Do you know what your mission in life is ?, by Roberto P rez Comments by Gisela S.
- 2018
In the following article I bring you a topic that seems extremely important to me. Surely they have already heard about the mission in life or vision, or perhaps they have already asked you at some point in their life cycle. But I consider it essential to return to these issues, since many times as time goes by we forget many of our reflections or just our mission in life. I share this look with you, this lecture by the Anthropologist Roberto P rez, because every word he says is full of very deep and rich teachings. That is why today I bring you this reflection that matters so much to us and summons us. I hope you find it very useful as it was for me.
Ideal and Life Mission
For those who have the mission of being a formator, precisely, all you want is for what you learned to transmit it properly and this is what I want today. Share something that I hope you can broadcast and that's why the topic we have today is perhaps one of the most beautiful topics to convey. And from this place I want us to talk about the ideal and the mission in life . A topic that is not spoken and that sometimes even by a deformation we think that it refers to a topic specifically to the spiritual or religious . And we do not understand that the focus of the subject that I am going to speak to you is absolutely characteristic of the human condition. Understanding someone's mission and vision is something that constitutes us as people .
Well let's start with this idea, look. At some point, any of us can ask ourselves this or we have already done it: How do we differentiate from each other? What differentiates one from the others? What is the central criterion of distinction? age? The social status? The acquired titles? What is the point? The sex? What is the central point of distinction between us?
That answer leads us to this fundamental question and when we rethink internally , in what are we different from all?, We can come to understand that what radically distinguishes us is how we are planted in life, in how we are really settled in life. And to answer what that means, I want to give you some anecdotes.
Scene 1
First, there in Argentina in Buenos Aires, around the capital there are many places that are closed neighborhoods, countrys, which are characterized by being sites that have a certain perimeter and have a common entrance where there are guards that you They let in. Inside it, there are houses that generally have their swimming pool and housing. Live a group of people who have their family homes, it is almost residential. This experience of the countrys paradoxically, of so much entering and leaving them, one night among many , something happened to me that impressed me. At the entrance of these places, there was a sign that when one arrived at night with the car, when entering this place, there was always a sign that for me was often irrelevant and passed it by. And one night like so many, entering and waiting because the cars that were ahead were delayed, and I was late for a marriage meeting. In that restlessness, in that state I suddenly see that the poster that always was and that ignored it said everything that I teach in philosophy, suddenly I realized that what I was saying there, is all that I dedicate my life I say I can't believe it, it seemed like a metaphor that they put in front of me. I tell you what the sign said, imagine the car entering the place. The sign said this " turn off the exterior lights, turn on the interiors, turn off the engine and identify yourself." All philosophy, stop living outside, turn off the exterior lights, turn on the interior, put light inside you, turn off the engine and identify yourself. And while I say this is what I teach and when the cars continue to pass, the guard of the place arrives and when I get to the side he looks at me and asks me the three questions of philosophy: identify yourself, who am I? ? and where am i going? . They realize, I said: “This man is a philosopher, he is asking me the fundamental questions. Who am I? What am I for? and where am I going?
And these three questions have to do with, really one of them, with something I want to talk about tonight, who I am in my definition of life . And it is a question, and apart in that order well as a philosopher. How can I know where I'm going, if I don't know who I am. What am i for It is my mission in life . And where am I going? It is my aspiration in life . What dream do I have? What desire of the soul do I have? That is where are you going? What do you dream? What do you want to contribute to your life here? What do you want to serve? or your step in life, where are you going? The three questions, and look how I do, as a game of time, I take you from this scene in time to another scene.
Scene 2
One afternoon doing the Inca trail there in the Cusco area in Machupichu, there walking next to a guide who is a brother of the soul to me, I want him with all my soul, a man of the earth with all his wisdom . I ask a question to Cucho, the name he has, Cucho I say “tell me one thing Why the trapezoidal shapes ?, Where did these cultures get the fact of putting the windows in trapezoidal form, the constructions with a certain trapezoidal inclination ? Where do I get the Inca culture to do as an earthquake triangle ? Where did they get it from? ”, Then he looks at me like saying “ this kid doesn't know anything with all the philosophy he knows ”, and then he says:“ but don't you realize Roberto? ” Not really, no, I don't understand Where did they get that idea, I answered him, so we were walking and he said: "Stand a second . " I stand there straight and grab me and push me and run and laugh, and he says: "Now I opened my legs" (standing straight with my legs open past both legs of the hip line) and he wanted to push me and he didn't I could fall He tells me: “Do you realize? when you opened your legs like this you are well planted . The constructions are earthquake-resistant because the culture here understood that when people are well planted, it is more difficult for them to fall . The key would be that, just as the constructions follow the person's position, the question is what does it mean to be well planted in life? not only having your feet open, but being well planted in life is, he tells me, "know who you are, know what you are for and where you are going." And suddenly I was hard, I was giving the three answers that, as I say, I had heard at that time when I entered the country.
