Travels in search of the meaning of life E-Book

Rami Bleckt

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 291

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Many modern books do not contribute to the harmonious development of a personality or are written from the standpoint of a religious or political concept. They accelerate decay and kill the most valuable thing in our lives – time. This wonderful book, with real stories of interesting personalities, does neither one nor the other and is therefore different. Translated by readers into 15 languages, the award-winning book offers the reader the opportunity not only to pass the time pleasantly, but also to learn a great deal. Thousands of people confirm that this book has completely changed their lives for the better and that everyone can find something useful in it that will change their lives for the better.

Leseprobe

Introduction

This amazing story, which has changed many people's worldviews and lives, began in the passenger cabin of the plane traveling across the Atlantic to another continent (from London to Toronto). I boarded the plane and sat down in my seat. Sitting next to me was a man reading a Russian newspaper. Where he got it from is hard to say. I thought, "So, a Russian ... a Russian-speaking person."

Before the gangway was raised, a few more people entered the first-class compartment. The first was a man of unusual appearance, unusual indeed. It was difficult to tell what nationality he was. He had a thick shock of gray hair, a wise look and wrinkles on his face. None of this was enough to determine his age, but judging by his appearance, he looked older than 40 and exuded calm. Next came a man with a child. Last to enter the cabin was a beautiful young woman who was dressed rather attractively and strikingly.

They were all sitting not far away from me. The first man, whom I had spontaneously classified as "a wise man", sat opposite me on the other side of the center aisle. The man with the child and the young woman sat in front of me. The center aisle separated us from each other.

As soon as the young woman boarded the plane, she tried to put her small bag in the overhead compartment. She expected everyone to rush to her aid. Such an attitude to life is sometimes found in beautiful women who are spoiled by the attention they receive everywhere, who are used to being invited to go out and who are offered help at every opportunity.

But the bag was light and not big and the young woman's charisma was repulsive and negative, so there was no desire to help her. All the more so because it was obviously not necessary. Her coquetry quickly turned into irritation.

Everyone took their seats. Then came the announcement that we were about to take off. The plane taxied onto the runway, but we were left standing for almost an hour because it was full - which is relatively rare, but unfortunately does happen. Interesting things happened during this time.

First and foremost, I watched the "wise man". He asked the stewardess approximately when we would arrive, taking this delay into account. Her answer drew confusion on the man's face for a second. Due to the two-hour delay, he would have to spend the whole night at Toronto Airport (after his arrival, he was supposed to change planes and fly to one of the US cities).

It was interesting that the man looked peaceful and calm. He was looking at his watch quite calmly, even though, as had become clear from his conversation with the stewardess, he was late for an important meeting or conference. It was also clear that he didn't have a Canadian visa. Therefore, he would not be allowed to leave the airport building for an overnight stay in a hotel, although he would not be able to fly on until the next day.

I noticed how the man reacted and took in the events and that he radiated calm, even though the plane was delayed . He didn't get angry and didn't make any demands. It was only later that I learned that our three heroes had been checked very strictly and rather roughly at the airport and had almost missed our plane. But even that didn't disturb his inner calm.

At the same time, it was interesting to watch the little boy. He was five years old, although I initially assumed he was between eight and ten years old. He had an unusually intelligent look - a wise look for a child. He asked questions loudly and insistently to his father, who was out of breath and looked a little discontented and out of sorts. Nevertheless, he answered his son quite politely.

"Dad, why are we standing?"

"Because the plane is delayed and other flights have disrupted the flight schedule. Many planes take off, many land. The runway is busy."

"And why? Why did this happen?"

"Sometimes that happens."

"Why are we flying on this plane? We could have flown on another one. I still have two weeks of vacation and we could have spent that time with grandma."

"I have to work."

"Why do you have to work?"

"So that we have something to live on and always something to eat."

"What do you have to live for? What's the point? What is the meaning of your life, Dad? Do you know the meaning of your life?"

Until then, the man had answered very confidently, but at that moment he faltered.

"Well ... well, I know ... when you grow up, you'll understand."

"But which one, Dad? Which one, tell me."

