Life : There is more?
Have you ever feel like there's so much more to life than just being existed? Or a feeling that no matter what you have accomplished in life, there's an emptiness that couldn't be fulfilled ? For me, it was because I had been living my life not according to its purpose. It's like when you buy a fridge, it has to be turn on and utilised according to its creator's intention as a place to keep fresh produce, frozen food etc., if I use it as a place to keep books, it would be a waste of such a good fridge. I think it was the same with life.
In my quest of so called soul searching, self discovering journey, I stumbled upon this word years ago.“Migunani”.
Migunani is a Javanese word, which can be translated as 'useful'. It seems pretty straightforward and may I say rather simple. But the philosophy behind the word goes deeper than just a simple 'useful'. Being a strong believer of this word or philosophy for more than ten years, I have found more than what I searched. This word changed my way of thinking and living my life. It altered how I view the world and its 'pleasures'. I've witnessed this simple word had mobilised people to get out of their comfort zone and moved into a new challenge which from my very own experience would be rewarded with a sense of contentment and simple joy.
In Migunani philosophy, everyone who lives in the world serve purpose in life. This purpose has only one objective that is to live an impactful life by helping others. It doesn't mean just to do it as an act of philantrophy or charity or social work, and of course it's never about gaining heaven at the end of the tunnel. Helping others in Migunani is the very meaning of living. Life is to be useful for others. To be impactful is to have a meaningful life.
Life, universe or the divine gives us parts to play, roles to be performed as long as we live. Sometimes it feels like we don't have any power over what role we might end up with so we just accept it and go on with our lives, and sometimes we could choose our role and actively involved in the development of the story. But, whatever the part or role we got in this life assigned by the divine or universe, the message of the story stays the same, it's about how to be impactful and to empower others. Basically people can live a meaningful life when they give their lives for the good of others. Is it altruistic or just plain stupid? To put differences between those two, we need to dive deeper into the philosophy.
Hardship in life makes us bound ourselves to the popular beliefs that we could help people and make the world to a better place by doing extraordinaries deeds, be like Mother Theresa, travel to impoverished land and feed the hunger, heal the sick people, invent a cure for fatal diseases, or build schools. There's absolutely nothing wrong by doing all these things but not everyone has the resources, opportunity or skill of doing it. Each of us has different skill-set, passion and resources that given by nature and nurtured by our life experiences, so each of us has our very own way of doing things and our way is the best way we could do something to be 'useful' for others.
As our roles, plays and story are solely made for us, purpose could be vary in everyone. Not everyone has an extreme purpose such as gift of martyrdom, or a purpose to save the human race from natural disaster. Sometimes it's less extreme and more achievable than we think. But whatever it is, extreme or less extreme, it has to contained that one element of impact for others. Many of us when we try to help others, we emphasize in the mission and not in the goal of what we want to achieve. We got caught up in how we do things and close the door of possibilities of trying different approaches in the course of achieving the vision to bring good to the people we help. We'd try to do big things and aim for the highest mountain, and it'd frustrate us when nothing is happening, the world is still the same, nothing is changing, and we feel our efforts just die in vain. Well, big things or small things, it doesn't matter where we start, what matters is why we do what we do. It's not fair to compare our efforts to Mother Theresa's, because no one will stand a chance, but like I said before, it got nothing to do with doing something extreme, it's about the purpose. Is it impactful even just to a small number of people? or even just to one person? Does the person we help experience an added value? If the answer is yes, then you are doing your part. You're living a migunani life. A life that useful, impactful for others and meaningful for ourselves. It's not just a way of living, it's a journey of discovering yourself, your meaning and your place in the world.
So, there is more in life? Yes, definitely yes, and the best is yet to come. (V)