How do we distinguish each other?
I believe, and now entering deeply, that all of us distinguish ourselves from one another according to the depth of the answer to these three questions . And in reality they are answers that are not given once and for all . Throughout life, you go deeper into those answers. Even when you are surprised by the passage of this life towards the other, you will find a certain level of depth. Moreover, the consistency that we are going to have in the face of the life crises that we live or will arrive will depend on the answer you have given to those questions . Just as an earthquake does not destroy Inca buildings and colonial buildings all fell apart . Perhaps in life, in the crises and in the earthquakes that we have, perhaps, they will not collapse us if we learn to be well planted, if we learn to have depth in those three responses and I believe that in that we distinguish ourselves from each other at the level of depth we give to this .
Lessons from the Ancient Communities
And there I learned something too, in the old communities, they had this criterion in the pedagogy of the formation of young people . There were two fundamental approaches with their young people, and it was the following:
On the one hand, those who made teachers, guides, priests or trainers. What interested them was that young people could be clear about two things . The first which was his mission in life, why? Because they understood that if the person does not know what his mission in life is, it is like not knowing how to play his own musical instrument and ends or making noise or playing the music of the other. And what they taught is that everyone comes to play their own music, so it is important that everyone discover what their mission is, what comes to bet .
And on the other hand, the second key in the formation of young people, was that they chose well who would be their companion or travel companion in life. And for that they worried that each one would choose, that they would find the best possible companion. Not that they were married, that was another later era. In the richest moments of ancient cultures, especially in large cultures, there was a way for her and him to learn to see if they were for each other. Why? Because the idea is that she helps him to fulfill his mission in life and he helps her to fulfill her mission in life . The project of the family that was what united them, did not imply that each one had a mission of their own, lest that by joining this man instead of helping you fulfill your mission is an obstacle, lest by being next woman, instead of finding a travel companion that helps me fulfill my mission in life as a person is the opposite. The idea is that we support each other so that each one, as a person, fulfills his or her own mission in life, that was the idea.
Therefore, from there I realized that the work of seeing What is my ideal and mission in life? It was a central issue and I started trying to find anthropologically some criteria that would allow me to talk about it. And for that then I will then go to a part that is more theoretical.
Knowing what I am telling you, that is what being asked in life is the question that suits us is: What does the ideal of life mean, Roberto? And what is the mission in life? What do you mean when you say that? So to try to define this I need you to follow me, and we go back to Greece, we move in time and we will try to understand the thinking of the Greeks, as they understood ethics and from there clearly get what we say when we talk about mission and ideal of life .
How did the Greeks understand Ethics?
The Greeks had a clear concern that is trying to see how human behavior had to be so that it was really a full development towards fullness, how is the key? What are the keys that allowed a person in their behavior to be fully a person? What was the good thing? What good criteria should be taken for ethical behavior? And they started using ETHOS, which means ethics and that means the study of human behavior . When the Greeks begin to study this, they immediately understand that there are two ways to understand human behavior.
Two ways of understanding human behavior according to Greek ideology
In a way they accentuated it in a normal way, É THOS, and in another way with a circumflex accent Ê THOS. These two stresses were decisively marking two ways of understanding human behavior .
ÉTHOS (group 1)
In this ethical sense for them it meant a way of life.
ÊTHOS (group2)
And in this other ethical sense it had to do with way of being.
Then they immediately understood that, when they studied human behavior, one aspect had to do with doing and another with being . In other words, ÉTHOS is the study of human acts, and ÊTHOS is the study of human attitudes. And they saw that, understanding this was capital, they are not the same. The question was: How to understand when human acts allowed the full development of the person? And what were the attitudes that allowed the full development of the person of the community, of the polis?
