Seven years ago, I found myself in one of those moments of boredom. I had stopped climbing the ladder of life, and I was hesitating between reinventing myself yet again or slipping into the pitfall of anguish. I spoke of how much I missed the time when I was in the war. They asked me why. I answered them the same way I always did: “because things worked there”.
That question haunted me on my way home. At 70, I had already lived through great challenges, successes and many losses. A life of much comforts and few regrets.
Three days after, with that haunting question already broken down into dozens of others, I decided to deepen my knowledge, to seek information so as to understand why that feeling made me uneasy.
Still taken by the need to apply some “method” to reach conclusions, I began my research by referring to various sources of knowledge on quality of life. These included the prevailing religions, as well as the currents of thought that have guided humanity and the science.
I singled out the recommendations that were common among these sources—the ones that were considered pillars of their teachings.
Six years later, I managed to summarise all the material I had analysed into 600 pages. And then I was able to begin discussing the conclusions. That was when a certain doubt led me to decide between heeding the wish of my “ego” or the advice of my “reason”. It was a decision between talking about how much time and effort had gone into years of research, lectures and questions, or talking about the resulting conclusions. Between writing a few books or writing a few pages. I chose not to rely on the prestige of science and the appeals of philosophy or religion. And so I tore up everything my ego wanted to display—as it urged me to parade my hard work—and I accepted the challenge of only talking about that which can be “felt” and, as a result, requires no academic explanation.
I chose to point out the obvious, the evidence that can be felt, so that everyone can do the simple thing. I chose “reason” because, if you feel like satisfying your curiosity, you can search for what you need using the keywords you can take from here.
And this is how I began the story that I am telling you today.