And then the man began to say something general, but that didn't suit the boy and he continued to ask the question "And why?", which drove the father into a corner: "Why do you have to hurry? Why do you have to work hard to earn something? Why do you have to fulfill your own duties? Why do you have to help people?" And so on and so forth.

It was fun to watch it all. And again at the end:

"Dad, what do we live for? What is all this for? What's the point?"

The boy asked this question several times.

"Well, I don't quite know that yet, and I think few people do ..."

The child almost cried.

"Then does everyone, even scholars, live pointlessly? What is the point of being born, learning, working, growing old and then dying?"

"Maybe there's no point at all ..."

Suddenly the sage replied in perfect Russian:

"Why? There is a meaning to life."

"And you really know that?" asked the boy's father. They got into an interesting conversation. I could hear everything clearly because they were sitting just a meter away from me.

"Yes, I know the meaning of life and I have a goal in life," said the wise man.

He said it so convincingly and calmly that I sensed he was speaking deliberately. I sensed confidence in his words.

The boy's father asked:

"You've probably found the meaning of your life?"

"No, in my opinion, I know the general meaning of life for all people. Each of us also has our predestination and it is very important for everyone to find it."

And after the "wise man" had expressed the word "predestination", our heroes - the man and the young woman - showed interest. As it turned out, the young woman also spoke Russian.

The man and the boy asked almost in chorus:

"And what is the meaning of life? What kind of predestination?"

"Tell me, tell me!" The boy almost cried.

The man sitting next to me also asked:

"Tell us about it. It's interesting for everyone. How did you come to this and how do you see it, whether everyone can find their predestination?"

"I would almost have to talk about my whole life for that. You need a lot of time for that."

Everyone started to press him hard, saying that they wouldn't mind. They had time and would be happy about it.

The "wise man" began to talk very calmly and seriously. Sometimes he paused for almost a few minutes. The story lasted about three hours, with breaks for meals. After this event, I met with the "wise man" again and also spoke to him on the phone. With his permission, I wrote all this down. But the main basis of this book are notes made by Arthur (this is the real name of the "wise man"), which he made himself and copies of which he gave me. He asked me to change the names of the main heroes of these events.

The result was a very interesting story, which I would like to share with you here.

***

I will briefly tell you about my traveling companions, with whom I later became friends. After we had learned what kind of life story everyone had, it was clear to everyone again that there are no coincidences and that God does not bring people together in vain.

The young woman (let's call her Natascha) flew from Europe to Canada and America to take part in some show as a model. She was a successful economist, which you wouldn't have guessed from her appearance. She was to make several appearances on this show.

Recently, she felt more and more that she was not satisfied with her life. She was almost 30 years old and had achieved more than she wanted: She had brilliantly graduated from a prestigious institute and got a good job. She was highly valued at work, primarily because she had developed an economic concept that helped her company to progress successfully. Because it interested her, she decided at some point to try her hand at the modeling business. (She had always known that the majority of girls found this profession very attractive, which is why they were prepared to make great sacrifices just to get into it). A school friend who worked as a manager in a large modeling agency had invited her there.

Natascha had created a portfolio to attract the attention of certain people. Then a successful European tour had followed and now another one. It seemed that her dream was coming true, she had money and fame, but the feeling of dissatisfaction with life did not leave her.

She sat on the plane and thought: "What am I living for? Why do I need this trip? I'm already 30 and what's next?"

These thoughts plagued her.

"What is my predestination? What was I born for? It's so pointless to just earn money and achieve fame by any means, like my friends do!"

Her friends and colleagues may have played the good life, but they didn't radiate happiness.

***

The man on my right also had an interesting story. His name was Sergei.

He talked about how he thought about how the second half of his life was passing much faster than the first, and the older he got, the more he realized this. It seemed to him that the year had only just begun and it was already coming to an end.

In total, we can remember two or three unusual events in the current year. This is similar to a journey on an ultra-modern express train that keeps going faster and faster, whereas in our childhood it seemed to drag on laboriously. "Why is it like that? Where is this train speeding to?" he asked himself, trying to find a logical answer.

But that confused him even more. And he took a different path (which never let him down) that he had read about in some spiritual book. He prayed and asked God to help him find his way.