This distinction was fundamental to the point that, when ethics was understood as a way of life ( ETHOS) for the study of human acts, what they did was to study whether or not a certain act was in accordance with the law, the norm . Then they ended up understanding that an act is good, when it is appropriate to the law or norm . And an act is not good when it is not in order or correspondence to the law or norm . And thus distinguished the acts that helped or not the development of the person . It means that to understand human acts I have to have a norm and a law.
But that was not the only way to understand ethics, the most important was here ( ÊTHOS). Ethics thus understood was like a second skin, they said, as a second nature . Which means that attitudes are something that accompanies, whatever role we have as a father, as an athlete, friend, worker. In any role where we insist, our attitudes are with us and then, there is a phrase that will help me to understand the subject together. " Things are not as we see them, we see them as we are . " Two people may be seeing the same thing and are seeing different things. For example: the pessimistic person looks at a glass and sees the empty half of the glass, the optimistic person looks at the glass and sees the full part of the glass. According to his gaze one sees one part or the other. When I go through this area of Machupichu and others, sometimes I often feel and contemplate that geography and that moment of sunset, it is such a sacred place of the Andean community and I feel a Presence, an energy that really amazes me, Open my heart and I feel admiration, because I see a sacred place . There is a gene that, with all due respect, is next to me and sees ruins and takes pictures of the ruins and gets to take pictures with the ruins. She sees ruins, I see a sacred place, alive . She sees ruins where she tries to draw memories to take as a future. We are two people but we see things so different, " Things are not as we see them, we see them as we are" The materialistic person sees things, the person who has a spiritual view of life, can find the Divine Presence in all things . The utilitarian person sees the benefit he can get from something, the advantage he can have, the interest he can have. Instead, the person who is generous, what he is thinking is: What can I learn? What can I give and receive to learn with the other? Then it depends on my inner attitude, on my gaze what I see of reality . " Things are not as we see them, we see them as we are . " The art of living is the art of learning to look . The better I look at life, I can see more depth. The superficial person sees the surface of things. The deep person, go deeper.
So the attitudes, which I just mentioned, are very diverse. The big question they asked themselves about this issue is, is there a parameter to understand what is good? What is appropriate? What helps the person to grow really well? What is the healthy attitude or not in the work of being a human being? and they immediately established this, they definitely said that there are two fundamental attitudes in life.
There are two fundamental attitudes in Life
One can have a quantitative view of life or can have a qualitative view of life. That is, I can rule my life by prioritizing quantity or I can rule my life by prioritizing quality . And here was the secret for them, or I can walk through life with a quantitative or qualitative view of life.
And there they distinguished something, the person who has a quantitative view of life and quantity, and what obviously prioritizes is having and achieving . The person who has a qualitative view that prioritizes being, learning .
When you have a quantitative view of life, what matters to you is to win, not to lose. When you have a qualitative view of life, what you prioritize is to learn, give and receive.
In short, the person who has a quantitative view of life is governed by interest, and the person who has a qualitative view of life is governed by values.
And here begins a secret .
Synthetic Picture
ÉTHOS (group 1)
In this ethical sense for them it meant a way of life.
Appearance: Make
In correlation with the norm / law
ÊTHOS (group2)
And in this other ethical sense it had to do with way of being.
Appearance: Be
Within this group we have two attitudes:
- Quantitative:
Prioritize to govern your life: the amount and interest
See: the amount
Therefore, prioritize: have and achieve.
He cares: win and not lose - Qualitative:
Prioritize to govern your life: quality, values
So see: quality
Therefore, prioritize: being and learning
He cares: learn, give and receive
When Rome conquers Greece, it takes the idea of Greek ÉTHOS in this regard (Group 1). Then Greek ethics is transformed into what we know as mors-mores, the Latin moral . And the Latin moral is to try that all things are in order to the established laws . And Roman law, and later Christian morality, within the West, will be following a normative criterion of the way of understanding ethics.
When we look at the part of ethics as attitudes, ÊTHOS (group2), we realize that the concern of looking at the fundamental attitude in life was much deeper.
What aspect helped to grow in life to people and cities, the attitude of Being or Having?
