The only sure way to survive is to seek enlightenment

And in the terms as I define them, there is no real argument against me, because even those with traditional survivalist experience and knowledge have sought enlightenment at least that much.

Enlightenment as I define it is:

• The pursuit of greater physical awareness of your body, and over-all fitness
  
• Pursuit of greater awareness and understanding of your mind, heart, and emotions
  
• Pursuit of a greater understanding of your environment, local and distant
  
• Pursuit of a greater understanding of all fields of technical knowledge relevant to your potential conditions and situations
  
• A never-ending pursuit of greater awareness in general
  

This could be recommended to a man on his death bed and obviously it would not do him much good. So there are pre-requisites and definite amounts of work that need to be done here, but this is the only real sure-fire way to survive anything. And it is only as sure-fire as you make it. But enlightenment ultimately IS the most infallible method of figuring anything out or doing anything that humanity has known thus far in its history.


This is all about personal attention and development, NOW, so that you will be strong enough in all respects later. Physically fit, emotionally strong, and a sharp mind, and more important than these 3 is the process of development itself to which you should always remain faithful because it will never fail you once for even a second, so long as you pursue it with confidence. And it is all in your own hands. No more relying on the responsibility of others, please!

You make some good points. I disagree with some of what you wrote, however.

A person on his deathbed, I believe, still can benefit from seeking enlightenment. You defined the term to be a *never-ending* quest. Why should it stop, just because life is almost over?

Another area in which I disagree is that a search for enlightenment isn't necessarily the best way to survive. If you've got a large, hungry animal coming for you, that is not necessarily a good time to ponder the meaning of life. Probably a more helpful response would be to shelve the philosophical questions and run like hell.

Of course, this is an extreme situation, but the same notion applies to less urgent crises. If you have no food, your energies are better focused on how to get hold of food. Philosophical speculations are OK on a full belly; but if you're hungry, they are useless. In the Talmud it says "Where there is no bread, there is no Torah" - meaning, hungry people aren't good scholars of the Law. Or, as Shakespeare observed, "...there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently..."

Aside from those two objections, I agree with your comments. We would be better suited trying to learn more about ourselves, nurturing ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Most of us are so focused on getting more "stuff" that we have no time to enjoy what we already have. We're on a treadmill where we have to run as fast as we can, just to stay in the same place.

Originally posted by chiron613
Another area in which I disagree is that a search for enlightenment isn't necessarily the best way to survive. If you've got a large, hungry animal coming for you, that is not necessarily a good time to ponder the meaning of life. Probably a more helpful response would be to shelve the philosophical questions and run like hell.

Learning how to avoid or deal with situations like that is a big part of being responsible for your own awareness imo. You still must do it beforehand unless you have some means of learning what to do as it is unfolding. Even running like hell is a bad idea for many/most dangerous animal encounters, because many/most of them can run faster, but knowing what to do in any particular case is all about increasing knowledge beforehand, which is my only point.

Interpreting what I am saying as "philosophical" is just indicating to me the abstraction that has taken place, the duality or split between the reality we are experiencing and our interpretation of it. Learning how to avoid dangerous encounters with wild animals is still enlightenment to me.


But I agree with you about there still being hope for the dying man. Maybe not in a physical survival sense but in others for sure.