Your life is a blueprint you designed yourself.
You carefully crafted it with purpose, weaving into it messages you wanted to communicate to yourself:
"Live for your true self."
If you strip away all the embellishments, this one message will remain, clear and bright.
Many people, as they reflect on the course of their lives, will come to realize:
"So that's what it was. If I think of it that way, everything begins to make sense."
At the same time, many others may still feel deeply resistant to the idea:
"There's no way I would have written such a scenario for myself."
This reaction usually stems from the belief that one would never deliberately choose a life full of suffering—
that if we could draft our own life plan, we'd surely choose an easier path.
How we define joy and what we consider happiness differs from person to person.
Moreover, how we interpret our lives hinges on whether we view ourselves primarily as physical beings, or as beings of consciousness.
Ultimately, what is a difficult life?
What is an easy life?
Aren't these judgments rooted in a worldview centered on form and appearance?
If we view ourselves as consciousness, as energy, as heart, then everything that happens in life becomes a chance to get to know ourselves.
Both suffering and joy become expressions of joy—gateways to self-discovery.
Earlier, I mentioned that even natural disasters are part of the life scenario you wrote for yourself.
While the term "natural disaster" commonly refers to physical calamities, if we consider the broader meaning of "something that comes suddenly and without warning," then surely, one or two such events exist in every person's life.
In truth, these events do not come out of nowhere.
They are not lightning strikes in a clear sky.
Rather, they are meticulously calculated and arise precisely when they are meant to.
We cannot measure, with our physical minds, the circumstances under which such events unfold.
But it is certain that each of us, through these events, is meant to think, to notice something, and to awaken.
However, if you don't know how to look within, if you've never directed your thoughts inward, then it is nearly impossible to reach the realization that:
"Awareness is joy, and that joy is what sets me free."
Each of us has prepared our lives with the wish:
"Let me fully experience the joy of stepping beyond the tiny boxes I've built around myself."
I understand this is a difficult concept, but as for me, I can only say:
"Yes, that's exactly right."
I've felt a deep sense of regret toward the self I had confined within such narrow limits.
And though I came to feel how foolish it is to live solely as a physical being,
through the scenario I designed for my life—crafted and planned by my own consciousness—
I also came to witness the exquisite precision of the world of consciousness.
I could only marvel at it.
The key is how we choose to live the time we have with this physical body—this life we have given ourselves.
Is simply drifting along with society, living a "safe" life, really the kind of life you have longed for?
This is not to say you should resist everything and go against the current.
Rather, it's about continuously returning to your true self—
and from that perspective, examining your existence and everything around you.
It is through trial and error, during your time in physical form, that you must cultivate the ability to see from that true perspective.
And so, within that process of trial and error, each of us has also planned for certain moments—our own personal "sudden disasters"—to help us shift our perspective.
To shift one's perspective is to fundamentally change one's view of life.
Such is the magnitude of impact a personal disaster can have.
It is only when you can truly feel in your heart,
"I was wrong,"
in response to such a sudden shock, that the event becomes what we call a "disaster."
If no realization occurs, then no matter how great the event may appear from the outside,
for that individual, it never truly was a "disaster."
And if that person holds within the desire to change this time,
then they will plan again—another disaster, another awakening.
Everything is orchestrated by that person's own consciousness.
In the next chapter, I will continue to speak with you—together turning our hearts toward the Mother Universe.