And they understood this, what really good in the ethical sense in this way ( ETHOS Group 1) was when the acts were in order to the law but that there was a secret in the attitudes . That man grew, society grew, the city, the cops grew when quantity was in order to quality, when what was prioritized was being, and when having and achieving were a function of being. When the interest was a function of values, when the quantitative was a function of the qualitative, the person, the community, the moments of development, the height of cultures, took place . But when the person, the community prioritized the quantitative to the detriment of the qualitative, when unfortunately this was prioritized they were always processes of decay . And the person did not grow and did not fully develop . When for having more, I stop being better, the person begins to destroy himself . When I prioritize quantity, I lose quality, the person and the community are destroyed . When values are based on interests, the person is destroyed. They saw and found that when the opposite happened there was always growth.
My grandmother, a Spanish immigrant woman, told me a phrase that I now see her, whenever I say this, I see her and I think this idea. She told me: " Robert in life there are two attitudes, one has to do with ambition and another has to do with aspiration . " And he told me: "Robert in life you have good or many ambitions but great aspirations . " She was telling me in her own way, to always put interests based on values . The word ambition always has a quantitative sense . The ambitious person wants this, then that and is always dissatisfied because he wants to have more. The person who has aspiration always seeks to grow better and develop better . What she wanted to tell me directly is that I always try to put great values in my life, and learn that my ambitions were always in order to that .
When one looks at life in this way quantitatively, something important happens, in the long run it ends up seeing the other as a competitor in life. And when the person has a qualitative view of life, the other ceases to be a competitor in life, and becomes a traveling companion in life. And then when I consider him a travel companion, I'm going to see what I can learn from him and what I can share with him. When I see him as a competitor in life, I will try to be defensive so I don't lose and in any case prevent him from winning me.
Two totally different attitudes, but in the formation of freedom and in personal development, there is something else still.
Compliance (Compliance and Lie) Vs Commitment
When they formed their young people, within this philosophy, the following happened, when they looked at this ( ÉTHOS Group 1) they realized that ethical training goes by law enforcement, and law enforcement was a form of pedagogy . But the word compliance is telling me everything. Compliance ends in a compliance and I always lie . In fact, the person who is handled by compliance always complies so that they do not sanction him, so that they do not fail him, so as not to have problems but, in the long run, compliance is a passive attitude .
And they realized that more than compliance, when I want to form someone's ethics ( ÊTHOS Group2) I have to worry about working on values . When a person adheres to a value, it comes out of compliance and reaches the commitment . The commitment is to take that value, commit to life, devote myself to that, and dedicate my time and energy to that. That is the difference. To the person who meets you have to always be watching. Do not look at the person who is committed because she will always be with her heart in that.
"As much freedom as possible, and as much authority as necessary." SA
St. Augustine had a phrase that I love, when I studied this subject, he said this, in the formation of people eh: "As much freedom as possible, and as much authority as necessary." As much freedom as possible, that is to say forms people's freedom, teach them to work their own freedom . How? Adhering values, as much freedom as possible, and as much authority as necessary. The authority is put on a supplementary basis, the authority has to come when you misuse freedom.
So the important thing is not the authority for compliance, the important thing is that the person educating his freedom commits himself in values .
But attention, "We teach what we know, but we spread what we live." Values are spread are not preached, "values are atmospheric, " said my dear professor of ethics, "values are atmospheric Roberto, they breathe." When you arrive at a place or there is warmth or there is no warmth. When you arrive at a place, friendship reigns or not. Values are breathed, they are. That is why it is so important to say, the tradition that forms on axiology, which is the study of values, that: "Values adhere through contact with people charged with values." The values do not adhere to impose them, they are not imposed, they are imposing . What it is about, is to bring young people to the meeting of these values. And then what it is about is that the person adheres a qualitative view of life because it is spread from the people who are living it. That is why ethical training ( ÊTHOS Group2) goes through learning to adhere to these fundamental values.
So if this reasoning followed me we are now getting to what I wanted, at the bottom of this ( ÊTHOS G rupo2). All the attention, all the neurons here. The person who has a quantitative view of life that will prioritize is success . And for that he will put all his energy because that will be what will allow him what he wants. Success is going to be the fundamental thing .