A few days later, he boarded the plane and saw a newspaper in Russian with an unfamiliar title in the seat pocket, which had probably been left behind after cleaning. It was a newspaper - an information sheet - from a remote Russian region that had somehow made its way here to London.

He wasn't interested in the news from this region and he didn't feel like reading the newspaper either. He wanted to finish reading the book he was supposed to give back to his friend on his return. But this newspaper somehow caught his attention. He opened the newspaper in the center of and saw a large article dedicated to comparing the psyche of children and adults.

The first line of the article already got him excited. There were lots of interesting facts there.

It turned out that children laugh sincerely about 400 times a day, while a normal adult laughs a maximum of 10 to 20 times, including smiles. Children can engage in creative activities - painting, modeling, just like that, and they have a lot of fun doing it. You will hardly find an adult who would do this without expecting something - money, winning prizes in exhibitions, fame, etc.

Children generally live consciously in thehere and nowand are not embarrassed to express their own emotions. In addition to a healthy diet, attention and care as well as emotional closeness to both parents are necessary for a child's full development.

Adults live mechanically, constantly dreaming of the future and regretting the past. As a rule, they are never in the here and now. They put on different masks and can hardly answer the question of who they really are. Children are constantly asking questions and are open to new insights. The majority of adults develop their own world view by around the age of 40, which they find very difficult and often impossible to do without (the article also mentioned that this varies - for some it has been the case since school, for others perhaps only at the age of 35 to 40). They assess every event from the point of view of their experience, their vision, and very rarely ask sincere, insightful questions.

This article also dealt with the importance of raising children and the fact that modern pedagogy often has a destructive effect on children: they are brought up in such a way that they always have to achieve a certain result. They are taught what is good and what is bad, but in a way that adults understand. They are all immersed in mediocre conditions and given no practical knowledge. This pedagogy is basically authoritarian and, most importantly, lacks moral and ethical standards. It lacks the right spiritual foundation. Children are taught a selfish and consumerist approach to life, which is a disaster both for their personality and for society as a whole.

The main aim of modern education is to force as much knowledge as possible into a child. 95% of this knowledge is never used and is therefore quickly forgotten. It is important that the child takes exams in math, physics, etc.

In this article, examples of great educators who raised happy geniuses from ordinary children were given. The names (S. A. Amonashvili, V. N. Neustruev, F. S. Makarenko, V. A. Suhomlinsky and others) were mentioned, which were not particularly known to our hero. And Sergei wanted to learn more about them.

The main idea is unconditional love. People who received it sufficiently in their childhood grew up to be harmonious, healthy people, turned into good parents over time and were able to almost fully realize their potential.

"And at what age does a person not need this unconditional love?" Sergei smiled mockingly as he read this article.

The article went on to say that children often ask serious philosophical questions. If you answer these questions as an adult, they start to make progress very quickly. And when you listen to them, you understand this saying: "Children and fools speak the truth."

More and more often children ask questions about the meaning of life and it is very important to answer these questions honestly, and if you are not sure, then you should promise to give the child an answer later, because a thoughtless answer can program the child for his whole life, and sometimes in a tragic way.

Suddenly something interesting happened. He leaned back in his chair and heard the boy asking his father questions: What for? For what? Why? And so came the questions about the meaning of life. The father answered with difficulty and you could sense a certain irritation in the way he answered.

And suddenly a man sitting in the next row began to talk and his story completely changed Sergei's life. It was like a miracle: he had just read the article on the subject ...

So, here is this story.

Chapter I

Youthful search and revelation

Even before Arthur could read, he had asked the same question that little Peter (Petro, as his father called him) was now asking on the plane. He had asked this question again and again. His parents had answered: "When you grow up, you'll find out." As a teenager, he had asked questions to clever people who he thought were omniscient and experienced, but no one had been able to answer what we actually live for.

In the end, he received general answers: When you grow up, you will find out ... don't ask stupid questions ... no one knows ... build communism ... raise children, live life with dignity, become a role model for the rising generation so that your name will be inscribed in history, etc.

No one could give a concrete and clear answer. Later, he was shocked that even educated people couldn't answer this question and only said general, banal things. But inwardly Arthur did not give in. Intuitively, he knew that our lives cannot be meaningless. Even exact sciences testify that there are certain causes for everything. If we follow this logic, even if we are merely mechanical or chemical substances, then we have some reason for our birth and a predestination.

