Analysis of the Book The Art of Living - Essay Example

OF Topic: The Art of Living This paper seeks to write down on what I have learned from the book “The Art of Living” by Grant1 and how it has influenced me. The influence of reading and assimilating the messages of the book goes to the inner part of my life as it will have an effect on my thoughts and attitudes towards life. It will surely affect my studies and it has caused me to raise more serious questions about life. I had thought the rational mind is normally associated with conscious mind so that in making choices in life, the said mind has to do its work. However, I did learn from reading that we do have a subconscious mind that actually makes life easier because many decisions in life would become automatic or easy if the same mind can be made to function under the most important circumstances. Having subconscious mind to do many functions of humans like me should be interesting enough to discover. This would have the effect of making some things as just my second nature and it would release me of more stressful situations that could be damaging to health. Comparing my initial intuitive thoughts about the reading and determining the effect on my thinking after the reading can give us a good idea on the value of reading the book. My initial intuitive thought about the reading was that it would me how to understand and live life to the fullest. I believe that I was right to have found some concepts or ideas as guides on how to live life as possibly productive and meaning to me as a person. A life without a meaning would be just like be a life without a purpose. By knowing one’s purpose in life as can deduced from the reading, on can have a sense of direction that would put our attitudes towards its gravitation. Thus from the book, attitude matters and it would really help much to attain something if one has the right attitude towards what one wants to accomplish in life. After reading the book, I would say that it has influenced my thinking in the way that I could make my life easier by training my mind on how to use my subconscious mind which could make things which are ordinarily stressful to more satisfying and enjoyable experience. Attributing a measure of value for doing this activity is possible and worth mentioning. Doing this I believe would make me remember the learning from this exercise in a deeper way. In fact I would say that writing this paper is way to train my subconscious mind by committing to memory things which I understand for future use. One’s education therefore would have the same purpose of actually training both the conscious and subconscious mind in helping to shape things to come. As to whether the reading did contradict my ways of thinking, upbringing and cultural background, I would say that it did somewhat contradict in some ways but I got myself confirmed also in some other ways. To illustrate, I had thought that the subconscious mind could not be as powerful as the conscious mind. From the reading, it is actually the latter that makes everything easier to live as we live with habits and attitudes. Having the right attitude then becomes more of the function of the subconscious mind. I would therefore refer to knowing this as discovery of knowledge. To admit this reality should be thought as an evidence of learning. Did I feel it was worthwhile reading? I would respond in the affirmative since it provided me some insights into how I will make my life better. There could be no better things to learn than knowing how to live better each day. There is just so much to learn in this world like learning how to live better but this reading was rather a unique one as it has kept me to read it again so that I could really have more application of principles and knowledge discussed in the pages. When the author talked about the benefits from reading the reading the article in the foreword, I was motivated to go on. To quote the author “this book may help many to come into harmony with lifes law and purpose - to avoid much of their needless suffering”2, it was saying that I could have much from this book as life was not that easy. To say that life is easy would imply a life that is not making choices. To choose must not be easy because of the need to weight the advantages and disadvantages of each proposition that we have to respond to. When the authors referred to great Eastern philosophers wanting to bring an end to human suffering about their instruction to find the Greater Self within3, I was asking why it has not come from the western philosophers. With the thought that I would discover the about the reality of absolute security, I wanted to get more from the book. An inner spiritual strength must indeed exist to fill the void that cannot be satisfied from the materialism of those people in western. To therefore know how to wisely make use of inner spiritual and mental forces to overpowering personal difficulties with almost unlimited power must indeed be a great wisdom. Relating spiritual or mental matters with to everyday life’s experiences like my studies would make this paper more interesting. Knowing therefore whether the reading will influence my future studies should be worth investigating. I believe that that the reading will definitely influence my future studies if I could just believe on some points that I have read. If the conduct of my studies is just a part of temporal things and that there is a way to reach human perfection or near the same, then it should become part of my future studies to continue to learn and apply the benefits of knowing the secrets of the art of living. I am however assuming that I want to reach the level of perfection. If I can make reading and researching as my second nature by the power of the subconscious mind, then it would really help me a lot in my academic life. This would put my heart to its right place and doing research would become pleasurable in the process despite the perception by some that it is tedious. Just as certain readings can provide one with life-changing concepts, I believe this one can contribute to moving towards said orientation. The reading did provide me some life-changing concepts in the context of being material and spiritual person at the same time. To know that something is more powerful than the subconscious would make the value of reading this book more interesting. Humans can tap the spiritual power to make life further easier. How to become spiritual becomes the next question? To attain that level of being spiritual given its benefits should therefore be an aim for everybody. It becomes interesting why others are not aiming for it. When many are committing suicide in the material world of west, knowledge of spirituality must be life changing indeed. It is sometimes said that knowledge generates additional knowledge because of the tendency of a new to raise any new questions. As far as this reading is concerned, I would submit that it did raise new questions for me. One question would be like the following: How to attain that level of spirituality that could make my life better? If indeed there is an art of living, then one must know it fully well. The truth of any proposition however can be considered as such if it is accepted and what would cause it to be accepted cannot be easily detached from having part of the empirical evidence of humans. Other questions then would be as follows: Can people testify to the truth of such spiritual things? Would not the concept of spirituality just be a creation of art? I would conclude that there should be an art of living which was partly described and discussed by the book. This book has thought me a way towards attaining human goals including the happiness that everybody deserves for choosing to live the way one wanted. To have knowledge is to have that freedom of choice which I believe is the greatest gift that a happy and good life must have. I will choose to have freedom then by knowing more in many aspects of my life. Work Cited Grant. The Art of Living: Developing your personal power, Vol. 1. International College of Metaphysical Theology Press, 2011 Read More