The Sword of Wisdom

Trying to stay spiritually open while also avoiding complete lunatics.

We are all different, that much is true. The longer I live, the more clearly I can see it, and I never stop wondering: humans, who are we even?

Humans fascinate me, although some of them are safer as biographies than real life encounters. For example, there are people I want absolutely nothing to do with. It is not that I am deeply interested in humanity to the extent that I walk around studying random strangers on the street. I use intuition. I approach only those I feel I could genuinely connect with. Maybe it is emotional intelligence, who knows. But there are those I avoid at all costs.

I notice them quickly. Sometimes from the corner of my eye. I can see them clearly before they even realise I have already registered their presence. Not only noticed them, but already made a plan. A plan to get rid of them as fast as possible.

I don’t know how it is for you, but I make decisions quickly, and honestly, I love it. I cut people off fast. My sword of wisdom is sharp and shiny. I have no regrets about that because I wasted too much priceless time on people who later damaged me. A few relationships felt like nightmares come true. Some of them nearly killed me. I needed therapy, a complete life shift, and years to recover properly.

I am sensitive. When relationships turn cruel, when ugly words are spoken, I cannot simply move on with my day and pretend nothing happened. My inner peace disappears, and inner peace is one of the highest values in my life. So I cut with my sword of wisdom.

Maybe Buddha wouldn’t agree with me, but boy oh boy, there are truly damaged people out there. Some of them can ruin your life swiftly and without hesitation. Maybe we all have Buddha nature. Maybe there is some all pervasive consciousness living through us. Maybe people become monsters because of ignorance, attachment, fear, resentment and all the poisons of the mind. Maybe if all of that dissolved into the endless depth of pure awareness, we would all become enlightened. Everything is possible and sometimes I choose to believe it.

Yet for now, since I am not fully enlightened myself, I tread carefully on the common road of humanity. Trusting too much hurt me badly, and I am genuinely grateful I survived it. I have survived quite a lot, at least in my modest estimation. I understand there are people who survived things beyond imagination and others who never survived at all. The world can be a very sad place. It is heaven and hell mixed together, sometimes divided by less than an inch. You can see it clearly if you pay attention.

We live our ordinary lives while desperately trying to create meaning. The search for meaning never stops. We build monuments, create religions, nations, join groups and ideologies because we want our memory to outlive us somehow. We leave behind children, books, art, opinions, companies, photographs and names carved into stone. Humanity is terrified of disappearing quietly.

At the same time, we can already feel our memories are fading, the past is shrinking, the present is becoming the future and the future holds less and less mysteries. Somewhere deep inside, we sense the end credits approaching. What haunts us is nonexistence, although Death has been with us since the first breath we ever took. Every day behind us already belongs to Death because Death is intertwined with Life. They arrive together.

And although Death will eventually destroy us physically, her presence gives life intensity. Maybe even value. People who survive near-death experiences often say something similar afterward: food tastes different, light feels warmer, small moments suddenly matter. They begin noticing life again. Maybe the full appreciation of life only comes when we fully understand our own finiteness.

And maybe we are all different while also strangely the same. Because eventually it does not matter whether you are a king, oligarch, celebrity or peasant. The destination remains identical. You will disappear. You will be forgotten. And not only you. One day the universe itself will collapse into the void and there will be nobody to remember that final event. Nobody will sing songs and write sagas and poetries.

So relax a little. Take a deep breath. Whatever you are doing, try to enjoy the process more. At least that much is possible. Life is an unbelievably rare occurrence and nobody fully understands how any of this happened. And for you to appear exactly as this specific human being, the odds were so absurdly small that it will never happen again.

You are one of a kind.

So whatever it is you feel called to do, perhaps mighty Nike was right after all:

Just do it.