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Hard Decisions

I am human. As such I have never ceased in my pursuit of the easy way out. That was one of the reasons why I stopped reading motivational books and started meditating. Motivational books promised success, but it came at a cost. I had to plan out my life for the next 10 years and then dedicate myself to that plan with an unflinching attitude, which I found quite ridiculous given that usually I had more than enough trouble keeping to my plan for the day.

Meditation on the other hand seemed to propose a one size fit all solution. Meditate for 10 minutes a day and it promised everything. A calm and composed mind, a disciplined lifestyle, a positive attitude, the opposite of which were the root of all problems in my daily life. However, just to sit there and to focus on my breathing was harder than I thought and soon I gave it up, though I never gave up on the hope that one day I would return to it again.

When the semester started, so did the stress and all the usual problems. So when a friend of mine told me that the NUS Buddhist Society had a seminar on how to deal with stress, I quickly took up the offer. After all Buddhism was heavy on meditation and it had to be my easy way out, my final solution. And true to my word, he guest speaker, who happened to be a bigshot from a local company, did emphasise the role that meditation could play in a stress free life.

But that was not all. According to him, a stress free life also needed the individual to plan out one's life, to make the correct decisions, not to procrastinate, to consciously have a positive attitude etc etc. Meditation was a part of the solution, but not the whole solution. It was back to square one all over again. As stressing out as it was, I finally realised the fact that I had to start making decisions, decisions that would be painful, but had to be made so that I would not end up blowing the future that lay ahead of me.

And just to play safe, I signed up for the club's 10 week meditation course.

Honestly, there has to be an easy way out right?


                          "The fool who persists in his folly will become wise"
                                                                                                      ~William Blake

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