The person who has a qualitative view of life, what he will prioritize is the ideal of life . And now we get into the subject. You could tell me: "Roberto, as you say, it seems that success is bad and the ideal of life is good . " Do not! When success is a function of an ideal of life, that success is always beneficial for everything. When I look for success, regardless of any ideal, no superior value. When I seek success for myself, it is likely that others will not benefit, success for success always leads to individualism . When I aspire to success for success, I close it on me . When instead I put my success in terms of an ideal of life, surely my success is going to be something that will benefit many . And this is the secret . Blessed be that people who have ideals in life are successful. Blessed be that people having fundamental values in life, having high ideals, are very successful. We must not deny a success, what we must deny is a success that only remains for the benefit of one, yes, because that does not benefit anyone. The planet is like this because of this problem, eh! When success is around an ideal of life, whatever benefits us all. And so the question will be: What does the ideal of life mean? What do you mean when we talk about the ideal? To have again. See, see this (point out the qualitative aspect of group 2)
You could tell me: “When you talk about the ideal of life, something makes me noise too Roberto, I don't understand you well. What difference is there between life ideal and life project, is it the same? In the order of doing, one thing is what we call life projects and another thing is the ideal of life. One thing is life projects and another is the ideal of life.
What is the Life Project?
You could tell me: "What do you call life projects Roberto, are they mere goals that I set in time?" Life projects are : objectives that I have to meet in a certain time. It is also often called vocations, but it does not have a university career or a state of life, it is something deeper. Vocation or life project has to do with objectives that I place in time to fulfill. For example, being a lawyer is a life project, and there are deeper, easier, shorter, longer projects. Reading a book is a project, but it's not that important, but that doesn't matter. The holidays that we are going to have next summer is a project. Life projects are certain things that I put in time to accomplish and achieve.
What is the Ideal of Life?
On the other hand, the ideal of life is a value, a superior value that governs my life. Let's see if I'm clear in what I say, is having a family a life project or an ideal of life? Having a family always is always a life project. Now whatever that family is, what does it depend on? Of the ideal of life of the people who form it. The project of life, as in the case of having a family, is always a yearning that may or may not occur . I will have to get the ideal person for my life, the person who is my partner or companion, I will have to have children if God wants. A series of factors would have to be given, certain things would have to be done. But attention! however that family is going to depend on the ideal of life of the people, the values of that family are going to be aware of the ideal of life, of that man and of that woman who put that project. Does it mean that the clearer the ideal of life of these men of those people, father, richer mother will be that life project ? Yes! Does it mean that the more engaged she and he are in strong life ideals, the more they will permeate that family of values? Yes! Does it mean that if I say that being a lawyer is a life project, as a lawyer it will depend on my ideal of life as a person? Yes! The more committed I am to my ideal of life as a person, the better I will do as a lawyer or professional ? Yes! Therefore, working on my ideal of life, favors the values of my life projects . So if they followed me, let's see if they follow me now.
Life projects give us satisfaction.
And in fact, when I achieve a life project I achieve satisfaction and when I do not achieve that project I feel dissatisfied because I put a lot of effort, time, energy. I repeat the fulfillment of life projects give us satisfaction or not if we do not reach it. I wanted to learn such a thing, well for x reason I couldn't, it didn't happen, and I missed the opportunity to learn that. Or he wanted to take a trip and he got frustrated. Then I achieve it or not, they give me satisfaction or not.
So the question is this: is happiness a life project or an ideal of life?
I want you to realize, I am leading you to a certain reasoning but sometimes in this area one has a feeling of instability. Now I want you to follow him with me, look at this. Actually following this scheme, happiness is neither a life project nor an ideal of life . Attention please! Happiness is the experience of an ideal of life . Cuando me acerco y vivo ese ideal de vida, soy feliz. Y cuando me alejo de ese ideal de vida, no lo soy . La felicidad es un estado del alma, más que un estado anímico.
Cuando cumplo un proyecto tengo un estado anímico de satisfacción, cuando estoy viviendo mi ideal tengo un gozo interior que me viene porque estoy viviendo mi ideal de vida, la felicidad es la consecuencia de vivir mi ideal de vida . Cuando una persona está viviendo su ideal y su misión en la vida, es feliz. Y es una felicidad que no tiene nada que ver con la satisfacción de o por haber logrado algo, y todos los que están aquí, los que estén viviendo lo que digo me entienden. Cuando uno está viviendo su ideal y su misión siente un gozo en el espíritu que no tiene nada que ver con la sensación de un proyecto cumplido, es la sensación de que la vida vale la pena . Hay un autor que decía “tener un ideal es tener una razón para vivir ”.