Once he went to the mountains with his friends and on the first day he climbed the highest mountain. From this mountain, a beautiful view opened up that enchanted him. He saw a beautiful panorama, many kilometers around him. A small town could be seen in the distance, a few kilometers from their camp. The people in this town looked like small dots, and the buses were no bigger than matchboxes. Their traffic seemed unnecessary and ridiculous from above. This was especially noticeable in comparison to the magnificent mountains, which had seen more than one civilization change over the course of tens of thousands of years. The questions that had preoccupied him for many years suddenly came back to him: What's all the hustle and bustle about? Who created this beauty? What sense is there in all this? What is the meaning of my life and does it have any meaning at all?

Moreover, something happened that he had not expected of himself. He sank to his knees and turned to ... he couldn't even say to whom ... to some higher being, to a Creator who had created all this - all this magnificence and beauty. The surrounding atmosphere and loneliness contributed to the contact with Him.

"If you exist, help me to understand what all this life is for, what meaning there is in it. I don't want to live in this hustle and bustle. I want to dedicate my whole life to understanding my own predestination and recognizing the meaning of my life, if there is one. Help me, I have no one else to turn to."

After expressing this, he felt great inner satisfaction and joy. A small bird was singing beautifully nearby, which made this feeling even stronger. As he walked down from the mountain, the sun disappeared behind the hill and it suddenly became dark, even though it was still relatively early.

This made the descent more difficult, much more difficult than the ascent, especially as our hero had taken a different route up. He almost fell after stepping on a stone that was torn loose by his feet. He grabbed hold of a thorny bush and that saved his life. He was hanging over a precipice! Very slowly, centimeter by centimeter, he moved away from there. 25 minutes later he reached the camp at the bottom of the plateau.

After it was all over, he was shaking like a leaf. He realized that until then he had acted in the here and now. The mountain and he had existed and the past and future had not existed. He could remember every moment and every movement. When he was finally at the bottom, he was still under the influence of this incident.

In this state, he came down from the mountain to his friends, who were discussing the latest school news quite passionately.

He ate, took part in the conversation somewhat apathetically, slipped into his sleeping bag and looked up at the sky, which was full of stars, for a long time. In the mountains, it always seems as if there are more stars in the sky, which are brighter and more beautiful. He remembered that he had recently read or been told in class that these stars were millions of light years away, and he again experienced an inner humility before this magnificence. The more he looked at these stars and thought about this magnificence, the more he gained respect and a fine spiritual feeling.

The question of the meaning of life, which had become even clearer because he had just almost lost his life, was now particularly relevant to him. "What is all this for? What was I born for? What is the meaning and purpose of my life? I don't just want to exist like this. I am prepared to do anything to understand the meaning of life and to live with it."

As he was falling asleep, he suddenly heard a clear voice. He had the feeling that this voice was coming from both inside and outside as it asked him questions in a determined yet loving manner:

"Are you really prepared to sacrifice your life to get answers to these questions? Are you ready to go your own way?"

"Yes!" he said very confidently. This evoked in him a heightened feeling of incomprehensible bliss. It seemed to him as if the light in the sky was getting stronger - and the sky replied: "Good, I wish you success."

He looked into the distance of the sky, but after a while everything became cloudy and he fell asleep. After waking up in the morning, he began to get ready and did not attach any importance to this vow. But the feeling that the train of his life was speeding up, changing its course and switching to a more interesting and at the same time risky track, never left him since that day.

Chapter II

The school of life began at school

After they returned, school started again a few days later (it was his A-level class). A new girl soon joined the class. She was partly of Eastern nationality, one of her ancestors had Mongolian roots. She was unremarkable, an ordinary girl. Her name was Lena.

Arthur and Lena became friends. There were lots of books in their parents' house. Arthur, like Lena, loved reading. He also had an extensive library at home. They exchanged books and discussed them during the break. They quickly became friends. They read books by authors such as Dumas, Stanislavsky, Stankevich, Jack London, Dickens and many other writers of Russian classicism and world literature ...

