| A Second Life |
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| — This Is Your Last Chance — |
Every human being is given opportunities, at some point and somewhere in life, to awaken to their own mistakes.
These mistakes are not moral failures in the ordinary sense.
They refer to having lived without truly knowing oneself.
Without understanding ourselves — without paying attention to the energy we have continually projected into the world — we became absorbed only in immediate concerns and devoted ourselves entirely to them.
That mistake must eventually be corrected.
No — it is destined to be corrected.
The gap between our true nature — consciousness, energy itself — and the energy we have actually continued emitting throughout our lives is immense.
And the greater that gap becomes, the more it appears before us in the form of suffering.
It is precisely because the separation has grown so large that other people and various events around us continually try to tell us something:
"Please come to know the energy you have been releasing."
From the moment we are born, gain awareness, grow older, and struggle to establish a life for ourselves, most people do their very best according to their circumstances.
That is the ordinary course of life.
Some have surely lived desperately, throwing themselves entirely into survival and achievement.
And the energy used during those years is enormous.
To live in this world requires tremendous expenditure of energy.
And during the first half of life — what might be called "the first life" — this is natural.
At that stage, people are so busy expending energy that they have no room to examine it.
And perhaps such a period is necessary within every human life.
There was once a phrase used to describe people as apathetic, indifferent, and irresponsible.
But doing nothing outwardly does not mean no energy exists within them.
Often such people merely accumulate energy internally until one day, through some trigger, it suddenly erupts outward.
Far better, perhaps, to pour one's energy outward — into study, work, challenges, and youthful striving — fully embracing the privileges of youth.
Even if one occasionally loses control or makes mistakes, youth itself often allows room for forgiveness and for beginning again.
There is still time to recover.
Stumbling, falling, wandering, and taking detours — these are natural parts of the first half of life.
People suffer, struggle, become confused, and search their way forward.
That is simply part of being human.
However, you are no longer in that stage of life.
You are now entering the period of the "second life."
And during this stage, it is no longer enough merely to continue scattering energy outward in the same way as before.
Even while still experiencing confusion, struggle, and suffering, now is the time to begin examining the energy you yourself have continued projecting into the world.
Yet in reality, society moves in another direction.
There are endless invitations promising a rich and enjoyable second life.
If one follows those social currents, it may seem as though happiness and fulfillment in old age are guaranteed.
But such things cannot truly exist without first bringing closure to the first half of life.
And what does "bringing closure to the first half of life" mean?
As I have repeated throughout this book, it means examining the tremendous energy with which you have lived until now.
And the method for examining that energy lies within:
At first glance, these reflections may appear unrelated to the life you have lived.
But if you actually practice them, your own heart will come to understand.
Through these two reflections, you will begin realizing — not merely intellectually, but deeply within yourself — that you have continuously emitted enormous energy throughout your life.
You will come to see how powerfully you have been driven by that energy.
Gradually, you will begin understanding how intense the desire has been to seek happiness and fulfillment within the world of form.
Please devote the time now given to your second life toward examining yourself.
If you possess such time — and the ability to use it in this way — then you are truly fortunate.
By bringing closure to the first half of life, your later years can become deeply meaningful and rich.
If one's later years are good, then perhaps everything is good.
But when the final years of life become lonely and empty, there is something profoundly sad about the entire human journey.
When I think of those who cling desperately to memories of the days when they once shone brightly, still unable to release their attachment to this world even as the flame of life flickers toward extinction, I cannot help but wish that they, too, might at least have touched the world of truth — even for a moment.