Ese ideal es un valor que cuando lo puedo vivir y encarnar en mi vida, siento un gozo enorme.
Pero va a pasar algo, van a tener que seguir el razonamiento. La persona que no tiene una mirada cualitativa de la vida, y que por lo tanto no tiene un ideal de vida claro, en el cual pone todo su ser, la persona que no tiene esto, sino que tiene una mirada cuantitativa de la vida, y que sigue el éxito, va a idealizar los proyectos de vida pensando que ellos le dan la felicidad . Y va a creer, la persona que tiene una mirada cuantitativa, que la felicidad va a depender del logro de proyectos y lamentablemente ningún proyecto lo va a hacer feliz. Increíblemente los proyectos de vida te van a dar siempre satisfacciones pero nunca la felicidad profunda.
M sa n la persona que idealiza los proyectos de vida, termina siendo adicto de eso.
C mo es eso? Vamos a poner un ejemplo empresarial y despu s les presento un ejemplo personal.
Pongamos una persona con una visi n materialista de la vida, que tiene un emprendimiento como empresa personal, y que tiene una mirada absolutamente cualitativa de la vida. Es m s, descalifica a la otra mirada porque piensa que la gente con esa mirada se muere de hambre as que no le interesa. Entonces con esa mirada de la vida obviamente cree que ese proyecto, que es que su empresa se posicione primera en el mercado, eso lo va a poner feliz, es decir haber logrado ese xito y pone toda su campa a en eso.
Pueden pasar dos cosas, que no lo logre o que lo logre. Si no lo logra, como l est pensando que eso le va a ser feliz, si no lo logra se va a sentir frustrado . Pero que va a pasar si sucede al rev s. Supongamos que llega a ser la empresa n mero uno, lo que va a sentir es una gran satisfacci n pero no va a sentir una plenitud y una felicidad como el so aba. Entonces ahora quiere que su empresa a nivel nacional lo sea a nivel latinoamericano, y despu sa nivel internacional, y si quiere diez, quiere cien y, si quiere cien, quiere mil y, si quiere mil, quiere un mill n. Lo que tiene es hambre de poder, va a querer estar en la presidencia y despu s otro cargo m sy as . Y va a querer quedarse toda la vida en la presidencia. Es decir que los proyectos de vida que no me dan la felicidad, me hacen pensar que para que me den la felicidad tengo que dedicar m sym sym s . Y crezco en la ambici n del tener o la ambici n del poder . O la ambici n de cualquier cosa. Lamentablemente, no me dan la felicidad porque si la dieran, con todo respeto, el mundo estar a lleno de gente feliz . Si diera la felicidad el cumplimento de proyecto, toda la gente exitosa que vemos cuantitativamente serian b rbaras y uno ve cada lio. Algo no cierra . Saben que pasa? Que el tema fue idealizar el proyecto de vida y no entender que el ideal es un valor superior al cual pongo mi vida en servicio .
La palabra ideal etimol gicamente significa idea motriz . El ideal es algo que mueve, el ideal es un valor que me mueve en la vida. Y el ideal de vida de una persona es, en una escala de valores, el valor más alto que tengo en la vida. Eso es el ideal de vida. Es aquel valor por el cual yo daría la vida .
Más aun, imaginemos que en el cementerio los epitafios de las tumbas dijeran esto: “aquí yace el cuerpo de una persona que a lo largo de toda su vida intento….esto”. El ideal de vida es algo que anhelamos, un valor que anhelamos vivir plenamente en nosotros. Ese valor superior que esta sobre el resto, ese valor que llamamos ideal de vida es lo que nos mueve en la vida . Más aún, como papá lo digo, no hay cosa más linda que un día, cuando pasen los años y los chicos crezcan y se vayan de al lado de uno. Y además cuando uno ya no esté más acá, lo que uno más desea como padre, no es que nos recuerden porque le dimos muchas cosas o porque los quisimos mucho. ¡Qué lindo seria que nos recuerden por nuestro compromiso en nuestros propios ideales! ¡Qué lingo que dijeran: “mi padre es una persona que lucho por esto o dio su vida por esto otro. Mi madre era una persona que amaba esto y entrego todo su tiempo y energía en esto”! ¿No sería más lindo que nos recuerden por nuestros compromisos en esos ideales? Por supuesto que nos va a gustar que nos recuerden por lo que le dimos y por el afecto nuestro que tuvieron, pero lo más importante es que recuerden nuestro compromiso y dedicación a esos valores. ¿Saben por qué? Porque si logramos eso, si le contagiamos eso, algún día ellos también tomaran otros ideales, no los míos. Y pondrán su vida a servicio de eso y habremos contribuido a la humanidad . No saldremos en la tapa del diario, no seremos famosos por nada pero, habremos sido famosos en el sentido de haber sembrado en el corazón de nuestros hijos el compromiso por un ideal .