Something happened once that left a bitter aftertaste. Many years later they would meet again, he would ask her for forgiveness and afterwards he would feel as if a stone had been lifted from his heart. But until then ...

Once they were with their friends in the afternoon in a park that was right by the school exit: someone was sitting on a bench, someone was standing, someone was smoking secretly. They were talking about how girls were no good, how you couldn't trust them, how it was better not to have a girl before the draft, how friendship could only exist between men and how girls were inferior creatures. That was a male boast (as they thought at the time).

In the distance, he saw Lena leaving the school building. They began to laugh at her loudly. The first chills were already coming, she slipped on the steps and fell down. She found it difficult to get up. Arthur's first reaction was to rush towards her to help her and stop the mockery. But he didn't, he stood with the others and laughed - albeit not quite as loudly.

After she got up, she saw that Arthur was in cahoots with everyone. For a moment, she became even sadder. You could see it even from a distance in her dejected expression. She walked on slowly with difficulty, limping badly, her hand bent downwards in an unnatural way.

She didn't come to school the next day. A few days later, Arthur decided to call her. Lena did not answer the phone. Her mother brought a certificate to school stating that Lena had a serious knee and wrist injury. She had also caught a bad cold on the way home. She would definitely not be able to attend school for a few weeks. She was given a plaster cast and studied independently at home.

Lena only returned to school after the New Year vacations. She and Arthur had practically stopped seeing each other since then. He knew that he hadn't behaved properly. Nevertheless, he approached her and said: "Oh, don't do that..." She looked at him attentively and replied calmly: "It's not important how much we read about worthy deeds, what's important is how well we can treat each other, how noble and decent we are in our lives. Being dependent on the masses is the lot of the lower creatures."

The word "decent" sounded very unpleasant and somehow new to him. It embarrassed him, although she spoke without reproach. She spoke very clearly about how our knowledge shows in our character, how good it is to be truly educated, how disruptive our dependence on the herd mentality and the opinions of those around us can be, and that no one loves traitors and cowards. We should learn to be good friends, simply good people, but not well-read proud people and cowards.

He grimaced and tried to dismiss it as a joke, but she looked at him sadly and walked away. He stopped and felt a great sense of disgust inside.

Over the next few months, he watched several films about friendship, dignity and decency, where cowards and traitors were laughed at. The book "Two Captains" by W. Kaverin had a particular influence on him. He swore to himself that from now on he would be "noble" and never betray or let anyone down again.

He finished school, but this lesson stayed with him for a long time. He continued to strive to be noble, not to abandon or betray anyone.

Chapter III

From a poor student to a rich businessman

Arthur did relatively well at school. Mainly thanks to his parents, who had hired tutors for him since February. They dreamed of him attending a good institute. He learned a lot and, thanks to his father's support, he entered a renowned institute in Moscow. The first year of study was very stressful for him, but in the second year he had more free time. He started attending various parties with his friends, but he wasn't interested and didn't have much fun.

The main idea of these parties was to have senseless fun, get drunk, make crude jokes and spend a night with some girl who had no moral standards. In the morning, when you wake up next to someone you don't love, you feel good physically, you think you're a hero, but there's no inner satisfaction. You feel the emptiness and the dullness in your head. He wondered whether this was the meaning of life.

He preferred to go to the theater and meet interesting people. His fellow students grinned, but that didn't bother him. His professors at the institute also helped him to think about the meaning of life.

The lecturers at the institute received a good salary, had various benefits and it was fairly easy for them to obtain a scientific degree. That is why many university lecturers who had previously graduated from this institute tried to work here even after they had finished their studies. After working somewhere for 10-30 years, they came back to their university to get a job and teach here. Arthur observed them and saw that they were not particularly happy.

To get a chair, some of them used not particularly nice methods: They said bad things about each other, schemed against their own colleagues, tried by all means to stay here and played their relationships. Some of them had become alcoholics, especially those who received a maximum salary, had a good apartment, had defended a doctoral thesis and expected a good pension in the future ...

One of the university teachers astonished him. He gave lectures on "Scientific Communism" and talked a lot about morality. But right at the beginning of perestroika, he left the institute and opened a pub next to it. That's how he earned his money, selling alcohol to the students and getting involved in naughty things! Arthur often thought about all this and asked the institute teachers questions about the meaning of life. He was told that the meaning of life was to be successful in social life. "We have to achieve success in the social sphere, get a good job, for example, join the military or become an engineer, doctor or manager of some kind of business."

