SANJAY SAYS

Life Isn’t About Finding a Better Flashlight: It’s About Getting Comfortable With the Dark

The truth is hidden by the glow of all the lights you’re using to find it

Let there be lights — created in DALL-E

I’ve spent the past decade trying to become a better person. It’s kind of worked, I’m a little less arrogant, a little more caring. But life didn’t become easier until I discovered something more powerful than psychedelics, meditation, journaling, or therapy.

Until I discovered that I wasn’t broken at all, and that my life story was written by someone else and I’m just living it. Life is an experience, not a journey, because a journey implies a destination.

Lately, I’ve been playing around with using parables to help convey some more of these recently discovered truths. That we live in a simulation. That the Voice in my head isn’t me. That life is a lot easier than we tend to make it.

This particular parable is about the myths of systems and self-improvement. An Xin is a fictional ancient Chinese scholar, because nothing says “wisdom” like a robe and centuries of cultural reductionism.

The Parable of Illumination