Man Lept Nur Einmal

Carpe frickin Diem. Words you hear over and over again, words that have been put into many different forms over the ages. Carpe Diem, live in the moment, live for now, man lept nur einmal!, stop and smell the roses, you only live once. But they all mean the same thing; the only time you possess is now. The only thing you can control is now. Today is a blank canvas in front of you, the future is a blank canvas in another room, paint on the canvas in front of you. It has often been said that even the best-laid plans go awry, and that is because one cant entirely depend on planning, we must live in each and every moment. We cannot affect what happens in the future, we can only affect what happens, when it happens. We must find our salvation now, in this life, because we cannot find salvation in waiting for it to come in the future. If you plan to eat a chocolate cake tomorrow, why not eat it today? It still has as many calories, it is still incredibly awesome, you still experience the same amount of Euphoria in eating that cake. If you can find god now, why wait until you die to find the answer to The Great Question, why wait until you die to experience the embrace of enlightenment.

            Kabir, an old Indian mystic, a man who lived long before Drake, wrote (or rather spoke, he was illiterate) a poem on this. Friend, Hope for The Guest While You Are Alive is about finding salvation before death. That you cannot find salvation in death, you find it in living, in being alive. And he also says that you cannot control the future, that the only thing you control is now. Surprisingly enough, Master Oogway in Kung Fu Panda teaches this same lesson to us. “look at this tree Shifu, I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [but I can control when the fruit will fall, where the seed will be planted] yes, but no matter what you do, that seed will grow into a peach tree, you may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will still get a peach”(Aibel/Berger). You can only alter things when they are upon you. You can determine when the peach will fall, when it falls. You can control where and when the seed is set, but that all would have happened eventually. Yes you may control ‘when’ things happen, but that is not altering the fate of things. You can control ‘when’ you attain enlightenment. So why not sooner rather than later? The Buddha didn’t plan to attain enlightenment; he made it happen.

            Kabir says that just because you are dead, does not mean you will achieve salvation- ‘the idea that the body will join the ecstatic/ just because the body is rotten-/ that is all just a fantasy"(Kabir 9-11) 

When he says 'the ecstatic' he means finding  "The Guest". The Guest could be anything, it could be God, it could be a diety of your understanding, it could be happiness, it could be enlightenment. Everyone has a Guest, except maybe nihilists, because they aren't looking for anything or striving. Many will not find The Guest in their lives, they will live a life of mediocre bliss, just subsisting on their daily occasional entertainment. Those people will end up with "an apartment in the valley of death"- kabir, they will not reach the place of eternal enlightenment. They will live mediocre forever, because that is what they did in life, so they will continue in death. If one finds The Guest in life, they will live in the afterlife eternally knowing that they have fulfilled their one goal on this earth. 

          In the process of scrutinizing over every aspect of this poem, I have found that it is much easier to

understand a piece of work with extra information. It is good to research the author first, to find out

their religious beliefs, activities, lifestyle, childhood. This way, you can relate their experiences and

 such to the way that they write and the interpretations of lines in accordance with their faith. It is also a 

good idea to interview someone else whilst analyzing the poem. They might think of it differently than 

you do. They might offer a totally new spectrum of thought on a topic you had already closed. My dad 

(whom i interviewed) offered to me a look into his brain and the way it works and showed me his side 

of things, and I am grateful for this. He gave me the idea of maybe the poem being pantheistic, that god

is all around us in the world.

          This poem has taught me a lot. it teaches me that god is in and around us, he can be found simply 

by looking around, right now, in this moment. And that we shouldn't try to control time, but control 

what happens now. "if you make love with the divine now, in the next life / you will have the face of 

satisfied desire"(Kabir 16-17) So live in the moment, live for now, you only live once, you have but 

one life to give for your salvation.

Tomorrow is a mystery, yesterday is history, but today is a gift, thats why it is called the present