Such an attitude was not new to him. He had been taught this at school. "Well then," he thought, "I'm dedicating 20-30 years of my life to becoming a respected professor. And that's the meaning of life?"

He once attended a meeting with a well-known actor who had achieved everything he could dream of in his career: Fame, money, admirers ... he admitted that he felt less and less happy every day, although he didn't have a boring life. All this gave Arthur the impetus to think about his future destiny. Nevertheless, he understood that it was important to finish the institute first and only then take action.

Since his school days, Arthur has known that the body is not eternal and that we are all mortal. But you still have to look after your body. Without good health, we can't achieve anything or enjoy life. He enjoyed actively doing various sports, toughening up and going on hikes in the summer.

***

Before he graduated from the institute (that was the second half of the 1980s), perestroika began.

In his final year at university, he read A. Solzhenitsyn's book "The Gulag Archipelago". He recognized the rottenness of the system, which was built on fraud and violence and was directed against millions of people. He had no desire to work in the state apparatus, although he received offers to work there. He could have gone on business trips abroad, which was everyone's dream. Without further ado, he renounced all flattering proposals.

He successfully passed his exams and received the so-called red diploma. He stayed in student accommodation for two to three months as he had fallen during training and badly injured his knee.

At that time, the harbingers of freedom of expression appeared: television broadcasts without communist censorship and various newspapers. Cooperative stores and restaurants were a new milestone in the economy.

At lunch in the student canteen, he met a certain Orlowski. He asked him, for a fee, to look after some delivered boxes a few times. "You can't walk anyway, so why don't you earn some money," he said to Arthur. He winked at him.

The family name suited Orlowski very well - it really was similar to an eagle. Orlowski dealt on a commercial basis with supplies of various equipment for the institute.

A month later, they met again in the institute's café. They got talking and became friends. Orlowski recognized him as an honest and responsible guy and suggested that Arthur work with him for a good salary. The work was very interesting. They traveled a lot. The main task was to first buy something and then sell it again.

Orlowski had an enterprising streak and knew who might need what and when. He opened several illegal workshops, including a tailor's shop where underpants were sewn. They sold their products successfully and made a large profit. In addition to the good earnings, Arthur received a good commission from every good deal. Within a year, he became a very rich man. In the course of a week, he could easily earn as much as the rector of the institute in a whole year. And there was no need to attend party meetings or intrigue at work.

Arthur bought a new car (Lada Zhiguli), a large and good apartment in Moscow, a new apartment for his parents and a dacha, which his parents had been dreaming of for a long time.

Once during a "business trip", at the beginning of their work together, he asked Orlowski what the point of this hectic life was. And Orlowski told him the following: "You can have great success in life, but if you don't have money, there's no point in it. If you have money, you can do anything you want and have anything you want and do whatever you want." And Orlowski infected Arthur with this "money for money's sake" lifestyle.

Arthur decided to work with Orlowski for a year and then go his own way. Although he had achieved everything he wanted, could go on vacation wherever he wanted - something many only dreamed of - he kept getting new and new material desires and plunged deeper and deeper into this maelstrom of life from which, as it turned out, it was not so easy to escape.

***

After a year and a half, something happened that changed Arthur's life dramatically. One evening, Orlowski and he got out of the car to have dinner somewhere. Two cars stopped in front of them: a Mercedes 600 and a new Lada WAZ, series 9. Huge guys got out of the cars. They grabbed Orlowski by the neck and hit him a few times against the wall.

They took Arthur for his driver, threw him onto the wet tarmac and threatened to cut his throat if he moved. The looks on the guys' faces didn't bode well. They asked Orlowski why he didn't pay the money. Although it was not yet very dark and some people were walking on the street, no one had the courage to help them or call the police. The guys threatened that if Orlowski didn't give them a large sum of money, they would do a lot of bad things to him and his relatives. Arthur was frightened. Why did they want such a large sum of money? The guys drove off. Orlowski was trembling with fear. Afterwards in the restaurant, he couldn't get