All actions have consequences. Some consequences are negligible. Some consequences may cancel out others. But there is no such thing that is absolutely devoid of consequences. Most people wouldn't find this hard to accept at all. Some might even call it obvious. So let's keep moving forward and dig deeper. This is going to be a post where I demand a lot of thinking from you. After all this is "Though of the Day". So tell me the source or root of your actions. I'm going to say that it is the mind. One could use different terms like consciousness etc. But we'd still be pointing at the same thing or at least in the same direction.
Without Thought There Is No Action
You can point to nature or automated activities that have been initiated by humans with technological innovation. But these things are merely just ultra complicated. There is no free will involved.
It took some time to end and a lot of hings happened. But it was all pre-determined. Free will is the ability to "choose" and change the way that dominoes keep falling. The dominoes will keep falling you you may not end up with total control. but with free will you have the ability to o give into fate.
With Great Power Comes Great Consequences
Instead of everything playing out according to a pre-determined fate, you actions have real meaning with real consequences. i'm not talking about just few of your actions. I'm talking about all of your actions. Even a small action could send ripples across the very fabric of reality and create butterfly effect over butterfly effect.... or result in pretty much nothing of significance happening. but whatever happens, now it is your fault. You either decided to do something or not do something. Whether you do or don't, there are consequences.
A Synecdoche of Market
Think about trading crypto or stocks. In 2010, a programmer traded 10,000 bitcoins for two Papa John's pizzas. What if it was you who sold those 2 pizzas. It's a tiny everyday activity. But if HODLed that's an easy path to become a mutli-millionaire. With the rise of ETH, Dash, BTS, NEO etc. one could have easily become a multi-billionaire in few trades starting off with a sale of 2 pizzas. That's the power of actions. Ten again, after some time BTC would hit rock bottom giving way to better and more advanced projects or one could have sold even before BTC went past $100. These are all actions. one could have also refused to accept digital intangible coins and that would also be the power of actions.
Incalculable Actions Per Day
Everything aboe might have been pretty ordinary common sense for you. I might even sound Cliché. But now I'm going to ask you to count the amount of instances where you can (and therefor does) take actions. How many can you count? Each passing second is an action. being aware is an action. being not aware is an action. above all, all these actions have consequences. Ask yourself what your consequences would be. One thing that I can say for sureis that lives are mainly just spent wasting time.
The tie is wasted due to the vast amount of actions that have negligible consequences. But then again what is an ocean but a collection of water drops. So what would your actions amount to? Maybe you could take few actions every now and then that could send ripples and change your life on Earth and beyond. But most of time spent on Earth ends up being a one giant opportunity cost.
What If You Were Just Aware
Buddhism and many other Eastern philosophies and practices put great emphasis o awareness. Buddhism even goes as far to say that one could attain Nirvana through focusing on developing awareness alone.
Satipaṭṭhāna
- mindfulness of the body
- mindfulness of feelings or sensations (vedanā)
- mindfulness of mind or consciousness (citta)
- mindfulness of dhammās
Buddha states that it is possible for a person to attain Nirvana by simply maintaining proper awareness of the above 4 aspects that cover both physical and metaphysical aspects of your existence. It might sound easy. If so, let me rephrase it like this.
How about you spend 5 minutes with perfect awareness of your body. This might take effort for some. But if you are familiar with meditation or yoga or even martial arts, you won't find this to be all that difficult. But then I ask you to keep track of not just the body but also all of the sensory stimulations. That's going to a hell. But you could pull it off with some practice. But then I add the mind. Then i add every single thought instance int the history of your existence. Can you maintain your total awareness for 5 minutes?