
17. What is the ACTIVE Time SPAN of your career and ambition, Is that extra worth the trouble.
18.  Learn How to Stop Living for Others’ Approval
19. What will be my death date, Finalize it, for example ( optimistically take world average from wiki, give it a number, let’s have it pessimistically also the least probability)
20. Fine, consider sudden death also this very moment, target it. How do you want to live up to that moment?
21. Now you have optimistic date and a pessimistic date of your death, now within this date find out how long you will be spending as child, young, adult, old (stages of Life)
22. Retirement age ( one of the possibility in your life time)

Have not all but at least some of the answers to the above questions than decide

HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?

 Conclusion

 A smart consumer & a smart buyer who always search and strive for the best to obtain should first review diligently the basics of himself.

Know yourself first.
Than
All we have to decide is what to do with the time we are given.

------------------------------------------------------------

In my community including me, Parents are obsessed to make their children Doctors and Engineers, my people are obsessed with materials, houses, cars, money, status , further, we admire “THE WEST”, admiration for these organizational skills should be tempered by caution. No race, no people, no human group can be good at everything. That is the nature of our life in the world. It is therefore always a question of priorities, if we can only be successful in a few aspects of this life; a choice has to be made. Which aspects are the more important? Those who are skilled in one field are likely to be inadequate in another, for we are very limited creatures and, if we develop one side of our nature to its fullest extent, this is usually at the expense of other aspects of the personality. If you are prepared, to turn your back on "Allah,", if you are prepared to devote all your energies and all your talents to the affairs of this world and to the successful execution of these affairs, disregarding every other consideration, then you are likely to be very successful indeed. Devote every waking moment of your life to devising ways of making money and then more money and still more, you may even end up as a millionaire. The question, of course, is whether you are prepared to pay the price in spiritual impoverishment and, through blind greed, to sink below the level of the animals, whose hunger does not extend beyond that which suffices to fill their bellies.

A quote from a famous western man

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.  ~Jim Carrey

DUA -  I seek forgiveness from my creator “Allah”and I ask him please forgive me Allah and please forgive my family , give me and my family good life in this world and hereafter (aameen).

·         Verily, the next life is better for you than this life  - Qur'an, 93:4

·         Nobody Can Remove Hurt Except Allah. Even if someone tries to cause you any hurt, stay firm in your belief and remember that no one can cause you any pain if Allah does not desire it for you "And if Allah touches you with hurt, there is none who can remove it but He; and if He intends any good for you, there is none who can keep back His favour; He brings it to whom He pleases of His servants; And He is the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." - Qur'an, surah Yunus; 10:107

·         Strain not your eyes toward that which We have given for some pairs among them to enjoy? the flower of this world? s life, that We may thereby put them to the test. Your Lord? s provision is better and more lasting. - Qur'an 20:131

·         If you are dependable, honest, virtuous, and content in Allah? s will, no harm shall come your way.- Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) [as reported by Abd? Allah bin Amr]

·         Whoever desires Paradise, proceeds towards goodness; whoever fears Hell, refrains from the impulses of passions; whoever believes firmly in death, detests worldly life; and whoever recognizes the worldly life, the trials and tribulations (of life) become slight for him. - Ali ibn Abu Talib (radiAllahu anhu)

·         It is indeed surprising that a man inspite of his belief in the Fire of Jahannum is still able to laugh, and inspite of his belief in Maut he is able to be happy. Inspite of believing in the Reckoning, he commits evil deeds.Inspite of believing in Taqdeer, he grieves. Inspite of observing the world with its changes, he feels contented with it. Inspite of believing in Jannat, he refrains from righteous deeds. - Nabi Musa (alayhis salam) [the majlis]

·         Neglect not your time, nor use it haphazardly; on the contrary you should bring yourself to account. Structure your litanies and other practices during each day and night. This is how to bring about the spiritual blessing (baraka) in each period. If each of your breaths is a priceless jewel, Be not like the deceived fools who are joyous because each day their wealth increases while their life grows ever shorter. - abu Hamid al-Ghazali [in 'Bidayat ul -Hidaya']

·         Man who is created alone should be aware that he will also die alone. Yet during his life, he lives almost addicted to possessions… the only assest one can take with him when one dies is one's belief or disbelief - Harun Yahya (famous Turkish author)