Si cuando no este acá, mis dos hijos que adoro, me recordaran por toda mi entrega y dedicación, que siento que es mi misión, mi misión está cumplida. Si además hay otras personas que nos recuerdan por lo mismo, bendito sea. Pero si a esos dos seres, que en mi caso estuvieron al lado mío, le pude contagiar el valor de eso, ¡bendito sea!
Por eso el ideal de vida es un valor superior. Algo que está marcando una aspiración profunda personal.
Pero ustedes me podrían peguntar: “Roberto ese ideal de vida del que vos hablas ¿qué es? porque yo me miro adentro y si me preguntas ahora cual es mi ideal de vida no tengo la más mínima idea . No me preguntes porque me voy a sentir mal. ¿Qué es el ideal de vida?”.
Voy a jugar con las ideas para que me sigan. En un dicho de oriente un discípulo le pregunta al maestro: “miro el horizonte y veo que cuando camino diez pasos, veo que el horizonte se me aleja diez pasos, y cuando camino otros diez pasos el horizonte se me aleja otro diez pasos. ¿Para que esta el horizonte maestro?” Y el maestro le contesta: “para eso, para caminar”.
Los ideales nos convocan a buscar alcanzarlos.
Y un autor tiene esta frase: “la grandeza de un ideal no está en alcanzarlos sino en luchar por él, alcanzarlo simplemente es una recompensa” . De modo que como el horizonte, el ideal es algo que me llama a buscarlo plenamente . Difícilmente en la condición humana viviremos un valor fundamental de manera total, plena, definitiva. Pero nuestra lucha por eso, nuestro afán de eso, eso tiene valor. Eso es importante.
Entonces el ideal es algo que nos convoca pero ¿lo vamos a alcanzar?
Un autor dice así: “los ideales en la vida de las personas son como las estrellas, en la noche los navegantes, aunque no la pueden tocar a las estrellas, observándolas pueden llegar a destino”. Entonces a veces a los ideales no los alcanzamos, pero mirándolos podemos llegar a la meta que queremos.
Entonces ustedes me podrían peguntar: “ ¿el ideal de vida es un valor, Roberto?” ¡Sí! Un valor que es algo que nos convoca, “pero no entiendo” me volverían a decir: “hay algo que me hace ruido ¿Qué diferencia hay entre tener un ideal y ser idealista? Suena parecido, ¿es lo mismo? ” ¡No! Todos en la adolescencia fuimos idealistas, o sea soñábamos un mundo mejor . No molestaba este mundo concreto de todos los días, y soñábamos con un mundo distinto. Nos costaba este mundo real y buscábamos otro . Con el tiempo se supone que, si maduramos bien, dejamos de ser idealistas y pasamos a tener ideales .
Entonces Cu l es la diferencia entre tener un ideal y ser idealista?
El idealista ve lo que sue ay le molesta lo que es, el que tiene un ideal ama lo que es, ama lo que hace, ama eso porque quiere transformarlo para que sea mejor . El que tiene un ideal se compromete con la realidad, el idealista sue a otra realidad. El que tiene un ideal pisa tierra, el idealista est a un metro de la tierra .
Hay un autor que dice esta frase : Quien tiene un ideal sabe lo que quiere, el idealista quiere lo que sabe . Y hay dichos populares m s lindos todav a. El que no sabe lo que quiere, termina donde no quiere . O dicho en un refr nm sn utico dice: para el que no sabe d nde va nunca soplan viento favorables es decir, s yo no s ad nde voy, todo me molesta, todo viento me molesta, pero s s ad nde voy, se colocar el velamen para que los vientos favorables me lleven ya los otros vientos los aprovecho tambi n.
