Friends and Enemies

On any journey, it's very important that you must know who your friends and your enemies are. Similarly, on the journey of life, you must have a clear understanding of who your friends are and who your enemies are.

So truth be told, you are your own best friend as well as your worst enemy. The sooner you come to terms with this fact, the easier it would be for you to navigate this journey of life. The difficult part is to understand how we can be both a friend and an enemy to ourselves.

You see, we are like a thermostat; if we set the thermostat to cool settings, we would blow cool pleasant air, and if we set the thermostat to the heat, we would blow hot air. Exactly in a similar manner, you have a knob to control the state in which you want to operate and based upon its settings, you can operate as your friend or you could choose to operate as your enemy. It's entirely a hundred percent your decision. You have full power & control to choose whether you want to operate as your friend in life or you want to act like your enemy.

The next most logical question which arises is, where is the knob which controls my state and how can I control it?

The knob that controls the state in which you operate lies in your thought process, the way you think and act in life. The knob lies in your moment to moment thoughts & in every action of yours. Based on your thinking and action, you generate certain kinds of feelings and emotions. Based upon the type of feelings you generate, your mind decides the operation state of yourself, either friend or enemy. The state of mind where your dominant feelings and emotions arise through the act of truth, love & compassion, humbleness & kindness, and gratitude & forgiveness is the state of your being when you are operating as your friend. The state of mind where your dominant feelings and emotions arise through the act of Ego, Greed, Fear, and Ignorance is the state of your being when you are operating as your Enemy.

You might ask, So why would anyone operate as their own enemy?

It’s simple: out of ignorance, lack of awareness and self-introspection.

Human beings have made countless attempts to understand how the external world functions, but they have failed miserably, by and large, to understand the most sophisticated machine of all—the human body-and-mind duality. They have been unable to understand their own selves. Most people do not know their own selves because they don’t spend enough time getting to know their minds, their belief systems, and the workings of their inner world. Instead of being a master, they are a slave to their mind and their thinking; they have no control over it.

If you put effort into understanding yourself and your inner being, your direction in life will be crystal clear to you. When you live this way, from the inside out, you will begin to see with a different set of eyes, and you will never fail to be your own best friend. Son, always remember that the highest action you can take comes from a state of complete truth, love, compassion, humility, kindness, gratitude, and forgiveness.

I could write a whole other book explaining the importance of your friends and the threats of your enemies, but that’s for another time. For now, allow me to expound on one of your best friends (truth) and one of your worst enemies (ignorance).

Truth

Truth can have many different faces; every person may have their own definition of truth. Any number of seemingly contradictory things may be true, depending on different people’s perspectives.

Let's say you are watching a sunset on the beach in Florida, and at the same time, another person is observing the sky from a beach in Japan, and another person is looking down from a shuttle in outer space. You say, “What a beautiful sunset.” The guy in Japan says, “What a beautiful sunrise.” And the astronaut says, “What a beautiful view of the sun and the earth.”

Whose truth is the truth? Everyone is speaking truth from their perspective. The ultimate truth, in this instance, is the beauty of the natural world.

At every step in your journey, life will test you by giving you two main options to choose from. The first option will be the easy one, of false interpretation, manipulation, or half-truth, by which you can escape your problems and continue onward without hassle. By taking this option, you can overcome your imminent difficulties for a short time, but remember in the long run, you will always find yourself defeated. This option will belittle you and others and turn you into your own enemy.

The second option will appear difficult, in which you have to take the side of the truth. You will know that by taking this second route, you will inevitably face hardship of some kind, but son remember, in the end, you will always come out to be victorious. You will even feel fearful and tempted to reroute to the first option. But son, always take the side of the truth. No matter the situation at hand. Always take the side of the truth, which seems right to you morally and ethically, from the position of life where you stand. This one single message is so important that if you do not finish the rest of this book and can only take one thing away from it, it should be this: to take the side of truth always.

As you read this book, I have mentioned some aspects of truth from the position where I stand in life. As you navigate your own journey, it's your sole duty to find your truth as well. If you want to understand life, start by observing life as it is and not how you want it to be. Be aware of what happens to you and through you, as you will find all those events will shine a light on your own truth.

Ignorance

Let's discuss what ignorance actually is. As you grow and experience this world, you will learn new and exciting stuff. At every stage of your life, every bit of knowledge you acquire will fall into one of three buckets.

Confused? Let’s look at some examples.

Bucket 1: You know that you know how to talk, read, and write. You know that you are a boy, not a girl. You know that you are living on planet earth.

Bucket 2: You know that you don't know how to fly a plane or spacecraft. You know that you don't know how to hunt a lion in Africa. You know that you don't know how to run a marathon. (Or maybe you do know these things in the future! I don’t know.)

Depending upon your age and the skills that you acquire, you can confidently say you know certain things and don’t know other things.

Then there’s the third bucket, which is what I regard as ignorance.

After developing a few skills, reading a few books, or after starting a new enterprise, a person tends to start believing they know everything this world has to offer. They forget that this world is a vast source of knowledge and wisdom. They don’t want to acknowledge that, no matter what, they will always be ignorant about the things that they don’t know what they don’t know.

So, as you explore this world, always keep an open mind-set. Remember that you don't know what you don't know. Never develop a sense of ego or pride after learning a few tips and tricks to “get ahead.” Always be humble and stay close to the fact that you are a student of life. Your job is to observe it. As you have new experiences and meet new people, your first and second buckets will slowly fill up; but your third bucket will always remain empty, as you don't have the power to see into it. It’s that simple.

Allow me to summarize the main lessons from this chapter for you quickly: