Analysis of Life

Credited to: Alan Watts (a British Philosopher, writer, speaker, and student of comparative religion)

In music, one does not make the end of a composition the point of the composition. If that were the case, the best conductors would be the ones that conducted the fastest. And there would be composers who wrote only one note. If the end of the composition was the point of the composition, people would go to concerts just to see one crashing chord, and that would be the end. But this is entirely different in our education system when it is compared to our every-day conduct, which gives it a completely different impression.

What we do is that we put a child into the corridor of the grade system and he/she goes to kindergarten, and the great thing is that when he/she finishes that, then they go to first grade. And then first grade leads to second grade and so on until that individual reaches high school. Now it's revving up, everything is getting very intense and very competitive but for what? After high school, it's college. And after college, it's graduate school and when you're done with graduate school, that individual (you or me) goes out to join society and the rest of the world.

You're now in the work force and let's say you work in a big company that is in the insurance business. Now there's a standard or quota that you have to make to achieve the next level or promotion, to say. When you reach that promotion, there's another standard to achieve and then another. You're reaching for something, and that something is coming, It's coming closer and closer and there is a build-up, all of the work you've ever done in your life is leading you to this point. That great thing, that great success that you must reach or fulfill that you're working for.

Then one day, you will wake up as an 40 or 50 year old man/woman and you will finally realize that you've made it. You've reached the fulfillment or that achievement. But the thing is that you will never feel different from what you've always felt. And there's a slight letdown because you feel it as if you were hoaxed. And there was a hoax, a dreadful hoax. It made you miss everything else in life.

We thought of life as an analogy of a journey or some pilgrimage, which had a very serious purpose at the end and your purpose was to get to that end! For whatever it is, it might be money, or any great goal or purpose that anyone has set for themselves. What are your goals? What is your purpose in life? What are you trying to achieve?

As we defiantly try to achieve that purpose at the end, we miss the point the whole way along. The point of the composition was that you were suppose to play or to sing or to dance with the music.

The point of the musical composition was and still is enjoyment.