Cuando no s cu l es mi ideal de vida, voy en la vida a tumbos y la pregunta es, cuando tengo claro mi ideal, entonces puedo ordenar las cosas para aprovechar el tiempo y saber a qu decir que si ya que decir que no?.
“Pero Roberto sigo sin sentir como juega el ideal en la vida”, ustedes me dirán. En la metafísica de Aristóteles hay un axioma fundamental que van a ver la aplicación practica que tiene. Este axioma dice así: “lo que es último en el orden de la ejecución es primero en el orden de la intención” . Entonces un escultor que se pone a hacer una estatua, la estatua terminada esta al final de la ejecución, pero esa estatua estaba desde antes, desde que comenzó a esculpir su estatua estaba ya en la persona, en el escultor, de modo que la estatua terminada esta al final, pero la estatua en sí estuvo al comienzo en la intención. Así juega el ideal en la vida. Alcanzar un ideal plenamente es algo que está mucho más adelante, pero ahora esta acá, acá en mí en cada cosa que estoy haciendo, hasta cuando me lavo los dientes, hasta cuando abro el agua para ver que me cae. En cada instante de mi vida cotidiana, mi ideal esta ahí, mi opción en cómo te miro, en cómo te hablo, en cómo me planto en la vida, en cómo utilizo las cosas. Todos los días está en mí acá detrás, el ideal esta acá en mí.
Por eso, cuando Miguel Ángel hizo La Piedad, uno lee la vida de él y le llevo tres noches y cuatro días hacer semejante obra de arte y la hizo así, vertiginosamente, durmiendo casi en el mismo lugar del taller para terminar la obra y sacar lo que sobraba. Y fíjense ¿Por qué pudo hacer algo muy rápido? Porque tenía muy claro donde pegar cada golpe . Y pudo realmente poner todo su ser en lo que hacía porque veía claro, veía claro lo que quería . Un escultor que comience a hacer algo sin ver nada claro y, va a pegar acá, va apegar allá, va a tardar un montón porque no sabe bien que quiere. Se parece mucho a nosotros a veces. Perdemos mucho tiempo por no saber bien que queremos . Cuando el ideal es claro cada golpe que doy, cada decisión que tomo, cada elección que hago es mucho más certera . Y si no vamos de un lado a otro y en ese devenir así, a veces acertamos o desacertamos y la vida se nos pasa por todos lados.
¿Cuando se forma el ideal de vida de uno?
“Pero Roberto todavía no se bien cuál es el ideal” me dirán. Cuando pensamos en un ideal de vida, pensamos en algo muy abstracto. “Cuando uno Roberto se forma el ideal de vida del que vos hablas, ¿Dónde se forma el ideal de vida de uno? ¿Cuándo empieza eso?”. Entre los 17 a 21-25 años es el período de la vida en la que se supone que uno empieza a formar su ideal de vida .
Attention! Apelo a que cada uno haga un momento de introspección para cada uno ¿a quién admirabas a esa edad? ¿A que hombre oa que mujer admirabas a esa edad de tu vida presente o de la antigüedad o de la historia? ¿Quién era tu fuente de admiración? Retene y pensa ¿a quién admiras hoy? ¿todavía mantenes la admiración por aquel o aquella persona que admiraste? Por ahí era tú padre, madre o hermano o tal vez alguien de la historia. ¿A quién admirabas?
¿Por qué esta pregunta? Porque cuando admiramos a alguien, lo admiramos porque él o ella tienen un valor, tienen algo que me conmueve . La admiración nos lleva a pensar que esa persona tiene un valor, una cualidad que yo también la quiero vivir . Probablemente esa persona que admiramos, tenga un valor que es el que yo también he decidido vivir en mi vida. Justamente, probablemente a lo largo de mi vida ese valor que admire en esa persona, yo también lo quise vivir y probablemente estuvo detrás de escena a lo largo de mi vida . Quiere decir que uno tiene, para saber cuál es mi propio ideal, tengo que ver ¿que admiraba en las personas que admiraba? “Sí”, me dirán, “pero bueno admiraba a muchas personas o si lo pienso bien había varios valores ” ¿Cuál era el más importante para vos?, ¿Qué valor tenía esa persona más importante para vos? Por allí va la pista, pero todavía más.
REDACTORA: Gisela S., editor of the great family of the White Brotherhood.
FUENTE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-221nk5rMFI
