It's difficult to define what it means to truly live. When we try to find meaning in life using our logic, it becomes more confusing as our mind starts playing tricks on us. The mind tends to swing between positive and negative thoughts, and meditation is one place where the mind disappears.
We feel that life is light and smooth when we are happy. In those moments of heartfelt happiness, maybe we are living in the true sense.
There is an interesting story about living which goes like this: Once, a person was very upset about his problems and used to say, "I am not alive," claiming that his life had become like that of a dead person due to his problems. Most of the time, he never felt like he was truly living. One day he died, and after a few seconds of death, he suddenly realized that he was alive. At first, this story didn't make sense to me as well. But after some days, I realized the following.
We are all admitted to school at a very early age, and in school, we learn all the necessary skills to understand the world, society, and people to live a better life in the future.
We spend 10-12 years in school learning these basic skills. Then we start our professional learning in colleges to acquire skills so that we can earn a living, and another 5-7 years of life are spent on learning professional skills.
Now, armed with knowledge and skills, we enter the professional world (job, business, professional field, etc.) to earn money or a living. Over our professional lives, we work hard to accumulate or try to accumulate means of luxury (cars, houses, property, etc.) to enhance our standard of living.
After 25 to 30 years of professional life, we retire and then suddenly realize that "Oh, all my life I just learned and prepared for a better life, and now I don't have enough time to live." Most of our lives are just spent on these preparations and learning, and in the meantime, we may be missing out on life in the true sense.
A single day full of life is better than years of preparation for a better living because we keep missing out on the happy moments of our lives.
