A Simple Guide To A Respectable Existential Theory
Many years ago, I attended a Yoga course conducted by a popular charlatan from India. The whole pitch of the course was that the teachings would open up the path to the absolute truth, with unlimited joy and happiness as a by-product of this pursuit. This sales pitch appealed to me, as I was keen on the path to the absolute truth and who in his right mind would reject a lifetime supply of joy and happiness. Being naïve and hopeful, I did believe in whatever was promised and enrolled for the course. Further, I practiced the techniques with as much honesty and intensity as I could muster, firmly believing this to be the path to crack the mystery and overcome the misery of this existence. Clouded with hope and optimism, I failed to consider a simple question — what would be left of this existence if both it’s mystery and misery were solved ?
It took me a few years to realize that there would be nothing left, it is just misery and mystery that is fueling this existence and anyone who promises to have figured a way out of this set-up is just a bloody charlatan. If we dig down to the root of our pursuits, it is just a combination of the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of truth, largely the pursuit of happiness. If existence was not miserable, the pursuit of happiness would not have a fraction of the significance it holds and if existence was not mysterious, the pursuit of truth would face the same fate of irrelevance. Any cosmic theory that deserves an iota of respect and consideration, it must start with the basic acknowledgement that existence is both mysterious and miserable. If it is not able to do this, not even worth discussing that theory, irrespective of who is preaching or who is following. Assuming that a particular existential theory acknowledges these two fundamental realities, what next ?
Once past this basic acknowledgment, the tricky question is if there is a solution to either of these challenges or both or none? Here comes the predicament which most theories consciously ignore, if they do promise a way to overcome the misery and crack the mystery, they must also address what comes after this, other than the depressing reality of just staring at the abyss. Instead of facing this predicament head on, mankind dances around it in a hundred different ways and pretends there is a reality where both the mystery and misery will be resolved and we can stare at our joyful faces on the blank screen of existence for eternity. Every charlatan around the world has been shilling the same myth of happily ever after, though this proposition makes zero sense. Thank heavens that the world is not full of these charlatans and there have been many wise men who saw through the reality that there simply cannot be an happily ever after, it is structurally impossible.
As an analogy, this scenario is like watching a crime thriller series, where there can only be the promise of the crime being solved, a titillation of sorts. Because, if the crime is solved, we will be left with nothing to binge upon, so the show must inadvertently go on, one way or another. At the same time, we cannot accept the fact that the series will never find a resolution, as this makes the whole promise of closure pointless. This leaves the audience in a precarious situation, where they have to convince themselves that the series will eventually come to a satisfying closure, while simultaneously ignoring the obvious reality that they will be left with nothing to binge upon if the series ever comes to a closure. If both the mystery and misery is taken out of the existential equation, there will be nothing left to keep the show going. Maybe it is time to accept that there is no comprehensive solution to this predicament, none whatsoever.
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Understandably, there is not much of an audience for this line of thinking, for the simple reason that this would break the cycle of hope. The hope that there is an happily ever after must be sustained, however illogical and impossible it maybe. It is out of this collective compulsion to sustain the cycle of hope, we have a nauseating amount of existential theories which are nothing more than a glorified orgy of hope purely backed by fantasies and speculations. As the demand, so the supply and this cycle of demand and supply has been churning forever. To satisfy the largely mediocre demand, even schools of thought which originated as authentic explorations of truth have been reduced to petty moral science and emotional therapy. For instance, few Buddhist monks have reduced themselves to the level of motivational speakers on YouTube. Their justification might be this is the only way to reach a wider audience, but is this the right path ?
Going back to the Yoga course I attended, the event had around 3000 attendees in all age groups. The sales pitch of the course was that it was going to pave the path to the absolute truth, with unlimited joy and happiness as by-products of the journey. At that time, I had the idea that suffering was rooted in ignorance and if ignorance can be eliminated, then it is case closed and settled. With this line of thinking, whatever the promoters of the course promised fit right into my objectives. With the firm belief that I was on the right track, I gave it everything I had. Thanks to this intense pursuit, in a few years, I realized that it is not suffering that is rooted in ignorance, but it is existence that is rooted in suffering and there is no way out of this soup. It was hard to digest, but I finally accepted that I fell for the oldest scam in the history of spiritual discourse, that is the promise of a magical way out of the mysteriously miserable nature of existence. But, what about the rest of the participants, what was their objective to attend the course in the first place ?
As pompous as it sounds, I can safely bet that 90% of them were there to resolve their broken bodies and dysfunctional relationships and could not care less about the pursuit of absolute truth. If fixing back pain is the highest priority one has, physiotherapy would be a better option than attending this particular event and if mending broken relationships is one’s highest priority, therapy would have been a more appropriate path. But, everyone in the room believed this particular course was a one stop solution to all problems in life, including me and this is how the promoters of the course marketed the event as well. It was largely a shameful mess of cunning promises and unrealistic expectations. To make things worse, many who were lured into this path of chasing that magical solution are not even clear if it is truth or happiness they are after. Eventually, many will end up in a messed up pursuit of happiness masked as the pursuit of truth and after a point of time, it might be very hard to untangle this mess.
I knew an acquaintance who was pushing 60 and had invested a chunk of his retired life in trying to be the alchemist that I gave up on. I wonder if it is sunken cost fallacy that is stopping him from giving up or does he truly believe he is going to get it right eventually ? Either ways, it is not going to end well for him, that part am certain about. Unfortunately, this particular acquaintance is not the only one caught up in the dilemma between coming to terms with having invested decades of their lives into something that will never work out or worse, something they should have never invested themselves into, as they did not care much about the pursuit of truth, but were lured with the promise of happiness. There are millions around the world caught up in the same mess, where they believed in the false promise of an happily ever after. As though this was not bad enough, they were also dragged into the pursuit of truth as well, with the false notion that the discovery of truth is also the end of suffering.
Mixing the pursuit of truth with the pursuit of happiness can never end well, as it just doubles down on delivering two impossible goals. After having wasted many years of my life in trying to achieve the impossible, I realized the fundamental fallacy in this approach and that being the existential game is largely driven by the inherent misery and mystery, with no way out of this set-up. Am thankful to have come to this realization and not waste the rest of my life trying to be an alchemist. But, this could have easily gone the other way with me endlessly chasing that one magical path to happily ever after. Any existential theory, if it has to deserve an iota of respect must start with this fundamental acknowledgment that it is not going to be able to deliver the happily ever after. Without this disclosure, it is just another variation of never ending mental gymnastics and not even worth bothering about. In the words of Emil Cioran:
A doctrine of salvation has meaning only if we start from the equation ‘existence equals suffering’.
Never promise something you cannot deliver, this should be the mantra. If this simple mantra is not followed, every existential theory must share the same destination of ending up as either convoluted or diluted crap and this is exactly what makes them worthless. There is no shame in just acknowledging the mysteriously miserable nature of existence and also admitting that this is the only way existence can be. No need to promise a paradise that does not exist, in this life or the next. This is not a harmless promise either, it can ruin the lives of countless victims.
