10 Seconds to Truth
10 Seconds to Truth
A brief exploration of life's ultimate revelation.
Imagine you’re on a plane that’s about to crash.
You have less than 10 seconds before impact.
In these last remaining seconds, you’re not thinking about the way people think about you, getting your hands on the newest iPhone, or the number of digits in your savings account.
You’re thinking about why you spent so much time at work away from your family, why you were ever mean or inconsiderate to others, why you were so focused on what people thought of you, and why you didn’t just enjoy your life.
The only thing you want to do in these last seconds is to go back to your life before ever stepping onto this plane and start truly enjoying yourself.
To do the things you want to do.
To do things that make you happy and cherish the moments you share with the people you love.
In these last remaining seconds, you concede that you’ll never have the chance to do any of this again, and you feel foolish for taking your life for granted.
This is ego death. You realize that you are here right now in the present moment for the sole purpose of existing. That the importance of any experience is more relevant than any singular good or bad experience.
You realize that none of the trivial things you spent your time worrying about were important — and that they only served to deter you from enjoying your own subjective experience.
You notice all of this in your last remaining seconds on Earth as your ego is forced to dissolve under the realization of your impending doom.
Ultimately, ego-death is the realization that the only thing that truly matters is that we exist at all.
If the choice was to exist or not exist — you will always choose to exist.
So stop worrying so much and live your life the way you want to.
Be grateful for the things you have and stop getting upset over the things you don’t — because none of it matters when you’re 10 seconds away from death.
