The Bridge of Awareness

Life as we know it is a tragedy. The story begins with uncertainty and ends with suffering and death. Every character in the story suffers and dies, without exception. You, the main character, emerge from a fog of unconsciousness with only a vague idea of your motivation. In fact, key components of your character are influenced (if not created) by apparently arbitrary external forces. The environment in which your story unfolds seems arbitrarily determined without regard for your intentions (if indeed you have intentions that are not merely byproducts of your environment). The roles of your parents, your neighbors, your teachers and friends seem to have randomly fallen into place, again without regard for your leading role (unless perhaps as the means of defining your role). In fact your life story is not even your own. As you grow older you realize that you are little more than a "bit part" in a tragedy of larger incomprehensible dimensions.

To cope with the knowledge of inevitable suffering and death, some people try to regard their life as a comedy. They try to regard life as such, but the tragic truth of life is ultimately unavoidable. Eventually their laughter rings hollow. Their passing fancies are merely lapses of consciousness.

The intention or moral of a story is evident in its conclusion, otherwise the story remains incomplete or poorly crafted. Considering how the story of life appears to end in suffering and death, one must wonder at the purpose of it. One must wonder at the morality of it. Is life merely a poorly crafted story? Consider your role in life, how it seems only a "bit part." Consider how much of your role has been arbitrarily determined by external circumstances. Who, or what, is really composing the story of your life? Is it a story at all or is it merely a collection of incidents strung together indifferently by the passage of Time?

Life is more than what it appears. Life can be a story but only if you become the author of it. The life that is given, a life let live, the life you have known, is hardly a story at all, and that is the tragedy. A conscious life, a life lived intentionally, is not a tragedy but a mystery. Unfolding the mystery of your life, of who you really are, is the authentic motive of a conscious life and the moral of the story.