IKIGAI - The Reason to Live.

Tomi Nagai-Rothe shared Paweł Rewucki's photo.

10 hrs · 

‎Paweł Rewucki‎ to Philosophy

September 29 at 8:50am · 

Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning "a reason to get up in the morning", that is, a reason to enjoy life.

Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self. Such a search is regarded as being very important, since it is believed that discovery of one's ikigai brings satisfaction and meaning to life.

The word "ikigai" is usually used to indicate the source of value in one's life or the things that make one's life worthwhile. Secondly, the word is used to to refer to mental and spiritual circumstances under which individuals feel that their lives are valuable. It's not necessarily linked to the economic status or today state of things. Even if a person feels that today's dark, but has a goal, he may feel ikigai. Behaviours that make one feel ikigai are not actions which individuals are forced to take - these are natural and spontaneous actions.

The term "ikigai" is composed of two Chinese characters : iki and kai. Iki refers to life and kai is a suffix meaning roughly "the realisation of what one expects and hopes for."

People can feel ikigai only when on the basis of personal maturity, the satisfaction of various desires, love and happiness, encounters with others, and a sense of the value of life, they proceed towards self-realization.

Adapted from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai

More at theviewinside.me/what-is-your-ikigai

As one matures into adulthood having passed through the various phases of growth as a human being, one learns to accumulate eclectically what is worth taking and letting go of what is not of value to one's growth. For a spiritually awakening soul the discrimination between holding on to and letting go of becomes more and more acute with age and development and understanding of the spiritual practice. Unless one is gifted with instant wisdom or insight, like most people we will have to go through the whole process of spiritual growth like one has done in one's schooling or education and upon finally graduating from some higher studies one becomes a master at something or other and with this expertise one is called to put to use what one has learned for the benefit of others.
Th same is true if one is a spiritual practitioner, one becomes more and more of a servant to humanity as one grows in knowledge and wisdom, to serve mankind by elevating their suffering by liberating them from their ignorant views of life. One becomes a teacher directly or indirectly sharing one's accumulated wisdom and applying it by 'skillful means' to help others free from their delusions. There are those who qualified to give physical administration to elevate suffering such as dentists and doctors, shamans and midwives, these after having put their livelihood in order can devote their time and expertise in serving the poor and needy; this is the Bodhisatva virtue that most Mahayana Buddhist aspire to.