tba draft
It would appear on the surface that the statement "the unexamined life is not worth living" is based on how great it is to just look at life. Look at life for the intellectual pleasure or rigor, etc. But, that is not the case!
Like many famous sayings, they are not complete statements in themselves, but only 'lead ins' to the discussion.
It is the reason that counts here. The why of it.
An analogical situation would be that of an athlete who wants to be the best he can in his sport. If he did not look at what he was doing (examine it) and seek feedback (for correction and improvement), how good would he be? And the best athletes are those that seek and get more frequent feedback and make more improvements as a result.
It would be preposterous to encourage the athlete to just lay back and let it happen...so why would individuals do that to themselves and others.
So, if you want to live the best life possible, to be a champion at life in terms of happiness and satisfaction, how could you do that with following the same examination, learning, and feedback process?
How would you get to that point? By luck? Hoping for a miracle? By random life? (If the athlete thought he could just get out there and play without any other thinking or learning, he would get better, but how good would he be compared to the guy who did all the necessary parts for getting better?)
Basically, the unexamine life begets a not so great life, which in turn is not worth much - especially compared to what it could be, much like the champion athlete.
In their lack of knowledge, individuals do not see that life could easily (with some effort, of course) be improved 100%, and probably more than a 1000%. People who aren't there can't see it, though. They should ask of their wiser elders (the ones who operate at the higher levels) how great life can be.
Just as the athlete asks "how am I doing relative to what I could do?", all individuals should ask - especially since this game of life is far more important than a sport.
Just as the athlete asks "what do I need to learn to be great?", all individuals should ask. Each individual should be an expert in what makes humans happy and what actually doesn't, as humans are proven to be poor predictors of what will actually make them happy, plus they allow alot of crap to remain in their lives.
Part of it - the other part is attaining the wisdom of how to live a good, happy life.
find the lack of truth in what you're telling yourself.
Just as the athlete asks "What did I do wrong and what did I do right?" so he can do better, all individuals should ask. When they fail, it is almost always because of lack of sufficient knowledge, so they would look for, as the athlete would, what there is to be learned.
If you fail to ask and completely answer the question "what do you want in life, what makes you happy?", then how could you possible attain it?.
We are unable to grow toward greater understanding of our true nature unless we take time to examine and reflect upon our life. and without that we cannot attain happiness.
Examining our life reveals patterns of behavior. Deeper contemplation yields understanding of the subconscious programming, the powerful mental software that runs our life. Unless we become aware of these patterns, much of our life is unconscious repetition.
If you don't look at it and figure out how to harvest it, how can you harvest it????
reflection, perspective....
