Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanity…
Was reading The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho when I came across this quote…
Someone once said… “Everything is meaningless. Completely meaningless!”
What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
So what is it that drives us to do while we live here??? For most it is self-recognition, pleasure of seeking thrills that chase the boundless limits of excitement… But do we ever truly go after it??? Yaa sometimes that temporary high from a particular pleasurable moment feels great.. but that also fades away like the morning dew… Like the latest must have hi-tech gadget that’s sure to please, or the 4th marriage that just has to be the greenest grass yet, or the drug induced (pick your chemical) high or a child’s toy tossed over in time… What’s the difference between all these???
The answer is extremely simple… “looking for external stimuli to facilitate inward happiness…” Yet is it possible that any worldly stimuli would ever satitate your soul with limitless joy??? Has this world ever given anything that would last forever??? So is it that we just live to move from one high to another existential high, often with no real meaning another that self gratification??? And then we die… Why does any of this matter then???
What if instead of looking for external joy we looked inward fo that everlasting joy which has meaning and purpose??? That’s where our true soul exists… A soul that has been given the freedom of choice… How you use this choice will determine your destiny… The wisest of all men after seeking all the vainglorious wiles the world offers, profoundly stated “Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanity”… So one should learn from this and should seek no more emptiness that this world has to offer rather look into ones self for joy n happiness… Vanity can destroy a person but can also push him to become a better human being…